Healthy Snacks for Kids? It’s Do it Yourself!

Here’s the challenge: two grandkids of different ages with different–limited–food tastes. How to serve mutually agreeable after-school snacks? I took the do-it-yourself approach.

Instead of trying to make a snack to please both, I laid out ingredients and tools and invited the kids to make their own snack sandwich. By giving them choices and decorating options in the style of kawaii (cute) bento, I was hoping they’d be more likely to eat the results.

It worked.

Healthy Snacks for Kids Start with Fun Tools

Before the kids arrived, I gathered some of the tools I use when I make the Friday bento box for little N:

• Cookie cutters shaped like dinosaurs, hearts, and other simple silhouettes to cut bread slices
• Small vegetable cutters to cut cheese, fruits, and vegetables
• Colorful plastic food picks available at Target, Walmart, Amazon, and other outlets
• A clean work surface, such as a large plastic cutting mat

Another healthy snack even preschoolers can make is pizza; just blitz the dough for the crust in a food processor.

The Sandwich Ingredients

I hadn’t planned this activity ahead, so I simply rummaged through my pantry and fridge to find some ingredient choices.

Here are some ideas for sandwich ingredients:

• Savory fillings: Cheeses, salami and other cold meats
• Fruits and vegetables: Apple, banana, tomato, carrot slices, avocado
• Lemon juice to keep produce like banana and avocado from browning
• “Garnishes,” including raisins, and other small dried fruits like cranberries or blueberries, and candy sprinkles
• “Glue” to hold ingredients in place, such as butter, peanut butter, mayo, Nutella

How to Assemble the Healthy Snacks

Miss T, who is almost eight, got into the task immediately, selecting cookie cutters for her bread shapes, cutting ingredients with vegetable cutters, and planning out her snack. Little N, who is four-and-a-half, needed some time to think.

In the end, Little N cut out a dinosaur, spread it with peanut butter, and sprinkled his sandwich with raisins.

Meanwhile, Miss T made flowers, butterflies, and other cute shapes from apple and cheese slices, cut out bread shapes with a cookie cutter, and added sprinkles and a few picks to decorate her snack.

The end result is that both children were engaged for a time in the creative activity of making these sandwiches and then readily consumed the resulting healthy snacks of their own choosing.

What Kids Learn from this Project

This is a simple project to set up. Here’s what kids gain:

• Experimenting with flavors and what works together.
• Creating artistry with food.
• Satisfying their own hunger by taking charge of feeding themselves in a way that was fun, creative, and satisfying.

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