19 // Meals Made Easy [Snacks]
Meals Made Easy [Snacks]
Easy ideas for how to add variety to THIS snack time staple
When we talk about snacks, you are hopefully familiar with my sharing that we want to have some protein, some fat, and some fiber. This helps minimize grazing (aka helps out the kid who is constantly wanting snacks but never seems actually satisfied) and is the go-to way to make snacks more like "mini-meals" (aka to help out the kid who only wants snacks > meals).
So listen in to why THIS is one of the go-to items in my kid-friendly snack drawer this spring (and summer). You will walk away knowing how to curb a common pitfall with picky eating AND how to boost nutrition with barely any extra effort.
Listen to this episode of The Veggies & Virtue Podcast now!
Full Episode Transcription
Please note this a raw transcription. If something doesn’t read correctly, toggle to that timestamp in the show so that you can listen in on what was actually being said!
[00:00:00] Mama, are you struggling with how to feed your kids? Right? Do you wish that there was a way to help your child try new foods? Do you look at a pantry cluttered with pirate, booty and a fridge full of the same food every week and wonder how you're going to get your family's meals off the hot mess express.
[00:00:16] I know what it feels like to scroll through all the feeding accounts on Instagram and to see a bunch of Fuji food that my family would never eat. And I too have pinned all the healthy recipes with good intention. But zero execution. I understand as a busy mom of three, that it can feel really unattainable, especially on the days when I'm exhausted.
[00:00:34] I have a short fuse. He really disliked an easy button and the date way. Well, that's where these meals made easy episode ideas come from with everyday ingredients that you already have on hand, I give you one meal or snack idea week that's dietician, mom approved, and is going to fit in your family's busy life.
[00:00:52] So get ready to press, add to cart and to make meals. Again, as we get into spring and summer, and we think of easy snack ideas, there'll be upcoming episodes of my longer episodes on how to build a healthy snack drawer, what to look for in a well-balanced snack and all that kind of stuff. But for today's MailMate.
[00:01:15] I really wanted to focus on a food that tends to be a love at food for kids, for some kids it's not. And that's okay. And there's tons of strategies you can still use to help your child learn to like it. But one of the most like opportunistic foods, I think that there is for our kids is yogurt. And whether your child has a milk restriction, like my youngest or your kids have loved yogurt for a long time, like my older two.
[00:01:41] You can make a lot of gains and adding variety to something as simple as yogurt. So if you find that yogurt is on your child's Lovett list, today's episode is going to help you think of how you can add variety and leverage that love at food so that you can expand on the types of yogurt that they enjoy the nutritional density in the yogurt.
[00:02:03] They enjoy and help bring other foods into it, to help them either learn to like those. Or just learned to like yogurt in a variety of ways. So really quickly as we get started talking about yogurt, I want to just highlight some of the nutritional advantages to something like yogurt in the most simplest sense.
[00:02:21] When we talk about. Finding a more filling snack. We want to be fine. We want to be finding one and fueling our kids with one that has protein, fat and fiber. Most yogurts already are going to have a decent amount of protein, even if it's not a Greek yogurt. And they assuming it's not a fat-free or low fat option, it's also going to have some fat yogurt also pairs.
[00:02:43] So. With fruits and veggies, whether you make it more of a sweet or a savory often. And so that really helps you get that fiber in. And so I think if yogurt is a food that is already in your kid's repertoire, or it's one that you want to help introduce to your children, I think today's meals may be easy.
[00:02:59] Episode is going to give you a lot of actionable ideas that you can implement right away. As with many snacks, our kids can find a lot of security in the packaging. And so when we talk about yogurt, I want you to consider. How privy to the packaging is your child. Do they know if you buy a different flavor simply because the packaging looks different because sometimes when you open up the yogurt itself, it doesn't necessarily look very different, but they may notice this is an orange label versus a red one.
[00:03:29] So automatically they can see that maybe that this is, you know, they might not know before tasting it, that it's peach instead of strawberry, but they can quickly identify something is different. And depending on the level of specificity for your child and. On, when I say level of specificity that really boils down to in layman terms of the pickiness of your child.
[00:03:49] And I don't like to use that language, but I also think it's important for us to know how some of these little subtle choices we made. Can sometimes compel and perpetuate picky eating, but likewise, some of these small little changes that we can make can also help really curb some of that problematic, picky eating moving forward.
[00:04:08] So, first and foremost, I want you to think about like, what is your child's favorite kind of yogurt and the first step I want you to think about making. Is how could you change the packaging? And this might be that you're changing to a different type of yogurt, but oftentimes that might be a big leap for some kids.
[00:04:25] If they're really hooked on, like, let's say a specific brand and flavor and type and things like that. So instead I want you to think about as a really easy way to modify this given favorite food for them, take it out of the package, put it in a bowl. If you often buy yogurt too. Squeeze it into a bubble, just change the appearance of it.
[00:04:47] So that they're seeing that this is in a bowl instead of a pouch instead of a tube instead of a container, because there's so much security for kids in that packaging, because they know that means it is the same. Every time they understand at a very young age that manufacturers manufacture things based off extreme levels of consistency.
[00:05:07] And so if you buy a large tub of container or excuse me, a large tub of. And you are often decamped to get into a wool. The good news is, is you've already taken this step with your child because they know it's going to look a little different every time, every time you offer it in a different bowl, it looks a little different.
[00:05:23] The way it plops down in the bowl looks a little different than kind of like the smooth smear that's on the top of a given like yogurt container. So this would be the first step. Once we have their given preferred. In a bowl with a different appearance, we have already made a huge step. So I want you to see that these are small steps, but they're huge wins.
[00:05:45] And so if you feel really stuck in a rut with your kids, make these baby steps, so you can see how you can continue to build on them. So now we have. Preferred yogurt in a bowl. It makes it a lot easier to buy, you know, other yogurt varieties at this point, because they're not looking at the packaging as an automatic red flag that there's something different.
[00:06:05] And so in this bull, now the second thing I want you to think about is how can you change the color? And really this brings in that component that we talked about adding fiber to their snack. Hopefully you're already buying a yogurt that has at least a little bit of fat. A whole fat, that would be my recommended option, but it's going to already have a little of that protein and fat.
[00:06:26] So now let's bring in that fiber, let's add some color to this, let your child add some berries or scoop in some apple slices or put some banana on top or, you know, thaws some berries. And so the juice of those. You know, changes a white yogurt into kind of like a purple yogurt or something like that and engage them in this process.
[00:06:46] So you can kind of see how receptive they are to changing the color, but they can also identify how that changed happened as you add these different foods. The next step that you can make is thinking about how you can change the texture of this yogurt. One of the most simple changes you can. Is going from like a traditional yogurt to a Greek yogurt.
[00:07:06] Anyone who's tasted the differences between those knows that the texture is a little bit different and that's just a really simple swap to boost the protein content in your child's yogurt. But additionally, we can add so much nutrition by giving our kids a sprinkle shaker with things like chia seeds or ground flax or hemp parts that they can just shake on their.
[00:07:25] Also if your kid can't have nuts because of it being a choking hazard, this is a great time to sprinkle crushed nuts on or to swirl in some nut better. Or, you know, as we talked about before, if you're adding in like smashed raspberries or banana slices or frozen blueberries, all of these things are excellent ways to change the texture and to gradually expand the way that your child enjoys yogurt.
[00:07:50] The last two strategies that we're going to talk about are changing the taste and changing the tempered. Any of these changes that we've made so far with changing the color or changing the text? Are going to change the taste. So be in tune, especially if your child doesn't prefer the taste of yogurt, pair it with something 11 food that, you know, they do live like a strawberry or an apple slice.
[00:08:13] It could be a Graham cracker dumped in yogurt even, and use that taste profile that, you know, they prefer to your advantage last but not least. One of my favorite things to do, especially as the weather heat. Is to freeze yogurt. You can make little frozen yogurt cups and like a silicone mold. You can just freeze those little yogurt tubes.
[00:08:32] And it makes a really awesome snack that tastes like a Popsicle, but it still has the neutral. Of yogurt and it doesn't really like squirt out quite as messy as like a, a thought yogurt tube would. And so this might be another really simple snack idea that you can start to offer this spring and summer.
[00:08:51] So as a quick recap, you can change the presentation by removing the packaging, which changes the presentation of how it's offered. You can change things like the. The texture, the taste and the temperature to continue to boost the variety and expand on 11 food like yogurt each and every time you purchase it or you offer it.
[00:09:13] If you've been enjoying these first few weeks of the meals made easy episodes, I encourage you to get in on this awesome, happy birthday sale. On my combination cards, I have combination card decks for breakfast, lunch, and snacks. And right now there are 35%. With code happy birthday. So just go to veggies and virtue.com backslash shop and type in happy birthday at checkout for 35%.
[00:09:38] You are combination cards. These meals made easy ideas are helping you in any way, or this show is encouraging you and the messes and the mealtimes of motherhood. I would love to hear about it. All you need to do is scroll down on apple podcasts and tap, write a review. I check each and every one of these and they truly.
[00:09:57] The read and to know how this show is helping shape your family's relationship with food so that I can continue to create content that serves you that thank you. And it may ask for taking the time to leave me a review, and I look forward to seeing you back here next time.
