Kids love to snack and they usually turn up
their noses when it comes to healthy snacks. After they have filled their
stomachs with cookies , chips or
chocolate, you will be lucky if they will eat a nutritious meal. Grazing on
unhealthy snacks throughout the day is a
habit that can be broken, but the kids actually need some help with that. They
need to be presented with healthy kids snacks as an alternative to munching on
foods that have no nutritional value or are harmful to their health.
Some kids are mature enough to be educated on eating
healthy and they will adapt quickly if they actually desire to take their
health into their own hands. Most kids, however, do not really care about
health, especially when it comes to snacks. Here are some ideas to present
nutritional snacks to your kids:
Keep fresh fruit easily available
Most kids cannot resist a bowl full of fresh
fruit. Provide a variety of fruits, some of which they have never tried. A
variety of fruit is bound to appeal to even the picky eaters.I often throw grapes in the freezer and slice up apples and put peanut butter on them. For special treats, you could help the kids to make chocolate dipped fruits or
banana popsicles.
Easy Smoothies for kids
Smoothies are a great alternative to
milkshakes and are actually healthy snacks that kids love. You can use yogurt,
fresh fruit and low fat milk and whip up a smoothie in the blender in seconds.
Many children will enjoy making their own smoothies so it might be a good idea
to get them involved. One thing is very
popular in our house is that I take a bag of frozen strawberries and put in the
blender with some milk . It makes a creamy strawberry ice cream.
Kids and Gardening
We have a huge garden in our backyard and my boys are responsible for weeding
it. Believe it or not, children are more
likely to eat vegetables if they grow them themselves. Gardening is an
excellent adventure and a great way to spend quality time with your kids. Prepare a snack tray with veggies and dip or hummus . You
might even try preparing celery with peanut butter as a snack.
Healthy snack mix.
Grain based and granola cereals and whole
wheat crackers like Triscuits are a lot healthier than other snacks that are a choice of
children. Mixing these cereals with nuts, raisins or other dried fruit can make
a healthy kids snack that they can munch on.
Juice it.
If your children refuse to eat fruits and
vegetables for snacks, you can always pass it off as juice to ensure that your
kids get the nutrition that they desperately need. You can run fresh fruit and
veggies through a juicer and come up with a homemade juice that is sure to get
attention. You can even try making a
slushie out of the juice by running it through a blender full of ice. You can
also make popsicles out of freshly made fruit and vegetable juice.
Tempting a kid with healthy snacks can be a
challenge if they are attuned to snacking on junk food. You are better off if
you start from the beginning and develop good eating habits when they are
babies and toddlers but it is never too
late to teach kids to eat healthy.
Treater – $6 Ice Cream For $1 – Valentine’s Day
