What "Healthy" Snacks/food Do You Give Your Kids?

My friend an RD gave this list to me, I've also made some additions:

Just Veggies, Just Fruit” – Whole Foods- dehydrated, like popcorn consistency
•Puree your child’s favorite veggies and use it as a warm spread on whole grain bread or have them dip mini-whole wheat pita wedges
•Dice veggies to “toddler” size and scoop them into the mini whole wheat pitas
•Cooked veggie pasta
•Cooked, diced veggies
Grain Based
•TLC Kashi whole grain crackers – no trans fats / no hydrogenated oils
•Dip these crackers into hummus or pre-spread them for the child
•Make mini-pinwheels out of a whole wheat tortilla rolled with cheese
•Dip non-salted pretzel “sticks” into hummus, warm veggie spread, or natural peanut butter
•Bake oatmeal/ fruit based mini muffins, freeze and thaw when necessary
•Cooked whole grain pasta – corkscrew shape is perfect
•Whole wheat graham crackers
Earth’s Best Bars
Protein Based
•Boiled eggs – boil about 6 for the week, dice them up and store in a container
•Scrambled eggs – leave them a bit chunky for kids to grasp them
•Balance Bar’s Go Mix – great nugget sized granola based snack, higher in protein
•Sliced fruit dipped in Natural Peanut Butter (not Jiffy or Skippy) Sunflower butter is a good altnernative
•Cooked starchy beans like kidney and lima – great finger food snacks
• cold cereal – Kashi, Uncle Sams, etc
•Cottage cheese (can puree it and substitute it for sour cream)

Fat Based
Sunflower Butter
Hummus
Avocado – diced

I just pureed butternut squash with some pureed cauliflower and mixed it with gluten-free pasta to make a "fake" mac and cheese, I used about 1/4 c of white cheddar cheese and added some spices, it was suprisingly very good!

Email me if you have more questions.

J. W. MPH
Lifestyle and Wellness Consultant

In addition to healthy snacks check out the cookbook by Jerry Seinfeld's wife. It has some great healthy meals if you have time to puree.

Tracy,

Here are a few things my dtr likes:

All natural applesauce ( no sugar added)
Whole wheat pita with hummus
Cheese quesadilla (use wheat tortillas)
Apple slices (get an apple slicer ..so easy)
Fruit leather (I get them at bulk at Costco)
Triscuits
Pita chips
Yogurt
I also make "ice cream" I use frozen fruit like blueberries and stoneyfield vanilla yogurt and a tsp of ground flaxseed for a smoothy. My dtr though refers to it as ice cream.
whole wheat toast with pumpkin butter or natural fruit spread (less sugar than jam or jelly)

Karen gave a lot of suggestions here are a few more...

whole wheat mini bagels (with choice topping)

pancakes/waffles with whole wheat added (I buy the huge box of Bisquick at Sam's Club and make the recipe according to the box but ommit 1/2-1 cup of the bisquick and add whole wheat flour.

Trail mix (crackers, raisens, pretzel's (you can get whole wheat ones), etc.

Popsicles (I make my own with OJ or other real fruit juice)

Keep frozen veggies at home for the kids

I recommend Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions. You can get it pretty cheap on Amazon.com. My outlook on food has really changed b/c of it. I spend more time in the kitchen now, but have seen a dramatic change in my own health as well as my family's.
Best wishes,
A.

I'm a big fan of ... bananas- very portable, rasins/crasins - I'll make my own "trail mix" of the raisins or crasins, cheerios and gold fish and the 2yr old loves that.
We do alot of oatmeal and yogurt in our house too. - With the yogurt you can get the tubes of it and freeze it, or just keep it cold, and again, very portable.
My little guy also like to eat apples, I get small ones, peel 'em and he'll devour it. If were going to be out and about - I dip it in some salted water, and that helps keep it from turning brown until he's ready to eat.
I'm a big fan too of adding ground flax seed to the oatmeal and yogurt
If you have time to cook/bake - I'm having fun with the cookbook "Deceptively Deliscious" which is full of recipes that you add veggie puurees to - hides the veggies in everthing - and so far I have been impressed with how tasty they are. (I just keep checking the book out from the library)

On the pricer side - but really tasty,and good for you - are all the freeze dried fruits you can now get - and your youngest can eat those easy.

All in all I'm glad you asked the question as my 2 boys are essentially the same ages and I am always looking for good ideas, and ideas for "on the road" "out and about".

My 2-year-old son eats lots of...
yogurt
cheese and crackers
fruit (LOTS of this)
applesauce
toast with peanut butter
cherry tomatoes
cucumber slices

For breakfast we frequently have yogurt and oatmeal. I usually make steel-cut oats (I eat them too) - you can put a bunch in a pan at night before you go to bed. Bring to a boil, cover, turn off the stove and let it sit all night. In the morning it's cooked and you can just reheat in the microwave. I usually cook 4-5 days' worth at a time and keep in the fridge.

Lunch is usually grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese quesidillas, or peanut butter and jelly, plus some sort of fruit and maybe more yogurt (my son LOVES yogurt, so we eat a lot of it). Dinner is whatever I'm having (stir fry, tostadas, pasta, something grilled etc). We might offer him 1-2 additional items if he doesn't like what we're having but he has to try everything before he gets something else. And if he doesn't like what we offer him (usually peas - which he loves - and maybe a sandwich) he just doesn't eat much that night.

We make home-made popsicles as a treat sometimes (out of juice or fruit and plain yogurt pureed in the blender). We visit the farmer's market every week and he gets to pick out something to bring home to eat.

My daughter is almost 3 and loves the Cheerios snack mix & ate plain Cheerios when she was younger. She also likes plain animal crackers (not frosted), fig newtons, and the smaller cheezy rice cakes.
As far as the veggies go, I saw an Oprah show that had Jerry Seinfeld's wife on. She wrote a book about pureeing veggies and adding them into meals (even cookies) and the kids cannot taste them! This might be worth a look for you.