my shopping bill always goes up over the holidays. They just eat more.

what do you guys have in your pantry to make sure they can eat but doesn't break the budget or their health?

I am really disappointed with fruit in general this year. it just seems so limited and crap quality.

Do lots of baking...get the children to help.
Muffins...sweet and savoury
Cakes
Patty Cakes
Slices
cookies
And then lots of fruit

Same. We overdo bread in the holidays. Toasties are on high rotation so I limit it to tomatoes from the garden as the cheese would send me broke. We do a lot of fruit foraging over holidays and visit too many orchards and farms. Blackberries grow wild everywhere here and are easy to find unsprayed. Fun holiday activities that fill the fridge up cheaply. We also have an icecream machine but I stock up on vanilla icecream on special. Vanilla ice cream and blackberries is sensational. Stone fruit is fabulous west of the range. I thought there were loads of great roadside stalls and fruit farms on the CC?

Mum used to give us cordial with loads of water ice when I was a kid. We used to drink it from really big cups and the ice would take us ages to get through. Sucking on the ice and spitting it back into the cup. Sounds gross but it's great on a hot day.

visiting orchards- awesome idea!!!!! I guess we could just find what is in fruit and then kids have to learn to bake something using that produce.

We go through a lot more pasta in the holidays, but I try to keep it to gluten free pasta where possible. Also more bread because it's such a quick snack.

I tend to make banana ice cream (since bananas are so cheap again ) , ice blocks with water and juice, we have crackers and cheese and brioche roll-ups.

And a lot of silverbeet and zucchini as there's more of that in the garden than we can eat...

I was also finding that come school holidays we seemed to go through so much food. So along with doing heaps of cooking together we have made a rule that they only eat at the times that they eat at school. So breakfast at normal time. Morning tea at 11, lunch at 1 then afternoon tea at 4 when we would normally be home from school. No snacking in between. They always have full bottles of water that they can easily get to anytime of the day.

They seem to cope fine with it as the reality is they don't sit around eating all day at school. We do make sure that the food they eat has lots of energy etc as they are running around alot more. They got use to it pretty quick and dont even come asking for food in between.

The exception of course to this is the couple of days over xmas, as that is parft of xmas sitting around all day eating

Have to agree also about the fruit these days it has been disappointing trying to find decent fruit. I guess all the weird weather we have had recently hasnt helped

I have a tupperware container, a round serving one with lots of compartments.
I fill it up with fruit ans veggies and popcorn or rice
Crackers,sandwiches,cheese and kabana kebabs(on toothpicks) boiled eggs.

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h19/sque...ma/104179e4.jpg

And the eating at school times is a great idea too
My kids eat a lot over the holidays but they burn heaps of energy too.

Popcorn for a cheap snack

great ideas, thanks. I especially love that eating time thing...although I do get worn down by them.

We do a lot of popcorn - not the micro variety - tiny bit of oil in the sacepan and kernels - one bag for $1 lasts ages.

I freeze iceblocks in iceblock moulds with cordial, yoghurt, jelly with fruit etc

2 min noodles are a quick, cheap snack they make themselves.

Whatever fruit is cheap - often watermelon or grapes.

Usually I bake a LOT but our oven is broken so I am in panic mode these holidays, I think I need to find some microwave baking recipes.

Big bowl of Pretzels to share
Or popcorn
Icy poles(zooper dooper types ones)
I bake cookies or muffins or slices

I get a big watermelon and pre-cut it into a large bowl in the fridge, so its quicker to serve.

Crackers with vegemite, the homebrand crispbread type ones are cheap and there's a fair few in a box, plus the kids like the worms

We tend to eat at brekkie/morning tea/lunch/arvo tea/ dinner, not really grazing or snacking all day, but if they do ask for things inbetween then ice blocks or something not too filling are quick and easy to do and won't spoil a meal.

I love the idea of a muffin tin meal. Put all the snacks in at the beginning of the day and that's what they can have between meals.

google image search "muffin tin meals"

added link http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com...uit-tastic.html