Snack Time With Kids!

How are snacks a part of your day? Making snack time intentional can be helpful in the struggle against constant snacking, or grazing, as well as insuring the snacks are nutritious.

Many children love to help out in the kitchen. Snack time is a great opportunity to include them in preparing simple foods for everyday practice. We choose to have predictable times to save on making and cleaning. This can be an intentional time for children to help and learn kitchen skills.  Young children love assisting with kitchen activities and helping to prepare the snack. This might be as simple as washing and chopping vegetables and fruit, or making something very simple to contribute. Below I have included an example of a snack plate and two recipes that children can make or help with. We try to keep snacks to whole foods and homemade as much as possible, but don’t take as much time as we would on our meals. This time of year it is easy to fill a plate with fresh offerings, and keep time heating the kitchen space to a minimum. 

For this example of a snack offering we have hibiscus rose lemonade, cherries, campfire popcorn, and fresh green beans. (Note: consuming too many raw beans can be harmful. Please exercise caution.)

We were out working in our garden and took a break to make a fire and prepare some popcorn. The green beans were harvested at the garden prior. It is especially fun to prepare foods outdoors. It makes an easy little break in the day without disrupting the outdoor energy. 

Popcorn sprinkle- (recipe developed by our daughters)

Pop corn with avocado oil. Season with Nutritional Yeast, Salt, Paprika, Garlic Powder

Other winning combinations:

Pop corn with sesame oil/avocado oil mix. Season with powdered ginger, salt, and sesame seeds

Pop corn with coconut oil. Season with basil and sea salt.

Click HERE to find our favorite outdoor popper!

Yogurt Pops (young children can make this and feel great satisfaction)

All you need are your favorite yogurt and jam, a bowl, two spoons (one large and one small), and the silicone form.

I put a large spoon in the yogurt, and a small spoon in the jam and have my daughter count the same number of scoops for each. With our spoon sizes it ends up being two scoops of each per form. Then she stirs and I assist her in filling them. They freeze fairly quickly so if we make them around the time we are preparing our first snack tray this can be the afternoon snack.