5 Snacks Children Can Enjoy Away from Home
Your children’s diet makes a world of difference in their development. Preparing snacks children can enjoy away from home can greatly contribute to their healthy growth and development. A snack should be nutritious, provide energy and, of course, be appetizing.
It may seem like there are too many requirements. How can you prepare your children’s snacks without ever including unhealthy nutrients, sugar or saturated fats? Well, you should incorporate cereal, milk, fruits, and various proteins as much as possible.
There are many snack options to choose from: a slice of bread with a cup of milk, nuts, or oatmeal muffins are delicious and healthy for children. Make sure that when preparing snacks, you add a touch of creativity so your children can enjoy them.
The importance of snacks in your children’s diet
Snacks serve as a medium between lunch and dinner. Children are constantly consuming calories and need four to five meals a day. Each meal should satisfy the nutritional needs of the time of day (morning, afternoon, evening).
Lunch and dinner should each provide 30% of daily calories. Breakfast should provide 25%, and snacks should provide 15%. Using these guidelines, your children will have a balanced diet.
Prepare snacks in the mid-afternoon, when your children have already digested their lunch. At this point, their bodies require new energy. The snacks don’t need to be of large proportions, but they should be light enough so that your children still have an appetite for dinner.
5 nutritious ideas for snacks children can enjoy away from home
Snacks should have a special flavor. Snacks rich with salty and sweet flavors are the most enjoyable ones, comparable to a mini-lunch.
For example, a glass of milk or juice will give children the liquids they need, along with these five delicious snack flavors. These snacks may tempt you to make and consume them right away just by reading about them.
1. Cheese, pâté or slices of ham on a baguette
These ingredients make for very simple sandwiches, but they provide the necessary calories and proteins for your children in the afternoon. Just two or three servings of each are enough for your children to feel satisfied. For the beverage, you can opt to serve this snack with juice or chocolate milk.
2. Cereal, yogurt and fruit
When your children eat these snacks away from home, cut the fruit for their convenience. Cutting the fruit makes it easier for them to eat it.
Ideally, you would separate the cereal, yogurt, and fruit. Your children can mix them up before eating them. This is a special alternative for children who play sports and need proteins and vitamins in large quantities.
3. Carrot, banana or pumpkin muffins, and milk
Baking snacks for your children every day sounds like too much. However, if the snacks are prepared once a week and the portions are distributed every day, then the task isn’t so daunting. There are many muffin recipe ideas to choose from.
4. Homemade cookies made of bitter chocolate, coconut, nuts, and oats
Undoubtedly, snacks that contain nuts are for children who need lots of energy. There’s nothing better than enjoying this snack with a glass of plant-based milk: coconut, almond, or soy are just a few options to choose from.
There’s a difference between homemade cookies and store-bought ones. Homemade cookies are easy to make and are much healthier.
5. Thin pizza with whole wheat flour, goat cheese, served with fruit juice
Homemade pizzas have an incomparable taste and are very delicious. You can add Parmesan cheese, arugula, and olives.
Tips for storing snacks
“Lunch and dinner should each provide 30% of daily calories. Breakfast should provide 25%, and snacks should provide 15%.”
Finally, here’s another important tip. Make sure you have a suitable container to store your children’s snacks in, such as food bags with a tight seal or Tupperware, which can be used a thousand times and won’t cause contamination.
There are different shapes and designs, but don’t buy large ones. On the contrary, the snack has to be perfectly contained. Also, consider using reusable bottles for the milk and juice.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Cretoiu SM., Zugravu CA., Nutritional considerations in preventing muscle atrophy. Adv Exp Med Biol, 2018. 1088: 497-528.
- Chen Z., Lin S., Jiang Y., Liu L., et al., Effects of bread yeast cell wall beta glucans on mice with loperamide induced constiopation. J Med Food, 2019. 22 (10): 1009-1021.