Homemade Healthy Alternatives to Store-Bought Snacks for Children - A Selection of My Original Recipes (vegetarian)
By request from several other parents I've put together this collection of my snacks recipes for children. I'm ever so grateful to be a 'home Mama' with time to prepare healthy wholesome food for my little 'un, as getting the right kind of goodness into them whilst their bodies and systems are developing is so important. I fully appreciate not everyone has time to cook and bake in-between full-time jobs and grocery runs and errands and social activities, etc. But you'll be pleased to know that most of these recipes were designed with time constraints in mind, and are really quick to whip up for the kids (or for yourself!)
A lot of the time there's not much difference between a snack for a child and one for adults... as long as ingredients are free from sugar, processed and refined ingredients (and also take into account choking risks for the very little ones). I try to shape them in fun ways, for example I bake miniature soda breads for my son whenever I bake a loaf for us. Things like salad/fruit skewers, falafels, potato salad, cheese bread twists, anything like that which looks fun and appetising will usually get the thumbs up! So here's a few ideas and recipes from me... all of which can be adapted to suit persoanl tastes, dietary requirements, or altered to be made vegan if wished.
RECIPES
Homemade Potato Crisps (Some Flat, Some Spiral!)
"Beauty-Fruity Green Millet for Infants!"
"Toddler Stew!"
Roasted Melon Wedges and Seeds
Fresh Strawberries & Cream Birthday Muffins! (Sugar Free, Gluten Free, Paleo)
Aduki & Hazelnut Falafels (Vegetarian, Gluten Free)
Cinnamon Cookies (No Sugar)
Pecan & Date Gingerbread Men (No Sugar)
Savoury Seed & Sundried Tomato Biscuits
The Perfect Scones for Sweet or Savoury (No Sugar)
Manuka Honey, Hazelnut & Golden Linseed Creamy Cheesecake (No Sugar)
Easy Peasy "Don't-Call-Them-Scone-Balls" Apple & Hazelnut Scone Balls!!! (No Sugar)
Sugar-Free Raw Vegan Fruit & Nut Tart
GLUTEN FREE and SUGAR FREE Coconut, Date & Hazelnut Cookies
GLUTEN FREE and SUGAR FREE Healthy Blueberry Muffins
Sweet Heart Sticky Fig Caramel Pastries (No Sugar)
Sticky 'n' Sweet Lemon and Ginger Cups (No Sugar)
Apple, Blueberry & Hazelnut Tarts with a Wholewheat & Almond Crust (No Sugar)
Moist Gingerbread with Crunchy Hazelnut Topping (No Sugar)
Sticky Apple & Fig Cacao Swirl Pastries (No Sugar)
Herby Wholewheat Scone-Based Pizza, Topped with Mediterranean Veg
Mini Blueberry & Wheatgrass Honey Cookies (No Sugar)
EASY Goji Berry Heart Honey Cookies (No Sugar)
Sweet Cinnamon Oaties (No Sugar)
Healthy Alternative to Ice Cream - Creamy Vanilla Frozen Yoghurt (No Sugar)
Savoury Sweet-Potato Bread with Green Peanut Butter Hummus
Sweet Potato & Cacao Swirl Pastries (No Sugar)
"Good for Mama, Good for Baby"
Cereal Bars
Chewy Date & Apricot Flapjack Fingers
Sweet Cinnamon Crunchy Chickpeas
Mini Carrot & Orange Cakes
Crunchy Date & Ginger Semolina Cookies
Carrot & Ginger Wholewheat Scones
Apple & Ginger Oat Cookies
Wholewheat Irish Soda Bread
Apple Crumble Flapjack Bites
Apple Crumble Crunchy Slices
Frozen Banana & Pineapple Yoghurt
For more health information, tips, recipes (vegan/vegetarian), crafts, and more, please follow me!
To find out what my "Make It Healthy Project" is all about, and how you can be involved in growing this project, please click here.
Initiated by...
("5 Cs shared with kind permission from @kiwideb)
So many great options! I got some more millet today, so I need to try that fruity green millet this week finally. 😀
Oooh lovely! Millet is awesome isn't it, so versatile and amazing. I think @babettxx is a little bit in love with millet as well, she has some amazing recipes if ever you see them? Enjoy your fruity bowl of it! I made some with mango and carrot today.... yuuuuuum :-)
She amazes me with all the different ways she uses millet! I have it on the docket to make tomorrow. 😀 Mango and carrot sounds delicious!
holy cow, @woman-onthe-wing, all of this food looks so delicious! You have some very lucky children! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks so much for your kind words @brookeloving! My boy is healthy and happy and what more can a mama ask for!
Wow. This is awesome. I've already gotten attracted to these. This is spicilious enticing. My love for cookies knows no bounds. Your son must be really lucky having you around
Thanks very much @donnest! My boy loves trying all kinds of things, so at least I have a appreciative taste-tester for all these goodies!
Love this post & bookmarked for future reference. Do you have any good recipes for breastfeeding mama? The lactation cookies in the market, for example, has too much sugar and I don't like the idea of consuming too much in fear of affecting the quality of milk supply. Thoughts?
That's a very good question @steemit-foodie! I had major lactation problems when I was nursing, pretty stressful. After doing quite a bit of research I started eating things like this:
Blend together spinach, carrots, sweet potato and chickpeas to make like a thick smoothie mixture. Then mix this with cooked oatmeal, and sprinkle with nuts and seeds (in particular almonds, poppy seeds, fenugreek seeds and sesame seeds). Fenugreek is one of the best things for lactation.
I added crazy amounts of (fresh) garlic and ginger to my meals, and herbs such as basil and dill.
Drink as much water as humanly possible!
With regard to the lactation cookies, I agree, they contain waaaay too much sugar and this isn't good. So I recommend replacing the sugar in those recipes with some kind of sweet vegetable (grated raw or cooked & mashed) such as sweet potato, carrot, parsnip. Also replace half the quantity of wholewheat flour with coconut flour as this adds sweetness too. That should suffice for sweetness without the need for sugar!
I hope this helps :-)
This is really very helpful. I am doing all the homework now as baby is coming soon. When baby comes, I hope I will have time to write about my experience and to share with others as a way to help!
I just realized how little do I know about pregnancy and baby. It's funny how little we Western women educate our fellow sisters about any of it. I wish I had learned something like that in school just to have a basic.
In other countries in this world, particularly the underdeveloped nations, women constantly witness and share these vital details as part of their daily lives.
This knowledge is not available for general consumption and I really have to research and ask around.
Therefore, I really appreciate your assistance and information sharing.
Anything I can do to help, I will! I'm no expert on motherhood, but as a mother I guess I do have plenty to share! I think I may do some posts for pregnancy, or new mothers... I've got a few ideas, maybe it will be helpful to share them :-)
You're absolutely right, in the West we're not taught much about pregnancy/babies (I guess they don't want to encourage us to have them too early, but is ignorance really helpful?!) and in other cultures they witness and help out from very young ages. That's a very good point. They even deliver their own babies, whereas we in the West wouldn't dream of it!
Thank you and please do!
So much goodies Joanna...............do I have to be toddler to have some?
Hehe, you're in luck Lena, these treats are good for everyone, hooray!
I kind of new that, I was just being silly, lol
Omg all these foods!! :D There was so much creativity needed to create all of that! I'm always looking for healthier alternatives so will definitely check a few of these recipes out! :)
Thank you @nina.ser, I appreciate your comment! I love getting creative in the kitchen, especially when I'm doing it for the good of my son as well as taking pretty photos! ;-)
Well it's a double win then :D