As a responsible parent, one of our main concerns is to supervise what our kids eat. As obesity becomes more common, its important to ensure that we feed them healthy food, and that includes healthy snacks too! A growing child has higher metabolism, and snacks often add up to the regular meals. Unfortunately, that means a lot of extra calories, sugar, and fat. So the next time you are searching for lunch-box ideas, take a look at the list below. With these healthy kid-friendly snacks, you can not only prevent the risks of childhood obesity, but also keep cavities at bay!Here’s a list of 20 Healthy Snacks for yourself and your kids to fight off the snack attack in a healthy nutritious way. Plus, these are SO GOOD, they are great for adults too, so you don’t binge on junk food anymore!
[Adapted from an article originally printed via EatRight.org]
1. A Banana by itself, or dip one yogurt, then coat with crushed cereal and freeze.
2. Stuff a whole-grain pita pocket with ricotta cheese and apple slices, and sprinkle a dash of cinnamon.
3. A bag of ready-to-eat cereal, dried fruit and nuts, all tossed together.
4. A bowl of vanilla yogurt topped with crunchy granola and berries.
5. A small serving of baked potato with reduced-fat cheddar cheese and salsa.
6. Fruit Kebabs, made with fruit cubes and cheese on toothpicks.
7. A whole grain waffle topped with fruits and honey
8. A PBJ sandwich or smoothie
9. A sandwich on wholegrain bread with cilantro, cheese and tomatoes.
10. Mini Pizza on corn tortilla base and topped with salsa and veggies.
11. Instant oatmeal topped with craisins and chopped nuts.
12. A cup of tomato or vegetable soup with whole-grain or cheese crackers.
13. Fill a waffle cone with frozen yogurt and cut-up fruit for a healthy ice cream cone.
14. Toast an English muffin, drizzle with pizza sauce and sprinkle with low-fat mozzarella cheese.
15. Rocky Road – Break a graham cracker into bite-size pieces. Add
to low-fat chocolate pudding along with a few miniature marshmallows.
16. Banana Split with a banana, low-fat vanilla and strawberry
frozen yogurt, topped with walnuts or pecans.
17. Whole grain cereal with otas, almonds and dried fruit.
18. Homemade Granola Bars
19. A simple cheese sandwich with a glass of Orange Juice
20. Celery sticks and cherry tomatoes with cheese cubes.
In addition to getting snacks with a lot of sugar and fat, getting too many snacks or snack serving sizes that are simply too large unhealthy for kids. Snacks like Cookies, chips, candy, doughnuts, fruit drinks, soda, etc. are indulgencies, and should not become regular habits. Limiting snacks to just 100 to 150 calories per serving is a good ballpark.
This is not a fool-proof list; I’m sure there would be tonnes of more ideas that you moms out there would be using! Care to share some with our readers? It’s necessary to prevent childhood obesity, and you can do it! Hope this list helps you whip up a healthy, nutritious yet delicious snack for your kids the next time they cry out “Mommy, I’m hungry!!”
Thanks for the FANTASTIC list! This information is really useful for me.Thanks for sharing it 🙂 I am taking a big look around your site – seems like you have some really useful posts!
hey thats new idea for kids snacks, but u know in India its nt possible to give bread all time so pls give some more nice receipes which r of wheat, pulses , and without underroots.
One can even go for some innovative ideas like Ice cream cone can be filled with cheese, veggie and tomato chopped or a tuna fish salad which a great snack, involve the child in building their own meals from sandwiches, cheese cubes, and dried fruit or serve the meal in innovative plates and cups.
Thanks for sharing the list of healthy snack.
i wish more people knew about these foods. kid’s lunches are terrible these days!! i like the rock road idea with the chocolate pudding.
very helpful post, thanks marvellous mom:)
Just the kind of information that I look for all the time. This should help feeding my picky eater a little bit :-))
Am with Amy- these are the kinds of snacks I eat all the time:) They’re great!
forget the kids! I need this for myself!!:)
~amy
anjali – way to go!
shreya – yeah, I printed it out too:)
susan – you are so funny!! but yeah, I get your drift; glad to know this will help turn you into an “amazing mom”:D
This is so good! and just what I need, bcoz whenever my kids ask me for a snack, I just give them a cheese sandwich, and I become the boring mom!:) now I have a whole list of ideas to impress them!:D
thanks Mansi!
~susan
hi amazing.. will need to print it:-) bookmarked for now
This is AWESOME!! just what I need to put up on my fridge so my kids know what snacks to eat!:)
thanks So much for this post Mansi! it is really really helpful!:)
~anjali