Most kids often get ¼ of their diet from snacks. That’s enough to make snacks count essentially as a fourth meal so its important to make those snacks as nutritious as possible. Unfortunately, most snacks are desserts, sugary drinks, salty foods or simply heavily processed nutritional duds. Start a snick-snack-paddy-whack revolution and fuel your kids up with foods that will help them perform better in school, sports, and life!
Dazzle it – Sometimes fancy packaging is enough to excite kids about a healthy snack. Get creative!
- Fill muffin cups with pistachios and dried cranberries.
- Put popcorn in a brown lunch bag that you have decorated with stickers and drawings or messages.
Wrap it –
- Spread nut butter on whole wheat tortilla or flatbread and sprinkle with strawberries, bananas, or peaches on one third of the wrap before rolling.
- Combine hummus and shredded carrots on rolled flatbread.
- Fill small tortilla with variety of diced and shredded vegetables and a small dab of dressing.
Dip it –
- Mix taco seasoning into plain yogurt and serve with cut up veggie strips.
- Serve baked tortilla chips with salsa or bean dip.
- Try olive tapenade or pesto as a dip or sandwich spread to expose your child to different tastes. For a less-intense dip, mix it will plain yogurt or low fat sour cream.
Mix it – To ease the transition to healthier snacks, mix a little bit of less health with the more healthy.
- Create a trail mix of chocolate chips or broken cookies to nuts, dried fruit, and whole grain cereal.
- Send a plain or vanilla yogurt with mini chocolate chips and sliced strawberries.