Healthy Menu & Snack Ideas for Kids

Kids are notorious for being picky eaters, which can make getting them to eat healthy rather difficult. A child might refuse to even touch a healthy meal or snack that an adult considers to be delicious. Keeping healthy snacks colorful and tasty is the key to getting kids to eat them. Add this to my Recipe Box.

Snacks

Giving a healthy snack an interesting name might entice kids to eat it. Ants on a log is a classic healthy snack that is both easy to make and delicious. Just chop up some celery into sticks, spread with peanut butter and top with a few raisins.

Kids often don't want to hold still long enough to eat a snack at the table, so making their snack portable might be enough to get them to eat it. Create your own healthy trail mix with ingredients like nuts, cereal, raisins and other dried fruits. Throw the mix into a baggie and let your child carry it around with them while they play. That way they can nibble while they are on the go.

How many times did you hear "Don't play with your food" as a child? Maybe you would have consumed more if you had been allowed to play with it a little. Fruit kabobs are a great way to encourage your kids to eat healthy by letting them have a little bit of fun with their food. Put cubed melon, strawberries, grapes and chopped apples onto chopsticks and serve them with yogurt for dipping. The kids get to dip their food and you get them eating healthy.

Meals

You can use the idea of letting your kids play with their food a little to get them eating healthy not only for snack time but for mealtime also. Make quesadillas with whole wheat tortillas and low-fat cheese. Cut them into random pieces to create a puzzle. The child gets to put the puzzle together before she eats her meal.

Most kids will devour pizza, no questions asked, use that to your advantage. Make mini pizzas with whole wheat pitas, an organic pizza sauce, turkey pepperoni and any vegetables your child might like on their pizza. The best part about this healthy meal, besides the fact that it is healthy, is that it only has to bake in the oven for about five minutes before it is ready to be served.

Finger foods are usually well-received by children, probably because they don't have to go through the hassle of using utensils. Baking fish sticks, rather than frying them, keeps them as a pretty healthy meal option. You can serve them with carrots and celery sticks, with some ranch dressing to dip them in.