Healthy Kid Snack Ideas

Cheap, easy and healthy snacks for families

Sep 24, 2006 Kelby Carr

When families are on the go, it's so tempting to resort to eating overpriced junk food. There are cheap, easy and healthy snacks you can make ahead of time.

There is no need to resort to the fast food drive-through. Just follow simple tactics and ideas for snacks that are healthy, inexpensive, and can be grabbed as you fly out the door.

As a general rule, when making healthy snacks for kids, you want to:

• Look for foods that are as fresh and unprocessed as possible. It isn't helpful if you make a snack ahead of time that is packed with sugars or unappealing preservatives.
• Make it yourself, if you have the time, so you can control quality and contents. You can do this a couple days ahead of time for a trip, or each weekend to last you through hectic and busy weekdays.
• Strive for a balance of carbohydrates, fat, protein and fiber. This will ensure children maintain a stable blood sugar level, which is good for everyone involved. Good examples of this are celery with peanut butter, cheese and crackers, or tortilla chips and bean dip.
• Have some useful containers for the food, such as zipping storage bags or plastic food containers. Keep these in your pantry at all times so you aren't tempted by pre-packaged and less healthy foods or, worse yet, tempted to leave the house with no snacks. If you're forced to get snacks at fast food restaurants and convenience stores, you'll have few healthy choices.
• Make the healthy snacks in bulk ahead of time, if possible. If you can make something that freezes, that's all the better. Keep a big stash frozen, then pull out the night before as needed.
• Make the kid snacks fun, to be sure your child will actually eat them. You can put all the effort in the world into healthy snacks, but if they go uneaten, the work will be in vain.
• For travel, pack the snacks into a handy Super-Mom travel tote. This will allow you to keep snacks, toys, books and all other kid needs handy and within reach.

Related articles

Healthy Kid Snack Tips and Recipes | Super Mom Travel Tote | Minivan Mom Confessional | Destination Family Reunions | Family Road Trip Planner

The copyright of the article Healthy Kid Snack Ideas in Family Travel is owned by Kelby Carr. Permission to republish Healthy Kid Snack Ideas in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Celery and peanut butter snack

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Comments

Sep 24, 2006 8:38 PM

Jennifer W. Miner :

What a bunch of great ideas. No more snack-size bags of Doritos for <b>my</b> kids! Joking. But I do like the idea of homemade gorp; that way, you won't end up with a bag 1/4 full of the rejected walnuts, or whichever nut variety are anathema to your kids. :)
Jen

Sep 25, 2006 1:59 PM

Jodi Gallegos :

Don't forget the dried fruit mixtures! They are great for sweet tooth fixes.

Sep 26, 2006 11:36 AM

Kelby Carr :

That's a great choice! Thanks for mentioning it. I'll add that in.

Aug 15, 2008 12:03 PM

Guest :

FABULOUS!!!! Works like a charm!!! THANK YOU!

4 Comments