Hello, Hopefully I am in the right forum. I am after recommendations for healthy (and hopefully filling) vegetarian evening snacks for my 5 year old boy and 3 year old girl. Once they are back from school/day care - they are ALWAYS hungry. They are active kids and they eat everything ! So far we have tried giving them cream biscuits/biscuits (max limit 2), nuts (hand/bowl-ful of cashew, almond, pista, etc), chips (all types, healthy and unhealthy), cookies (market and home made), a fruit (like banana and kiwi). All of this is of course after they have their glass full of full cream milk with honey. And will have dinner in the night. I sometimes thank God that the kids dont give us issues with food and eating - but they eat so much that most of the times I am out of ideas on what I can give them without thinking if what I am giving is good or not. I am working from home and would like to lovingly prepare a lot of things for them. Also happy to buy from the shops.
1)Cheese sticks 2)Hummus or yogurt or bean dip with raw vegetables like cherry tomato, baby carrots, broccoli etc 3) Guacamole and or salsa with chips 4) Apple slices with peanut/any nut butter 5) Ants on a stick: celery stalks filled with nut butter and dotted with raisins 6) Trail mix either homemade or storebought 7) Indian-style sandwiches with green chutney and boiled potato filling in small portions 8) Fruit with Greek yogurt 9) Pinwheel wraps: spread some cream cheese and sundried tomatoes inside a colorful tortilla wrap, add spinach leaves for extra color, roll up and cut into slices. Can also be done with chapati and leftovers
@Benadryl As a percipient observer, one must first avoid all junk foods and choose for kids snacks that go well with their stomach and the season in your geography. There can’t be an omnibus formula that can be universally applied for kids of any region. What suits one place may not suit in another geography or at high altitudes. A Just observation of what is being fed by young mothers of Alice spring Australia to their kids would reveal great ideas & better management plans . I wish IL’ites from your region respond here. It is said do as Romans when you are in Rome. Regards. God protect kids from transfats and preservatives.
Here are some kid's snacks from our home. I have been trying to go back to old-school-snacks that were favorites when I was growing up but I forgot when I set out on my own.. 1. Boiled with shell peanuts. 2. Roasted unsalted peanuts - I buy them raw and roast for a few minutes in the microwave. 3. Changing fruits. Just the novelty makes the little one want to sit down and eat a big bowl of it. The usual big fruits, I'll keep changing every week: watermelom, cantaloupe, musk melon, etc. 4. Flattened red rice + Grated coconut + a half a tsp of powdered jaggery. 5. Puffed rice + roasted gram dal + a half tsp of powdered jaggery 6. this one is super filling and I am happy too since it gets some greens into kid: Lots of spinach + apple + banana + big scoop of nuts makes a rich, creamy, filling smoothie. 7. boiled corn on the cob 8. Dates + roasted unsalted cashew combo 9. roasted unsalted cashew + raisins combo 10. coconut-water 11. Whole cucumber/baby carrot 12. bowl of shredded coconut (I try it first to make sure it is a little sweet) 13. Smoothy of oat milk/almond milk + nuts + any overripe fruit at home. Since I try to follow whole-food-plant-based nutrition as much as I can at home, below list we call them "treat-snacks" and not regular-snacks - but ofcourse if I ask for LO's choice, bottom list is preferred. We do include this a couple of times a week and with friends/guests. 1. milk + whole wheat rusk 2. whole-wheat-bread and cream cheese 3. wheat crackers + cheese + cucumber
If the kids are that hungry that a simple snack won’t be sufficient just give them an early dinner. In my experience my kids were also hungriest around 5-6 pm. So after a while this is what I used to do. At our dinner time I would give them something light like milk and cookies or ice cream. Giving them high calorie snack to kill the natural hunger when they are hungry and later forcing full dinner on them when they are not, lays the basis for future bad food habits in my opinion. Go with the flow. Breakfast lunch dinner are not set in stone. Nor are they going to be particular or behave like mother in law and crib that this is yesterday’s food.
Great thoughts keeping in mind convenience and vital elements and vitamins needed for proper timely development and growth to attain fitness and physique. Thanks and Regards.
If they are so HUNGRY, however much snacks you give them, they are going to feel hungry. Milk and snacks are not enough for some kids. Better to give Dinner - dal/sabji + rotis, dosa, rice, pasta at that time, and move the milk and fruits/snacks to dinner time if required.
Lots of nice store-bought items have been listed already.... Cream of Wheat <== sold in the USA, comes with the most unappetizing "Directions for cooking" on the box. Find a recipe such as the one below... from the internet Upma Sooji (Cream of Wheat) - Manjula's Kitchen - Indian Vegetarian Recipes adjust the amounts of oil and spices down for American children. DO NOT use instant cream of wheat; use the regular version. This is a product that can be cooked very fast into a tasty uppuma (tadka with curry leaves and cashew nuts, coriander leaves and spring onions garnish, and lightly spiced for children). Uppuma can be done during the weekend. Sooji expands to produce a lot of uppuma from a cup or two. You'd have a enough to pack in plastic wrap and put it in fridge. When children come home from school, microwave a pack, separate into individual portions, and serve. Cream of wheat (sooji) uppuma has the property to fill up a child quite easily till the regular dinner hour.
