15 Gluten Free Snack Ideas for Kids

Many ready-made, store bought foods contain gluten which makes it quite difficult to give kids who are gluten intolerant something fun to eat and wholesome at the same time. It is also difficult to find gluten free prepacked items in a lot of stores. The good thing is fruits, vegetables don’t contain gluten, and you can use these in a fun and delicious way. Plus, they are a very healthy and important part of your kid’s diet. I am also confident that they will actually be asking for more of them!

15 Gluten Free Snack Ideas for Kids

1. Like I said, you can’t go wrong with fruit. When you mix it up and serve fruit in a different and interesting way, kids will gobble it up. Make a fruit parfait with organic yogurt and granola.

2. Make your own homemade fruit roll ups. To make things easier, you’ll need a silicone baking mat to place on your rimmed baking sheet. I’ve read some people use plastic wrap. It doesn’t melt in the oven because the oven is set to the lowest temperature at 140 degrees is best, but 170 degrees will work just as well and it won’t melt the plastic wrap.

Cut up your fruit into small chunks and purée in a food processor. You can add a natural sweetener to it like honey, agave syrup, etc. You may not need to add a lot of sweetener if your fruits are naturally sweet already.

Be sure the purée isn’t too thick. You can add water or fruit juice to thin it out. Once it you have the right sweetness and texture, pour onto your baking sheet and smooth out the mixture with a spatula so it’s about 1/8″ thick. It’ll take anywhere between 6-8 hours to “bake”. When it’s done, the center shouldn’t be sticky nor should you have a finger imprint.

The edges will probably be crispy and you can trim those off or try and rehydrate it with a bit of water or fruit juice. When it’s still warm, you can remove it from the baking sheet and onto parchment paper and then use, a sharp knife or a clean pair of kitchen scissors to cut them into your desired strip size and roll them up.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with a variety of fruit combinations.

3. Make delicious fruit or vegetable smoothies.

4. Make yogurt and fruit popsicles. Use whole blueberries, cut up raspberries and strawberries, kiwi etc. The more color, the more fun to eat.

5. Add cinnamon sugar or drizzle chocolate over popcorn.

6. Have sweet potato or yam fries with different spices. It’s also yummy with cinnamon.

7. Dip only half of a pretzel into melted chocolate and let them harden or drizzle chocolate over the pretzels.

8. For a quick, nutritious snack, kids can eat steamed edamame or you can purée it, blend it with other ingredients such as spinach or avocado, and use it as a dip served with gluten free pita.

9.  Hard boiled eggs are good protein.

10. Rice cakes with almond butter.

11. Nachos with gluten free tomato salsa or homemade cheese sauce.

Note: if you do not have recipes for the any of the following or want a variation of my ideas, simply Google them for the recipes:

12. Quesadilla – you can add veggies, natural cheese, fruits with yogurt for a dessert, etc. Sky is the limit.

13. Gluten free brownies.

14.  Flourless peanut butter cookies… or peanut butter balls. Just mix peanut butter mixed with various items that are healthy and tasty (examples: craisins, chocolate chips, gluten free crispy style cereal or something crunchy), then make them into balls, and refrigerate for a couple hours. YUMMY snack!

15. Caramel apple dip, raw veggies with hummus dip, spinach dip with carrots, etc.

I hope that these ideas help you find more gluten free alternative snacks for your kids that are not only healthy–but delicious! Please share your own ideas in a comment below! I would LOVE to hear them!

Copyright © Lara Velez, Moms of Faith, All Rights Reserved