Where To Buy Good Snacks To Have on Hand

I would love to have some type of completely homemade snack for my children every afternoon.  In fact, I hope to soon add a page where I can share homemade snack options (your ideas are quite welcome!).  However, like most dear readers who may choose to check out this blog, I live a busy life.  I've got four kids, I home school, I've started an at-home business, we are active in church, we've got soccer and horse-riding and AWANA and baseball and piano and... you get it, right?

So what do you do when you don't have homemade on hand but you don't want to compromise on junk from the gas station on the way to whatever-it-is-you-have-going-that-day?  I've found that having a basket of packaged snack options in our pantry has been very helpful.

Maybe one of the biggest surprises in my quest for organic eating has been the boxed and pre-packaged organic options at... BIG LOTS.  Yes, you read that right.  The first time I got a text from my friend and GMO-free eating mentor (truly, she should be writing this blog), raving about her Big Lots finds, I was a bit skeptical.  Upon checking it out myself, I have found it to be a little treasure trove.  Plus, I nearly always get the bonus of the friendly cashier commenting on all the healthy food I'm buying.  It's like a little pat on the back as I check out.

At the same time, while I do worry about them selling out of our beloved granola bars if I tell too many people about the Big Lots secret, I want them to continue to carry these items.  Maybe there will be such a rush on organic food that they will create a separate department for these items.  This would be helpful because right now it is a bit of a hunt up and down the aisles to find the good stuff.

On my last trip to Big Lots I stocked up on Nature's Path Organic granola bars and oatmeal packs.  At about $2.50 a box they are a great buy.  At other grocery stores I have seen this brand sell for double the price.  The kids have easily adapted to this brand over the big name brands with more questionable ingredients.  Nature's Path has a lot of flavor varieties which makes it fun, too.

Of course that is not all I found, but that's a start.  Have you been organic food shopping at Big Lots?  What did you find?