easy wholish snacks/food for kids of all ages

[kellid]

i though we all could use a thread about this. i have a 8mo; 3yo; & 5yo. my oder boys are constantly hungry and interested in eating all day vs. meals. i feel like i'm always making food. so i would like easy wholish food ideas for all day snackers. healthy of course. and what are some good foods to feed my 8mo? you would think after 3 kids i would know this, but.......she is way more interested in food than they were and she's using her hands great so i want to plop down something in from of her and let her go. i'm not so interested in pureeing and actually feeding her. i figure if she can do it she will, right? if not the boob wil do. so....what about beans for her? is that bad?

[Llyra]

Beans are great! My DD2 is a big fan of black beans-- if I'm in a hurry, I'll just heat up a can of them and season them a bit with some cumin, and let her have at it.

Ripe avocado is a nice snack for babies, too. Just cut it in half and scrape out the insides.

We're big fans of cheese and crackers, here, too. And bananas.

[mamadelbosque]

My DS had everything we did from around 8 months or so.. we just put whatever we were eating in front of him and let him go. It was a bit messy but for a long time he'd eat pretty much anything. Starting around 20 or 22 odd months he started getting a bit more picky, but he still eats a lot of different stuff.

For older ones, what about just apples, grapes, blueberries etc? I have one of those things that cuts apples into slices, which makes giving DS apples super easy. Serve them with a jar of peanut butter and a spoon Otherwise, triscut-type crackers are actually pretty decent, and the off-brand ones are fairly cheap too ($1.50ish at my local stores), and are excellent with cheese, pepperoni & pizza sauce (yes, tis one of my personal favorite snacky lunches, and they're fun to assemble