Offering your children healthy and delicious snacks and lunches is a snap.  It
just takes a bit of creativity and planning.  With these tasty suggestions,
you'll be setting a good example and building a better future in no time...
Lunch

Pre-packaged items*: from the store to the lunch box:

Fruit cups
Applesauce
Peanut butter and crackers
100% juice boxes (small)
Cheese sticks
Fruit and cereal bars
Granola bars
Celery or carrot sticks with Ranch dressing

Treats you can put into containers or snack baggies ahead of time:

Grapes
Strawberries
Orange slices
Peanut butter on celery sticks
Homemade, no or low sugar oatmeal bars
Low sugar cereal (good for a crunchy snack
Trail mix (low-sugar version)
Walnuts
Cashews
Dried fruit pieces (if store bought, chose the kind with no sulfites)

After School:

Peanut butter on apple slices
No sugar added yogurt - stir in a teaspoon of no sugar added jam
Natural granola with milk or soy milk and fruit
Grilled cheese sandwich
Bagel with cream cheese
Raw veggie sticks with favorite dressing for dipping
Fruit salad
Peanut butter toast
Bean and cheese burrito
Chicken and cheese quesadilla
Egg sandwich


*Read the labels and check for sugar, sodium, additives and preservatives.
The health food isle of your grocery store will have the best selection.  Kids
require a higher fat intake than adults, so "low-fat" items are not necessary
(or healthy) for them.

If you let your children help or prepare the meals/snacks by themselves
(depending on age) they will not only enjoy the food more, they will be
learning how to make healthy eating decisions - a skill that will last for
generations to come!

Melinda Rice is a fitness consultant and writer based in Northern California.
She manages Successful Fitness (http://www.SuccessfulFitness.com),
a personal training program that incorporates concepts of psychology, nutrition,
wellbeing and fitness into a Lifestyle Transformation plan.  You can reach her
at melindarice@comcast.net.

Submitted by:

• Name: Melinda Rice, CPT
• Date: 01/10/06 at 11:34
• Email: contact@successfulfitness.com
• Rem Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
• Rem IP: 24.10.43.216