Newsletters "Wisdom From the Kitchen" | Veg4Health |Healthy Eating

Healthy Snack Ideas

In Florida , Easter tends to mark the beginning of swim season - at least in Nana's solar-heated pool. It's also a time when I have to begin really thinking of healthy and easy snacks for the kids. After several hours of swimming - they are starving and begging for something to eat. If I don't have the right things on hand, we are doomed to poor food choices and we can easily consume more calories at snack time than at meal time. Yesterday I made a list for Nana to work with - since she loves to stock her house and pantry with treats for the children. I hope this list helps you also as we try to continually improve our diets. Some of the items may sound a little different, but my kids really like them.

Dried fruits - their favorites are pineapples and blueberries
Nuts - My daughter loves Brazil nuts, walnuts, pecans and cashews. My son, health food nut that he is, loves honey roasted peanuts - these aren't really that healthy - but they are better than potato chips
Beans - Garbanzo beans (AKA chickpeas) and kidney beans- rinsed and drained - they love them plain
Fresh fruit - apples, bananas and pears. As the weather turns, this will include cantaloupe, blueberries, peaches, plums and watermelon
Celery sticks with natural peanut butter and raisins (AKA "ants on a log")
Organic baby carrots - they just seem to taste better than non-organic carrots
Lightly steamed broccoli and cauliflower served cold with Thai peanut sauce for dipping
Baked tortilla chips and salsa
Whole wheat tortillas with veggie cheese and shredded veggies, rolled up and sliced to look like pinwheels
Cold leftovers - Often times, leftovers taste deliciously different when served cold. Sometimes we add a little balsamic vinaigrette or Thai peanut sauce to give them an extra special kick.

These are not the only things my children love to snack on - but they are the healthier ones they like right now. Given a choice between these and potato chips, they will choose the chips. So, I don't give them the choice and hunger is a great motivator for healthy eating.

If you live in the Melbourne area, please join me on April 5
for my next cooking class.
Click Workshops for more detail.

Last newsletter I wrote about fresh asparagus being a harbinger to spring. Well, we are still gobbling up asparagus since it is so readily available and fairly inexpensive right now. Last week, I took a Pasta Primavera recipe that we like and changed the ingredient list around to accommodate the abundance of fresh asparagus in our refrigerator. The children liked it better with the asparagus than they did with the snow peas that the original recipe called for. Remember, cooking is about letting your creative juices flow and all recipes should be able to adapt to your family's taste buds and your food budget. Click here for the recipe.

Check out our latest Step-by-Step picture recipe here on
how to make GREAT fajitas.

I now have available My First Cookbook. It will be available at my cooking demonstrations or order online here.

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