Parentella

The other day, I provided you with a list of 13 kid-friendly snack ideas. Here are eleven more ideas for nutritious, filling snacks your whole family will love:

Muffins or quick breads – Boost the nutrition in your favorite muffin or quick bread recipe by swapping ¼ cup of ground flax seed for the same amount of flour. Or trade up to half of the white flour in a recipe for whole wheat flour.

Oranges – Slice oranges into wedges or try some of the smaller, kid-friendly alternatives like clementines, mandarin oranges or tangerines.

Pineapple chunks – Pineapple is delicious straight up of course, or you can pair it with cottage cheese for a little protein.

Pretzels – Pretzels come in about a million different shapes now and it can be fun to mix it up a little. Serve traditional bow shaped pretzels with a little honey mustard or hummus for dipping. Or cut deli turkey into thin strips and wrap them around a bigger pretzel rod.

Red bell pepper strips — Roll red bell pepper strips up in a tortilla along with spreadable cheese and a slice of turkey.

Rice cakes – Kids like the crunch and novelty of rice cakes and if you top them with the right ingredients they can make a nutritious snack. Try spreading a little low fat cream cheese on top and then making a smiley face with veggie slices.

Sandwiches – Serve your kids smaller snack-sized sandwiches with their favorite fillings inside. For a change of pace, swap out sliced sandwich bread for an alternative – biscuits, pita pockets, mini-bagels or crescent rolls.

Sugar snap peas – Snap peas are another kid-pleasing veggie. My boys like to dip them in the standard hummus and ranch dressing, but they’re also delicious served plain.

Tomatoes – Dice tomatoes and sprinkle with a little balsamic vinegar or thread cherry tomatoes onto a skewer with chunks of cheddar cheese or small balls of fresh mozzarella.

Tortillas – Make a quick quesadilla by sprinkling shredded cheese on a tortilla, folding it in half and heating it in the toaster oven or microwave until the cheese is melted. For a treat, spread a whole wheat tortilla with a thin layer of butter and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on it. Cut it into strips and toast them in the toaster oven until crispy.

Yogurt – Alternate layers of yogurt with fruit and a little granola for a parfait. Or serve a cup of yogurt with fruit for dipping.

I’ve found that my kids are much more likely to try new foods at snack time because they’re usually pretty hungry. If you’re trying to broaden your child’s palate, this is a good time to introduce foods they’re not yet familiar with–particularly if you pair them with some of their favorites.

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Wendy Copley writes about cooking, crafts, parenting and her obsession with lunch boxes at Wendolonia.

Related posts:

1. Snack Ideas – Part 1
2. Spooky Halloween Lunch Box Ideas
3. Bento Boxes 101: Equipment
4. Thanksgiving Menu Must Have Recipes
5. Lunch Box Safety Tips

Tags: healthy snack foods

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 9th, 2010 at 12:01 am and is filed under Food, Wendy Copley. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.