Great Healthy Snack Alternatives for Your Kids
One of the problems that many parents frequently find when choosing food for the youngest members of the household is what sort of snacks to give them. Because of this, we’ve put together this article to bring you some great healthy snack alternatives for your kids.
For years, the food industry, with its continuous bombardment of advertisements encouraging us to buy ultra-processed foods disguised as healthy ones, has managed to convince us that a pack of cookies and a yogurt are an excellent option to keep our children healthy, strong and happy.
However, this is far from the truth. The cookies won’t “bring out the hero in you,” as a famous brand claims, nor will DanActive yogurt “activate your defenses,” as they say it does. The only thing they achieve is to fill a child’s diet with products full of sugars, refined flours and poor-quality fats. It’s clear that this sort of diet will do their health no favors.
So what can we give them for a snack?
The truth is there is no perfect snack formula. We shouldn’t focus our energies on looking for those miracle “superfoods.” We should really spend time detecting and avoiding products that could be harmful (pastries, overly-processed cold cuts, pâtés, juices, flavored yogurts, etc.) and offering them appetizing and healthy alternatives.
Healthy snacks alternatives
The options here are endless – you just have to use a little imagination. Have a look at the ideas we’ve prepared for you today.
Toast with hazelnut, chocolate spread and strawberries
Ingredients
- 6 seedless dates
- 1 tablespoon of pure cocoa
- 1 squirt of milk or vegetable drink
- 2 handfuls of raw or roasted unsalted hazelnuts
- Strawberries
Method
- Firstly, wash and slice the strawberries and set aside for the final touches
- Crush the rest of the ingredients until you get a smooth cream texture
- Toast a couple of slices of wholemeal bread and spread the chocolate spread onto them, and then add the strawberries.
Tangerine and banana chocolates
Ingredients
- Tangerine
- Banana
- Walnuts
- Chocolate with 85 % cocoa
Method
- Melt the chocolate using the bain-marie method or in the microwave
- Peel and cut the fruit
- Dip all or part of the fruit in the melted chocolate
- Put the fruit on vegetable paper and add the chopped nuts on top
- Let them cool down in the fridge (about 1 hour) and then enjoy
We can vary the fruits and nuts. We can also use chocolate with different percentages of cocoa (preferably 72% or more).
Oat and banana pancakes, one of our healthy snack alternatives
Ingredients
- Oatmeal
- 1 ripe banana
- 1 egg
- Essence of vanilla
- Cinnamon
- Extra virgin olive oil
Method
- On a deep plate, mash the banana with a fork
- Then beat an egg and mix it with the banana
- Add two tablespoons of oatmeal and cinnamon or vanilla essence (optional)
- Cook the dough in a frying pan with a drop of extra virgin olive oil over a medium heat
Olive and almond pâté
Ingredients
- 3 oz of olives
- 1 handful of natural unsalted almonds
- 2 spoonfuls of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds (optional)
- 1 small clove of garlic (or ½ a normal size clove)
- Some basil leaves
Method
- Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until you get the texture you want.
Sugar-free cereal bars, another of our healthy snack alternatives
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons of oatmeal
- 2 tablespoons of inflated/puffed quinoa
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of flax seeds
- 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
- 4 dates
- 1 handful of nuts
- 1 banana
Method
- Soak the flax seeds (with 3-4 spoonfuls of hot water) for about 15 minutes
- Brown the oats in a pan with 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- Add the inflated quinoa, sesame seeds and chopped nuts and stir for a few minutes while they brown
- Chop the dates and the banana and add them to the mix
- Add the previously inflated flax seeds (and the viscous gel that formed around them) and stir until you get a sticky mass that is as smooth as possible
- Put the dough on vegetable or baking paper and shape it with the help of a spoon
- Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit
- Let them cool down before you eat them
