Put Some Love in Your Kid’s Lunchbox with These Healthy Snacks

The brown-bag lunch of yore, complete with turkey on whole wheat and an obligatory apple, has thankfully gotten a more sophisticated facelift. Today’s kids are no longer rewarded for eating soggy sandwiches (those are fast becoming obsolete in a world of lunchboxes stuffed with free-range chicken salads and tabbouleh) with a sugar-high-inducing chocolate chip cookie. Instead, they can be fueled by wholesome, good-for-you snacks. Here are five tasty alternatives.

Bolthouse Farms’ famed baby carrots get a boost of flavor not in the conventional form of fattening ranch dip, but from vibrant spice in Carrot Meets Chili Lime Bolthouse Farms Kids Veggie Snackers. For a dose of interactive fun, little ones shake the zippy seasoning directly over their veggies.

Pamela’s (addictive) Figgies & Jammies give the classic Fig Newton a contemporary update. Purists will relish the Mission Fig version, but the gluten-free lineup — the soft, chewy cookie is made with rice flour — also includes strawberry, raspberry and blueberry mash-ups.

Shun those regular, greasy potato chips for Kashi’s Sea Salt & Olive Oil Hummus Crisps . Also available in savory flavors of Caramelized Onion and Sundried Tomato Basil & Feta, the ethereal, air-popped chickpea crisps star ingredients like real sea salt and extra virgin olive oil.

Crunchy popcorn is a sure hit with young eaters, but it need not be drenched in butter to appeal. Lesser Evil’s Himalayan Pink Buddha Bowl mingles organic kernels with coconut oil and pink Himalayan salt, while the Classic Cheddah iteration flaunts organic cheese. Sate dessert cravings with Himalayan Sweetness, which weaves in unrefined sugar cane.

All-organic Fruit Bliss, sold in resealable pouches — as well as miniature versions ideal for midday meltdowns — is a European-inspired celebration of ripe, quality, rehydrated fruit. Prized apricots and figs from Turkey, Deglet Noor dates from Tunisia and Agen plums from France are all dried in the sun and then infused with water and steamed until juicy.

Alia Akkam is a New York-based writer who covers the intersection of food, drink, travel and design. She launched her career by opening boxes of Jamie Oliver books as a Food Network intern.

Top Photo: iStock.com.

from Healthy Eats – Food Network Healthy Living Blog http://ift.tt/1t25wDO