Trying to find a variety of healthy snacks in this world of junk and convenience foods can sometimes be a challenge. Back in the days when I taught Kindergarten, we had snack time in the afternoon. Every morning, I would watch the “snack helpers” of the day in the other classrooms bring in everything from Cheetos to peanut butter crackers to cookies.
My snack helpers? They always walked in with a basket full of fruit.
Yep. Fruit was the only “legal” snack in my classroom. (Hey, at least I didn’t push the organic issue!) At the time, I didn’t know about Larabars
Understand, my idea of “healthy snacks” is stricter than most. “Healthy”=minimally processed. The organic raw snack bars, such as those mentioned above, have gone through some processing, since the ingredients have been ground together. But the nutritional value of the ingredients is still maintained (they are not heated, bleached, etc.), and those ingredients are all real foods.
For some reason, many people have the misconception that preparing a healthy snack requires more time and energy than munching on, say, pretzels or potato chips. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Here are the foods we usually snack on at our house:
- Cashews and dates (my husband);
- Seed and berry smoothie (me, in the morning);
- homemade sourdough bread with organic butter and agave nectar or raw honey (Benjamin);
- nuts/seeds and sun-dried raisins; and
- raw nut butter/tahini with fruit.
Except for the smoothie, the above snacks require no more effort than to grab a couple things from the pantry or refrigerator and put them in a dish. And if you’re used to eating protein or candy bars, you can easily replace them with raw snack bars.
I also occasionally make a raw cookie that Benjamin can snack on when we’re out of the house. My favorite recipe? Raw “brownies.” If you have a good food processor
Process the ingredients all together, press into an 8X8 inch pan, refrigerate thirty minutes, and cut. If you love chocolate, this would be a great alternative to the sugary, milky stuff.
I never worry about my family eating junk at home. The reason is simple: I keep nothing of the sort on hand. But the choices that are available are tasty and sweet enough to satisfy the sweetest of sweet tooths.
Obviously, the list of healthy snacks we usually eat is hardly comprehensive. So, let me hear from you. What kind of healthy snacks does your family enjoy?
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