Healthy Snack Ideas by Meagan

My family has been eating healthier because of some small health issues in my life.  I have been doing tons of research on the best things to feed my family, and it can be a difficult switch (just at first). It has been so eye-opening to see all of the foods I used to eat are SO bad for me.  One of my blogging friends has a great blog of healthy recipes.  She is a beautiful wonderful lady in Christ! I have learned so much from her blog, so I wanted her to write an article for this blog.  It comes at such a great time because so many of our church ladies are searching for great healthy recipes and ideas.

Without further ado...Healthy Snack Ideas

by Meagan @ http://megsfavrecipes.blogspot.com/

When it comes to eating healthy, meals are much easier for me than snacks. I plan my meals ahead of time and we eat them at the same time each day. But when I want a snack, I want it right away! I want to be able to go to my pantry or fridge and grab something to munch on without having to do a lot of prep-work. And when my little ones get hungry in between meals, they get grumpy! I want
to be able to give them something quickly before they start to whine.

My family tries to avoid processed foods as much as possible and store-bought snacks are undoubtedly the hardest items to give up. I quickly learned that I need to continually fill my pantry and fridge with healthier snacks to replace to junk food we are giving up. So I thought I’d share a few of the healthier snacks that we enjoy:

Frozen bananas with peanut butter. This is one of my favorite night-time snacks. Frozen bananas taste remarkably like ice cream! I usually
add some plain yogurt for a creamy kick as well. Sometimes I will add in some
granola and/or coconut flakes to give it a crunch. Or some nutella or chocolate
chips to satisfy a chocolate craving!

smoothy popsicles -- I make a super healthy smoothy with
coconut milk, frozen fruit, raw honey, and other favorites and freeze it into
popsicle molds for a quick, healthy treat

Tortilla pizzas -- When I make tortillas, I triple the recipe so I have enough for a month or two. So we always have tortillas on hand.

home-made crackers

mini-muffins

breakfast cookies

home-made granola

Home-made "power bars"

Coconut oil chocolate candy (a great way to get more coconut oil into them!)

Homemade cereal

Soaked and dehydrated almonds

Soaked and dehydrated pecans

Home-made cliff bars

Egg and bacon muffins

Cheese chunks, raw if possible!-- if I am doing "snacks for lunch" I always include cheese to make sure my girls get plenty of dairy and protein!

Raisins

Grapes, apple slices, banana, and other fruit, often with sunflower butter

Frozen blueberries (very messy, though, so not good for the car! But they are my girls' absolute favorite and we always keep some in the freezer for a quick fix for teething and busted lips :)

Frozen peas

Dehydrated, unsweetened coconut flakes

Cut up dates, often with sunflower butter on them

Black beans (my girls will eat them cold! But they stain as well, so be careful!)

Cooked brown rice pasta (yes, they will eat that cold, as well :)

Applesauce -- if you don't make your own, then please buy the unsweetened kind so you aren't giving your kids HFCS!!! The "original" kind is full of HFCS!

Yogurt -- if you don't make your own, then try to get plain (unflavored) full-fatyogurt. It can be hard to find. When we are on the road, we get Fage Greek yogurt for the girls or Organic Stonyfield plain with the cream on top.

Meagan has recipes for some of these snack ideas on her blog.  Here is the link to the snack post so you can get the recipe link right off her blog.  http://megsfavrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-favorite-healthy-quick-snacks.html