food in a hurry

adjusting as a family of six has had its joys & its challenges.  as i may have mentioned before, our goal as a family is to limit our intake of processed, packaged food & aim to eat organically, homemade food whenever possible.  this is a challenge as homemade food is slow food.  processed food is fast food.  although raw produce is fast... my kids get pretty bored with the whole banana & carrots gig. not going to lie we have definitely slipped in our standard recently.  but i have come up with some easy-peasy fast yet healthy solutions to the snack time riot. here are some creatively healthy ideas to dress up that raw produce:

"fairy cakes"
you simply take a banana, slice it up, dust with cinnamon & then roll in shredded coconut.  i even get the kids to help make them. you can also substitute cocoa powder for the cinnamon if that suits your fancy.  they look like little dusted fairy cakes for a fairy tea party... that part is lost on the boys!

"cinnamon apples" {or shake-shakes}
the kids also help with this one, keeping busy little hands out of trouble! cut up an apple into slices, put in a ziplock bag, throw a little dusting of cinnamon & shake-shake.

"creamy cucumber"
slice up a cucumber & spread with cream cheese.  the kids love the salmon cream cheese on these.

"pomegranate fun"
cut pomegranate in half and then into quarters.  without sheathing the seeds, let the kids pick them out themselves... although note to the wise, this is one very messy fruit.  you may want to take their shirt off or change it up a bit and let them eat snack in the bathtub!  this fascinated them for almost a half hour!

"popcorn"
as long as its low sodium & naturally flavour it makes a wonderful snacky treat... and it's even considered a whole grain!

and if all else fails... i just load up some fresh fruit on a skewer.  what could be more fun than eating fruit off a stick?!