Top Healthy Toddler Snacks on the Go

Snack Ideas and Recipes for Toddlers

As parents, there’s nothing more fulfilling than providing the proper nutrition to our kids. What makes up proper nutrition includes the three basic meals from breakfast to dinner and the snacks in between them. If you are finding it hard to prepare toddler veggie snacks, this article will help to make this less of a challenge for you.

Below is a list of healthy toddler snacks on the go that you can try for your kids to munch on during morning or afternoon snacks. These ideas can come with their lunch boxes at school or just an ordinary snack at your home.

Best Snack Ideas for Toddlers

1. Fruits
   Fresh Fruits Toddlers Can Try:
   Fruit Recipes:
   • Mini Applesauce Muffins
   • Banana Spinach Muffins
   • Mango Smoothie
2. Dried Fruits
   Dried Fruits for Toddlers:
   Dried Fruit Recipes and Products:
3. Vegetables
   • Veggie rainbow with hummus
   • Veggie Chips
   • Mini sandwich skewers
4. Crackers
5. Legumes
6. Smoothies
   • Avocado Blueberry Baby Smoothie
   • Tropical Carrot Smoothie
7. Seeds and Nuts

Summary

Best Snack Ideas for Toddlers

Just remember that for every food group, be careful with the amount or serving per meal you are about to give to your toddler. You don’t want to let them over-eat these snacks because even fruits can sometimes cause gastrointestinal discomfort when consumed inappropriately.

1. Fruits

There’s a reason why fruits and vegetables are the first food groups we should introduce to our babies as soon as they progress to eating solid foods. That same reason provides us the confidence to give our kids fruits for their morning or afternoon snack. I find it easier for kids to eat fruits than any other kind of food. Maybe because they are naturally sweet and juicy.

Fresh Fruits Toddlers Can Try:

Apples
Bananas
Strawberries
Blackberries
Blueberries
Watermelon
Avocado
Raspberries
Kiwi
Ripe Mango
Grapes (Sliced)
Oranges / Tangerines
Pears
Papaya

Fruit Recipes:

If you are keen on cooking, you can try these recipes starring different fruits so you can still give enough nutrients to your toddlers even during snack time:

Mini Applesauce Muffins
These little muffins are light and fluffy with a little sugar and cinnamon on top. Best for breakfast or midnight snack paired with your favorite drinks!

Key Recipe Details

Banana Spinach Muffins
The beauty of muffins is that you can add a fruit or vegetable to make it healthier without compromising its soft and fluffy texture. These Spinach Muffins with Banana are another healthy muffin variety packed with nutrients from greens and fruit— with a moist and fluffy feeling on the inside.

Key Recipe Details

Mango Smoothie
Pair your healthy muffins with fruit and healthy drinks too! Try this mango smoothie with fewer ingredients and easier steps. All you need to do is prepare the ingredients to be mixed in a blender and let the blender do the grinding and mixing work!

Key Recipe Details

2. Dried Fruits

Just remember that for every food group, be careful with the amount or serving per meal you are about to give to your toddler. You don’t want to let them over-eat these snacks because even fruits can sometimes cause gastrointestinal discomfort when consumed inappropriately.

Fresh fruits are indeed healthy but the idea of stocking up a lot of fruits doesn’t seem to work out well since their nutrients are gradually lost when just stored after harvest. Fresh fruits also tend to easily go bad when not properly stored in the fridge and have a high chance to become overripe when not eaten for a long time.

Hence, dried fruits can be a better alternative so that your toddlers can still eat fruits during their snack time:

Dried Fruits for Toddlers:
Raisins
Dried Mangoes
Dried Apricots
Dried Cranberries
Dried Cherries

Dried Fruit Recipes and Products:

• You can eat the pre-packed dried fruits found in the grocery stores, as-is.
• Or you can use them as toppings to your freshly baked muffins.
• You can also add them to top your fruit or veggie smoothies.
• You may also try these mixed dried tropical fruits as your healthy toddler snacks on the go, especially when going on a quick road trip:

Mixed Dried Fruits:

Sunbest Natural Tropical Dried Fruit Mix, Mango, Papaya, Banana, Kiwi, Vegan

3. Vegetables

Most toddlers are naturally indifferent when it comes to the idea of eating vegetables as a snack but this can easily be sorted out by trying these toddler veggie snacks ideas:

Veggie rainbow with hummus

Bell pepper, cucumber, and carrot are a wonderful combination to give bright colors to your kids’ foods to make them more appetizing. This recipe is a great supplement for your toddler’s fiber needs.

Key Recipe Details

To make this snack, you need raw, pan-fried, sautéed, grilled, or roasted veggie sticks with homemade hummus. If hummus sounds too bland, try other healthy dips, such as lemon-herb white bean dip or butternut squash dip.

Veggie Chips

These are the easiest way to sneak some veggies into your kids’ snack favorites. All you have to do is thinly slice the veggies and bake or deep fry them and sprinkle some salt. You can serve it with your toddler’s favorite dip like cheese sauce, ketchup, or tomato sauce.

Key Recipe Details

Mini sandwich skewers

To make this snack, simply stack cubed bread, vegetables, and cheese slices on the skewer to create a sandwich. You can add as many vegetables as well as different kinds of cheese as you desire, and you can follow whatever arrangement or order you prefer. The objective is to create a little sandwich skewer that is eye-catching, delectable, and healthy.

Key Recipe Details

4. Crackers

These are the easiest but most loved by toddlers since they are pre-packed and store-bought. To make it healthier, choose brown rice crackers or crackers made of oats to give your kids extra fiber. 

Adding avocado, hummus, or nut butter to them will make these plain crackers extra nutritious. Also, try to find oil-free or low-salt types of crackers with more whole grains.

5. Legumes

Legumes like chickpeas or edamame beans might be weird but they can be a great idea as a snack for your kids. You can just boil them or sauté them and add some seasonings to add a little taste. They have so much protein so you might want to have your toddlers eat these on some days. 

This can be a great vegan snack for kids which can also be made by roasting them or adding seasoning (such as paprika or cumin).

6. Smoothies

Smoothies might take some of your time and effort but this will make the best healthy and yummy drink for your kids. Smoothies are such a nutritious drink packed with calcium-fortified-plant-milk, especially when you add some greens like kale or spinach. You can try below recipe ideas:

Avocado Blueberry Baby Smoothie

Key Recipe Details

Just add everything to a blender and pulse until well blended. Serve with nuts or dried fruits on top.

Tropical Carrot Smoothie

Carrots can be eaten raw, so adding raw carrots into a smoothie can be a great idea too!

Ingredients:

• 1 small carrot, peeled, trimmed, and chopped* (about 1/2 cup)
• 1 Clementine, tangerine, or 1/2 an orange, peeled
• 1 heaping cup of frozen pineapple, mango, or a combo of both
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (or non-dairy yogurt)
• 1 pitted date (or 1 tablespoon honey)
• 1/4 cup coconut milk (or milk of your choice)
• 1 tablespoon hemp seeds (optional)
• Handful of ice
• Shredded coconut for garnish

Instructions:

1. Add everything to a blender and blend until smooth. Blend in additional ice if you want a thicker smoothie.
2. Pour into glasses and sprinkle with shredded coconut. Enjoy!

7. Seeds and Nuts

Seeds and nuts are rich in protein and fiber. By simply eating roasted, boiled, or fried nuts as snacks, is already of great value as your child can intake some protein, fiber, and minerals that are also great to supplement their daily requirements of those nutrients. 

Just be careful of choking hazards and allergies that your kids may have, before letting them eat these kinds of food groups.

Summary

No matter how creative we are in sneaking toddler veggie snacks into their diet, sometimes, they are also so smart to notice them or worse, ignore or throw them away. As parents, we’ve been through a lot of things for sure, so what are these little indifferences from our kids could ever do to us? Along with these healthy snack ideas, add a little more patience and effort and surely, everything will pay off.