With two growing boys, we burn up a lot of food just for snacks. Once their foot hits the pavement coming out of the bus at the end of a school day, they charge up the grass to the house, mouths open and hands reaching. Gadzooks! You would think they have never eaten before....gobble, gobble, gobble (not to be confused with the Frank Caliendo impressions of George W at:
YouTube). At any rate, they eat A LOT.
Trying new things is always good. They enjoy that. We tried nachos with extra sharp cheese and some good snappy, hard, apples diced up. They were awesome. Add a little apricot salsa or mango salsa or peace salsa and you have a mini fruit snack with cheese and chips. We also did the nachos with extra sharp cheese and steamed broccoli florets.
Triscuits are also a favorite. We slice some cheese (usually extra sharp - again) onto a Triscuit, then add a piece of crab, a thinly sliced - julienned - piece of onion, avocado, and roasted pepper. It takes some time to make these snacks - which will be consumed in 4.5 seconds flat, but it is fun watching the boys eat 'em, and I like getting out some obsession-bugs out of my system.
Another snack that has some variation built into it is bagels. With the variety of bagels and cream cheeses it is not hard to find some new twists on an old theme. You can add all kinds of fruits to them, too. The key is to slice them small enough to eat with a tooth-pick. Regardless of all the fruits and or veggies that you can build into the bagels, lox are still the favorite here.
So, plan some little tasty yum-yums for the kids in your life. Spruce up there day with what they will consider to be a "higher-end" snack item. Higher-end because you took the time to build it for them.
Ciao!
+Tom
