At least that's what my son keeps telling me. "Mom, there is no food in the fridge/pantry!" He doesn't mean that there is literally nothing in the fridge or pantry. He means that there are no little packages and baggies with portion size snacks he can just help himself to. The thing is, I cook from scratch. So fridge and pantry are stocked with "basics" to create meals, such as legumes, grains, canned tomatoes, flour and so on. That's indeed pretty unsatisfying for someone looking for a quick snack. "You are so European, mom," he says, the idea being that Europeans don't snack as much as we do over here.

So then - what about healthy unpackaged snacks? My daughter has recently taken to making "quick nachos" by simply grating cheese over some tortilla chips and broiling them in the oven for a few minutes. Other wholesome "from-scratch" afternoon snack ideas for hungry school children are apple slices with pea/nut butter and/or chocolate/hazelnut paste, oven broiled cinnamon toasts, oven broiled cheese toasts, yogurt/ricotta cheese with honey and sunflower seeds, a few chunks of cheddar and some fruit, crackers with hummus, nuts with raisins or dried cranberries. There you go - we do have food.