Cooking with kids should be fun, but it’s also a time to learn. As kids make meals and bake treats, they work on everything, from fine-tuning motor skills to following directions and learning about chemistry. They also start picking up the basics of nutrition, ensuring they’re better prepared to take charge of their healthy snack prep down the road.
Making Snack Time Fun and Nutritious
We’ve collected easy snack recipes for kids and general tips to help you and your family enjoy time together in the kitchen.
Easy Snack Recipes Kids Can Help Make
Kids can benefit from practicing with child-safe “chef’s knives” that help them learn how to safely prep ingredients. But sometimes, you just want a worry-free recipe that focuses on deliciousness and fun. Luckily, there are plenty of no-cook, no-bake snacks for kids that are safe for even young children to tackle. You can:
- Make your own trail mix.
- Add cream cheese or peanut butter to celery sticks.
- Assemble fruit skewers with a yogurt dip.
- Mix and roll up no-bake energy balls.
- Blend up smoothies.
- Prepare overnight oats.
- Combine trail mix, granola, berries, chocolate chips, pumpkin seeds and yogurt. Then, spread it on a lined baking sheet and freeze. Break apart for tasty frozen yogurt bark.
Creative Ways to Serve Healthy Snacks
The world’s leading culinary minds agree that people “eat with their eyes first.” In other words, presentation matters. These ideas are proof that healthy snacks are anything but boring. Here are a few ideas that combine aesthetic with flavor:
- Skewers: Save the pointy sticks for the older kids, but those who can safely use skewers love how playful they are compared to ordinary utensils. You can serve snacks right on the skewers — think a caprese salad with mini mozzarella balls, cherry tomatoes, and a drizzle of basil oil. Or you can lay out a spread of bite-sized eats and use the skewers like a fork.
- Roll-ups: Traditional sushi follows time-tested rules, but your homemade “sushi rolls” can be as wacky as you want them to be. Roll up sliced meat, cheese, veggies, and hummus in a whole-grain tortilla, and slice the roll into little pinwheels. For a more colorful option, add cream cheese, avocado, red bell pepper, cucumber, and carrot sticks on top of whole wheat flat bread. Roll and slice as above.
- Kid-cuterie boards: Riff off of adult meat and cheese platters with a snack board built just for kids. Nuts, fresh and dried fruit, cheese, crackers, yogurt-covered raisins, probiotic fruit snacks, and pretzels are several items you could add to your kid-cuterie platter. For smaller portions, make a “picnic plate” — same concept but on a single-portion plate instead of a shareable platter.
- Fun dips: Forget regular old ketchup. Roasted red pepper hummus, bean dip, barbecue sauce, guacamole, and sour cream are more fun and colorful when mixed with salsa. Make your own protein-rich ranch by blending cottage cheese with ranch seasoning mix or a DIY seasoning blend (garlic powder, onion powder, dill, parsley, chives, etc.).
Tips for Encouraging Kids to Try New Foods
Watching your kid try a new food is like winning the lottery and an Academy Award in the same night. Not only are they branching out, but they’re also likely trying something that adds nutritional variety to their diet. But how do you get from dino nuggets to dates and dragon fruit?
- Get them involved: Make healthy snack prep a group activity. Studies show that kids eat more food if they prepare the food themselves, potentially because the act of preparing food familiarizes them with new textures and flavors. Expand on this by having your kids help with meal planning and grocery shopping, too.
- Embrace your creative side: Use cookie cutters to turn square sandwiches into stars or Christmas trees. Have your kids use fresh fruit to recreate different countries’ flags. Instead of serving tacos or baked potatoes, set up a serve-yourself taco or potato bar.
- Dial down the pressure: Constantly insisting your child tries something new could backfire. Sometimes the best approach is to quietly serve a new food and act like it’s not a big deal. This gives your child room to decide eating is their choice, not something they’re forced to do.
- Pair new foods with favorites: New foods can be daunting, but they’re a little less scary when a beloved food is also nearby. Serve your child one of their go-to items along with a new food to try when they’re ready. Try picking new foods that are related to your child’s existing favorites. For example, if your child loves apples, they may like an Asian pear. If they like chicken nuggets, they may like homemade panko-crusted salmon nuggets.
- Embrace a change of scenery: While you’re playing with food presentation, take a moment to reconsider where you’re eating, too. If sitting around the dining room table isn’t working, try eating in the backyard. Use a blanket and have a picnic in your living room, or drape a sheet over the table and have a “camp meal” inside your impromptu tent.
Whether you want to completely DIY your healthy snack packs for kids or rely on expertly curated treats, Nature’s Garden can help. See our line of functionally delicious products that help you and your family embrace fruitful snacking without all the bad stuff.
