Busy parents, tune in to this fun post with ideas for colorful, healthy, “one-utensil” snacks from journalist Kristin Hackler. – Amy

It’s a daily challenge trying to get kids to eat healthy, and it’s not just because they have a tendency to sneak junk food when you’re not looking. It’s because having healthy snacks readily available often takes more effort than just buying a box of ready-to-go edibles at the grocery store, and a lot of busy moms just don’t have the time for prep work.

Fortunately, there is a happy medium. With a little creativity, you can provide your ravenous brood with tasty, wholesome snacks that take very little effort on your part. In fact, the following recipes can be made with just one kitchen utensil each:

Fruit Graham Canvas (pictured at top of post)
Utensil: a butter knife

Give your kids a reason to grin with this super simple snack. All you need are:

  • At least two different fruits such as sliced strawberries, bananas, kiwi, blueberries, blackberries, etc.
  • Cream cheese and/or a favorite nut butter
  • All natural graham crackers

Spread either cream cheese or nut butter on the graham crackers and let your kids decorate each with a fruit-inspired piece of art. You can even shake things up a bit by adding whole or chopped nuts, unsweetened coconut flakes and dried fruits such as apple rings, raisins and small slices of candied ginger. Build a few before you set out the supplies to give them some ideas and let them know that the more fruit they want to pile on their graham cracker canvases, the better!

healthy snacks one utensil jelloAll Natural Strawberry Jello
Utensil: blender

Even though it’s easy to just grab one of those little powder packets at the store, making all-natural jello from scratch doesn’t take that much effort.

  • 2 ½ cups organic lemonade
  • 4 packs unflavored gelatin
  • 2 cups fresh frozen strawberries, thawed (or fresh strawberries, diced)

Directions:

  1. Set aside 1 cup of cold lemonade.
  2. In a blender, add strawberries and 1 ½ cups lemonade and heat until steaming. Some blenders are able to heat the mixture for you but if not, use a pot over medium heat or heat in the microwave.
  3. Add all gelatin packs to the cup of cold lemonade, stir, and let sit for 60 seconds.
  4. Pour cold gelatin lemonade into strawberry mix, stir, and pour all into a 9 x 13 pan.
  5. Refrigerate for 3 – 4 hours or until set.
  6. Cut or use cookie cutters to make fun shapes.

There are plenty of ways to get creative with basic, healthy ingredients. Ants on a Log is a classic kids treat that combines peanut butter, celery and raisins, and banana boats with fruit passengers can be as entertaining to make as they are to eat.

What are some of your favorite quick and easy snack ideas?

Kristin Hackler is a community contributor at eBay.com for culinary, family and home decor related topics. Kristin is an experienced journalist as well as a mother and children’s book author.