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An hour or two spent preparing easy, freezable snacks on the weekend can minimize your stress and maximize your kids' nutrition. They'll be less inclined to reach for chips and candy, and you'll have a ready supply of healthy snacks during the often-hectic work or school week.
Frozen Yogurt Sandwiches
Spread fruit-flavored yogurt on a graham cracker square, and top with a second square. Wrap each one in plastic or aluminum foil and freeze.
Mini Biscuit Pizzas
Open a can of refrigerator biscuits and slightly flatten each biscuit on a cookie sheet. Spread with canned pizza sauce, shredded cheese, and anything else you have on hand (thinly sliced hot dogs, ham, black olives, onions or cooked ground beef, for example). Bake as directed on the biscuit package. If you'd like, you can freeze these individually and reheat them in the microwave as needed.
English Muffin/Mini-Bagel Pizza
Follow the directions for mini-biscuit pizzas, but use split and toasted English muffins or mini-bagels instead and broil instead of baking.
Dog in a Blanket
Wrap hot dogs cut in thirds, or miniature smoked sausages, in refrigerated crescent roll dough. Bake as directed on the crescent roll package. Each crescent roll should cover 2 or 3 "dogs."
Fruit Smoothies
To get the thick, milk-shake consistency in your homemade smoothies, you'll need to pre-freeze some fruit. Good choices for freezing are banana chunks, blueberries, strawberries, and peach slices. Canned fruit also freezes well, or you can freeze fruit juice in an ice-cube tray; once they're frozen, you can store the fruit juice cubes in a plastic bag.
Freeze the pieces of fruit on a cookie sheet, then store them in plastic zipper bags or empty quart-sized yogurt containers. If you'd like to skip this step, you'll find frozen, unsweetened fruit at the grocery store.
To make a smoothie, put about one cup of fruit juice in a blender. Add approximately one cup of plain, flavored or vanilla yogurt, fruit sorbet or, sherbet. While the blender is running, add about one or two cups of frozen fruit, one piece at a time, and two teaspoons of vanilla extract. You can also boost the nutrition of your smoothie by adding a spoonful of soy protein powder or a few chunks of tofu. Blend at high speed until the smoothie is, well, smooth and frothy. If you need your smoothie a little sweeter, you can add a spoonful of honey. This recipe will make about three smoothies.
Easy Cheese Quesadillas
In a frying pan, heat one large flour tortilla. Spread shredded cheddar or Monterey jack cheese evenly over the tortilla (at this point you can also add some chopped green chilis, sliced cooked chicken, cooked black or pinto beans, or refried beans). Top with another tortilla. When the first is lightly browned, flip the quesadilla over and cook until the other tortilla is also lightly browned. Remove from pan, cut into wedges, and serve with sour cream, salsa and guacamole, if desired.
Mini-Muffins
Any muffin recipe, homemade or from a mix, can be baked in mini-muffin pans, cooled, then frozen in zipper bags. That way, they're always ready when hungry kids are clamoring for food. Heated for a few seconds in the microwave, they taste like they just came out of the oven. With a glass of fruit juice or milk, they're a great, healthy snack.