Ants on a Log and Other Healthy Snacks For Kids

Kids are notoriously hard to please in the healthy snack department. Once they know that chips and cookies exist, it can be pretty tough to swing them back to fruit and veggies! Fortunately, it is possible if you make snack time fun.

Ants on a Log. This classic calls for spreading peanut butter on celery and adding raisins for ants. However, you can mix things up a bit. Try cheese instead of peanut butter or a carrot log instead of celery.

Funny Money. Wash a carrot and slice into "pennies" to be dipped in yogurt for eating. You can use anything round to make funny money. Radishes with a sprinkle of salt, lime slices, tomatoes, etc.

Fruit Dots. Use a pancake mix to make mini pancakes. Drop a tablespoon of batter at a time onto a hot skillet and cook as you would with a normal pancake. You can add food coloring to the batter to make it more interesting if you like. Serve with a fruit puree to dip the dots into. This could be applesauce, pear puree are mashed canned peaches.

Sweet Burritos. Use a regular flour tortilla, but instead of beans, spread it with peanut butter and jam. You could also try adding sliced bananas with peanut butter, or chopped strawberries.

Cranberry Twirls. This is a great way to use up leftover pancakes. Spread a pancake with cranberry sauce and roll it up tightly. Use toothpicks to secure it every inch or so. Slice the pancake into rounds between the toothpicks and serve the twirls still held together.

Shake and Snack. Cut up an apple or pear, cutting into cubes or wedges. In a Ziploc bag, mix 1 tablespoon of brown sugar and ½ tablespoon of cinnamon. Drop the cubed fruit into the bag, Seal with air and then shake to coat. These can be eaten right from the bag or you can serve them on a plate.

Smashed Smandiches. Take a graham or bran cracker and top with four slices of banana. Sprinkle with raisins and add a dollop of peanut butter. Top with another graham cracker and squish down so the whole thing sticks together. Enjoy!

Surprises. These take a bit more effort. You will need some puff pastry, which can be bought in the frozen food section of the grocery store, and a favourite veggie, plus cheese. Cut the puff pastry into rectangles, about 2" wide and 4" long. Add a small piece of cheese and a piece of vegetable in the center and seal the edges. Bake according to the directions. You can mix up the ingredients inside so it is always a surprise. Try bananas with chocolate, broccoli and cheese, ham and cheese, apples and cinnamon, or cranberries and turkey.

Making fun snacks like these is the way to keep snack time interesting and hopefully, your kids will actually start chowing down on some real food! Keeping junk food out of the house is a good way to ensure that your kids will eat the healthy snacks, too.