Raising Healthy Eaters- Simple and nutritious snack ideas for kids

As this series draws to a close, I thought it would be helpful to share a list of our favorite, healthy and easy-to-make snacks, and I’ve given you the opportunity to do the same below.

If you have missed any of the posts in this series on Raising Healthy Eaters, here is the link to the post archives where you will find them all.

As well, I am still open to finding one more guest poster, on the topic of teaching and training older children in healthy eating. My experience ends with the toddler stage at the moment, so I know we would all love to hear from a mom who is seeing the fruits of her labor in school-aged children with healthy eating habits! If you’re interested in writing a post that will be featured on my blog, please email me at keeperofthehome (at) canada.com (remove spaces).

Healthy snacks in our home:

Dried fruit– Dates, raisins, unsulphured apricots, apple rings, banana chips.

Homemade fruit leather– Here is a recent post I wrote on how I make mine.

Homemade trail mix– I just throw together a mix of whatever nuts/seeds and dried fruit is around, and if we have any, I’ll add a few carob chips for a treat
Yogurt– I use my plain, homemade yogurt, and we just add toppings to our hearts content: fresh or frozen fruit (especially berries or bananas), raw nuts like almonds or pecans, raw sunflower and pumpkin seeds, a drizzle of honey or a few drops of Stevia, a bit of homemade granola, etc.

Fresh fruit– I try to always keep a selection of fruit around for snacks- her favorites are sliced apples, mandarin oranges, bananas, grapes, pineapple chunks, sliced pears, and watermelon slices. If we have several things, we put together a little fruit salad
Smoothies– As I mentioned last week, these are an absolute staple in our home! Here are a few of the smoothie recipes I’ve posted- Carob Banana, Raspberry Pina Colada, and Orange Creamsicle, although the possibilities really are endless! The basic premise is to blend up some yogurt or raw milk or even water with a handful of nuts/seeds as the base, then add in frozen fruit (or fresh if you like, but we love a frozen texture), and your sweetener of choice (we use honey or Stevia), plus any extras like flax seeds, green foods (or even whole kale leaves!), etc. We’ve also made “egg nog” using raw milk/cream, raw eggs, and honey.

Popsicles– Pretty much any smoothie makes a good popsicle, simply by pouring it into one of those plastic popsicle molds (you can buy them at most dollar stores). A summertime favorite!

Crackers and cheese. Usually Ryvita or rice crackers, unless I have homemade ones, which I usually don’t. If we have any sausage type meats (which is rare, because they’re difficult to find and expensive if you buy them without preservatives), I like to slice them and add meat slices to our crackers and cheese
Homemade teething cookies– These are good for teething babies over one year, and our daughter still enjoys eating them at 3. I’ll post the recipe separately.

Toast fingers– Sounds fancier than it is. It’s just plain old toast sliced into 3 or 4 long fingers, and this just totally appeals to my daughter (her Auntie showed her how to eat her toast this way). I usually serve toast with either organic peanut or almond butter (sometimes with raisin faces), or sliced cheese, or just butter.

Veggie sticks– We like them with hummus, yogurt dip, guacamole, etc.
Little snack balls– I usually make these with either nuts/seeds or sprouted grains, and dried fruit to bind them. They are delicious, sweet, moist and perfect for the munchies. I grind it all up together in the food processor, and form it into little balls or logs that I keep in the freezer.
Rice/Quinoa/Millet– For some reason, Abbie just really enjoys a little bowl of leftover grains (I don’t make them fresh, so this is only if we have leftovers from a previous meal), with a little bit of butter and Bragg’s (a soy sauce alternative).
Mini “pizzas”– I take a piece of bread, or a small tortilla, or a biscuit split in half (just whatever we have, basically), spread a bit of tomato paste or homemade ketchup on it, add a few finely chopped veggies and/or meat (if we have cooked ground meat or sandwich meat- again, rare because we buy it nitrite free). I sprinkle it with a bit of cheese, and pop it in the toaster oven for a couple of minutes. I love these, too!
Olives- Stuck on each of her fingers. There is something about eating an olive off of your fingers that is just, well, irresistible.

Now it’s your turn… please share with us your healthy, kid-pleasing snack ideas and recipes with us! What are the most requested snacks in your home? How do you fill up hungry little tummies in the late afternoon or when you’re out on the run? What are your creative ideas for getting healthy foods into your kids?