Healthy Snack Ideas

Pita and hummus are a great alternative to chips and dips and grinding up the chickpeas is so much FUN!!

I love Oikos as well, especially the one with honey. Speaking from the standpoint of one who is fighting insulin resistance (kind of like pre- pre- diabetes) since having gestational diabetes, please listen to what I have to say. High fructose corn syrup is poisoning all of us. I always *thought* I was eating healthy, but this stuff is rampant in our foods, diabetes is on the rise, and I've little doubt due to this syrup. My problem was the lack of protein.

Please read labels. Do not provide more than 15-20g of carbs in a snack, AND include a protein in every snack and with every meal. In other words, if an apple (or part of an apple, whole small apple is about 15g) is the snack it STILL needs to eaten with a protein (cheese, salami slices, a tbsp of nuts, spoonful of peanut butter). The protein counteracts the sugar, in other words, balance. Buy low carb bread like Pepperidge Farm Light for lunches, these are 17g for 2 slices. Carbs for meals are generally double that of snacks. And, veggies other than carrots and potatoes (there are a few others), are "free" and can have as many as you'd like. Mind you, these guidelines are for an adult, but Americans eat way too many carbs.

A few snack ideas: pretzels/peanut butter, cheese sticks/piece of fruit, yogurt & nuts, Nature Valley Oats n Honey granola bar (just 1, not both),

I love Oikos yogurt with fruit in it. Delicious and plenty of protein.

Whenever we get burned out on snacks, I'll sometimes pull out our plastic veggie tray (with a lid) and fill it with a variety of snacks. I call it the healthy snack tray, and I try to keep it stocked in the fridge (if there's room). Some fruits brown more quickly, so I add those right before eating instead of just leaving them in there.

Some of the things that go in it...
raisins
grapes
apple slices
melon
carrots
celery
bell peppers
cucumber slices
cold peas
berries
wheat crackers
Cheerios or other dry cereal
salami
cheese cubes
nuts
peanut butter (for dipping)
yogurt (for dipping)
hummus
Ranch dressing

Obviously, I can't put everything in at once, but I've found that putting a mix of foods in front of the kids encourages them to eat a bit of everything and even make up their own fun combos similar to ants on a log. I'll also leave out toothpicks for them to make mini-kabobs or just pick up the foods. Sometimes I'll even put out a few marshmallows or chocolate chips to help make it feel more like a treat than a healthy snack.

Oh, and we like to make smiley faces out of our food sometimes -- blueberries for eyes, carrot for nose, strawberry for mouth, peanut butter for hair, etc.

Hope that gives you a few more ideas!

Our snacks are
fresh fruit
fruit cups
cucumbers w/ little salt
apples dipped in peanut butter mixed with honey
raisins
graham crackers topped with plain cream cheese
popcorn
pistachios
almonds
YoToddler Yogurt
Simply Gogurt yogurt sticks frozen

Hope that helps some :-)

My step mom make sweet potatoe chips. She cuts the sweet potatoes as thin as she can and bakes them I think she even puts a little salt on them. This is very healthy compaired to potatoe chips.
Not sure on the oven temp or how long to cook them sorry.
The other thing that my kids like is biscuit pizza. Buy a can of biscuits in the store give each child a cookie sheet have them flaten down however many biscuits they can eat. Put pizza sauce on them, cheese, and whatever else they want on them. My kids like pepperoni and black olives. However for you could just make them veggie pizzas. Each child makes their own and only puts on it what he or she likes.

invest in a dehydrator..trust me it is worth it..you can make your own raisins,beef jerky, banana chips, apple chips, fruit roll ups..etc..and the kids get a kick out of helping and watching the process!!

Cheese cubes; can impale them on a pretzel if you want
Yogurt; can make into a dip for fruit or veg, depending on how you season it.

Pizza? if you go heavy on the vegs it isn't too bad. They could help you make it, buy the kit at the store if you don't want to make from scratch. Or buy crust from store and add sauce and toppings.

Hard boiled eggs.

K. Z.

Go to Half Price Books and you should be able to find several cookbooks for kids with lots of ideas. I'm a former pre-school teacher and I made my own since we cooked every day and I shared those as well as others with all of the kids and their families. They aren't hard to find, you just have to do a little digging and GET CREATIVE! That's part of the fun!!

We've made cars w/ celery, carrot wheels, stuck together w/ peanut butter, cauliflower sheep ( as CUTE as you can possibly imagine!), etc. You'll be surprised, once you start looking at food a little differently what you can come up with!

Apple chips are a good alternative to chips if they like crunchy snacks. You can find all kinds of goodies in the organic aisle at the gorcery store.

Also yogurt sundaes can be fun for the kids... get some yogurt, fresh fruit, pudding, raisins, nuts, whipped cream, etc... and let them make their own creation.

My daughter is 15 and still loves frozen crystal light pops... much better for them than ice cream or freezer pops, you can let them make their own each week with a different flavor. Find pop makers online or at bed, bath & beyond.

My kids love rice cakes. I know they are not as healthy as a fruit or veggie option, but they have fewer calories and fat. We buy unsalted rice cakes, and sometimes top them with peanut butter. I try to keep chips out of our house, too, and the rice cakes give you that crunchy snack feeling.