My top priority is to ensure the safety and well being of my children. All five of them. An important part of keeping them safe is teaching them healthy eating habits. As such, we are constantly on the search for healthy, fun, tasty snack foods. We are also dealing with a great deal of health issues, such as Celiac (a gluten intolerance) and food allergies. On days when I forget to pack a snack before beginning our afternoon mayhem, we find ourselves in the organic fruit section at the grocer picking out a fresh organic apple, peach or banana. Fresh, unprocessed foods are always a wonderful, delightful and healthy choice.

The very best snack foods are items we can make at home, store and serve in reusable containers. This way we avoid packaging, processing and all things artificial. It is also easy to hide numerous healthy grains and even veggies inside home baked treats.

Because I am human, and a busy Mom, there are many times when I don’t have treats prepared at home and I must grab something and run. For these times, we have two favorites:

Stretch Island Fruit Leathers (we purchase them in a box of 48 at Costco, the cost breakdown is .22 each.) and LaraBars, which we also purchase at Costco in a box of 18, the cost is .97 each versus $1.59 at the local grocer.

Why we like Stretch Island- The kids get half a serving of fruit in each leather, with no added sugars, flavors or anything artificial. They taste darn good and the kids gobble them up. We also love Stretch Island’s Fruitabu line of ORGANIC Smooshed Fruit. What we don’t like, the fruit leathers are individually wrapped in plastic. I don’t know that there is an alternative packaging option because the fruit is VERY sticky. Making dried fruit leathers at home is a wonderful option, however they must still be packaged somehow or they will stick together. We don’t have a food dehydrator and I’m not sure that 6 hours in the oven at 200 degrees is a good use of electricity. So this will remain one of those snacks we don’t avoid packaging, but do try to limit consumption on.

Why we LOVE LaraBar- These tasty bars are vegan, minimally processed and RAW. I was amazed that my children loved these, as they are made with nuts and dates. LaraBar has become the favorite snack bar and is great for our Teachers to store at school to use on party days. LaraBar comes in a wide variety of flavors and each one have been a Yummy-Licious home run in our house.

Photos from Looks Good In Polka Dots, Jamie’s personal blog- Where it’s not just about Mothering, Gluten Free Cooking and Socially Conscious Living.

Related Posts on Healthy Eating for Children:

• Green Eggs and Planet: Top 10 Healthy Snacks for Kids
• Junky! So Junky! Healthy Children, Healthy Planet Week 4
• Dad Does Dessert: A Recipe for Nuttiness