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| Healthy snacks for under 5s
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Does your menu rely on a few tried and tested (but boring!) snack ideas? This article by Nutrition Australia offers a whole range of yummy, simple and very healthy snack suggestions that are bound to get the tummies of the kids in your service rumbling.
Young children require energy to help them grow, develop and reach their maximum potential. Snacking can be a useful way of ensuring that young, growing bodies are meeting their energy requirements. However, to avoid predisposing children to developing a preference for foods that are unhealthy, it is important that the snack foods you provide are healthy, and low in sugar, fat and salt.
Stuck for healthy snack ideas? Why not try some of the following?
- Fresh fruit such as apples, grapes, strawberries, mandarins, pears, plums, apricots, bananas, kiwi fruit, nectarines and oranges
- Carrot, zucchini or celery sticks combined with healthy dips e.g. hommus or mashed avocado (crunchy vegetables can be softened by steaming for very young children)
- Tinned fruit in natural juice or preserved fresh chopped fruit with a generous squeeze of lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of fruit juice
- Small quantities of dried fruit (e.g. sultanas, dried apples, dried apricots)
- Trail mixes of dried fruit with a plain cereal (e.g. mini wheats, rice puffs)
- Fruit salad with yoghurt or custard
- Fruit slushies – simply blend fruit, add extra water if the mixture is too thick, and then freeze
- Fruit mixed with coconut (e.g. pineapple pieces mixed with desiccated coconut)
- Frozen fruit (e.g. oranges, bananas, watermelon, grapes)
- Smoothies - simply blend yoghurt, milk and fruit such as bananas and berries (strawberries, raspberries, blueberries)
- Yoghurt or custard
- Yoghurt sprinkled with muesli and fresh or tinned fruit
- Cheese slices or cheese sticks either on their own or with low fat crackers
- Rice cakes with low fat toppings such as vegemite or ricotta cheese
- Weet-bix™ or other low fat, low sugar cereals with milk
- Pikelets topped with chopped fruit (such as bananas and berries) and ricotta cheese
- Vegetable pikelets or savoury scones made with grated vegetables and added cheese
- Jaffles filled with baked beans or mashed potato and cheese
- Baked potato filled with tuna or creamed corn and topped with cheese
- Fruit Flowers - balls of melon surrounded by orange segments with a stem of banana
- Traffic Lights - rounds of kiwifruit, watermelon and banana
- Pita bread nachos - pita bread slices baked in the oven until crisp and then sprinkled with cheese
- Hard-boiled eggs
- Vegetable, meat or tuna patties that can be served hot or cold
- Hot filo based pastries filled with vegetables and meat
- Small tins of baked beans or spaghetti
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