Round-Up! 10 Healthy Valentine's Day Snacks for Kids

We've said it before and we'll say it again... healthy snacks are the way to go! Our students have happier, calmer, and more focused days when we give them snacks with nutrients their bodies need. Snacks like our smoothies and popsicles encourage our students to see healthy in a yummy way! So, we like to provide our readers with healthy food round-ups like, 7 Healthy Fall Recipes for Picky Eaters, so that we can continue to advocate for healthy kids!

With Valentine's Day around the corner, teachers and parents know the sugary candy is too. Rather than sugary desert-like snacks to pass out, here are 10 healthy alternatives that keep the theme of hearts, cupid, cute sayings and pink! 

1. Heart Shaped Cheese & Veggies by Two Kids Cooking and More  
2. Fruit with V-Day Messages by Abeer Rizvi at Cake Whiz 

The cheese and veggie platter is pretty simple. The only thing you may need that you don't already have is a heart shaped cookie cutter. They also include a recipe for homemade heart-shaped crackers. I love that they added some veggies too. Yummm!

And, what about Abeer Rizvi's super creative messages on fresh fruit? She has message ideas for apples, bananas, pears, and oranges! Simple and easy... that's my kind of snack.

3. Frozen Yogurt Covered Strawberries by My San Francisco Kitchen
4. Frozen Yogurt Drops by Team Marquis 

For both of these yummy treats you will need yogurt and wax paper for sure. The frozen yogurt covered strawberries recipe offers a new way for your kids to inhale strawberries. You only need yogurt (organic vanilla is the way to go if you ask me), strawberries (fresh and organic preferably), and wax paper. Dip, freeze, cut down the middle, and serve! When cut down the center, the strawberries resemble a heart. How cute?! Feel free to use a heart cookie cutter to get even more fancy with it.

For the frozen yogurt drops, you can use strawberry yogurt to get that pink color for the holiday. To make this recipe even more festive, pipe the yogurt onto your wax paper in heart shaped globs, rather than round globs, before freezing. Pretty simple, eh?!

5. WILD About You Animal Crackers by Bless This Mess
6. We're the Perfect Match! by The 36th Avenue 

Bless This Mess shared this creative idea which I love! It takes a little more time to prepare, but the kids will love it. You just need animal crackers, little bags (ziplock snack bags should do the trick), paper, and a stapler. Your wild child will gobble these up.

Another great healthy snack comes from The 36th Avenue. She has a  free tutorial and printables for this awesome creation. "You Are My Perfect Match!," how unique?! Mini pretzel sticks and red melting chocolates is all you need. She mentions dipping them in sugar or sprinkles but I don't think that's necessary especially if you are trying to minimize the amount of processed sugar. Get creative with how you give these guys away too! She used an old match box.

7. Cutie by j. sorelle
8. Fruit Kebabs by Modern Parents Messy Kids

The only thing that will take some effort for this "cute", healthy Valentine's Day snack, is the custom tag. Besides that, you just need clementines and a stapler. Get to it! This is way too easy not to try.

There are many ways to do a fruit kebab. Mix and match your pink, purple and red fruits and then shove them on a skewer, which you can usually buy at your local grocery store, and voila! This is another time to utilize that heart shaped cookie cutter if you want to get all snazzy. Plus, these would go great with our next "snack".

9. Fruit Dip by Sarah Westover McKenna at Bombshell Bling 
10. Cupid's Love Potion by Annie at Brashear Kids

This fruit dip isn't really a snack by itself but, paired with any of the fruit snacks in this round-up, it is perfect! The best thing is you only need 2 ingredients... whipped topping and yogurt. Perfect!

This final recipe comes from one of our previous posts here at Brashear Kids. If you have access to a blender, smoothies go over really well with kids here at ALEC. For Valentine's Day, use red, pink, and purple fruits, call it Cupid's Love Potion and it's sure to be a hit. Check out the link for our recipe but feel free to make it your own too. Smoothies are a great way to get kids to eat healthy. Add a handful of spinach to your concoction and no one will know!

I hope you like these 10 Healthy Valentine's Day Snacks for Kids. If you have any more great, healthy ideas about what to eat on V-Day please comment below. We would love to hear from you!

- Corey