Food

An Apple A Day…

I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I don’t know about you, but my pants feel a bit tighter today!! My goodness, it is so easy to over eat during the holiday season. It’s nice to let the reigns done sometimes but overall I do really try to focus on balanced healthy eating at my house. Mabel is not a happy camper (nor are we) post sugar crash. Admittedly it is incredibly hard to enforce the healthy eating concept when holiday “cheer” AKA cookies, candy & sugar-spun everything is everywhere we look. How do we as parents carve out healthy eating opportunities in a sea of sugar? For me, I try to make sure that my kids eat healthy meals and snacks so that the candy option, is merely an occasional treat. Trust me, I know how hard it is to keep it healthy any time of year, let alone during the holidays. It is not just because there are so many sugar treats abound, it’s also from how busy our schedules become during the holidays. Being prepared is probably most dieticians number one rule of healthy eating and it definitely applies here.

You couldn’t ask for a more portable snack...

It doesn’t have to be complicated, I’ve actually written a piece for mywebroom , talking about some of my favorite easy to make snacks. You would be surprised at how many healthy snacks are hidden in my purse for those food emergency situations. One of my favorite go-to snack staples are apples. You couldn’t ask for a more portable snack! Apples are loaded with vitamins, minerals and healthy carbs to keep healthy minds fueled for school work and play. Apples have the same amount of dietary fiber as a bowl of bran cereal. Fiber helps boost energy and keeps your child feeling fuller longer. We had such a great time going apple picking this year. I love being able to continually share the farm to table  theme with my kids. Apple are so versatile, you can pair them with just about anything. I had already started an apple recipe board after our trip to the farm, but I added a ton of fun apple snacking options I think your kids will enjoy.

Thanksgiving leftovers already giving you a case of the blahs?? Try this snack “quickie” made from T-Day leftovers that will make your tummy smile. Perfect served on sliced apples, romaine spears, crackers or bread.

 

 

TURKEY (leftover) SALAD

2 cups leftover turkey

3 celery stalks

1 apple (cored)

¼ cup sliced almonds

3 Tablespoons Mayo

Salt & Pepper to taste

Place turkey, celery and apple in your food processor (each item separately) and pulse until chopped.  Place all items in bowl and add almonds and mayo. Stir until combined and add salt and pepper to taste. If you don’t have a food processor, chop the above until small bite sized pieces. Toss together with mayo, almonds and S&P.

What are some of your go-to kid snacks?  How do you balance the influx of sugary treats during the holiday season?  I would LOVE to know!!

Emma xx

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Louise says:

Carrots are my go to snack. Not the ones in the bag. Just a real carrot washed not peeled. I cut it in quarters and keep it in a container in my bag on busy days. My daughter loves it and the crunch is satisfying.

Emma Heming Willis says:

My older daughter Loves carrots too. I need to do a post on snacks for moms on the go to 🙂 xx

Jennifer says:

The salad sounds really good with almonds!
I like pears as well – and my favorite apple is Sweet Tango as they are LOADED with sugar!!

Emma Heming Willis says:

I love any salad with almonds in it! And who doesn’t love a sweet apple?! xoxox

Gail says:

Hi Emma! That salad looks great and my kids love turkey so I will definitely try it out. Since we went to a relative’s house this year for Thanksgiving I have no leftovers so I promised my family a turkey breast this week.

Snacking healthy during the holidays is so difficult for us as we have so many family events during the season. I am of Italian descent so all of our holidays revolve around food. Christmas Eve is usually pretty healthy as the meal consists of fresh fish and seafood…ummm, ok some of it is fried! What I usually do to keep the kids on track is make sure that our meals at home during the month of December are healthy and home-cooked. I try to avoid take-out during the holiday season even if it makes things soooooooo much easier just to order in. Also, before we leave for a party I try to fill my girls with healthy snacks so that they are not super hungry when we get there and fill up on sweets. Our big downfall being Italian is all the homemade cookies that our family makes. My Mom came up with a great solution when I was a little girl that I still use today. We live in Chicago so it gets pretty cold here around Christmas, especially in the garage and screened-in-patio. Mom always kept (and still keeps) the cookies in tins out on the screened-in patio so that we were less likely to go out onto the freezing patio to grab a cookie. It works great with my kids! My girls have no interest in leaving the warm house just to get sweets!

When we are out and about shopping or traveling to family functions I keep my favorite healthy snack, string cheese, in the car. The kids love it and my 20 month old is obsessed with cheese! I also make a trail mix of sorts with cheerios, diced up dried apples and apricots and raisins. I also like to cut up grapes and freeze them for a healthy snack…the kids never pass those up and neither do I!

Have a wonderful holiday season with your family!

Emma Heming Willis says:

Love that you have it down to a fine science!! Such a great idea to fill their belly’s up before going to a party. I’ll try that. Thank you!! xxxxx

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