7 Quick Healthy Snacks and Mayonaise on Toast

Joining Jen and the masses for Seven Quick Takes...

I have no clue if this post will turn out super lame, so bear with me or do a quick scan to see if it's worth your read (don't worry, I will never know if your quick scan ended in a hurried close of the browser page).

It seems like FO-EVER that my mind has been wanting to blog about some of our healthy snacks that we eat on a daily basis. But and I mean a BIG BUT, I keep waiting until I come up with something really great and original that will just blow your minds. However, my blow-your-mind healthy ideas really haven't made their face yet...so if they do, I pee-romise to keep you posted.

In the mean time... onto some simple (and kinda boring), healthy snacks and how we do them.

1. POWER Veggies ~ We preface everything with POWER here at Team Boda. Why? Well, simply because the boys think it's really cool and by default the word makes food taste so much better. Almost every dia before dinner I cut up whatever veggies that we have in the fridge (usually cucumbers, carrots, and peppers) and we all snack on POWER Veggies to curb our appetite until din din is ready. To mix it up (ha!) I will sometimes throw some ranch or hummus in a bowl for dippin' power.

Ever since the boys were little, Power veggies have been a daily part of their lives. Consequently, they think it is completely normal to eat an entire red pepper in one sitting. I can only pray that I am not subjecting them to lots of ridicule from friends as they get older! I can see it now: "Stay clear, here come those pepper loving, snap pea eating boys!"

I had some really killer pictures of our pre dinner veggies, but they are lost somewhere in the sphere of my phone, so this winner will have to do. Isaiah is about to chomp down on celery and almond butter, which also shows it's face at times with the other Powers. 

This pic is proof that I can be fun and creative, as I am letting Grace and the boys eat their Power veggies in their closet before dinner. 

2. Da Avocado ~ On a daily basis we also eat avocados, which just happens to be my personal fav power food. I shared a little bit about that here explaining how I make da bomb guacamole (believe me I don't brag about my cooking ever!, except when it comes to my guac). Isaac and Grace eat the avocado straight from the rind like this and if I am in an extra good mood I will mash it up with a little salt and let them dip in some corn chips.

Love this little power eater!

Avocado is one of the first foods that I start my babes with and I don't move onto another until they really like it, thus I kinda trick them into loving it before they can even think otherwise. I am just nice like that.

3. POWER Smoothie ~ Everyone now a days has a go to smoothie that they prefer and this is mine:
*Frozen Bananas
*1 or 2 spoonfuls of almond butter
*2 scoops of chocolate protein powder
*Ice
*Cup or 2 of almond milk
*What every frozen fruit I have in the fridge.
*Handful of Kale or spinach
*Scoop of probiotics.
*Water if needed

The kids and I can down this smoothie in minutes and it is SO good and healthy for you. Often times I make this when the kids get home from school or even for breakfast, which is always a hit.

Grace going to town on a breakfast smoothie. 

4. Fruit ~ The bottom drawer in our fridge is always full of fresh fruit- apples, pears, oranges, plums, grapes, etc and the kids know that they can take something from this drawer at any time during the day. My kids love having this freedom of being able to grab an apple or orange whenever they want and I love how if they tell me that they are hungry, I tell them right back to go help themselves to whatever is in the drawer. I also keep some sort of fruit on the counter waiting to become ripe like cantalope (I like my cantelope really realllly ripe) or pears, so the kids are waiting in anticipation for it. Oh the anticipation!

The boys making their own fruit salad. 

5. Protein bars ~ I am always on the hunt for a good power bar. The kids pretty much have free reign over protein bars as well, meaning they can dig in whenever hungry. For the past 6 months I have been hooked on Kind Bars, but I think we are kinda kinded out. And the 6 months prior to the kind bar, I was obsessed with thinkThin Bars.

Tonight I just bought these LaraBars to try and I am hoping they will be a major success story in our house, because Cosco sells them in bulk!

6. Nuts ~ I love nuts, but my kids not so much. One nut that they all like though is pistachios. They all just love to sit around and crack those suckers open. So, I have been carrying around in my diaper bag a mix of dried cranberries and pre- shucked pistachios for emergency hunger situations for the kids and myself. I feel like a genius, because it is such a nice compact healthy snack that can't spoil and can stay in my diaper bag at all times.

7. Finally, after all of the oh-so-original ideas that I just gave you if all else fails to satisfy, the kids just want some good ol' fashion gfree toast with Mayo. What? Your kid doesn't like toast and mayo! Actually, I don't either and I am not exactly sure how my kids obsession for this concoction came to be. I can only chalk it up to that I do LOVE me some mayo on my sandwiches, always have, and somehow my kids now treat the fatty spread as if it is strawberry jelly. On the regular they ask me: "Hey mom, can we please have some toast and mayonnaise. " And every time they ask, I still think to myself: "This is really weird."

Please let me know some of your healthy favorite go to's!! Obviously, the kids would be forever grateful for some sparkles in this area!


Ps. If you follow me through my grams, you have seen the below pictures. 

But just in case you didn't see them, I have to balance out the above 7 healthy quick takes, by admitting that we also on occasion hit up Wendy's for burgers without buns. Not one of our healthiest moments, but the kids love it.

It felt so wrong to be feeding Hope organic baby food in a not.even.close organic Wendy's. But this mom does what she has to do *wink*.