Snotty Noses Happy Parents Raising Healthy Kids by Dr Orlena Kerek, Paediatrician

Gooey, crunchy, sticky, spicy sweetness that is healthy. How does that work?

Children need snacks. I don't know about yours, but mine always hanker after sweet things. If it's got sugar in, it must be good. According to them. These healthy nut bars are a great compromise. They are full of healthy nuts and fruit, sweet enough to fulfil that longing but they don't contain as much sugar as shop bought cookies and cakes. 

Plus they're so easy to make that the kids can make them for you.

Snacks with a little fat are good

Nuts and seeds are a great source of naturally unsaturated fats (think oil…the good ones) as well as a great source of protein. 

Nuts and seeds make a great snack. My kids love them and I encourage them to eat them. Sometimes they go to school with little pots of ‘nuts and seeds’. They normally pick out the pumpkin seeds (I don’t know what the poor pumpkin seeds have done to offend them but my children are nothing if not consistent in their apparent dislikes of poor food substances that they have hardly tried. Pumpkin seeds however, are further down the list of things I’d like them to eat…at least further down than mushrooms.)

Anyhow, they didn’t pick out the pumpkin seeds in these amazing, gooey, tasty bars.

Ingredients of Healthy Apple Spice Nuts Bars

• 150g oats
• 30g corn flakes
• 30g bran flakes
• 150g raisins
• 75g chopped dates
• 75g chopped dried apricots
• 50g almond bits
• 50g pumpkin seeds
• 50g sunflower seeds
• 2 apples chopped and cooked in a little water
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp molasses
• 3 desert spoons of condensed milk

How to make Healthy Apple Spice Nut Bars

Now the method is pretty much this…Tip everything into a very large bowl and mix. Allow your child to tip in lots of healthy dried fruit and nuts. We did also put in some cooked apples that I found in the fridge, just chopped and cooked with a small amount of water and cinnamon. These bars would work without said apples…but the apples transformed them into something amazing. Spicy, soft apple pieces amongst chewy fruit and crunchy nuts. 

Yum, yum and yum again.

They didn’t last long. 2 days (I rationed them…the hoards would have scoffed them all but what’s the point of having a mother who’s always banging on about healthy eating if she just lets you tuck into an entire tray of biscuits…even if they are healthy biscuits. Boundaries need to be set. And I’m the one to set them!)

Sadly we had to make them several times to get a good photo. (Perhaps I should employ a photographer who’s older than 6?) I didn’t hear any complaints though!

Healthy Snack Guide for Children

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