Snacktime

Have you considered fruits. my 1 and 2 years old love it. one year old crazy about bananas, peaches, rasberries, 2 year old eats pretty much all the fruits.

fruits
plain rice cakes
celery w/ or w/o pb &raisins
carrots
english cucumber
bell pepper
hard boiled egg (I only feed mine the whites)
sun chips

With our snacks, I try to give a fruit or veggie + a whole wheat carb or a protein. I think of them as "mini meals." We mix & match with some of the items below for snacks.

String cheese sticks; they have them in cheddar, mozzerella, and ched/mozz twists.

Hummus with pita, but skip this if there are peanut allergies in the family.

Unsweetened apple sauce. You can get the big Musselmans or Motts jug of unsweetened, or get the various flavored snack cups--

Grapes, cut in half; also, manga, melon, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi, banana, etc. Any of these can also be frozen for a yummy frozen treat. If you are in a rush, or an item is not in , check your local grocery store's freezer section, near the pie making stuff, for unsweetened (no sugar added) frozen fruit--

Baby carrot or carrot "coins" (precut in circular shape), maybe with a little ranch dressing.

Avocado slices

Black beans and rice.

Cubed, cooked chicken.

A meatball or two (we get the big frozen bag from the freezer section of GFS).

Yogurt alone or mixed with unsweetened apple sauce. (You can also freeze this in icecube trays for yummy mini-popsicles).

Sweet potato with a little butter---our microwave has a "potato" setting that makes it super easy to make. It's also easy to puree them, after cooked, and freeze in ice cube trays. These can be mixed with an equal amount of unsweetened apple sauce, and/or a dollop of yogurt (some times I add a pinch of cinnamon & drop of vanilla extract); I do the same with acorn & butternut squash, and with pumpkin (you can go really easy w/ the pumpkin by buying the pumpkin puree in the store).

Canned/jarred fruit (in pear juice or water).

Cottage cheese.

Half of 1 slice of whole wheat bread, toast, bagel or English muffin, sometimes with little cream cheese or a butter, or a slice of melted cheese on top.

If you don't mind baking once a week or so, you can make a batch of mini muffins that will last several days (or you can freeze them in batches), make a fruit crisp or a homemade trail mix. We have a recipe for an easy, pretty healthy pear-pumpkin crisp on our blog that my kids loved. The address is www.welcomingkitchen.com.

pretzel sticks are a fav with my daycare kids. They also like the generic brand cookies....quarter-size choc chip cookies & the butter ones. They love grapes cut-up, banana slices with ice cream sprinkles (or without). Jello, pudding....& letting them help make it is fun! They enjoy applesauce & grah crackers for dunking. String cheese or cheese squares. Golden Grah Crunch cereal, Apple Jacks, etc .....are all favs for dry munching.

Lots of choices! Lots of generics you can choose from! Try hitting the website for Kraft, Quaker, & all the other biggies. Their recipes are usually great!

We do things like:

bananas
grapes
apples
canned fruits
animal crackers
cheese & crackers
fruit snacks
peanut butter & crackers/bread
carrots & dip
applesauce

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

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My Kids love caremel rice cakes
Apples (I cut them in wedged or fries to spice it up, just sprinkle lemon juice to prevent browning)
Pears
grapes
baby carrots
carrot sticks (I cook them up a little for the littleones)
Bell Peppers
watermelon
cheese in tons of different shapes
teddy grahams
scooby snacks
pretzils
yogurt, go gurt yourgut smoothies, crush cups
jello jigglers
pudding
snack mixes w/ cereal
dry cereal
popcorn (there is kernal free for the baby)

How about celery with peanut butter and raisins? I think it's called "Ants on a Log" or something like that -- but it could be fun for your 4-year old to make this snack with you -- and even to help with making it for the 2-year old too (adding the raisins or "ants")... Also, maybe cottage cheese with diced peaches...?
Here are some other fun ones:
http://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/feeding/heal...
&
http://www.bhg.com/recipes/childrens-favorites/snacks/nut...

Good luck!

My kids love sliced apples, graham cracker and pb 'sandwiches', rice crispy treats (they're cheaper to make them at home), you can even do fruity pebble treats, my kids love the Quaker granola bars--especially the chocolate chip and then the smores ones, chex mix. If you contact the WIC office, they have a whole book designed with snacks in mind using the cereals they provide. Hope you find something!

Take the kids to the produce section of the grocery store and play the alphabet game.

The first week you will eat snacks that begin with the letter 'A', so pick out fruits and vegetables that start with the letter 'A'. If one week is too long, then you could do A, B, and C. You could also do colors as well - monday is red, tuesday is orange, wednesday is yellow, and so on.

You'll introduce the kids to new foods and since they pick them out they may be more likely to eat them. You'll also avoid the rut since you won't repeat as often.

K.-you should go to Trader Joe's on Penn Aye. if you can. They have so much more than you will find at the Giant Eagle and much better prices. You will get great ideas there.