Healthy Snacks for Starving Children
Michelle Archard
michelle_archard@yahoo.com
Family Calm
http://www.familycalm.com
Healthy Snacks for Starving Children
by Michelle Archard
http://www.FamilyCalm.com
How often have you stood in front of your
fridge/pantry/freezer waiting for a healthy
snack idea to leap out at you. One that your
kids will actually eat? When it doesn't you
probably resort whatever you have on hand, healthy
or not. In the list below, you'll find ideas
to stock your freezer, pantry and fridge with
so that you can quickly pull together snacks.
Great for those days when you haven't had time
to get to the supermarket and a big night out
has left you a little bleary... I've included
a link to this information in a Word document
on my website that you can download and modify
to suit your kids' tastes. Tape it to the inside
of your pantry or keep it on your fridge. Refer
to it when you are stuck for ideas or are going
shopping and need to restock.
Need some nutritional guidelines when selecting
snack foods for your children?
If you assume that your child gets about
40% of their daily recommended 2200 calories
from the main meal of the day and that they
get another 20% at breakfast and another 20%
at lunch, this leaves only 20%, or 440 calories
to be consumed as snacks. If your kids eat one
snack at school and then another when they get
home, then you should aim to provide a school
snack of about:
* 220 calories (10% of the daily total).
* less than 7 g of fat (each gram of fat
is 9 calories).
* 240 mg of sodium (although you can probably
increase this if your child typically eats low
sodium foods during the rest of the day).
* 5- 10 g of protein (a high protein snack
is good mid-morning brain food).
* One teaspoon of sugar is about 5 g and
that's about the maximum I feel comfortable
with my kids having in a school snack.
So check the nutritional information on the
package, noting the serving size.
Note: Use these values as general guidelines
only, your children may have specific dietary
needs that are best discussed with a health
professional.
Best wishes.
Michelle
What to stock
----------------------------------
In the refrigerator:
Fruit & vegetables
Yoghurt
Breadsticks - frozen or the refrigerated dough
in a can
Eggs
Tofu (for smoothies)
Dressing (watch the fat content)
In the pantry:
Popcorn - choose low fat, low sodium varieties
Pretzels - watch the salt content
Low salt, low fat corn chips
Cereals - preferably high fiber, low sugar varieties
Seasoning mix
Crackers
Crisp breads
Nuts
Dried fruit
Small cans of fruit
Apple sauce
Canned fish (long shot!)
Pickles
Rice crackers or rice snacks
Power bars - but watch the sugar, many of the
ones I checked in the
supermarket had over 20 g of sugar per bar,
that's 4 teaspoons!
Honey (for smoothies)
Peanut butter
Sunflower seeds
Dips & dressings
String cheese
Mini cheeses e.g. Babybels
Deli meats
In the freezer:
English muffins
Frozen fruits (for smoothies)
Bagels
Tortillas
Pita Bread
Grated cheese
Crostini
Packaged torellini or ravioli
This list in Microsoft Word format is available
at:
http://www.familycalm.com/newsletter/kids_snacks.doc
Quick snack ideas
------------------------
Now that your pantry is stocked, here are some
ideas to throw together:
Trail mix - Mix some cereal or popcorn, dried
fruit, nuts, seeds and
perhaps some choc bits for kid-appeal
Apple & cheese - slice both and stack in
layers. Use a block cheese as the wrapped slices
tend to go gooey
Apple & peanut butter - smear peanut butter
over slices of apple
Celery & peanut butter - add raisins if popular
Pita crisps - grab the pita bread out of
the freezer, cut off the edges with scissors
so that it comes in two. Sprinkle with grated
cheese (keep it in the freezer also), sprinkle
with a seasoning mix (usually sold in glass
jars in the dried herb section of the supermarket)
and bang them in a hot oven for 10 minutes.
Cut into pieces.
Dip or dressing with carrot or celery sticks
Smoothies (get some recipes at:
http://www.familycalm.com/idea/school_lunches/kid_snack_recipes.shtml)
Layer yoghurt and canned or fresh fruit,
then top with cereal as a quick parfait
Boiled eggs (save some of those small salt
sachets from restaurants)
**********
Michelle Archard is the founder and CEO of Family
Calm, LLC (http://www.familycalm.com),
based in Austin, TX. She enjoys torturing her
children with new foods and is pleased that
the years of torment are finally paying off.
Her children (aged 6 & 9) now eat a wide range
of foods. She is currently researching recipes
that offer healthy school lunch alternatives
(as well as coming up with new products & ideas
to soothe other areas of life with kids). Subscribe
to Michelle's newsletter at
http://www.familycalm.com/newsletter/signup.shtml.
This article provided by the Family Content
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