What Makes A Healthy Snack?

Once I realized that everyone in the house needs healthy (and satisfying) snacks during the day, my job as a Mom actually got easier. To me, healthy means fresh and filling foods paired together. Not buying prepackaged foods saves me money, and it’s worth the extra hour that it takes to wash and bag these foods for the week when I get home from the store. Healthy doesn’t mean munching on carrot sticks and celery, cherry tomatoes, or an apple – only to be hungry again in thirty minutes. I need something that will fill me up for a few hours, and to be honest, a candy bar doesn’t even do that. I have found that if I pair food groups, I almost can’t go wrong when it comes to being healthy. 

 

We all need fruits, veggies, carbs, proteins, and fat in our diets. That’s something we learned from the food pyramid (and now the food plate), right? Pairing these food groups together gives you healthy, filling snacks. You’ll find some of these paired snacks in our lunchboxes every day:

 

• Carrots, celery, and peanut butter 

• Mini bell peppers or cherry tomatoes and hummus or low-fat ranch dressing

• An apple and a handful of unsalted nuts

• Homemade trail mix – unsalted nuts, raisins, and (a few) chocolate chips

• Pretzels and peanut butter

• Sliced turkey or ham and goldfish crackers

• Cherry tomatoes and mozzarella cubes

• Homemade granola bars

• Applesauce and pretzels 

• Edamame and fruit (sliced strawberries and bananas?)

 

Do you see what I mean? Just eating carrot sticks or a handful or pretzels isn’t going to fill you up until your next meal. Pairing the carbs or veggies with protein will help to fill you (and your little ones) up for a little longer, which means less snacking, which means more room for dinner!

 

You can make these snacks fun for little ones to eat by sticking them in a muffin tin, bento box, or containers with their favorite characters on them. I like to store the dips in small plastic cups with lids. Let your little ones pick out what they like at the store, because having ownership of their snacks will make them more likely to eat them.