5 Quick, Healthy, and Easy Snack Ideas for Kids (and Young at Heart Adults)

Finding healthy, tasty and quick to make snack ideas can bechallenging, especially when it comes to making them appealing for your kids. Itis easy to get caught up in throwing in a bag of cookies, flavored crackers, orchips 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, itis easy to get caught up grabbing a snack from a vending machine, grazingthroughout 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 havetime to make healthy snacks for themselves or their kids are- protein bars (lowadded sugar options such as orgain, lara bars, and RX bars), nut and driedfruit mixes, or the grab and go snack packs with fruit, cheese, and nuts (keepin mind seeds can be changed out for nuts if your child is at a nut freeschool). Having 2-3 balanced, healthy snacks included in your day between your 3smaller meals is optimal in order to promote optimal health and nutrition/weightstatus. The following 5 quick, healthy, and easy snack recipes will help spark ideasand get you started with making healthy snacks a balanced part of both your ownand your child’s healthy eating lifestyle.

1. Power Balls!- (makes 20- recommend 2 balls for a snack)
   1. Ingredients
      1. 1cup rolled oats
      1. 1cup crunchy sunflower butter
      1. ½sunflower seeds (no shell)
      1. 1/3cup raisins
   1. Recipe
      1. mixall ingredients into a bowl
      1. useeither hands or small ice cream scoop to make ping-pong balls size servings
      1. storein fridge to help balls stay together

• Carrotsor Pretzels and Hummus
  • canbuy these pre-packed or separately for a quick easy snack
  • ifnot pre-packed at the store recommended serving size for a snack would be:
    •  1cup carrots and ¼ cup hummus
    • or approximately 20 mini pretzels(recommend whole wheat if possible) with ¼ cup hummus

• GreekYogurt with Berries
  • Using2/3 cup or one single serving container from store plain Greek Yogurt (2%)
  • Addingfruit (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
    • Addveggies such as spinach or peppers if desired

• Inside-outsandwich:
  • Ingredients:(4 inside out sandwiches recommendedserving size)
    • Deli turkey-4 slices
    • Condimentseg mustard to taste- approximately 1 tsp per sandwich
    • Sesamebreadstick- 4 medium size
  • Recipe:
    • Spread mustard (or their favoritecondiment) on a slice of deli turkey
    •  Wrap around a sesame breadstick.

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 yougo 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