Food Bill Reducing Tips Thursday

This week's tip is 2-fold:

1) Stop buying things wrapped individually, and

2) Get more creative with snacks.

My kids love snacks. Whether they are the 'good for you' kind or the kind I wouldn't want my mother seeing them eat, buying snacks can eat up your food budget. Quickly. Show me a family with teens and we'll see a family being eaten alive by their kids! Seriously! These kids come home and find every morsel worth eating in the house within 5 minutes. That cheese you hoped would be used for the enchiladas tonight? GONE. The tortilla chips you hoped would go in the lunches tomorrow? GONE. The bell peppers and carrots for tonight's salad? History. Finding snacks that satisfy the most discriminating tastes yet don't break the bank is my current mission. Here are a few that I have found so far:

Popcorn. Popcorn is my wonder food with the kids. I can serve it plain; with butter and salt; with curry powder and pumpkin seeds; with raisins, cashews and salt; salt and brown sugar or agave. I have also been know to get pretty fancy and make popcorn balls if asked nicely.

Nachos. You can find all sorts of toppings for nachos - the basic one is cheese (though plenty of great-tasting nachos can be had without the cheese. On top, you can add: beans, meat, salsa, peppers, corn, olives, sour cream, tomatoes, grated carrots, grated zucchini, basically any vegetable could work.

Fruit salad. Yum. My youngest just made a spectacular fruit salad with his aunt long distance over the phone. MMMM. The best things are those made with love. You know the drill here - any fruit will do it. You can leave it 'naked' or dress it up with yogurt and honey, sour cream and maple syrup, or a bit of your favorite jam thinned with a little bit of water or orange juice.

Chip mix. I came up with my own version of Chex mix - which I love, but it is expensive and has ingredients I choose not to eat. I get the equivalent cereals in the organic food section of the market, add gluten-free pretzels, nuts and sometimes dried cranberries for a shot of sweetness, then add whatever spicy-ness I am looking for, a few of the other typical ingredients (butter, salt, soy sauce or worcestershire sauce, etc) to finish with the recipe. I don't make it very often due to the work and cost involved (because of the organic part), but when I do, it's a great snack.

And just a little word about individual-sized packaging. Oh for crying out loud... do things really taste better when they come in those little tiny packages? Aren't the chips just the same when you take them out of an extra-large (and cheaper) bag and put them into smaller bags/containers? My kids insist I was born yesterday. "Oh no, mom. The ones with the little boxes inside the other boxes inside the bags are much fresher. They also happen to be the ones everyone brings to school. No one brings their own containers to school. That's weird." Too bad.

What snack do you cling to? What snacks do you keep around for your family??