![\"Snacks\"](\"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/snacks.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLast weekend I was going through the newspaper ads and became frustrated when I saw this ad:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was frustrated because it\u00a0encourages parents to serve their hungry kids\u00a0bowls of potato chips when they come home from school.\u00a0\u00a0Now\u00a0potato chips\u00a0aren’t\u00a0a “bad food”, but as a dietitian, they would not be what I would serve to hungry kids at the end of\u00a0every school day.<\/p>\n
Americans’\u00a0Snack Habits
\nResearch has shown that the calories we consume via snacks have increased in the past few decades.\u00a0 Snacks are a greater contributor to our diets than in years past.\u00a0\u00a0The increase is due to an\u00a0increased\u00a0number\u00a0of snacks per\u00a0day and\u00a0an increase in the size of our snacks.\u00a0 For this reason, taking the time to plan and purchase healthy snacks is just as important as providing your family with\u00a0healthy meals.<\/p>\n
Need Some Ideas?
\nCreate your own list of healthy, easy and FUN snacks that your kids will enjoy.\u00a0 Here are some quick and simple\u00a0ideas: fresh fruit, cheese and crackers, trail mix, veggies and hummus,\u00a0yogurt parfaits,\u00a0and even a bowl of cereal with skim milk.<\/p>\n
You can also let your kids make their own snacks.\u00a0 It’s amazing what they’ll eat when they make it themselves.\u00a0 Here are some creative ideas to get you started.\u00a0 And they’ve all been kid tested and approved at after school programs.<\/p>\n
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\n<\/td>\n | \nApple Smiles<\/h1>\nContinuing on the apple theme since they are delicious this time of year, slice an apple into eighths or smaller.\u00a0 Spread peanut butter on one side of each slice.\u00a0\u00a0Take half of\u00a0the slices and\u00a0stick four mini-marshmallows into the peanut butter.\u00a0 Top with another apple slice with the peanut butter side facing the marshmallows.\u00a0 Smile and enjoy!<\/p>\n \n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
\nCaterpillar<\/h1>\nSometimes encouraging kids to drink milk so they get some calcium can be challenging.\u00a0 I’ve never had to encourage a child to eat this caterpillar made of part-skim mozzarella string cheese.\u00a0 They have a blast making this tasty treat from cheese, pretzels and raisins.<\/p>\n \n<\/td>\n | \n \u00a0 |
\u00a0![\"YummyBug\"](\"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/yummybug.jpg\") <\/td>\n | \nYummy Bug<\/h1>\nThis snack is a work of art!\u00a0 One creative little kindergartner in my after school class asked if he had to make a yummy bug.\u00a0 I said he could make whatever he wanted, curious as to what he would make.\u00a0 Well, I circled around the room and when I returned he proudly showed me his dragon fly!\u00a0 I was impressed.\u00a0 It’s amazing the creativity kids have.\u00a0 Provide your child with crackers, peanut butter, pretzel sticks and raisins and see what they make.<\/p>\n \n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n What are some of your family’s favorite after school snacks?\u00a0 Post a comment below and share your ideas with others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last weekend I was going through the newspaper ads and became frustrated when I saw this ad: I was frustrated because it\u00a0encourages parents to serve their hungry kids\u00a0bowls of potato chips when they come home from school.\u00a0\u00a0Now\u00a0potato chips\u00a0aren’t\u00a0a “bad food”, but as a dietitian, they would not be what I would serve to hungry kids at the end of\u00a0every school Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,780],"tags":[69,51,70],"class_list":["post-310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e","category-nutrition-2","tag-after-school-snacks","tag-kids","tag-treats","cat-42-id","cat-780-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/snacks.thumbnail.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8860,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310\/revisions\/8860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |
![\"LadyBug\"](\"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/ladybug.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n![\"Apple](\"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/applesmile.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Caterpillar\"](\"https:\/\/nutritionknowhow.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/caterpillar.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n