In our home we hardly use commercial snacks for health reasons ( I have many allergies), here are some of the ideas that we use, as well as some other ones that friend of mine compiled a little while ago.
I hope it will be a help to other parents. Often we do not realise that, but when we make our children eat healthy when they are young, later in life they will actually be craving healthy foods, over the commercially available junk food. So it is worthwhile investment!
Here are a few ideas:
When you crave: Chips and dip
Try this:
Carrot, celery, cucumber, bell pepper (or other vegetable) sticks on a platter with cheese dip
Fish fingers with a light dip
Whole-wheat pretzels
Sunflower seeds
Whole-wheat crackers with a spinach dip
Popcorn
When you crave: Chips with MSG
(Doritos, Cheetos, flavored potato chips)
Try this:
Nachos and guacamole (avocado dip) or salsa
Corn on the cob with butter and salt, or salt, lemon, and chili
Stuffed, baked potatoes
Oven-baked potato wedges with spices
Whole-wheat crackers or toasted flat bread with a hummus dip
When you crave: Mints/soda pops
(for motion or PG nausea)
Try this:
Sniff oranges (citrus smell may help)
Carbonated water with lemon
Steeped and cooled ginger tea with honey, mixed with carbonated water for a ginger ale
When you crave: Ice cream
Try this:
Frozen, blended yogurt with a little honey, nuts, and raisins
Yogurt/frozen fruit smoothie
Frozen fruit slushy
Ice cream or slushy by blending soft tofu with a bit of milk powder, a little brown sugar, ice, cocoa, or vanilla (you can also blend it with fruit and a bit of honey)
Flan (baked egg custard)
Vanilla pudding sweetened with honey
Homemade popsicles made with 100% fruit juice
Frozen grapes, or other fruit such as mango, etc.
Layered yogurt/fruit/granola parfait
When you crave: Chocolate bars
Try this:
Homemade hot chocolate or carob milk (add a dab of cream on top!). Children often like hot chocolate even with very little or no sweetener added.
Granola bars (make these by mixing nuts and raisins with granola and adding it to a natural sugar that is heated until it reaches the soft toffee stage. Add vanilla, maple, or other natural essences.)
Toast with butter and molasses or honey, and a glass of milk
When you crave: Commercial peanut butter, jelly/jam, Nutella
Try this:
Homemade peanut butter made in a food processor with toasted peanuts. No oil is needed—just keep blending past the thick stage until the natural oil is released (make crunchy peanut butter by mixing some smooth-processed peanut butter with a little half-way done peanut butter)
Other nut and seed butters—with toasted almond, cashew, hazelnut, pumpkin seed, flax, sunflower seed, sesame seed, etc. Or try a combination of these for your own signature butter.
Homemade Nutella by mixing a homemade nut butter with a little bit of melted semi-sweet chocolate squares.
Homemade fruit butter or jam (apple, pineapple, etc.)
When you crave: Frosted flakes/sweetened boxed cereal
Try this:
Homemade, crunchy granola with little to no sugar
Homemade muesli (blend up any combination of raw oatmeal, nuts, dried fruits, etc.)
Branch out beyond the traditional hot oatmeal cereal, and try cracked wheat, bulgur, brown rice cereal (with raisins and cinnamon), cooked corn meal, tapioca pudding, and quinoa cereal or quinoa pudding
When you crave: Soda pop or a commercial iced tea
Try this:
Freshly squeezed juice, or mix 100% juice with unsweetened carbonated water
Brew your own sun iced tea by putting black or herbal teabags in water in a clear glass jar. Leave in the sun for about 6 hours. Mix in honey and lemon. Add ice.
When you crave: Candy
Try this:
Unsweetened fruit leather
Natural licorice
Stuffed figs and dates (replace the pit with a nut)
Dried unsweetened fruit of any kind
When you crave: Commercial milkshake
Try this:
Homemade ice cream (much better for you, without all those chemicals and preservatives)
Lassi (an Indian drink where you blend yogurt with either a bit of green cardamom and a natural sweetener, or vanilla, lemon, or fruit)
Other Snack Ideas:
Core apples and put a spoon of peanut butter in the middle with a date or raisins for décor on top
Peanut butter balls (sweeten with blended raisins and powdered milk)
Peanut butter sticks (toast bread, cut into sticks, spread peanut butter on it, then decorate with raisins)
Celery sticks with peanut butter or cheese dip
Make a party “hedgehog†by decorating a whole unpeeled orange with diced cheese, cherry tomatoes, and olives spitted on toothpicks.
deviled eggs hard-boil eggs, peel them, and carefully cut in half; remove the yolks and mix with cream cheese or a bit of mayonnaise, add salt and pepper and paprika to taste; put this filling back in the egg whites
Crackers and cheese with olives and/or sliced tomatoes
Popcorn with a twist. When cooking, add a bit of garlic to the oil and/or some spice for “hot and spicy†popcorn, or sprinkle cooked popcorn with cayenne pepper, or powdered parmesan cheese, or brewer’s yeast and salt
Nuts and raisins, or make your own trail mix
To make your own salted nuts: soak nuts in warm, salty water for 3 hours (about ¼ cup of salt to every cup of water) then bake in the oven till dry
If you live in India you can make poppadoms (you can also find poppadoms in a number of other countries). Dry them over the fire and eat with mint chutney
Cheese sticks. Start with a simple bread dough recipe, add grated cheese to the dough, roll, and cut into sticks, then bake.
Brewers yeast on their yogurt with a touch of honey
Yogurt with nuts and raisins
Homemade cinnamon rolls
Homemade cookies
Homemade fruit or veggie juice
Take a piece of cheddar cheese and roll a bit of lettuce around it, take a piece of tomato and an olive and hold together in place with a toothpick
Slice a plate of tomatoes, sprinkle with salt, drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil
Pinwheels. Layer whole-wheat flour tortillas, or some type of thin flat bread with cream cheese, or yogurt cheese, and various fillings (for example, sliced cheese, ham, a leaf of lettuce, fish/chicken/egg spread, etc.), roll up tightly and refrigerate to set; slice into thin “pinwheels†and arrange decoratively on a platter.
Sun-dried tomato dip. Finely chop (or pulse in the food processor) a cup of sun-dried tomatoes, a clove of raw garlic, salt, and lemon juice for some zing. Add olive oil to cover tomatoes, and let sit for at least an hour. (This tastes great with fresh bread or drizzled on toast triangles as an appetizer.)