Staples to have on hand

Maybe its the Southern girl in me, but it would torture me to have company drop in and not have something to feed them. 

With kids, you never know when “company” might stop in and suddenly become very hungry.  If you know the child well, you will likely have the right stuff on hand.  But when a child starts a new school, a new camp, a new sport or any new event, there may be new friends. A younger child will certainly be dropped off with “instructions” and a snack of their own if there are significant needs.  An older child will be able to advocate for herself.  Still, it is nice to have something to offer. If several kids are over on a snowy day and they want hot chocolate, it’s nice to have something for the child who cannot have dairy.  It’s as easy to whip up homemade hot chocolate (milk, cocoa, sweetener) as it is to pull out some mix with lots of artificial ingredients. 

If you have a few stand-by replacement foods, you can whip up an alternative drink with coconut  or rice milk instead of dairy.  Shelf stable things just to keep on hand:

Coconut milk in the wax container will keep a long time.  Get plain(no added sugar) because it can be used in cooking.  We use:

Rice Milk is also a safe alternative.  Get it in a shelf safe container.  Get plain because it can be used in cooking.

Apple Sauce-check your ingredients for soy lecithin or other additives.  If you do not eat much of this routinely, get the individual servings to use as needed.  Apple sauce can be used as an egg replacer in some cooking, so those individual servings are handy then as well.

 Rice crackers-really really PLAIN rice crackers without sesame.  Oddly enough, Sesmark makes these.

Potato chips or Terra Chips can be pretty clean.  Go for regular, not flavored, as flavoring can include dairy, sesame or other additives.  Check for soybean oil or corn oil.

Salsa-unlike ranch dip, there is little chance of dairy.

Enjoy Life Products-this company excludes all major food allergens (and others like sesame) from their products, so you are good to go with them barring some really obscure allergy or corn (removing all traces of corn is really difficult in the U.S.  We derive a lot of processed food additives from corn.).

 

Gluten Free Rice Chex-the company makes gluten free versions that taste identical to the ones with malt, but check to make sure you have the right one.

Gluten Free Rice Krispies

Cocoa is usually just that, cocoa and nothing else.  Have some on hand to make home-made hot chocolate. 

Dried fruit-it keeps a long time, but check ingredients again to look for hidden stuff.

 Not so shelf stable, but always good are apples, bananas, oranges, avocados, carrot sticks and other natural whole foods.   Everybody should be eating fruits and veggies as snacks, so shelf-stable should not be a concern.  Serve it that week.