3 Easy, Healthy After-school Vegetable Snacks for kids

Are you constantly racking your head for healthy after-school snack ideas? Do your kids come home screaming ‘hungry’? Is there any point trying to convince them that dinner will be ready soon? (Sigh!!)

If you look in the pantry, most store bought snacks – are often carb-rich bars, tiny packets of cookies, etc. These never fill the kids up and they are back in 20 minutes asking for more snacks.

Here’s a revelation that is counter to what is being said constantly in news, media… Kids actually love vegetables. No, not just the raw veggie tray types. They love cooked veggies too. Only 2 rules apply when giving your kids veggies:

1. Find out their favorite veggies – e.g., my younger one loves cherry tomatoes, asparagus, beans etc. My older one loves cauliflower, avocados, corn etc. Once you know which veggies they love, half the battle is over.
2. Process them very gently. Don’t go crazy on the spices, most times just butter, salt and pepper is all you need.

Here are 3 examples of bowls of vegetable ‘snacks’ that I give to the kids after school.

Cauliflower

This is an absolute favorite with the kids. All I do is cut the cauliflower into florets, steam them and pan roast in butter with salt and pepper. The kids gobble it up.

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Process

• Steam cauliflower for a few minutes until you can pierce a fork through it. Don’t over cook it.
• Pan roast on a wide pan without overcrowding. If the pan starts getting crowded, do it in 2 batches.
• Caramelize each side with butter for a few minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Even our dog, Lulu, loves the cauliflower:)!!

Tip – Vegans can substitute butter with coconut oil.

Corn

Kids love corn. Ok, corn may not be the healthiest vegetable, but it still has fiber and valuable nutrients. Our Costco sells sweet corn, that is so tasty. Every time I buy it, I use it all up within a couple of days. Just boil it in water for 5-6 minutes and they are ready. How easy is that?

Mixed veggies

The frozen mixed veggie packets are such a blessing. Just steam and saute with butter, salt and pepper just like cauliflower.

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This is textural-ly satisfying and quite filling for a pre-teen/teen in the house. Older kids will like this mix better than younger ones.

Conclusion

I hope you like these veggie-bowl snack ideas for your kids. This kind of snack is great, irrespective of your child’s age/weight spectrum. It keeps appetite in check for growing/ larger kids. It provides much needed fiber and nutrition for the picky eaters.

Veggies and kids’ snacks are not something that one associates normally. But, I think it is great to have kids excited and eating veggies from a young age.

What are your thoughts? Chime in below!!