Top 10 Best Snacks that Every Mother Should Consider for Raising Healthy School-bound Kids
Packing kids’ lunch boxes with snacks can be a tricky business for most mothers unless you are a nutritionist yourself and understand the nuances of feeding kids during the time they spend in school.
As a mother, you will need to understand what your kids like, what will stay fresh for a longer time, what is optimally nutrition rich and balancing between aesthetically appealing and healthy snacks can be a really difficult task.
However, you should never forget that oil-free snacks work wonders and you should strive to come up with something new daily so that your kids don’t get bored.
Broadly, snacks must be high in dietary fiber, mild in sweetness, dry and easy to handle, inexpensive, fun and healthy to consume, and popular among kids.
Here are 10 popular kids snacks that will keep kids happy and at the same time provide optimum energy and nutrition during the time that they spend in school.
For Adults you can also check our previous post Best evening snacks for weight loss
Low Sugar Snacks for Kids
Though it can be tempting for kids to gobble up lots of sweet snacks, as a mother, it is your solemn duty to see that they don’t consume too much of it.
It is not practical to make snacks that are zero-sugar, but you can always go for something that has minimum sugar content.
Some of the popular snacks under this category include:
- Baked Samosas
- Bread with Sprouted Fillings (mildly spiced)
- Sandwich with chicken fillings – this is a snack to consider if you think that your kids are not getting enough protein in their snacks. We don’t recommend red meat because it has more fat content and your kid may find it difficult to digest it.
Both are oil-free snacks and keep fresh for hours.
Dry Snacks for Kids
Eating food while at school can be difficult for kids and therefore must be dry so that it is easy to handle and hands can be pat dried at the end.
The advantage of dry foods is that they are mostly oil-free snacks and do not pose obesity problems. Though specialty biscuits come on top as dry snacks, the creamy layer in some varieties is best avoided.
It should not bother you or the kid if there is a small spread. Consider:
- Cookies with coconut garnishing
- Biscuits with plenty of nuts (cashew, almonds, peanuts…)
- Salted nuts such as cashew, almonds, pistachio, and peanuts are amenable to roasting and salting and mostly help build strong bones and powerful muscles.
For a change try homemade cookies. The benefit is that you get greater control over the ingredients that go into its making.
Fun Healthy Snacks for Kids
When mothers think about snacks for kids, they should think not only in terms of including healthy ingredients; they should also consider the nutrients that go into its making and aesthetic appeal.
Fresh snacks with plenty of greens and lentils, moderate spicing, and some vegetables on top can be really fun for kids.
Though you can buy and deliver snacks at school, it is best if they are cooked at home or bought from restaurants of repute.
Homemade snacks are great and you can leverage home cooking for deciding what ingredients to use and how to minimize unhealthy stuff from finding its way into kids’ snacks.
Here are two snacks under this category:
7. Cutlets
Usually made from mashed potatoes and mixed with onions, parsley, a little green spice, black pepper powder and layered on top with dried bread crumb powder.
Though you will need oil to cook it, the advantage to you is it doesn’t require frying. Cutlets are reputed not to contain a processed grain (except for the small quantity you use for dusting before it is shallow fried)
8. Grilled Cauliflower
If you have a grill at home or microwave (most homes have either of the two) you can make a tasty snack. With little or no oil (a small quantity is always required for proper digestion) you can make grilled cauliflower.
Though you will see roadside vendors deep frying this snack, we recommend you make it at home on a grill.
There are plenty of recipes that you can find on the internet and modify to choose your kid’s palate.
Sweet Snacks for Kids
Though you should discourage the use of refined sugar among your kids, using a little of it once in a while will not harm your child’s health.
Using a small helping of sugar can be beneficial and can be sourced from unrefined sugar such as those derived from sugarcane.
The slow-release mechanism in unrefined sugar can be beneficial and provide your kid with energy at the far end of the day in school.
If you don’t want sugar then you can consider using bananas to substitute for providing sweetness to the dish.
Here are two snacks that are highly popular among mothers with school-bound kids. If you were guessing, you are right, it is a pudding made with flavored corn flour.
You can make cheap snacks for kids with pudding mixes that are available in grocery shops. Here are two snacks that you can consider for your kids. They are oil-free snacks and take only 5 to 10 minutes to make.
9. Plain flavored pudding
can be diced and packed into a lunch box with little effort. It is reputed for giving a lot of energy instantly and you can moderate how much sugar you want to go into it.
Before you pack it into your kid’s insulated lunch box, chill it; it will stay fresh even until the end of the day.
10. Flavored Custard
This is nothing but a variant of flavored pudding that has a liberal amount of fresh fruits such as peach, peeled orange, apple without skin, and grapes. There is virtually no end to the kind of fruits or nuts that you can use for garnishing.
As a rule, mothers must understand that excessive use of good food types can be harmful too. Planning a balanced diet with snacks included can help your children to lead a healthy life during their adulthood.
