25 Healthy Snacks for Kids

Each family in my 5-year-old's Montessori class is asked to assume morning snack duty for a few weeks during the school year.  The school has a few ground rules: no nuts, no sweets, and all natural whenever possible.

My philosophy is that snacks are an opportunity to get some additional "good stuff" into kids -- fruits, vegetables, fiber, protein and/or calcium.  Snack should also be tasty, filling and all natural.   This is really not as hard as it sounds.

Our snack duty starts this Monday, so I compiled the below list of the snacks I typically make and created my menu from this list (I chose the ones that fit the ground rules and travel best).  I ran it by my 5-year-old and got the thumbs-up.  Can you tell we love muffins?

(** = my kids' absolute favorites)

1. hummus and baby carrots **
   
2. organic drinkable yogurts and grapes or half bananas (peel on - kids like removing peels) **
   
3. big, beautiful strawberries
4. organic cheddar or meunster cheese and multigrain crackers
5. blueberry mini muffins **
   
6. banana mini muffins (skip the nuts for school!) **
   
7. turkey and spinach pinwheels (take an all natural soft tortilla, add a bit of organic mayonnaise, one slice of organic turkey and a few leaves of organic baby spinach, then roll and slice in 1/2 inch pinwheels -- it's a very flexible concept - you could do it with ham, cheese, cream cheese, chicken...)
   
8. carrot mini muffins
   
9. cantaloupe cubes **
   
10. hummus and multigrain crackers **
    
11. carrot or zucchini silver dollar-sized pancakes (I use Arrowhead Mills Multigrain Pancake mix, add an egg and some finely grated peeled carrot or zucchini)
    
12. zucchini mini muffins **
    
13. pumpkin mini muffins **
    
14. chunky, mild guacamole and all natural tortilla chips **
    
15. Health Valley organic cereal bars ** (my kids devour these)
    
16. raisins and organic "cheesie bunnies" as my toddler calls them (Annie's Cheddar Bunnies)
17. watermelon cubes (only when in season - out of season watermelon just doesn't cut it) **
    
18. peeled organic, sweet, crisp apple slices (toss them in lemon juice to prevent browning if you're preparing in advance) and organic unsalted popcorn **
    
19. fruit salad (apples, bananas, kiwi, pears, cantaloupe, grapes - whatever fruit is in-season, in a flavor combination you think the kids will like; toss in some lemon juice to keep things from browning)
20. raisins and unsalted peanuts (not for school!) **
    
21. peanut butter and jelly mini sandwiches (not for school!: we enjoy Oroweat Double Fiber bread, Arrowhead Mills organic crunchy peanut butter and organic, fruit-sweetened strawberry preserves) **
    
22. unsalted trail mix (not for school!; mixed nuts, raisins, sunflower seeds, granola chunks) **
    
23. fruit smoothies (doesn't travel well to school :); can hide a multitude of goodies such as probiotic powder, pureed baby spinach, etc.)
    
24. kefir smoothies (doesn't travel well to school :); slightly tart taste, so the kids really need to love yogurt to enjoy this - my toddler loves these)
    
25. cream cheese toast ** (doesn't travel well to school :); my toddler asks for this every day - I use all natural cinnamon raisin bread and Organic Valley cream cheese -- it's the best cream cheese we've ever tasted)