The Perfect Snack
With kids in the house, good snack options are a must. To me, a good snack maintains the delicate balance between taste and nutrition. It’s easy to make a delicious snack — classic chocolate chip cookies — but if we make those, we’ll spend two or three days eating way too many until they’re gone. We can’t seem to ever get enough.
Then, there are the healthy snacks we try to love. Those may taste okay, but when the package goes past its due date before anyone feels like finishing off the last few, that’s a bad sign too. I can think of some wasted rice cakes, rice crackers, and even homemade snacks like oat bars and muffins. Of course, there are the fruits and veggies we’re all told to feed our kids, but sometimes they don’t do the trick when you want a filling snack.
So, the perfect snack for kids is one they will eat and enjoy when served, but they don’t beg incessantly for if they know it’s in the house.
One way to achieve this perfect snack is to start with a favorite snack and:
1) make sure it has some ‘useful’ ingredients (whole grains, fruits/veggies, nuts, etc.)
2) keep sugar and fat at levels that keep it from being too palatable.
Here are some snacks that fit the bill:
1. The everyday chocolate chip cookie – substitute all or half the all-purpose flour with whole grain flour, add oats, reduce sugar by 25 percent.
2. Muffins – take the basic muffin recipe, substitute all or half the all-purpose flour with whole grain flour, add fruit, reduce sugar by about 25 percent.
3. Fruit crisp – same idea, add healthy fruit and oats, use a little less sugar and butter/oil.
4. Packaged snacks — when it comes to buying packaged snacks, there are also some options that work. Instead of the basic cracker or chip, look for snacks made from whole grains and use just a few ingredients. Or, try some of the new snacks that use vegetables as the main ingredient. Just try to maintain fat at around 6 grams per ounce or less.
5. Oat crackers – I admit my kids haven’t fallen for these yet, but I love them as an alternative to processed wheat flour crackers.
For snacks, we always keep fresh and dried fruit, nuts, cheese, yogurt and veggies like edamame and even kale chips (easy to make, recipe at my site). AT under three, my kiddo already knows where to go for a snack on her own, and I like her being able to grab something healthy no matter what she’s after.