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Healthy Treat Ideas for Kids

26/11/2018

To start this off, I want to say our kids do eat sugary treats and desserts! I’m sure we are not the only family who gets birthday invites sent home from school all the time. Cake, juice boxes and goodie bags are a big chunk of my memories growing up and I don’t want to deny my kids treats all the time if it means excluding them from normal kids activities. However, treats are just that: a treat! Something fun for a special occasion or celebration. So, at home we try and focus on clean eating and whole foods, so when we are out I don’t stress all about fun extra sugary things. I know they have a foundation of a balanced great diet at home.

So what do we do at home for fun treats and snacks? Here are some ideas.

1. ‘Nice’ Cream
We always have a big bag of bananas in the freezer. As soon as they go a bit brown, you know those picky eaters won’t eat them anyways. Don’t worry, they won’t go to waste! You can add so many options to a base of frozen banana. My kids favourite recipe is this:

2 bananas
1 cup of frozen strawberries
1/2 of a ‘love beet’
1/2 cup of nut milk.
Whatever else you can hide or toss in there for extra benefits, such as hemp seeds or bee pollen.

An adult favourite is this:

3 frozen bananas
3 tablespoons of peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Pinch of cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Using a high speed blender for these makes the texture so smooth, just like ice cream!

2. Popsicles 
Fruit-based popsicles are super easy and fun to have on hand, especially during the summer. I find that I can sneak so many nutrient dense foods into anything frozen, as long as there is some fruit sweetening it up. One trick we do is in the morning if someone doesn’t finish their smoothie, I just pour it into the popsicle mould and it can become dessert at night!

3. Dates
Dates have tons of vitamins minerals and fibre, but are also super sweet and delicious. My kids love them all on their own, but for an extra easy snack, simply take the pit out and stuff it with some nut butter and a couple of chocolate chips. So good!

4. Cookie Balls
Pinterest has countless ideas for Protein balls or energy balls. My kids call them cookie balls and I call them easy super awesome no bake simple to make snacks! I love to start with a base of dates to make them taste like fudge. These can be great for school lunches if you leave nuts out and include seeds.  Use a food processor and toss in the following:

10 dates
1/4 tsp cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup coconut
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds

After you reach the consistency you want, add 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and pulse.
Make them into balls and keep them in the fridge!

5. Frozen Blueberries
An investment we made as a family recently was to purchase a new deep freezer dedicated mostly to berries! We live in one of the most amazing areas where fresh blueberries are at our fingertips! Last year we bought 100 pounds of fresh no-spray berries and have them in our freezer ready to use. They are amazing in baking and smoothies, but they mostly get used up for dessert and snacks. We don’t even warm them up. Frozen blueberries are our kids’ favourite. Fresh berries of any kind are obviously delicious as well, but having them frozen for us has saved loads of money buying fresh in the winter months.