One surprising way to make snacks more filling (and nutritious)


Hello Reader,


Beef! It’s what’s for… snack!

Wait — snack?! Yep, you read that right! We know you were thinking dinner. Maybe lunch. Possibly even breakfast. But snack?! Have we gone crazy?

Nope. And here’s why.

Somewhere along the line we’ve majorly lost the plot when it comes to snack time. The word ‘snack’ has become synonymous with food that comes in crinkly little packages.

Instead, we want to bring it back to its original meaning: a mini meal used to bridge large gaps between main meals.

Here’s where kids come in.

Unlike adults, kids don’t always follow a neat eating schedule. Grown-ups usually eat about the same amount every day. In North America, that often means a small breakfast, a medium lunch, and a bigger dinner. Adults have stopped growing, so their bodies need roughly the same fuel each day.

But kids? Kids are growing machines! Their hunger can jump all over the place depending on how much their bodies need that day. For some kids, snack time might actually be the biggest “meal” of the day.

So why not make snacks as healthy and filling as any other meal?


Nourishing Snack Ideas

In paid partnership with Think Beef, we're bringing you some “out of the snack box” ideas.

Typical snack foods are often lacking in iron, one of the key nutrients kids depend on for growth, but sadly is one of the top nutrient deficiencies in this age group.

Beef steps in as a good source of iron! Even better, it has a special type called heme iron, which is super easy for your body to absorb.

Now to the snack ideas, which one will you try this spring break?


1) Host a meatball dipping station, like we did here! Cook up some mini meatballs and offer up different dips for your kids to try. Here are some ideas to get you started:

9 months+

Mustard

Tzatziki

Hummus

Marinara

Tahini Almond sauce

Sour cream and dill

2 years+

BBQ sauce

Cranberry sauce

Ketchup

Peanut satay sauce

Honey mustard

Ranch

2) Beef and cheese roll ups or turn it into a quesadilla sliced into bite sized pieces (12 months +)

3) Make a sweet n savoury trail mix ( 4 years +)

Ever tried beef jerky in trail mix? It fits in so well with the sweet and salty combo! We created a little mini DIY trail mix station for our kids and they had so much fun designing their own mix.


Think outside the snack box

As parents, it can feel like we have to fit foods into certain boxes — breakfast foods, dinner foods, snack foods. But the truth is, kids don’t eat by categories. They eat by hunger, curiosity, and opportunity.

We believe that we can expand our child’s intake by changing what we serve and when we serve it. Sometimes that just means putting familiar foods in a new context — like serving beef at snack time instead of waiting for dinner.


If you give any of these a try, we’d love to know!

This email was created in paid partnership with thinkbeef.ca

In health and happiness,

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