Snackapalooza

One of my friends came up with the brilliant idea to host a healthy snack exchange. It's the start of a new year and we are all refocusing on our own health and we want to make sure that we are also providing our kids with healthy snacks. It is so easy to get stuck in a rut, that this was a great way for friends to enjoy a morning together, but to also bring home a bounty of snacks for their kids to try. My kids tasted a few and while some were given a thumbs down, we have some definite thumbs up and some haven't even been tasted yet!

I've been playing around with healthy snacks for a while. I have cut out store bought granola bars and gummy "fruits" and really watch the ingredients of the foods I let my kids have for snack. The saying is true, if it isn't in the house, it can't be eaten.

For my older daughter's snack, I mainly send a trail mix that she loves of almonds, peanuts, honey nut cheerios, cranberries, cherries and a few mini marshmallows and chocolate chips. I know the sweet stuff is her favorite part and I know that cheerios are high in sugar, but I like getting the power of nuts in her snack. She loves muffins, but refuses to eat them in snack since she prefers that they be warmed up first.

My younger daughter often gets apple crisps or a piece of fruit and a cheese stick. I used to also send in organic yogurt pouches, but I only buy those when they are on sale. I can't send nuts of any kind to her school, which is frustrating, but I can send muffins when we have those on hand.

So for today's extravaganza I brought in chewy granola bars with mixed dried fruit, banana oak Greek yogurt muffins, and paleo sweet potato brownie muffins.

I've tried various granola bars in the past without much luck, but these are awesome. Both of my girls love these. I tried a batch with less brown sugar, but it is needed to help bind them together. Oh well, that batch will work perfectly over E's meals of vanilla greek yogurt.

The banana muffins are a tried and true favorite. Both of my girls love muffins. The house favorite are these pumpkin muffins, but sometimes I like to shake it up a bit, and sometimes I simply have too many over-ripe bananas. I love that these don't have any flour or oil. There is also only a 1/4 cup of brown sugar in them and good for you greek yogurt and oats. My girls can gobble them up!

The final recipe that I brought is one that I'm still trying to work the kinks out of. They are a dense, paleo sweet potato brownie muffin, but I feel like there was too much sweet potato in them and they had a hard time cooking. I'm going to continue to play around with them after I finish my Whole30. I love the way they taste and people seemed to really enjoy them today. One little 2 year old was at the exchange and she kept asking for more. 

I love the concept of a snack exchange and will plan to host another one to extend the circle to more people. This group plans to probably do another in a few months. There are also talks about other cooking related exchanges. It is great to have a group of friends that is on the same page with you about wanting to only feed our families whole foods!