This Mom's Healthy Snack Hack is Totally Inspired

Justina Huddleston

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It’s not always easy to eat healthy when you’re an adult, and when you’re a kid trying to make nutritious food decisions when you know there’s a box of cookies in the cupboard, it’s even more of a challenge. What’s a parent to do? One mom had a solution that’s so brilliant yet so easy, we can’t believe we haven’t seen it before: she fills her fridge door with healthy self-serve snacks that her kids can take whenever they want.

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Sunday self-serve is ready for the week. 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 After grocery shopping I always wash and prep all of the food that is considered self-serve in our house. Self-serve for my kiddos means help yourself without asking and it’s always an okay snack (any time of day, bedtime snacks, etc.) It also helps me when I’m packing lunches and snacks, or as a side dish when dinner doesn’t include something they will definitely eat or if we have a busy/late night. There’s something about having things truly ready to grab that makes kids eat it. I could leave the baby carrots in a bag or leave the grapes on the stems but they wouldn’t eat it. 🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️You can see more of my Sunday meal prep routines in my highlights under Meal Prep 🍎🥒 <PS- For the fruits and veggies I do put covers on the containers so they don’t get gross. #healthykidsfood #healthyfood #healthykids #bentobox #mealprepsunday #mealprep #aldifinds #teachermom #lunchbox #lunchboxideas

A post shared by Sarah | The Eager Teacher (@theeagerteacher) on Sep 15, 2019 at 1:10pm PDT

The idea, which belongs to Sarah Hornung, a school administrator from Buffalo, New York, is simple. She makes things like fruits, veggies, yogurt, and string cheese easy to access in the fridge. Grapes are taken off their stems, baby carrots are removed from their bag, cucumbers are sliced, and they’re all placed in quart-sized containers that live on the fridge door, where the kids can reach them whenever they get hungry. The rules are that these snacks can be eaten any time without having to ask an adult, even before dinner or bed.

Hornung preps all of the food after grocery shopping on Sundays, so that when the week starts up the healthy snacks are already stocked. She also uses them to help pack lunches, and they give kids an alternative option when they don’t like the side dish being served with dinner.

This idea is obviously perfect for kids, but what about us grown folks who can’t seem to muster up the energy to open the produce drawer when we’re peckish? It seems like anyone could benefit from keeping a variety of already-prepared fruits, vegetables, and other nutritious noshes ready to eat in the fridge. If you open the door and those are the first things you see, AND you don’t have to do the extra “work” of rinsing or slicing anything, chances are you’ll be a lot more likely to choose something healthy rather than go for a packaged, processed food instead.

Hornung got her containers at the dollar store, so this healthy snack fridge hack is pretty affordable for everyone. Not a bad idea to start a project like this before holiday cookie season!

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