Healthy snacks for kids: Banana Nut Cheerios Energy Bars Recipe

 

Summertime in our family means preparing summer camp lunches, having clean bathing suits ready with fresh towels and not running out of sunscreen! It’s also about healthy snacks for kids that we toss in their lunch bags, that we give before surfing lessons or trips to the pool! We try to keep snacking healthy in my family.

Here are some tips to help with providing healthy snacks for kids and for adults too!

  • Once a week, we slice some vegetables such as cucumbers and carrots with Italian dressing and store them in small containers. They are ready to be tossed in any lunch bag!
  • When we go grocery shopping, the kids help us choose their favorite fruits and vegetables. They’re more likely to eat them if they have a choice in them.
  • We always have some nuts and dried fruits on hand: almonds, cranberries, raisins, walnuts. Unless the  summer camps don’t allow nuts, we provide these healthy snacks for scheduled activities! They give a great boost of energy.
  • Kids help in the kitchen. We think this is the best way to get them to eat good snacks and other healthy foods!
  • We also check the Life Made Delicious website for healthy snacks for kids! I stumbled on the Banana Nut Cheerios Energy Bar Recipe. I realized it would be a great healthy snack for any kid busy with things like summer sports or  outdoor parties!

Banana Nut Cheerios* Energy Bars Recipe: One of our favorite healthy snacks for kids

Ingredients:

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  • 4 cups (1 L) Banana Nut Cheerios* cereal
  • 1 cup (250 mL) sweetened dried cranberries. Some kids are not huge fans of the cranberries. I tried them once in banana muffins  and mine didn’t like it! I thought I would give it a another try this time. Dried blueberries are also a terrific choice to try.
  • 1/3 cup (75 mL)  almonds, toasted* If you don’t want to use almonds, give pecans a try.
  • 1/3 cup (75 mL) roasted unsalted sunflower nuts
  • 1/2 cup (125 mL) light corn syrup
  • 1/4 cup (50 mL) packed brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup (50 mL) creamy peanut butter
  • 1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla

Make it

    • Spray 9-inch square pan with non stick cooking spray.
    • Mix cereal, cranberries and sunflower nuts. Use a large bowl as it will make it easier to mix all the ingredients. You’ll also need to add the almonds in this step.

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    • Use a 2 quart saucepan to heat corn syrup, brown sugar and peanut butter over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.  Bring it to Boil and stir 1 minute.  Once removed from the heat,  stir in the vanilla. When I was stirring this mixture, I thought the bowl wouldn’t be big enough for all the dry ingredients…
    • So I switched the dry ingredients into a smaller bowl and starting pouring in the syrup mixture slowly. I was wrong, I should have kept  my original bowl! It’s definitely the best fit for the full recipe.

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Press firmly in pan. Cool completely, about 30 minutes. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows
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How do you keep snacking healthy for your family? What are your kids favorite healthy snacks? Share them with us! 

5 thoughts on “Healthy snacks for kids: Banana Nut Cheerios Energy Bars Recipe”

  1. I do a very similar thing with veggies. We get 2 bowls and put them in the fridge. One has lettuce, spinach or whatever the base for our salad is and the other has all the toppings. Everything all cut up – get it whenever you want it style.

    You recipe looks great, thanks for sharing!

    Dawn
    http://www.cheapisthenewclassy.com

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