Ahh, summer! The season for swimsuits, slower day, and SNACKS! If your family is like mine, most days feel like an endless series of requests for snacks. During my weekly meal prep, I always make at least a couple batches of muffins, bars, or protein balls for snacks, but inevitably they disappear in a flash. A couple of years ago I decided that to keep from becoming a cranky mom, I was going to come up with a list of snacks the kids could make themselves. Most of these are snack ideas my kids have been able to make since they were as young as seven. They love doing it and I love handing over some of the responsibility. Win, win! I hope your family enjoys these kid-approved snacks as much as mine do!

• Brown Rice Cakes and Peanut Butter ( I like Lundberg Brown Rice Organic Rice cakes)
• Sweet Potato Chips and Hummus
• No Bake Peanut Butter Bars
• Ham and Cheese Quesadilla
• Pumpkin Peanut Butter Dip and apple slices (I prefer they use an apple slicer like this to keep things safe)
• Giant Chocolate Peanut Butter Breakfast Cookie
• Clean Eating Nacho Cheese Dip and organic corn tortilla chips
• Sugar Free Hot Cocoa

Success Tip: I have a couple ground rules the kids must follow. They must wash their hands before they start, and they must clean up their mess when they finish. Other than that, they can enjoy freedom. The kids understand my expectations, so, I found that the VERY best thing I did to make this successful was to just walk away and leave the kitchen while they're cooking. I find that when I stay, I get super twitchy and can't handle the process without trying to intervene and control it. This is exactly the opposite result I was looking for. If you find it difficult to "let go" when the kids are cooking, I encourage you to just stay out of the kitchen until they're done. You will probably be surprised at what a great job they do without you and trust me, mom's it's good for them and for us!