Finding foods that my kids will love to eat is a constant challenge. They’d love to eat chips and candy all the time if the choice of snack foods were left up to them. It’s too bad for them that I don’t agree. For some silly reason (note sarcasm here) I feel like I need to make sure that a few healthy snacks work their way into the rotation of snack foods, too. And, of course, there is always the budget to consider. Junk food is too expensive to indulge in it all of the time.
That leaves me with the challenge of finding healthy, but fun foods that my kids will want to eat. I don’t want to spend too much for them, either. What’s a mom to do?
One way I’ve learned to make snack time fun is to take the ordinary, healthy snacks that I want the kids to eat and to turn them into something the kids can play with. I don’t know why, but my kids love anything they get to eat with their fingers. Some of our regular snacks include:
Fruit Kabobs: Fruit takes on a whole new life when you cut it into bite-sized pieces and pierce it with a bamboo skewer. You can even switch out the types of fruit you use to take advantage of the produce that’s in season and on sale in your area.
Celery and Peanut Butter: Getting kids to eat vegetables isn’t always easy, but a little peanut butter sure makes it easier. In a few minutes, I can cut a bunch of celery into finger-sized pieces and spread a dab of peanut butter over the top.
Fruit Roll-ups: When I’m in a hurry, fruit roll-ups are a godsend. My kids still get a little fruit, but I don’t have to go to the effort of washing and prepping their snack. I know that it’s not a real fruit, but I figure that it won’t hurt the kids to enjoy these once in awhile. A box of fruit snacks is good, too, but the kids enjoy the roll-ups more.
Pretzels: When my kids are craving the crunch of potato chips, I surprise them with a bowl of pretzels. Since pretzels come in many different shapes and sizes, they never know which one they are going to get. I keep an eye out for the one that’s on sale at the grocery store, and then we’re all happy.
Cheese: My kids used to whine that they wanted to fun-shaped cheese that they saw at the grocery store. Now, I make my own. I use a few of those small, metal cookie cutters to cut cute shapes out of the plain, ordinary cheese. I use the leftovers in my cooking so that they don’t go to waste.
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Finding foods that my kids will love to eat is a constant challenge.
My solution would be to give them what I want them to have. They will eventually get hungry enough to eat it.