Parents and caregivers strive to ensure kids consume healthy meals throughout the day. Parents take time to follow plans like the FODMap to ensure the food is nutritious. However, when it comes to snacking, most of that hard work is undone. Growing children eat a lot in between meals. Most parents feed kids with a ready-made snack from the store. These snacks are full of refined sugars, artificial ingredients, and processed flour, affecting children’s health. Therefore, it is essential to consider making snacks from home to control the components. To ensure they are healthy, here are some delicious, easy-to-make options you could try;
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Celery, Peanut butter, and raisins
Kids often frown upon the thought of eating a vegetable. Thus, to trick them, you could make the vegetable fun. For example, you could make ‘logs’ from the celery by cutting the stalk into pieces, applying the peanut on it, and then adding raisins on top. This forms an ‘ants on a log’ kind of form, which is fun to eat. You could also involve them in the preparation process. Also, ensure you use healthy peanut butter.
Veggie pita Pockets
Another fun way of disguising vegetables is using pita pockets. For this recipe, you cut vegetables into tiny pieces and put them inside the pocket. You could let the kid pick out the vegetables or involve them in filling the pita pockets. This way, they are more enthusiastic about eating. But, of course, they also consume wheat alongside numerous other healthy elements.
Smoothies
The best thing about smoothies is that you can disguise the contents. For example, if your child does not like eating vegetables, you can blend them into a smoothie then mask the color or taste using a sweet fruit. This way, they do not get to pick out the vegetables like in a substantial meal. You could also make fun-colored smoothies using natural food colors like blueberries to encourage them further. At the same time, be vigilant about the sugar levels in the fruits.
Fruit Popsicles
Most kids love popsicles, especially during the hot weather. In most cases, parents go for popsicles bought from the store, filled with added sugars and other artificial flavors. Healthy popsicles are very easy to make. All you need to prepare is a puree of fruits and berries, add a little fruit juice, then blend. Using popsicle molds, you can get any desired shape. Let the mixture freeze overnight after you insert the popsicle stick. You can make several popsicles for convenience purposes.
Oat and Banaba Cookies
If your kids love pastries, you can switch up the wheat and add sugar with organic and healthy ingredients. For example, mashed bananas will provide the same sweetness as store-bought cookies. To make this snack, mix the bananas with oats, vanilla, fruit, and coconut oil. Then, you can shape the cookies, which is a fun activity, or place spoonfuls on the baking sheets.
The catch when creating snacks for children is to make them fun and tasty. In most cases, kids are eager to eat foods they find amusing and have decent flavor. When making snacks from home, you can meet those needs and ensure you fulfill their vitamins and minerals requirements.
I’ve always loved food and I’ve always loved sharing my love of food with the world. This love led me to become a professional foodie, opening my very own restaurant called The Great American Cafe and writing a blog called Foodieso.com, where I’ve been able to share my recipes, ideas and thoughts about food.
