In the United States, November is a month of celebration and change. Sundays are filled with football; plans for Thanksgiving preoccupy our minds; and for most of us, temperatures edge closer to freezing.
In the spirit of these two themes (celebration and change), we’re offering a few dead-simple, good-for-you food switcheroos to help you celebrate!
Thanksgiving Snacks Set the Stage
When it comes to ingraining good habits early on, there’s hardly a better time than Thanksgiving!
After all, you’ve got a captive audience, your kids will be starving by the time they get to Grandma’s, and most times, they even have their own table!
Why not use this opportunity to slip in some healthy snacks and see what happens? Here are two super easy ideas to turn your kids onto healthy snacks:
Fresh fruit
You wouldn’t believe how quickly kids devour fruit when it’s all cut up into bite-sized pieces.
For parents everywhere, half the struggle of getting kids to eat more fruit is overcoming the labor of all the cutting and peeling.
You know how good fruit is for them – so if you find yourself in that boat, swing by the supermarket and pick up a fruit platter. Then watch it disappear at the kid’s table!
Dips
Thanksgiving doubles as game day for football fans, and with the family gathering around the TV before and after the meal, snacks are going to be in high demand.
Moms, dads, and kids all love feasting on de rigueur snacks like chips with ranch dip -- but there are so many substitutes that even the staunchest fans of creamy ranch will enjoy.
Hummus, tzatziki, baba ganoush, guacamole, salsa and nut butters will all be received well, so try them on for size.
There are also a host of healthier chip options out there to keep many a chip fan happy. Bean chips, taro chips, you name it – it’s all available. Even seaweed, which is so good for teeth and bones, might win a few folks over.
Oh, and don’t forget Grandma’s favorite: fresh carrots and celery! Kids will love the crunch, and you’ll be providing their teeth with self-cleaning fiber that’ll keep ‘em healthy for many years to come.
Festive snacking doesn’t have to be a guilty indulgence in November, or any other time of the year. Getting your kids to snack healthy this month can help establish a great, healthy habit to last them a lifetime!