We are a house of snackers. My kids get 2 or 3 snacks a day, and I try to keep the convenience food to a minimum here too. So I thought that I would have a page devoted to snacks. Please, dear reader, add your ideas to the comment section. We’re all looking for healthy, easy, tasty ideas.
Thanks!
Morning Snacks
I am a stickler for time-of-day appropriate snacks. I don’t like to serve anything convenience in the morning, and nothing that’s too sweet. In the morning, I like to pair fruit with protein. Here are some of the favourite options that meet this criteria:
Apple slices with peanut butter – cut the apple into 8th’s and spread a tiny bit of peanut butter on the top (the pointy skinny part) of each piece. When I say tiny bit, it’s like maybe 1/4 tsp of peanut butter/slice.
Apples with yogurt & cinnamon – cut an apple in half and use a pairing knife or an apple corer to get the seeds out. Then lay the 1/2 down on the flat side and cut into pieces; almost like you’re dicing an onion. I call these “apple matchsticks”. Put the matchsticks into a bowl and pour about 1/2 cup of vanilla yogurt over it. Then sprinkle about 1/2 tsp cinnamon (we love our cinnamon in this house!) over the yogurt, and stir. Connor loves this so much that he licks the bowl clean. I try not to be in the room when this happens because this is not an appropriate way to treat our dishes.
Bananna with peanut butter – this one is super easy! Peel a bananna and spread about 1 tsp of peanut butter on it. Voila! Instant snack that’s sweet and tasty. And very portable too!
Sometimes we’re on the road and it’s difficult to adhere to the fruit & protein rule. In these times I like things like graham cracker & peanut butter or cream cheese sandwiches, with a piece of whole fruit. Invest in an apple corer so you can cut the core out of the apple before you head out for the day. Put it in a sandwich bag to keep it from going brown.
Now it’s your turn — what are you favourite morning snacks?
Variation on the apples and peanut butter:
Peel, core and slice the apples and melt 1 tablespoon of peanut butter in the microwave (it only takes a couple of seconds)until it is soupy and then they dip the slices in the melted peanut butter…my kids adore this snack. Usually, they eat the apple skins, but for some reason they say that the skins are too difficult to chew through with the peanut butter…in this case, I decided not to argue because sometimes its just not worth it!
I loved the melting the PB idea, I never thought of it before. I used it last weekend and now it’s a new favorite for me and Kylie. Thanks.
Emily’s favourite anytime snack is vanilla yogurt and mixed berries. She will not eat yogurt that comes from the store with fruit in it, but will eat “smooth” yogurt with any kind of berries, halved grapes, or apple chunks mixed in.
I personally like this with a little granola thrown in for crunch and I will definitely try the cinnamon.