Finding healthy, tasty and quick to make snack ideas can be challenging, especially when it comes to making them appealing for your kids. It is easy to get caught up in throwing in a bag of cookies, flavored crackers, or chips into your kid’s lunch box to appease their taste buds and save prep time, especially when you are already have to make their lunches. Also, as adults, it is easy to get caught up grabbing a snack from a vending machine, grazing throughout the day with whatever is available, or skipping snacks all together. Your best back up solutions for individuals who are on the go and don’t have time to make healthy snacks for themselves or their kids are- protein bars (low added sugar options such as orgain, lara bars, and RX bars), nut and dried fruit mixes, or the grab and go snack packs with fruit, cheese, and nuts (keep in mind seeds can be changed out for nuts if your child is at a nut free school). Having 2-3 balanced, healthy snacks included in your day between your 3 smaller meals is optimal in order to promote optimal health and nutrition/weight status. The following 5 quick, healthy, and easy snack recipes will help spark ideas and get you started with making healthy snacks a balanced part of both your own and your child’s healthy eating lifestyle.
- Power Balls!- (makes 20- recommend 2 balls for a snack)
- Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup crunchy sunflower butter
- ½ sunflower seeds (no shell)
- 1/3 cup raisins
- Recipe
- mix all ingredients into a bowl
- use either hands or small ice cream scoop to make ping-pong balls size servings
- store in fridge to help balls stay together
- Ingredients
- Carrots
or Pretzels and Hummus
- can buy these pre-packed or separately for a quick easy snack
- if
not pre-packed at the store recommended serving size for a snack would be:
- 1 cup carrots and ¼ cup hummus
- or approximately 20 mini pretzels (recommend whole wheat if possible) with ¼ cup hummus
- Greek
Yogurt with Berries
- Using 2/3 cup or one single serving container from store plain Greek Yogurt (2%)
- Adding fruit (approximately 1 cup) makes yogurt taste good without adding extra sugar
- Mini-Pizza
- Ingredients:
- Whole wheat English muffin= one full muffin
- Drizzle with pizza sauce approx. 1 TBSP
- sprinkle with low-fat mozzarella cheese- approx. 1 oz.
- Veggies as desired (optional to taste)
- Recipe:
- Toast a whole wheat English muffin
- drizzle with pizza sauce
- sprinkle with low-fat mozzarella cheese
- Add veggies such as spinach or peppers if desired
- Ingredients:
- Inside-out
sandwich:
- Ingredients:
(4 inside out sandwiches recommended
serving size)
- Deli turkey- 4 slices
- Condiments eg mustard to taste- approximately 1 tsp per sandwich
- Sesame breadstick- 4 medium size
- Recipe:
- Spread mustard (or their favorite condiment) on a slice of deli turkey
- Wrap around a sesame breadstick.
- Ingredients:
(4 inside out sandwiches recommended
serving size)
I hope you enjoy these recipes with a great balance between healthy, high fiber carbs and lean proteins! I would love to hear some snack ideas you go to for quick, easy, and healthy options for yourself or your kids!
Wishing you a week of health and wellness!
–Ricci-Lee Hotz, MS, RDN
Denver’s Dancing Dietitian
A Taste of Health, LLC
“Improving Quality of life one bite at a time”
https://dancesportdietitian.com
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