Two Healthy Gluten-free Snack Recipes for Kids

This post is contributed by Molly Pirandello, a Dietetic Intern of Teachers College, Columbia University.

Are you looking for healthy gluten-free snacks for your kids? Would you like to provide something a little more exciting than applesauce or popcorn? Here are two recipes that go beyond the usual kid’s menu standards to offer a taste of healthy gluten-free that is just a little bit different. 

 The main ingredients in these recipes are not common favorites among children. One technique for serving up an unfamiliar ingredient, or one that is not well liked, is to cut it into small pieces. The goal is not to hide the ingredient, but to make it seem familiar by surrounding it with foods and flavors already known and liked. Explain to your child what the ingredients are in the delicious snack before them: this establishes trust.

Sardines in a Canoe is fun way to eat sardines, a sustainable super-food high in DHA. Colorful Carrot Salad is a great source of beta-carotene and fiber, among many other vitamins and minerals.

Molly’s son enjoying the nutritious snack

I hope your children give these healthy gluten-free snack recipes two thumbs up. If they don’t, maybe you will enjoy eating them yourself – they are great for grown-ups too!

Recipes are adapted from Marc Bittman’s fabulous 2009 article in the New York Times, “101 Simple Salads for the Season.”

Healthy gluten-free snack N1 – Sardines in a canoe

Ingredients: 

• Two hard boiled eggs, chopped
• 1 teaspoon mayonnaise (or Greek yogurt)
• 2-3 canned sardines, oil packed
• 4-5 leaves endive
• Chopped parsley (optional)

Vinaigrette: 

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• Lemon juice from 1/4 lemon

Sardines in a canoe – healthy gluten free snack

Instructions:

1. Gently mix the chopped egg pieces with the mayonnaise together until just combined.
2. Rinse the sardines. Slice the fish lengthwise and remove the bones if desired. Chop the fish into little pieces.
3. Spoon the egg mixture into the endive leaves. Sprinkle the sardine and parsley pieces on top.

Vinaigrette:

1. Add all vinaigrette ingredients to a small bowl and beat with a fork until combined.
2. Drizzle the vinaigrette atop the sardine canoes

Healthy gluten-free snack N2 – Colorful Carrot Salad

Ingredients:

• 3 medium carrots, grated
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (or sunflower seeds), toasted
• 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

 Vinaigrette:

• 3 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• Lemon juice from 1/4 lemon
• 1 teaspoon honey

Colorful and delicious carrot salad – healthy gluten free snack

Instructions: 

• Mix the carrots, seeds, and blueberries together in a medium bowl.
• Make the vinaigrette: add all vinaigrette ingredients to a small bowl and whisk together with a fork.
• Add the vinaigrette to the carrot mixture and stir until combined.

I hope you and your child will enjoy making and eating these healthy gluten-free snacks. Let me know in the comments below what you think of them!