When I was younger I struggled with a major sweet tooth. No matter how hard I’d try, it always got the best of me. Somehow with a regular meditation and workout schedule, I was able to curtail my habit. I was only able to do this when I reached my mid-40s. After I let go of the sugar, I stopped craving it, which felt amazing.
My two kids are in their early teens, and I see the same sweet tooth that I had overtaking them as well. My kids were slightly less active than they had been, due to a significant increase in homework and just finding more sedentary hobbies. I wanted to nip this problem right in the bud.
I realize with kids at their age, I should probably take a more creative approach than just telling them they couldn’t have these unhealthy snacks anymore. That way never works. I thought it may be a better idea if I just started making these healthy snacks more readily available to them. One of the things about snacks is that you have to get up to get them, unless they’re conveniently placed near you.
Before I could figure out all of the logistics, I had to find the recipes first. I perused the internet to see what other moms of teenagers were trying. It turns out that there are a lot of healthy snack options out there. They didn’t even sound overly healthy or gross or anything like that. They had a lot of ingredients that I did not expect to see.
There were sweet options like whole wheat cinnamon pretzel bites or brownie or cookie dough energy balls. What was surprising to me is that there were savory snacks as well, like spinach balls and broccoli tots. I never realized it, but I could also air fry or bake my own potato chips. I wasn’t necessarily trying to have my kids go from craving sweets to wanting salty snacks, but I figured if they had more options maybe they’d develop different tastes in things.
The main star of the show for making almost all of these snacks was my Cuisinart food processor. It made preparing a lot of the ingredients for everything so much more efficient. I experimented with a few rounds of different snacks for my kids. Some were hits, others were definitely not. But once I got a good idea of what was working, I knew I needed to increase my quantities.
I would need a bigger work bowl to increase the amount I was producing. I searched on KitchenWorksUSA to see if I could order a Cuisinart DLC-8 4-piece Tritan Bowl Kit part. I was certainly lucky in this situation. I got the part I needed to make a decent amount of snacks.
Some of these homemade snacks have become a staple for our family, and others have kind of fizzled out along the way. We’ve added plenty of new ideas to the repertoire as well. The kids are both really involved in planning out a “snack schedule” as they call it.
So not only are they eating more healthfully and snacking more mindfully, but they’re making an opportunity to be creative as well. It’s a great experience for them to share as siblings, and for us to bond as a family. The kids and I have pretty much redirected their sweet tooth situation.
Aside from the snacks, my kids have taken up an interest in cooking all kinds of food. This whole experience has led to a lot of positivity. The kids are able to make good decisions with what they put in their bodies and actually understand why they need to do that. Overall, we’re all healthier as a family for adopting this tradition. I’m thankful that my Cuisinart food processor has made it that much better for us.
