In my life with young kids these last few years, there are the ideals and then there are the realities. I’d love to be more zero waste, but disposable diapers, paper towels, and applesauce pouches have been saving my life lately. I’d also like to source all our food locally like the author of my favorite book did for a year, but, hello Costco. These days we do our best but it’s been all finding a balance between our values and the life in front of us.

One of the daily things I try to find a good balance with is the snacks I feed our kids. I want to put whole foods in their bodies that are good for them, and I also want to avoid a ton of packaging and waste. Many days I find myself reaching for the goldfish crackers for my kids, and those little friends will stay in our pantry, but I’ve found that there are other options that I forget about that just take a little more thoughtfulness when I’m grocery shopping or responding to my melting down toddler.

Snack boards have been a favorite of mine for a while now. I love just getting everything onto a board for 3 little sets of hands to dig into and choose what they want. I was first inspired by the Weelicious instagram, gorgeous right? And, um, mine don’t look like that, but I just try to fill up my own boards with a variety of veggies, fruit, nuts, and cheese. It changes every time depending on what we have in the kitchen, and if I have some extra energy, it’s fun to make cute designs. The kids are always impressed. I found that with these boards, the kids see that they have a lot of options before them and are pretty content. Unlike today when I told them a list of options before serving up individual plates and the kids responded with lots of different requests and lots of complaining and comparing. I like to avoid that.

Smoothies and popsicles. A banana, frozen fruit, yogurt, milk, and some greens. Super easy. We also make extra that we pour into these popsicle molds, they’re my favorite. The kids get as excited about these popsicles as other treats and they are the perfect size.

Homemade popcorn. It really is so easy! My friend Natalie told me for so long that it was easy but it took me forever to try. I stock up on corn kernels in the bulk section of Whole Foods and I follow this recipe. Just coconut oil, corn kernels and a little sprinkling of salt. The kids are actually fine without the salt, that part is for me.