Healthy Kids' Snack Ideas on the Web

Here we are again, at the start of new school year fresh out of ideas for a variety of healthy snacks. If there are chips in the closet, my older kids tend to go to them for after-school snacks. In search of a wider variety of healthy foods to have in the house when they get home from school, I turned to the web and found some fresh ideas:

Whole Foods snack planner - This five-day weekly chart has ideas for snacks that pack more whole grains and fruit and veggies into the mix than the empty carbohydrates my kids love. (pdf) I like that every snack idea has an "on-the-go" counterpart that makes healthy snacking between sports and other after-school activities possible. (But...even if I empty the house of everything else, I'm not sure I'd get my kids to eat blueberries and cottage cheese.)

Smoothies good! - Kaboose includes home-made smoothies made with low-fat yogurt and milk, fresh fruit and ice on its list of healthy snack ideas. My 12-year-old likes to whip these up, so that's one thing we're doing right.

All Recipes - In addition to some good snack ideas, including frozen fruit combos that actually sound good, you'll find a helpful tip for designating a "snacking zone" where kids can find the best choices when they burst in the door after school. Set apart shelves in the pantry and the fridge for the good stuff. By good, I mean healthy.

Quick Snacks - ParentCenter recommends nuts, for the kids who can eat them, and raisins, as well as baked chips when the chips do get opened.

Smart Snacks - Check out these ideas Yahoo! Food has for study-time snacks for students. Not sure they will really make your kids smarter...but there are some good ideas nonetheless.

Snack Decoder - WebMD has some helpful tips on separating the good from the bad in children's snacks, decoding the partially hydrogenated oils and sugar content amid the list of ingredients. (Note: the more ingredients, probably the less healthy it is.)

If you've found any other health snack tips via the web, pass 'em on below.