Kids' Recipes: Snacks

Nutrition Guidelines for Kids' Recipes: Snacks

Kids need nutritious snacks. The small size of their stomachs and their high energy levels mean that kids’ snacks need to play an integral part in meeting their daily nutritional requirements. Snacks that contain a lot of empty calories, such as candy, cookies and pastries, and soft drinks, tend to blunt appetites for regular meals without providing needed vitamins, minerals, and protein to support a growing child’s development.

Use Kids’ Snacks to Meet Dietary Needs

Select kids’ recipes for snacks that provide at least some key nutritional requirements, such as high protein; fiber; calcium, and good oils, like those in avocados, nuts, and seeds. Healthy food can be tasty. Carbohydrates (sugar and starches) don’t have to be eliminated, but should not be the primary nutritional components in kids’ snacks. Occasional cookies, baked potato chips, and carbonated fruit juice drink are of little harm. Treats like smoothies, muffins, and even cookies can be sweetened with fruit juice or fruit instead of refined sugar to satisfy a sweet tooth.

Make it Easy for Kids

Set up areas in your pantry and refrigerator with appropriate snack foods and let your children help themselves. Stock the fridge with pre-cut finger vegetables, fruit that is washed and ready to eat, small cartons of yogurt and pudding (sweet, but high in calcium and protein from milk), and cheese sticks, cubes, or string cheese. In the pantry, provide whole-grain crackers, graham crackers, and, for older kids, trail mix, nuts, seeds, and raisins.

Creative Kids’ Snacks

Kids’ snacks can be both simple and appealing. Presentation can be half the battle in enticing a picky eater with healthful snacks. Keep a collection of small cookie cutters, and let your kids cut cheese, lunchmeats, and sandwiches into a variety of shapes. Be inventive by arranging foods on a plate to make a "picture." Create a sailboat by using a small sandwich triangle for the sail, a carrot stick as a mast, and an apple slices or other fruit as the boat. Create a happy face with cut raw vegetables like carrot sticks, celery, mushrooms, radishes, jicama, and zucchini. Top crackers with cheese spread, cream cheese, peanut butter, or guacamole and add bits of vegetables to decorate them.

Quick and Easy Kids' Snacks

There are many kids’ snacks that are easy to make. Here are some simple ideas for between-meal snacking:

• Small squares of homemade banana, pumpkin or zucchini bread spread with low-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel).
• Finger vegetables with dip. Use ranch dressing, guacamole, hummus or low fat cream cheese for the dip.
• Mini sandwiches with peanut butter and preserves (use sugar free preserves, if possible), tuna salad, ham salad, cheese, or cream cheese. (Instead of preserves use banana slices or raisins with the peanut butter.)
• Individual pizzas made with English muffins.
• Celery stuffed with cheese spread or peanut butter.
• Smoothies made with any combination of the following: fruit juice, sorbet, non-fat milk, fruit or frozen fruit. If frozen fruit is not used, add a few ice cubes to thicken the smoothy in the blender.
• Graham cracker “sandwiches” filled with cream cheese whipped with a little honey or concentrated fruit juice.
• Homemade frozen pops with whole fruit and/or unsweetened fruit juice.
• Whole grain, low sugar cereal with or without milk.
• Mini muffins made with bran or whole grain.
• For older kids where choking is not an issue: popcorn, trail mix, dried fruits, nuts, and seeds (pumpkin and sunflower seeds are popular with kids).

Other Sources of Kids' Recipes for Snacks

Kids cookbooks and various online sites have many ideas and recipes for kids' snacks. Check out The Everything Kids Cookbook by Sandra Nissenberg, the New Junior Cookbook from Better Homes and Gardens, and The Kid's Cookbook by Abigail Johnson Dodge, among many others.

Web sites provide a wide range of ideas and recipes. For example, The Kraft Foods site has a long list of recipes for kids' snacks that use Kraft products. Be aware, though, that these recipes use many prepared foods and may be high in carbohydrates and fat. There is a lengthy index of kids' snack recipes at All Recipes. Disney's Family Fun site has a large number of recipes for snacks that kids can prepare with their parents.

Summary

Whatever a child's tastes in food, it is possible to prepare healthy snacks that contribute to his or her nutritional well-being. Involving the child in the preparation and presentation makes the food even more appealing. Interesting presentation can make the snacks enticing.