The Anal-Retentive Mom's Less-Mess Snack Foods

As moms we often find ourselves in perpetual "cleaning up" auto-pilot mode. This is especially true when the kids are eating or snacking on the go. Marinara coated spiral pasta flying across the kitchen and little hands coated in wet, sticky pineapple juice anyone? It can be tough to suck it up but we remind ourselves that kids are messy and being messy is fun! Maybe not so much for us (after mindlessly wiping down the kitchen or the car for the 10th time), but we've learned to let it go. So when it comes to snack time it can be a relief to offer up healthy and tasty treats our kids love that are also much less of a mess. Phew!

Fruits - Sliced apples and pears are more forgiving than their ultra juicy counterparts like pineapple, strawberries and oranges. Not only do hands get wet and sticky, but the juice winds up being splat all over their clothes too. And, if they're snacking in the car on the way to school, best to have another set of clothes on hand, especially if it's picture day!

Crackers - The classic kid snack. And, yes, crackers crack and crumble all over the place. We find pieces everywhere, from the floor and our purses to the depths of the seatbelt latch and even inside our lip gloss tubes. The only way around these buggers is by going with the mini bite size versions. The Vanilla Organic Smiley Snacks by Earth's Best and Cheddar Bunnies by Annie's are less messy versions that remain big time favorites.

Cheese - When it comes to this stuff it's best to avoid anything soft, crumbly or mushy like Brie, Bleu and Feta. We know first hand that there's nothing quite like finding a glob of old Feta in the cracks of the sofa. At least we finally figured out what that smell was! Our mantra here is the harder the better and that means String and small pieces of Cheddar type cheeses.

Pasta - When serving up tomato sauce coated penne, spaghetti, macaroni and the like for a meal, we just let the kids go to town. There's no way around it. They love it and they have a ball eating and playing with it. As an on the go snack on the other hand you can try sprinkling a little garlic salt and lemon zest. They love it and we love that the car windows and seats aren't coated with streaks of red.

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