Everyone loves to snack, but some of the snacks we love the most can be…. How do we put this…? Well, maybe they’re not so healthy. That’s okay, because we deserve tasty snacks and some of the most flavorful choices are fresh fruits & vegetables. The more healthy, plant-based snacks we can incorporate into our diets, the better we will feel about those indulgences. By learning how to prepare our own plant-based snacks, we can enjoy great, fresh flavor while also benefiting from a good dose of vitamins and important nutrients. That’s the idea behind our new Plant-Based Snacks Blog Series. We want the world to discover the incredible flavors, recipes, and health benefits of eating more plant-based snacks. In this blog, we’re talking about bringing balance and moderation to the Easter holiday.
As a kid, there were very few moments in the year that compared to Easter morning. You wake up and, dreary eyed, slouch out of bed only to realize – wait a minute, it’s Easter! In a split second, all your tiredness is gone and you find yourself on the hunt for chocolate eggs.
It’s no surprise that what the Easter Bunny leaves behind aren’t strictly the healthiest of treats. But eggs filled with spinach, carrots or broccoli wouldn’t go over very well either!
It’s important to eat healthy and to maintain a balanced diet rich in vitamins and nutrients; that being said, there’s also a little room for indulgence. Easter morning is a great time to show your kids how to enjoy sweet treats with moderation and balance in mind.
Incorporating plant-based snacks during the Easter holiday is a great way to encourage healthy choices, and even curb the anticipated sugar rush (and crash!).
It’s important to include both healthy, nutritious and plant-based snacking options alongside the chocolate and candy kids love. Simply placing a few Aurora Bites Mini Sweet Peppers and Cloud 9® Bite-Sized Fruity Tomatoes on a platter with berries, chocolate and candy will help kids to implicitly make the connection that healthy vegetables are sweet treats they can enjoy too! Crunchy one-bite Uno Bites™ Nano Cucumbers have a mild fresh flavor that balances out the sweetness of the super sweet tomatoes.
In fact, when we first began developing our new Cloud 9® Tomatoes, we asked kids of all ages to taste them and tell us what they thought. It was amazing to hear their reactions comparing the sweet, fruity flavor of these red grape tomatoes to watermelon, berries and, yes, even candy!
Around lunchtime on Easter, make up a snacking platter with all sorts of healthy and not-so-healthy options for kids to enjoy. You can really make this fun by incorporating all the colors of the rainbow with Sangria® Medley Tomatoes and helping your kids make snacking skewers with veggies, fruit and candy all in one!
When you give kids the choice of vegetables and candy, of course they will eat the candy – but you will also be surprised at how many veggies they eat.
Another tip for adding some balanced dieting to the Easter festivities is to make a craft that incorporates plant-based snacks. This doesn’t have to be complicated: it can be a busy day, so a quick and simple decoration activity can be fun for everyone.
Simply take some multicolored plastic cups, craft paper, cotton balls and googly eyes to make plant-based snack cups filled with your favorite fresh veggies.
For later in the evening when the candy is (mostly) all gone, you can incorporate some of those snacking veggies like Uno Bites™ Nano Cucumbers and Cloud 9® Tomatoes into your Easter dinner plans as a fresh side or chopped in a salad.
One other thing to consider is how to add more plant-based snacks or plant-based meals into your diet before and after Easter. This can help to make sure your family gets all the nutrients to help everyone feel great.
Plant-based snacking meals are becoming increasingly more popular every day as people find themselves without much time to prepare large dinners on weekdays.
Snacking meals are exactly what they sound like: a quick and easy combination of flavorful, fresh ingredients that you enjoy as a meal. Although these meals are quick to put together, they contain all the vitamins and micro & macro nutrients you need to lead a happy and healthy life! You can try this this Turkey Leftovers Platter the day after Easter to make sure you use up all your leftovers. Of course, if you enjoy ham as your Easter dinner tradition, you can easily swap in leftover ham! If you want to stick to plant-based snacking meals, try this Greek Mezze Platter instead.
In our next Plant-Based Snacks blog, we’ll be talking all about plant-based snacking meals and how they let everyone in your family choose their own flavorful snacking adventure.
Happy Easter everyone!
Live Deliciously®
