Healthy snacks

[Captain Dad]

The boy (3 1/2) eats constantly. He is always hungry. He eats his lunch and dinner so the snacks are not interfering with meals. Now his snacks are Skim Mozzarella cheese sticks, Whole Wheat Ritz crackers, Fruit Cups, Bannannas, Fruit cheerioes... The worst are Nutri-Grain breakfastbars, he eats 2 every morning and I need other options. His mother is the breakfast bar pusher, she requires that we have them for her and then will give him one anytime he asks (and complain to me when we are out). I know to add more fruits and berries, he loves them. Problem is the price has not matched quality of what I have found around me lately and he will eat a full thing of Strawberries or blueberries in one sitting (or as soon as I turn my head), yes I am working on stopping that.

I need to sneak veggies in, he has started refusing all veggies. I trick him when I can with spinach in everything I can and the cauliflower "mashed potatoes" we had last night.

Stop rambling Jason...:twak:

What are your snacks like?

[CTDon]

I don't see anything wrong with them eating a ton of fruit...well, except for the excess fiber issue :icon_redface:

I also love blueberries and strawberries, but am at a quandry with the prices. I took the kids strawberry picking last week and we brought home over 4lbs for $5.16 (I gave the girl $6 and had her keep the change for the berries we ate in the field).

Pick your own is totally the way to go. I actually want to go out without the kids so I can spend an hour or two just picking berries and put them in the fridge. I may not do that for strawberries, but i damn sure will for blueberries...I'm flippin' addicted to those little pellets of goodness!

But back to the question, snacks here are berries, baby carrots, bell pepper, cottage cheese, yogurt, apples, pineapple, etc.

Of course there is the graham crackers, popcorn, goldfish, pretzels, etc when they're on sale.

[Will'sdad]

The watermelon has been pretty good around here lately. The kids love it and it keeps them hydrated in the heat.

[woodchuck]

Our snacks, small in portion, are fresh fruits/veggies/ real cheese.
If there is a plate of raw veggies out, they will eat in order of preference, but it will all be gone in the end.

Right now, we have strawberries and mullberries ripe and they are just eating all they want once their outside in the morning, same with veggies or edible wild plants that they know.

We've pretty much left packaged/manufactured foods behind years ago. There is the occasional product that comes in, but, it isn't for the kids anyway.

Hunger is a great motivator for getting them to eat foods that are excellent for them anyway, eating the same thing at the same time helps too, lead by example. I fyour wife does the same thing you do, then the kids follow along pretty quick, but if you two are in disagreement in any way, the kids know it and feed off it. good luck.

[Cubfan]

rice cakes. that's right, rice cakes. They've come a long way since their introduction as edible styrofoam. My boy likes the Apple Cinnamon flavored ones. Not much sugar in them either. For myself I get the plain ones and spread some peanut butter on them. Great snacks.

[stretch]

I try and push fruit, yoghurt, peanut butter, wholewheat toast, raisins, cheese, nuts, cherry tomatoes. Pita breads are good for ripping and dipping.

Stuff they can help make themselves always goes down a treat: we bake oatmeal-raisin cookies with about a 1/4 of the butter and sugar the recipe calls for and freeze our own "popsicles" out of highly-diluted apple juice. The kids don't seem to notice yet that they're being ripped off. :icon_wink:

[Kwak]

+1 on fruits. I like having apples, watermelon, green grapes, raisins, etc. Peanut butter and banana are also a staple but I have to be careful with portions or they get "bound up" inside and won't poop for a couple of days.

BTW - my older boy loves hummus and salsa that we give to him with Xochil-brand stone-ground corn chips which are really thin, restaurant-style chips that are incidentally also gluten free (no wheat) - but that's not the reason we originally got them: they're really good. Expensive too though.

As for the "brown" stuff, we try to limit them, especially since we went gluten-free with Justin. It's been tough because he loves cereal - he used to dip into my Kashi all the time - and crackers but we've found some go-arounds. For example, Lay's potato chips are all fried or baked in vegetable oil. Envirokids brand makes a great variety of cereals, including a version of Kix (little corn balls) that we all love. We still sneak Joey Cheerio's though - and the GF version isn't getting a warm reception.

[silviomossa]

Various fruits, low-fat cheese things, wheat and other crackers, cereals (Cheerios, Annie's brand, Mighty Bites, Life) yogurt, popcorn, and the like. They also like their share of "junk" and I don't have any problem including some goldfish, chips, etc. with the healthier items.

And they usually eat real popsicles or shaved ice for dessert. It isn't summertime without things like that.

[Kids Galore]

Check this out!! We used this for a long time to get them to eat veggies......It was fun to see that they loved the food and not tell them all the veggies were in it!!!!

http://www.thesneakychef.com/

[Kids Galore]

And it all taste great too.....We ate it and wow they were great foods!

[CTDon]

thats cool that it works for some people, although I don't believe in hiding healthy food.

I don't want to have to sneak food by my kids. We have a rule in our house that the kids have to at least TRY food. THey don't have to eat it all, but we tell them they need to try it.

They usually don't have a problem with meats, but veggies can be hit or miss. I solve this by giving veggies as snacks, such as colored bell peppers (red, orange or yellow) carrots, cukes, etc. That way they still get their fill on veggies even if it's not with dinner.

[Kids Galore]

Yeah I agree, they were going through a stage that theuy would not eat anything and we had to come up with something to get healthy food in them....We now do the same....You have to try it atleast......My 5 year old is great and eatting new veggies and my 2 year old follows suit! But, if some people are having trouble getting anything healthy in their kids that is a great option!

[Stay@Home/Scott]

We always have a homemade bag of GORP around. Good Ole' Raisins & Peanuts w/ a very small amount of the very small M&Ms thrown in to keep them interested. We take it everywhere, hiking, playground, car trips, etc.

The best thing about it is, you have complete control over it - you can make it anyway you want. We usually use only organic stuff (other than the M&Ms) and we are always changing what nuts and fruits go into it.

Our basic recipe is:

1 part nuts
1 part dried fruit
1/4 part M&MS


We'll buy the 2# container of peanuts, and 32oz raisins and mix accordingly. I haven't done a cost comparison, but it's less than $10 to fill 2/3 of a ziploc freezer bag which last almost two weeks.

Scott