Healthy Snacks For Kids

If your child has to have a snack in between meals it should be a healthy one. Sometimes active kids need little pick-me-ups. There are a number of recipes for healthy snacks you can use with your kids. It is possible to make fruits, vegetables, low fat dairy, lean protein and whole grains appealing to your children.

One good idea is to give your
children choices when it’s snack time. As the parent you can make all the choices reasonably nutritious. That way your child will get to choose his or her snacks and you can ensure that it’s all healthy. An afternoon snack can give kids the energy to do their homework or go play outside. When you provide nutritious choices everybody’s happy.

Dips are a great option. Kids usually love anything they can dip. Whether it’s a bag of celery sticks, carrots, sugar snap peas or cherry tomatoes, they will disappear in no time if there is a tub of dip to go with them. You can mix some ranch dressing using low fat ingredients. You could also make some hummus, bean dip or salsa. To go along with these types of dip are whole wheat crackers, pita triangles or baked tortilla chips. Not only are they nutritious accompaniments for the dips but pleasing to your child’s tastebuds too. Fruit dips are good too. Offer them sliced fruit with a creamy dip. Flavored yogurt, low fat sour cream sweetened with brown sugar or honey, appleasauce and caramel ice cream topping are all good fruit dips.

Another approach to making healthy snacks is to let your kids construct their own. This keeps them occupied and might even help them become more apt to trying more nutritious foods as they’re working with them. Here are three ideas to start with: mini sandwiches, mini pizzas and fruit kabobs. The mini sandwiches can be made using cut-up bread or crackers. Give your kids a few slices of bread, lunch meat and cheese along with a few miniature cookie cutters to make fun shaped sandwiches. Not only are they yummy but creative too. Find some frilled toothpicks and get your child to stick berries, cubed peaches, apples, pears, pineapple chunks and melon balls on them for fruit kabobs. Just about every kid I know likes pizza. It can be a perfectly healthy snack too. Try using a tortilla, half of an English muffin or a whole pita as the pizza crust. Give them some bottled tomato sauce to smear on and then lightly sprinkle low-fat mozzarella cheese. Some chopped veggies and a little lean meat can also serve as toppings. Heat the mini pizzas up for a few minutes in the toaster oven or microwave and then cut it up into triangles.

Frozen snacks can be healthy too especially when the temperatures are warm. You don’t have to always have ice cream or snow cones. Frozen grapes are sweet but contain plenty of fiber and vitamins. If your child likes bananas peel and freeze them and roll the frozen fruit in chocolate syrup and chopped nuts. Among other frozen healthy snacks are peach or nectarine slices and all kinds of berries. You can also turn any combination of frozen fruit, milk, yogurt, juice and ice into a delicious milkshake.

Desserts have the potential to be healthy snacks too. They don’t have to be packed with sugar or artificial flavoring. Substituting is another trick to getting your kids to eat healthy snacks. Traditional desserts can easily be transformed into healthy and well-balanced snacks. Give them ice cream with low fat frozen yogurt or pudding made with nonfat milk frozen into pops. A fluffy slice of angel food cake topped with fresh fruit adds vitamins and fiber to your treat. Serving it in cubes for dipping into fruit-flavored yogurt gives an added dose of calcium. Bake muffins and cookies with applesauce instead of some of the fat. Add oats, dried fruit, nuts and whole wheat flour. Another healthy snack to pick up is Nature Valley’s granola bars. Stick one in your son or daughter’s lunch bag or just give it to them as a snack to hold them over til mealtime. An excellent source of whole grain, Nature Valley Crunchy Granola has a great taste with mixed nut varieties.

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