Stocking a Healthy Refrigerator During the Holidays

The time has come and the kids will be home during the holiday vacations here is the perfect time to stock the refrigerator with these healthy alternatives to junk foods. Let's face it kid's don't always want to hear eat an apple most often than not they will ignore you and just skip the snack which is not always a healthy alternative either.

Drinks

Yogurt smoothie: You can find these in your dairy isle these are a healthy alternative to carbonated beverages and sugary type drinks that kids seem to love. I slowly began to weed out the carbonated drinks and added in these yogurt smoothies and my kids love them. They have many different flavors to choose from. The only downfall is they can be slightly pricey so if you have a discount store near by its help to cut down on costs.

These can also be made for a lower cost by buying flavored yogurt adding low fat milk and blending them to the thickness your children would desire and pouring them into a container and using at will.

Fruit Juices: This is where it's going to take you to do a little research because many fruit juices on the market contain a lot of sugars or they are made from very little actual fruit juice. Always read your labels to know what you are serving your kids.

Water: it's amazing when there is a ice cold pitcher of water in the refrigerator how many kids will actually drink water. Neither my kids were every water drinkers, even when it came to doing sports on hot days they would prefer their sports drinks not that I have kept filter water in the fridge it's their first choice.

Snacks:

Dark Chocolate Chips: Sweets cravings are not satisfied with a small handful of these sweet morsels no more candy bars in this household. They can also be tossed into a cup of yogurt or tossed into some granola. The possibilities are limitless with a little bit of imagination. One healthy alternative is to melt a handful of these delicious little morsels and dip some fresh apples slices.

Lean meats: sliced chicken or turkey, simple and easy snack roll them up with a piece of salad, spread with a little bit of low fat cream cheese or low fat spread of your choice. We cut them up also into pin wheels for the smaller kid's hands.

Tip: if vegetables are cut up and prepared beforehand and set into Tupperware we have found the kids are more likely to grab them and snack on them then if they had to do the work for themselves. When an apple was already cored and lightly brushed with lemon juice to keep it from browning the kids would pull them out and snack on them passing over the cookie jar.