Snacks for children, 50 ideas for all tastes

La snack it is an important moment of the day and it is necessary for children to recover the useful energy for morning and afternoon activities in the right way.

It is necessary to offer to the little ones light and nutritious foods, avoiding giving them heavy snacks. Furthermore, do not overdo the portions, since the snack is an energetic "support" and does not constitute a real meal.

According to what the experts of the Bambin Gesù Hospital say, in order for digestive processes to be facilitated and glycemic drops are avoided, for example, between a snack and dinner they should pass at least 3-4 hours. And it is better never to skip the snack.

It is recommended by doctors, then, drink throughout the day. In particular, mineral or natural water, smoothies, centrifuged and fruit and vegetable infusions are perfect with the afternoon snack.

Better to avoid sweetened carbonated drinks and energetic or exciting ones.

The ideal snack: how should it be?

Also according to the doctors of the Bambin Gesù Hospital, the right snack must have three important qualities, which are listed below.

1. It must be moderate: it is necessary to limit yourself to a single portion.
2. It must be proportionate: for example, to avoid a load of calories, do not drink a carbonated and sweetened drink together with the chosen snack.
3. It must be varied: a healthy diet is always based on variety. It is good to accustom children and young people to different flavors.

Read also: how to make a snack correctly? and 10 tips for a healthy and green diet for the whole family

Morning snack

The morning snack is useful as it allows you to take a small break that makes the children recover their energy. What to eat? They are recommended:

1. a fruit,
2. one lean yogurt,
3. a slice of small bread (30/50 grams) (bread and tomato, etc.).

Afternoon snack

For the afternoon snack it is advisable to take energy sources of rapid use, healthy from a nutritional point of view. Below are seven different snacks for seven days, proposed by the Bambin Gesù Hospital.

1. MONDAY: fresh and dried fruit in season.
2. TUESDAY: a glass of yogurt or milk with the addition of fresh seasonal fruit.
3. WEDNESDAY: a rustic pie with vegetables.
4. THURSDAY: a slice of bread (preferably 30 grams wholemeal and naturally leavened) with oil and tomato.
5. FRIDAY: a slice of cake or some light home-made biscuits or an unfilled snack.
6. SATURDAY: a slice of bread (30 grams, wholemeal) with a slice of raw ham, bresaola or fresh cheese.
7. SUNDAY: an ice cream.

CONTINUE READING: How the ideal snack should be

Ideas for afternoon snacks

Are you looking for some delicious recipes to make healthy snacks for young and old at home? Here are some tasty snacks, with instructions from Miralda Colombo, food blogger and author of cookbooks for young and old.

1. Citrus muffins. A recipe loved by all children based on orange and tangerines, to which oil and yogurt are added, therefore perfect even for those who are intolerant to dairy products.

2. Chocolate brownies. A chef's snack for children that adults also like. You can also prepare the blondies, the light cousins ​​to white chocolate.

   Ingredients for 16-25 brownies: 150 g of butter, 250 g of sugar, 75 g of unsweetened cocoa, a pinch of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla essence (this ingredient is very American: if you can't find it, use seeds of a vanilla pod), 2 cold eggs, 60 g of flour, 50 g chopped walnuts (optional).

CONTINUE READING: Homemade snacks for children from 0 to 99 years

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Ideas for school snacks

Mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks help fight obesity, help you arrive less hungry at lunchtime and dinner, and stimulate greater energy consumption. It is important, however, to remember that the snack should not exceed 5-10% of the calories consumed throughout the day and that you must choose a different snack every day. Here are some snack proposals based on the various ages and different school stages.

1. Nursery snacks. It is necessary to ensure that children get used, from kindergarten, to a varied diet and to eat fruit and vegetables.

   You can start the week with a homemade dessert or a chocolate snack, but the next day you have to propose fruit to the child, without getting tired of proposing it again.

   Other popular snacks could be there dried fruit, rich in nutrients important for growth, and the yogurt, that cannot be missing in the diet of the little ones. Pay attention to the salt and sugar hidden in all foods and you need to avoid giving your child too many packaged snacks.

2. Snacks for children from 6 to 12 years. If the child does intense physical activity, during the snack can take 10% of the calories of the day. If, on the other hand, after the snack he starts doing his homework, then it is better not to exceed 5%. When he plays sports (for example he goes swimming) he can eat bread and jam or a pizza, reaching 270 kilocalories. Better not to exceed 250 kilocalories for more sedentary children. In any case, let's remember not to overdo the quantities.

3. High school snacks. When kids start high school, it is more difficult to control what they eat because they can choose to buy when they want a snack from the vending machines.
   The perfect snack for teens could be bread and cheese or ham containing an average of 250 kcal, a piece of tart (166 kcal), perhaps homemade, and once a week even a chocolate dessert that is certainly good for the mood.
   

KEEP READING: Healthy snacks to take to school

Snacks for small children (1-3 years)

If the children are very young, what are the most suitable morning snack or afternoon snack? Here is a series of proposals - valid for children from 1 to 3 years - for snacks, in the morning and in the afternoon, distributed over seven days.

1. MONDAY': snack: 30 g of bread + 10 g of butter + 15 g of jam (low sugar content); snack: 150 ml of fruit juice with no added sugar or 25 g of biscuits;
2. TUESDAY: snack: 25 g of crackers + 1 portion of fresh seasonal fruit; snack: 30 g of bread + 1 teaspoon of oil + 2 slices of salad tomato;
3. SNACK: snack: 30 g of bread + 10 g of butter + 15 g of jam (with reduced sugar content); snack: 25 g of bread sticks;
4. THURSDAY: snack: 25 g of crackers + 150 ml of fruit juice with no added sugar; snack: 1 cereal bar;
5. FRIDAY': snack: 1 cereal bar; snack: 30 g of daisy or donut type cake;
6. Saturday: snack: 30 g of bread + 10 g of butter + 15 g of jam (with reduced sugar content); snack: 100 ml of drinking yogurt;
7. Sunday: snack: 30 g of bread + 1 teaspoon of hazelnut cream; snack: 150 ml of orange juice or 30 g of margherita or donut type cake.

CONTINUE READING: Weekly menu for children from one to three years

Snacks without cooking

What to offer to the little ones, perhaps in summer, that does not involve cooking in the oven or in a pan? Here are five really tasty and quick recipes that will be very popular with children, taken from various cooking books and blogs.

1. Recipe of cream cheese with croutons. Here is an excellent cream of cheeses, for which even the little ones can be involved.

   Ingredients: ::: 200 g of robiola, 150 g of goat's milk cow's milk; 50 g of stracchino; oil bread; thyme, marjoram, parsley and chives; a nut; salt and pepper.

2. Carrot truffles without cooking. These truffles are a delicious and fresh snack or ideal to enrich breakfast.

   ingredients: 3-4 carrots, 100 gr of mixed dried fruit (almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, Brazil nuts, pumpkin seeds ...), 7 pitted dried apricots, 60 gr of rapé coconut, 1/2 tablespoons of water (if necessary), cinnamon to taste (or vanilla, cocoa, cardamom ...), shredded coconut for the coating (or sesame seeds, cocoa, almond flour, grated chocolate etc.)

3. Strong tower recipe. Here are two fun ways to eat fruit. The first is by stacking it with almond and cocoa cream. It will be a bit like eating the famous hazelnut spread, but much tastier and healthier. The second is with apple and almond or peanut butter, to feel a bit in the USA. Why not get help from the children to build these towers, making breakfast or snack time extremely playful? Ingredients: 1 banana, 1 ½ tablespoon of almond butter (this is a spread obtained only from long-blended almonds and can be found in organic shops and well-stocked supermarkets), ½ teaspoon of cocoa, ¼ teaspoon of syrup agave (which can also be replaced with simple liquid honey).
4. Raw fruit tartlets. This recipe is very special: it is about raw sweets, food philosophy that provides that foods are not cooked.

   Ingredients for the cream: 120 ml of water, 100 g of pitted dates. Ingredients for the tartlets: 200 g of previously soaked and drained almonds, 100 g of pitted dates, 1 tablespoon of vanilla powder, 2 tablespoons of grated lemon zest, 1 pinch of whole sea salt.

CONTINUE READING: Snacks and breakfasts without cooking

Healthy snacks for children

If mothers and fathers are usually very experienced with regards to breakfast, lunch and dinner snack parents have a little more difficulty in finding balanced and greedy options at the same time. Here, then, are some proposals for HEALTHY snacks for children:

1. Recipe of castagnaccio with pine nuts. Castagnaccio is a typical Tuscan dessert of "once upon a time": very simple, not too sweet and easy to prepare. Naturally gluten-free and vegan (therefore also dairy-free and egg-free) it is soft and moist. Ingredients for 8 people: 3 glasses of chestnut flour, extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons of pine nuts, rosemary, salt to taste
2. Spelled tartlets recipes with extra virgin olive oil. The tarts are a great classic of the snack. These are prepared with spelled flour - which is less refined than 00 - and olive oil, so as to be suitable even for children intolerant to dairy products. Ingredients for 8-10 tarts: about 300 g of spelled flour, 100 g of sugar, 90 g of delicate extra virgin olive oil, 2 eggs at room temperature, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, jam to taste, preferably 100 % fruit.
3. Pear and walnut cake recipe. A nice cake can be prepared together if it is raining outside and it is not possible to do activities with the children. This recipe includes a mix of wholemeal and white flour, brown sugar and lots of pears. We bet it will taste just as good with apples too? Ingredients for a 26-28 cm diameter cake pan: 4 pears, 4 eggs, 200 g of brown sugar, 125 g of butter + to taste for greasing the pan, 125 g of wholemeal flour, 125 g of white flour, 1 orange untreated, 50 g of chopped walnuts, 1 sachet of baking powder.
4. Beetroot hummus recipe. Hummus is a delicate and tasty chickpea cream. In this case it is enriched with beetroot, which also gives the hummus a beautiful color. You can serve it on toasted bread, on small triangles of piadina, with raw vegetables to dip in the sauce: what do you choose? Ingredients for 4 people: 200 g of raw beets (they are about 2 small beets, alternatively use the precooked ones found at the supermarket), 200 g of boiled chickpeas, 50 g of extra virgin olive oil, 2 tablespoons of tahini (cream of sesame), 1/2 clove of garlic, salt, 1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika, dill, thyme and lemon juice.

CONTINUE READING: Healthy snacks for children, 5 recipes

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Party snacks

Once in a while it is possible to make a tear and eat something more appetizing, without exaggerating, however, since the snacks must still tend to be healthy and light. Especially on the occasion of holidays, it is possible to prepare the following foods:

1. Pizzette. Ingredients, doses for 20 pizzas: 20 slices of mozzarella, 500 g of bread dough, 150 g of fresh ricotta, 1 cup of tomato sauce, oregano, olive oil, salt. How to prepare them: divide the bread dough, purchased from the baker, into 20 balls and roll out each ball on a floured surface, obtaining 20 discs. Put on each disk a scant spoon of tomato sauce, 1 slice of mozzarella, 1 teaspoon of fresh ricotta, a drizzle of olive oil, a pinch of oregano and season with salt. Grease the oven plate and place the pizzas on it. Bake at 200 ° C for 15 - 20 minutes.
2. Muffins with yogurt. Ingredients for 2 people: a 125 g jar of whole yogurt, 90 g of white corn flour, a whole egg, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, 1 teaspoon of grated parmesan, 1 teaspoon of extra virgin olive oil, salt. How to prepare it: in a bowl put the flour, baking soda and a pinch of salt. Mix, add the egg, yogurt and oil and mix well with a fork. Grease two small molds with a drizzle of oil, pour in the mixture and place in a preheated oven at 200 ° C for 20 minutes. Remove the scones from the oven, they will be golden and puffy, sprinkle them still hot with the parmesan and serve when they are cooled. Or divide them in half horizontally, stuff them with cooked or raw ham and serve at room temperature.
3. Croissants with ham. Ingredients for 4/6 people: 100 g of flour, 100 g of grated fontina cheese, 60 g of butter, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 yolk, 1/4 cup of minced cooked ham, salt. How to prepare it: sift the flour in a bowl and work it with the yolk, flour, baking powder, softened butter and salt. Place the mixture on a floured surface and work it with your hands. Roll out a sheet of dough and cut out squares of about 8 cm; place a teaspoon of ham on a corner of each square and roll each square starting from the corner where the ham is, to form a croissant. Grease a baking tray, distribute the croissants and bake for 15 minutes at 160 ° C.

CONTINUE READING: Party snacks

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