School’s out and summer’s in! Now that the kids are getting ready for the summer holidays, it doesn’t mean that healthy eating habits go out the door like that math book! Here are some snack ideas for easy, healthy summer snacks that you can either grab on-the-go or simply eat on the porch on those hot, lazy days.
Keep the fridge stocked & organized
A little preparation goes a long way when it comes to easy to grab snack ideas. Keeping my fridge organized is helpful for everyone in the family. It helps my daughter feel independent by grabbing snacks herself and for my husband and me when we are in a rush to get out the door, there are always snacks ready to go.
Here are some snack ideas from our fridge to yours:
I like to stock up on some drinkable yogurt and organic juice boxes, they are always perfect for taking in the car. We keep them in rotation (literally) in our fridge by keeping them organized in this handy turntable.
On the days when I know we will spend most of the day outside in the yard or at our local park, my favourite snack to prep in the morning are veggie dip cups. I just fill the bottom with some ranch dip or hummus and add in celery sticks, carrot sticks, cucumbers and broccoli. They make for excellent snack ideas! They sit in the fridge for the day inside these really useful fridge bins and are ready to grab when my 4-year-old comes back from the splash pad.
I also like to prepare some fruit salad in a few snack bags. I just fill a small zip loc bag of some washed grapes, blueberries and strawberries or whatever fruit I have in the house. I keep those in the fridge as well to just grab when we are on the go.
Snack ides for hot days, cool treats
When I think of summer as a kid, I always think of popsicles! Who doesn’t love a popsicle? We love this popsicle mold set because they are fun, easy to use and don’t take up a lot of room in the freezer.
Popsicle snacks don’t have to be filled with sugar though. My favourite popsicle ingredients are homemade, healthy, but most of all delicious. I’m sharing one of my favourite popsicle recipes for you to try below.
Recipe: Peach-strawberry yogurt popsicles
Ingredients:
- 3 cups strawberries, pureed to 1 1/2 cup
- 3 cups peaches, peeled and sliced, pureed to 1 1/2 cup
- 2 tablespoons honey, divided
- 2/3 cup vanilla greek yogurt
Method:
- In a blender, puree strawberries with four teaspoons honey then set aside. Clean blender, puree sliced peaches with two teaspoons, honey, set aside.
- Layer the popsicles as follows; 2 teaspoons strawberry puree, one teaspoon yogurt, two teaspoons mango puree and repeat. Make a fruit puree your last layer.
- Tap the mold on the counter to make sure all of the layers settle. Use a small spoon to drag vertically from the bottom to the top of the mold a few times to create a swirled pattern.
- Gently tap the molds on the countertop to remove any air bubbles. Insert the popsicle sticks and then freeze for at least 6 hours, or overnight.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!
We LOVE ice cream in our house and by love I might mean a little obsessed. We like to create our own Ice Cream Shop at home. It’s a fun family activity we can all do together, it’s economical and we get to stay home! The Ice Cream shop is also a hit as dessert when we have small dinner parties or playdates, it’s fun and delicious for kids and adults.
Here’s how we set up our own “shop”:
- We use this cute ice cream bowl set and of course we can’t forget our much-loved and much-used KSP ice cream scoop!
- To make things fun why not use this serving tray to use as the DIY toppings station. It’s great because it has an ice chamber to keep toppings cool. We fill ours with sliced berries, fruit and of course sprinkles. The toppings possibilities are endless!
Hydration station
Everyone on board the hydration train. These long hot, humid summer days mean everyone needs to keep hydrated.
- In our fridge we always have our infuser-pitcher ready to go, we like to fill ours with cucumber or lemons.
- I also try to encourage our family members to not use disposable water bottles, we reuse our bottles every day and just use our pitcher of fruit infused water to refill our bottles. It’s not only better for the environment but tastier!
- When we are spending the day in the yard, gardening or playing I always bring a drink dispenser out on the patio. It’s so easy to keep out on those long, hot days and we can just help ourselves when we are thirsty. I love to fill my dispenser with some homemade lemonade or simply with water and slices of lemons and limes.
Want more snack ideas?
Here’s to the long, dog days of summer… because they really are the best, don’t you agree? Share with me at @we.are.theroses for more summer ideas!
Need a great dinner idea? Try one of our favourite recipes for beer can chicken on the BBQ!
