Sunday, May 24, 2009

150 calorie snacks for kids

Like everyone else these days, or so it seems, we are trying to eat a better diet. Snacks are usually quite loosely defined at our house. To get better control of this area of our eating we made a list of snack that are 150 calories. The kids have really gotten into this, reading labels, figuring out how much of a food would be the allotted calories, and deciding if a food is worth the cost of the calories. They can have a snack in the morning, the afternoon and in the evening although they don 't have all three every day. Sometimes we get so busy that it is lunch time or dinner time before we realize it or we aren't home and they don't think of snacking. Here is the list of snacks that we have come up with so far that they think are a good deal for how much you get.

  • celery with 2 tbsp. peanut butter
  • apple
  • 28 almonds
  • 18 chips
  • string cheese
  • carrots
  • 2 grahmn crackers with a little jam
  • a slice of goat cheese
  • orange
  • green beans - in the summer they love these raw picked right from the garden
  • hard boiled egg
  • bowl of spinach with a spritz of dressing
  • 4 crackers with a slice of cheese
  • little bowl of yogurt with a bit of granola for topping
  • turkey slice with a pickle
  • glass of chocolate milk
  • 27 little pretzels
  • a freezee with 18 pretzels
  • 8 Combos
  • 1/2 cup of sugar free pudding
  • watermelon
  • granola bar
  • 3/4 of a pop tart - we eat Nature's Path organic tarts so I don't know how others compare
  • 2 cups of noodle soup
  • 1 can of fruit with the syrup drained off
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1 cup hot chocolate
  • 1/4 cup popcorn before it is popped - of course we eat it after it is popped!
  • 1/2 can of spaghetti rings
  • 8 Late July Classic Rich crackers - these are like Ritz
  • 30 Late July cheese crackers - these are like Chez-its
  • 3 tbsp. hummus with 1/2 pita or 4 crackers

Some things they didn't think were worth it, mostly because of the serving size, were candy, trail mix, peanuts, sugar pop, french fries, spray cheese (we never have this but they looked at it in the store and decided it was bad deal) and things that are high in sugar. We haven't done a full search of the grocery store but I am looking forward to what they think of different choices. I also like that they are taking more control over their diet instead of me policing it.

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