There's one word I hear more than any.
Mom.
Followed by.
Can I have a snack?
Yeah. But seriously, snacks are important for children. They have smaller tummies and
they burn so much energy that offering a snack between meals with a drink, will give them
the hydration and the nutrients that their growing bodies need. So in today's video,
I'm going to give you my best snack hacks and snack ideas and I hope you really enjoy
it. If you do, give it a like, and if you're new I would love you to subscribe and let's
jump into it.
To start out I wanted to show you that the kids have a snack drawer that they can access.
I know some mums think I'm crazy to have this, but it was really handy when I was breastfeeding
our youngest and the two older kids could get themselves a snack. So we keep things
in here like dried fruit, to raisins, fruit and yogurt. I do try to keep these prepackaged
snacks for just when we go out, 'cause they're really easy to throw into my bag. The kids
love these Soreen loaves which are malt loaf. We also have popcorn, rice cakes, crackers,
bread sticks, cereal biscuits and cereal bars as well.
But when we're at home, our go to snack is fruits and veg, maybe some cheese, yogurt,
cottage cheese with fruit and cereals as well. So let's start out with fruit. We really go
through a lot in this house. They have it every day and a quick simple hack that you
can do, is precut your fruit, put it into Tupperware and have that ready in the fridge.
My kids go from zero to a hundred in hunger in like seconds. So if I can quickly grab
this from the fridge, put some in a bowl and let them have it, it keeps us away from the
prepackaged snacks.
And I also find when it comes to snacks, it's all about the presentation sometimes. So you
can do really cute things like this. And this one, I'm making a little goldfish with some
blueberries, a little blueberry eye, and a little raspberry lips and they can eat that.
They will honestly think this is so cute. And if you have time, this one's a bit more
elaborate. I found it on Pinterest, and I just thought it was so cute, especially if
you were having some friends over or a little play date. I'm making a fruit peacock in this.
So I'm just using all the fruit that I've cut up. You could use any colors, any fruit
that you want to. I've used a pear as the main body, and blueberry eyes, and a little
tangerine nose as well, and this looks so impressive. The kids will totally love it
and you'll look like supermom.
Another cool way to serve fruit as a snack is on a Kebab, or a Kebab as it's known in
North America, but basically just putting fruit onto a stick. I think kids should probably
be over the age of two for this one, 'cause the top of the stick can be quite spiky, but
mine really love it like this. I do it in rainbow colors, and Jackson will either pull
the fruit off or just eat it straight off of the stick and yeah, he really likes this.
There are also a few little hacks I've learned over the years when it comes to cutting fruit.
I've had this apple slicer for ages and it's so handy when I'm sending in an apple to school
as a snack. So all you do is cut the apple but try to keep it all together, then secure
it with an elastic band and it will stay fresh. I will put into a Ziploc bag, or maybe do
a tiny squeeze of lemon to keep it fresh. And when it comes to a banana, monkeys actually
open them from the bottom. And once you try this I think you'll see how much easier it
is. Just give it a little pinch, and it comes apart a lot quicker and easier, and your child
will also have more to hang onto on the bottom.
And my next hack is to use an egg slicer to cut strawberries. This is so quick and simple,
and strawberries fit into egg slicers just perfectly, they slice them so evenly. It comes
out looking really professional if you're going to put these onto pancakes, or onto
those fruit kebabs. I just love this little hack, I think it's so cool.
I also wanted to show you how to make yoga bar. This is a healthy snack that is perfect
if you have a teething baby, it's really easy to make as well. All I'm going to use is some
chopped up fruit, some chopped up nuts, you could add seed, you could add honey, you could
add anything you want to. I'm going to use a plain Greek yogurt today and just spread
it onto a chopping board covered in tin foil. I'm using Greek yogurt 'cause it's higher
in protein, but I suppose you could use plain yogurt as well. So I'm just going to pour
it on and then just stick everything on top. It's really easy to do.
I'm adding some raspberries, some blueberries, some chopped up nuts, maybe a few seeds, maybe
even as in chocolate chips, and the grapes as well. And then all you have to do is put
this into the freezer and let it freeze, and then once it's done then you can cut it up
and hand it over to your toddler and they will really like it. If your child doesn't
like holding something cold, you can use a tissue or another option which my kids really
have loved, is to freeze yogurt tubes as well and they like that as well.
Another snack which has a bit more to it is to make your own trail mix. This is so yummy
that I also end up eating it and it's so easy to make. You just need some dry ingredients
like cereals, nuts, maybe some dried fruit as well, and then just mix it all in a bowl
and then store it away. So for today's one I'm adding in some cheerios, some raisins,
also some walnut pieces, these are chopped up. I'm also going to add in a few pumpkin
seeds. and some popcorn, and a little bit of chocolate chips as well. I love the whole
[selfie 00:05:21] sweet thing. So you could also put in pretzels if you want to, just
give it a little mix and then store it away in either Tupperware, or I've got this really
cute to glass jar which will keep it sealed. And then when your child asks for a snack,
you can just pour a bit of this into a bowl and it's really yummy.
This next hack has to be one of my favorites. I think these little butterfly snack bags
are adorable. I normally send two snacks in for the boys at school, and I just think that
this is a great way to separate them. So all you have to do is get yourself some clothes
pegs. I picked these ones up at Poundland, but any will do even more traditional looking
ones will, and you don't have to add on the eyes and the pipe cleaners if you don't want
to. It will still look like a butterfly, but I'm adding on some pipe cleaners for little
antennas, and just gluing on the eyes. And then you can go ahead with a Ziploc bag and
add in one snack on half of it, then add the peg, and then put in your other snack on the
other half, and it's that simple.
It looks really effective. You can also reuse these Ziploc bags again if you encourage the
boys to bring it home, or the kids to bring it home. And yeah, you can also do it with
fruits. So with this one I'm putting half chopped up grapes, and then half blueberries
as well. And again, I just think these are so cute. Obviously I don't send it in with
my oldest son, but my five year old loves them. As I said earlier, sometimes these snacks
it's all about the presentation, and it doesn't even take very long to dress up a cracker
or rice cake and make it a bit more fun for the kids. So I'm going to show you a few ideas.
One of these I was using almond butter and then adding some banana on top. You can also
use cream cheese and then put some veggies on top, maybe some cucumber, maybe you make
a little face with cucumber mouth, and then tomato eyes, you can really get creative.
And same goes for rice cakes as well. I buy the plain rice cakes, add on some cream cheese,
add on some almond butter and then give them little faces or make them little animals.
There are so many ideas on Pinterest as well and I just love looking at those. So I made
these with Easter in mind. So I'm just adding on some fruit, and some whiskers, and little
bunny faces and the kids think these are really cute.
I also wanted to show you our favorite protein ball recipe. It's from Deliciously Ella and
I'll link it down below. This is also a great one and to get the kids involved in, once
you've got the ingredients out, it's really easy for them to help you throw it into a
bowl and then you can put it into the food processor. So I'll put the measurements down
below, but it's pretty much walnuts, almonds, and I actually buy them in powdered form,
some coconut oil, some chia seeds, some cocoa powder, and the main ingredient is these delicious
medjool dates. I pick them first, put them all in the food processor and then you can
just roll them up into little bowls, which sometimes the kids like to help me with as
well. Then you can put them into the fridge, and they'll keep in the fridge for about a
week, but I doubt they will even last that long they're so yummy.
Next step I wanted to show you how to make Ninja cheese out of a baby bell. All you have
to do is take the strip off as if you're opening it, and then add a little bit of black icing
for the eyes, and you have yourself some Ninja cheese.
Smoothies can also be a great snack and one hack for smoothies is to make a smoothie dump
bags. This is basically just putting all of the ingredients that you're going to need
for your smoothie into a Ziploc bag, and then putting that into the freezer. You can add
any veg, any fruit, even chopped up bananas. Stick all of that into the freezer and then
the next time you want a smoothie you can take it out, put it into your blender and
mix in almond milk or coconut water whatever you like, and you have yourself a really cold
and delicious smoothie.
I also have a hack to get your kids eating more vegetables as a snack, and I actually
debated whether to include this or not, but it really does work so I hope it will for
you as well. Basically my kids come in from school absolutely starving, and they're also
really tired. So sometimes they will just chill out in front of the TV, so this is a
really good time to give them some veggies. So I will cut up carrots, peppers, cucumbers,
serve it with hummus as well, and then they will kind of sit there in front of the TV
and just mindlessly eat the vegetables. It's probably not the best advice, but it really
does work. So if you're ever going to give veggies as a snack, after school is a great
time to do it.
And going back to presentation being important when it comes to snack, I find that using
a divider plate or a lunchbox like this can really help and make snack time a bit more
exciting if you take everything out of the packaging and you also have some choice. So
maybe some crackers, some veggies, some fruits, some cheese. Just different picky bits. It
seems to encourage my kids to eat more at snack time or at lunchtime as well. So yes,
if you have a divider plate to definitely give that a try.
And the last recipe that I wanted to share with you is more of a sweet treat but there
is some fruit in it. So I just wanted to show you this 'cause it's so easy. All you have
to do is put some fruit into a lolly mould, then top them up with lemonade, stick that
into the freezer, and then the lollies come out looking really cool. 'Cause they're clear
you can see the fruit through it. They can obviously eat the fruit as they're eating
the lollipops and I just thought these were really cool.
I also wanted to show you one more hack which I have shown before. It is like the oldest
one in the book, but basically it's using cupcake cases to catch drippy lollies. So
if your child takes a bit longer to eat a lolly, you can stick a little case like this
on the bottom of it. Just put a hole through the case and then that will help to catch
the drips. Obviously, if they take forever to eat the lolly, then this won't work. But
if your child just has a few drippy bits, it works a charm.
Bye.
Bye. Thanks so much for watching and we'll see you on my next one.