After School

Many days, after prying my darling daughter from the playground after school, we walk in the door at home and she's starving. I'm not terribly surprised. After all, she's been running, jumping, swinging, and generally being super active. A snack makes sense. However, I don't want her spoiling her dinner, either. Oftentimes, that means fruits or vegetables to the rescue. She loves them and I'm grateful for that. However, sometimes it can get a bit boring, so we like to mix it up a bit now and then:

Now this snack is essentially apples and peanut butter, but the presentation — however simple it may be (and that's very simple) — makes it "super fancy", as my youngster likes to say. It does take a little longer than just tossing some apples on a plate and plopping a blob of peanut butter alongside, but not much more and the smile I get from across the table makes it entirely worth it. Besides, she's then generally more engaged with enjoying it and that leaves me the time and space to make sure that dinner I mentioned (remember dinner?) actually makes it to the table later on.

You can choose any kind of apple you like for this snack. I used Golden Delicious apples we picked earlier in the month. You can also use any kind of granola you like. I tend to have it on hand to pair with fruit and yogurt in the mornings for breakfast, so I just use that. If you don't have granola, you could use chopped nuts or seeds. The point is to get some crunch in there. You can skip the chocolate, but the tiny bit used doesn't negate the nutritional value of the snack and it does really make it pretty … or super-fancy!