Ideas on Healthy snacks for Kids

With the summer vacation almost coming to an end, I thought I should be better planned to get the different menus all planned. So starting with the snacks list which by the way is the most tough one to handle, will be featuring list that will be sent to the school and also prepared when the Kids get back home.

To break the monotony, I included snacks of all types. Typically in a South Indian family, you are served even Rice for a snack. Imagine eating Pulihore coming back from school! But believe me it was always my most favorite dish to eat, coming back hungry from school.

This is not only for kids, even for elders when they get back home after longs hours, they get extremely hungry. At those moments, they normally end up eating whatever is reachable, mostly junk and unhealthy dishes.

If you have these dishes well planned and sorted, you can avoid such problems.

With Fruits

Fruits are the most filling and satisfying food to eat on coming back. We normally have bananas all ready for the kids. If you feel eating fruits as such is boring, pep them up as Chats by sprinkling Chat masala.

Fruits salads: Make the custard or pudding ahead and refrigerate. Just before serving, mix in your fruit of choice. Including the seasonal fruits this way is most healthy.

With Corns

Masala Corn: You can either use fresh or frozen to make these delicious Masala corn. Micro for 1- 2 mins and season with salt, pepper. If you don't have a microwave, pressure cook the corns and season once cool

Corn Kernels Salad : Sweet Corn Kernels are so delicious to be had as a salad along with Paneer, Vegetables etc.

Nuts Plain/ Roasted

Plain nuts like Almond, Walnuts, Cashews and Raisins are good to be munched as such. You can have 4 -5 of these in one go for a good snack.

Have a tin of roasted nuts on hand for munching them. Even a handful is enough to satisfy your hunger.

Since in India we don't actually have those protein bars or cereal bars, you can have those Peanut Chaklis etc in replacement.

Masala Papad:
Mix chopped onions, carrot, cucumber and roasted groundnuts, season with pepper and salt. Spread this mix on the roasted Papad.

With Bread

Make sandwiches with fresh vegetables like onions, cucumber and tomatoes.
Make spicy sandwiches with spreads with greens like spinach, Mint etc.

With Lentils:
Toss in Fried Gram dal with lemon juice, salt and pepper. You can add in chat masala into this.
Make south Indian Sundals with lentils like Channa/ Garbanzos, Rajma/ Kidney beans etc.

Beverages
Chilled drinks with milk with Bourn vita, Chocolate and other flavours works out so well.
If you like smoothies, they are pretty easy to make too. Add milk, yogurt, fruits and a little sugar in a blender and blend well to get a refreshing drink.

Semi Heavy Tiffins like
Poha upma
Semiya upma
Wheat dosa
Idli/Dosa

Rice Varieties like Lemon rice, Mint rice, Coriander Rice, Capsicum rice, Pulihora (which helps as early dinner and snack) and have fruits during dinner time.

That seems quite a list, do share if you can think of other ones!