Healthy snacks?
 

Anyone have any healthy snack recipes? Preferably something I can make in bulk and freeze. So far I have made my own granola, granola bars, pudding, and mini muffins. I am tired of paying for processed snacks (full of junk and expensive) and want to make a few thinks a week in bulk and have a good selection going for myself and the kids.

Here is one I just found for healthier brownies -

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat flour
½ cup cocoa powder
1 ½ tsps baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ cup canola oil
½ cup apple sauce
1 cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups finely shredded zucchini
¼ cup dark chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350
Grease and flour 1 9x13 baking pan
In a medium sized bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt
In a large bowl mix both sugars, oil, apple sauce and vanilla until well blended
Add flour mixture to wet ingredients and stir until just combined
Fold in zucchini and chocolate chips
Spread evenly into pan
Bake for 35–40 minutes or until brownies spring back in centre when touched.

Here is another one -

Spicy Baked Chickpeas (think Cornnuts only healthy)

1 teaspoon each of : curry, ground coriander, chili powder, ground cumin,
and paprika

1/2 teaspoon each of: ground allspice, salt, and cayenne pepper

Mix with cooked chickpeas

Place on baking sheet.
Into 400 degree oven for around 30 minutes, stir and flip every 10 mins.

my kid is seriously deprived.. he gets no snacks lol.. I mean other than like fruit and veggies.. occassionally he has like crackers but it's a rarity :p

• Hummus - we use Peanut butter instead of tahini because I forget to buy it or the seeds to grind myself. It's used as a veggie dip or whole wheat cracker
This is a great way for me to get bean proteins into the kids w/o having to serve 'beans'

• Fruit smoothies - easy all year 'round with the bags of frozen fruit at the store. We also do a version with bananas, peanut butter & carob powder if I have it, ovaltine if I don't.

• Banana splits - in our house this means bananas split lengthwise, smeared with peanut butter and sprinkled with a few chocolate chips.

• Fruit juice jello

• Apples slices with peanut butter spread

HAHAHAHA... Healthy snacks? I wish.

But I'll be watching this thread to learn more :)

Oh Jennifer - I'm so going to try the baked chick peas! DH might even like that one!

Not a recipe but my kids saw the commercial for the Trix yogurt you freeze and wanted it...well I refused to pay like $4 bucks for them to have 2 each. So I bought Turner's Brand (it's a local dairy near us that doesn't use the hormones on their cows) plain fat free yogurt and mixed some sugar free jello I had here at home in it. Then I divided it among 15 3oz plastic cups and stick a small craft stick in them (bought for like 150 for $2 bucks in the craft section of walmart) and stuck them in the freezer....they are the biggest hit ever here at my house!!

So for my $4 bucks they each get like 5 of the homemade ones instead of 2 of the store bought ones!!! Plus I have tons and tons of flavors of jello.....the strawberry banana ones are divine!!!

Next batch I'm gonna try pudding because I want a frozen cheesecake pudding pop!!!! *drool*

Those sounds fab! Totally trying that :)

That does sound good! Let me check my "healthy snack" file in my binder...I know there's a few good things in there that are probably doable in bulk...

A hint with the pudding - you have to add a little milk to the mixture because the pudding mix will want to thicken up and the yogurt is already really thick so it's gets yucky. But a little milk for even consistency and it's a nice treat! Very Weight Watchers friendly too. ;)

What about frozen bananas on a stick?

We eat lots of popcorn here. Use the hot air popper and make it without all those weird chemicals in the microwave kind. Add a little spray butter, parmesean cheese and yum-o!

My kids and husband also love homemade chex-mix and it's easy to double or triple the batch. You can control the amount of salt pretty easy and if you check out www.chex.com they have a zillion different recipes you can try for a variety of flavors to appease your kids.

Mmmmm... those frozen yogurt pops sound great!

*strawberry covered bananas*
STRAWBERRY SAUCE:

1 container (1 pt.) strawberries
1/4 c. orange juice
1 tbsp. orange peel, cut in thin strips
1 jar (12 oz.) strawberry preserves

then add in bananas

*Yogurt covered pretzels*

* 10 dozen small pretzels
* 2 cups vanilla yogurt or strawberry yogurt
* 5 cups confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 250°F.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the confectioners sugar into the yogurt, one cup at a time with a hand blender.

Using tongs or chopsticks, dip the pretzels, one at a time, into the frosting and place them on a wire cooling rack (place a cookie sheet under the wire rack to catch the excess frosting that will drip from the pretzels).

Once all pretzels are coated, turn your oven off and place the wire rack and cookie sheet in, leaving the oven door slightly open. The excess heat will help the frosting dry without leaving the pretzels soggy.

Allow frosting to harden for 3-4 hours, remove from oven, and store pretzels in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

*only 21 calories per serving*

Jennifer - we're doing the chickpeas right now - and they smell yummy!

LOL Darcy, I am doing them right now too! I made 1/2 savory, and the second 1/2 I did a sort of chickpea granola. I mixed in a little honey, cinnamon, ground ginger, and almonds. When it is done I am going to add some raisins.

Let me know how yours turn out!

Maybe it's because I expected the crunch of corn nuts, but when they weren't 'crunchy'...I stuck 'em back in the oven for a bit LOLOL.

My kids love these! Replace some of the oil with Applesauce. I didn't put as much sugar in when I made them, more like 2.5 cups. And I used 1/2 whole wheat flour!

6 Week Muffins


15 Oz Box Raisin Bran -- or any bran flakes
3 Cups Sugar
5 Cups Flour
5 Tsp Baking Soda
2 Tsp Salt
1 Cup Oil
4 Eggs
1 Qt Buttermilk Mix

Bake at 400 degreees for 15-20 munutes

Makes about 4 doz