Healthy snacks that are quick and easy and don’t break the bank are top of mind for many Moms every summer. When school’s out the need for quick and easy healthy snacks increases big time! Summer time means moms are going to be spending a lot more time with their little ones.
It’s also a time of year when it’s very easy to rely on the convenience of unhealthy fast food and not so healthy snacks. If you’re having fun, why not go all the way, right?
Well, poor nutrition today can have really serious consequences for your kids tomorrow and the good news is that there’s absolutely no need to eat badly when it comes to summertime snacks; there are loads of great meals and snack options that are easy to make and super healthy too!
We’ve got 10 awesome healthy snack ideas for your kids (and for you) to enjoy in the summertime of 2019! Check them out!
Fro-Yo Bark
To keep this healthy, you want to start with some unsweetened natural yoghurt and not with a pint of the supermarket’s finest high sugar syrup “yoghurt”.
That doesn’t mean that this treat won’t be a little sweet. You take the yogurt and spread it over a lined baking tray. Then you add slices of strawberry, apple and banana and freeze. Then serve by cracking into pieces. Be warned this melts – so serve and eat straight away!
A Tray Of Veggies
Fresh vegetables are one of our favorite summer snacks. The kids love them and they are a super healthy snack.
You can prepare a week’s worth of fresh veggies in a single go and keep them in the fridge. Then serve on a plate with a dip, ideally nothing too fattening, of your kid’s choice every time they start nagging about being hungry.
You can’t get healthier than this and it’s so easy to make.
Watermelon On A Stick
This may be the easiest thing to prepare on the whole list.
Watermelon is super healthy; it’s made up mainly of water (as the name suggests) and it has very few calories and it’s packed with Vitamins A, B and C! It also contains anti-oxidants.
We cut ours into cubes and then serve it on cocktail sticks which makes it easy for the little ones to eat while they play.
Real Fruit Popsicles
Every kid loves popsicles in the summer, heck we’re adults and we love them too. The trouble is that most store bought popsicles are nothing but sugar, water and a little flavor. They may taste good but they’re the antithesis of healthy. Fortunately, you can make your own 100% fruit alternatives instead. Slice some fruit and berries and put them in a popsicle mold. Then add coconut water to fill the space. Then insert the stick and freeze. Yum.
Hummus Cups
Sometimes, you need a snack for while you’re on the go and there’s nothing better for that than hummus cups.
Take some paper cups and fill them to the half-way line with hummus. Then stand up some veggie sticks in the hummus and you’ve got a dish that won’t spill and can easily be eaten anywhere.
Kids love them!
Super Apple Nachos
This may be one of our kids’ all-time favorite foods. They’d happily eat this in the middle of winter but it’s very much a summer-themed dish.
What you need is some relatively thinly sliced apples, cover a plate with them. Then pop some peanut butter, low salt, low sugar, ideally, into the microwave and melt until it’s all gooey and runny. Then pour it over the sliced apple. Then take some sliced strawberry and scatter it over the top.
Yum.
DIY Yogurt Popsicles
Yup, more popsicles but mainly because you can’t beat popsicles.
When your kids bring friends over, they may not be too keen on pure fruit popsicles, but we’ve never known a child that would turn down a yogurt popsicle because it looks more like the ones they’re used to from the store.
Fill your popsicle mold with a 50/50 mix of your favorite all natural yogurt and some mashed fruit. Then freeze. As with all things frozen, they need eating quickly once they emerge from the freezer or the kids will be wearing them.
Banana Non-Dairy Ice Cream
Ice cream is lovely stuff, but many kids have problems with lactose intolerance and ice cream is often full of sugar and fat too. It’s tasty but it’s not healthy.
Fortunately, there’s a way around this if you try a little trick with bananas.
First peel your bananas and then slice them into chunks. Pop them into the freezer for about an hour. When they come out – throw the bananas into a blender and zap them until the texture is similar to ice cream. Serve with other frozen fruit or some natural jam to add a little color and flavor to the mix.
This is seriously tasty.
Nutty Pears
If you’re lucky enough to find pears in season in your neck of the woods, then you can create what may be the tastiest summer treat of them all! Nutty pears.
To make these you need a bunch of pears. Then slice each pear you have into a bunch of long wedges. Then apply about a teaspoon of peanut butter to the thicker end of each one of your wedges. Then dip the pears into granola, mixed nuts or even dried fruit. They’re scrumptious!
Ants On A Log
For this super fun recipe, you’re going to need some nice fresh celery. Celery becomes really bitter when it’s wilting, so make sure that you’re using something that looks like it’s just been pulled out of the ground for best results.
Then slice the stalks in two and fill with guacamole and then top with black beans.
Alternatively, you could use a low fat soft cheese and put some chickpeas on top. We also like filling them with some really tasty hummus and then putting some seeds on top.
They look like little ants on a log!
According to Wikipedia, Ants on a Log is a recommended healthy snack by none other than the McKinley Health Center.
What’s your favorite summer snack? Do you think there’s something that could make our list even better? Shoot me an email.
