Snacking is a regular part of the day for many children. According to the MayoClinic.com, snacks can provide important nutrients as well as satisfy hunger in between meals. Snacks can be healthy and also appealing to kids. The snacks can vary depending on how hungry your children are, what they feel like having and how much time they have to prepare the snack.
Tiny Pizzas
Miniature pizzas are a good option for after school snacks. If your children are old enough to be in the kitchen, they can make tiny pizzas on halves of small bagels or English muffins. KidsHealth from Nemours suggests spreading tomato sauce on the bagel or muffin and sprinkling shredded mozzarella cheese over that. Healthy pizza toppings can include chopped vegetables that include tomatoes, green peppers, or onions. Each pair of tiny pizzas--two halves--has approximately 210 calories, making it a good size snack to tide your children over to the next meal. These pizzas also provide protein, calcium, and dietary fiber. Be sure to supervise your children to keep them safe in the kitchen, especially during potentially dangerous operations, including using a knife or the oven.
Peppers And Hummus
You can help your children achieve a healthy weight by providing plenty of vegetables, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Using vegetables in snacks can keep the snacks lower in calories and provide essential nutrients. Your children can dip red, yellow and green bell pepper strips into hummus. The peppers provide vitamin C and fiber, and the hummus provides protein. Your children can vary this snack with almost any combination of vegetables and dips, including carrots, celery or cucumbers for the vegetables, and peanut butter or reduced fat cream cheese for the dips. To encourage your children to choose fresh vegetables for their snacks, you can cut up the vegetables ahead of time so that your children can easily prepare their snacks.
Chewy Bars
Often, your kids may need to bring a snack from home that they can eat later in the day. Granola or cereal bars can be convenient choices because they are ready to eat and can be kept at room temperature instead of in the refrigerator. They also help with portion control. A Quaker Chocolate Chip Chewy bar is an example of a small sweet snack for kids. Each one weighs less than 1 oz. and has 100 calories. They have 1 g of fiber, 1 g of protein and 7 g of sugar. These bars are trans-fat free and do not contain high fructose corn syrup. They are a source of whole grain oats. Other flavors of Quaker chewy bars include chocolatey mint and peanut butter.
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