My kids love to snack. They are always hungry. And being the good mom that I am I buy lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains - stuff that is good for them. Always with the best intentions. I walk through the grocery store with visions of baking healthy muffins and oatmeal cookies, tossing up delicious salads and blending frosty smoothies - all chock full of nutrition and “good” calories. Ha!

I arrive home from the store with bags (reusable, of course) full of healthy snacks - or actually raw materials that have the potential to become healthy snacks - no, really, let’s just call it bags full of work to do. It’s true, the healthiest foods take time to prepare. Pre-packaged snacks are often not as nutritionally sound as foods that take some time to get from fridge to table.

And more often than not, my good intentions go awry when one (or two, or three) week(s) later, I pull out some unrecognizable fruit or vegetable out of my produce drawer.

So now I am on a mission to provide healthy snacks for kids and reduce food spoilage as well. I have come up with a simple one, two method that does take time, but not as much as my original ambitions.

The first step is to set my sights low. No more grand plans of spinach souffle’s and the like. When I hit the produce department at the grocery store I buy fruits and vegetables that require minimal preparation. I shop when I know that I will have an hour or so at home afterwards available to “process” my groceries.

When I get home, I wash and cut and peel the produce I just bought. Carrot and celery sticks go into one container, washed grapes in another, strawberries that have been cleaned and hulled in another. And a bowl of apples, oranges, and bananas on the counter. If I buy a brick of cheese, I slice the whole thing and wrap it up. You get the idea.

One important rule on this road to healthy snacks. Never wash just one. If I buy a bag of apples, I wash all of them. A box of strawberries - the whole package gets prep-ed. This way something healthy is always at the ready when someone’s tummy gets rumbly.

Now I know, sometimes (once in a blue moon) I just might fall a smidgen behind and not have something prepared at that critical moment when my child is “dying” of hunger. In that case I try choose pre-packaged healthy snacks for kids like Cheerios Snack Mix or Fizzix Yogurt - just on those rare occasions mind you.

No, I am not vegetarian. Yes, there are those of you who say I should be. But that argument aside, I found this wonderful cookbook called Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson. I have made a few of the vegetarian slow cooker recipes out of this book and have been very impressed.

I happen to be a big slow cooker fan. In my house, if dinner isn’t prepared by 2:00 pm then it’s a cereal night. Once the kids get home from school my time disappears. With a slow cooker I can prepare dinner in the morning and a hot meal is ready at dinner time.

However, many slow cooker recipes are not that healthy. And I want more flavor than food cooked in a can of cream of something soup provides.

Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker offers many healthy and delicious recipes using beans and vegetables - something that many of us don’t eat enough of .

The two recipes that I made last week were Black Bean Soup and Tuscan White Bean and Escarole Soup. Both soups were delicious. And the white bean soup used escarole, I have never made anything with that before. I wasn’t sure the kids would try it but they liked it too.

I will definitely be making more recipes from this book.

One other benefit of these recipes is that many of them are dairy free. My son is allergic to dairy products and there are a lot of recipes here that he can eat as well.

You can read more about my experiences withvegetarian soup recipes here.