Five healthy snacks that kids will like

Kids come home from school ready to snack.
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Frisco kids develop healthy snacks kids can make themselves.
11-10-2008
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Frisco students create healthy snacks kids love

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Too often, that means they'll start grabbing chips, soda or cookies - the kind of high-fat, high-sugar foods that can start them on the road to childhood obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes.

And that's why it's so important to get them in the habit of making healthy choices, experts say. With that goal in mind, high school students from Frisco Independent School District's Culinary Arts Program took on a challenge from Medical City Heart and the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association to come up with healthy treats that kids can prepare for themselves.

That means they also had to be safe, fast and easy for kids to prepare. So the young chefs had to ply their creativity without burners, ovens, food processors or sharp knives, while meeting Medical City Heart guidelines of meeting 1/4 of a child's daily calcium or fiber requirements, using low saturated fat or protein, and staying under a 450 calorie limit for each snack

The judges were fifth-graders from Shawnee Trail Elementary in Frisco, who were each given three coupons to put in front of the three snacks they liked best out of eight offered at the Frisco Career and Technical Education Center last month.

The teen chefs, resplendent in their white aprons and tall chef hats, demonstrated how to prepare their snacks and offered samplings under the watchful eyes of Jennifer Gause, executive chef and director of the culinary arts program. Afterwards, the very satisfied fifth graders confessed the tough part was choosing favorites.

"They were all delicious!,' said Ariel Benzvi, 11.

Recipes for the top three snacks are also available on www.medicalcityheart.com and in the free Medical City Heart book, City Heart, which is due out in February 2009. But since this is a Take 5, we get to showcase the top five.

1. FRUIT SHISH-K-BOBS by Jordan Molder, 17, and Alessandra Bernd, 17, Wakeland High School

Recipe: Cut 1/3 small banana into small pieces, cut the green leaves off the top of 3 strawberries. Take a skewer and stick the banana, strawberries and 3 grapes on it, alternating fruit. Put 2 teaspoons Nutella in a zip-top bag. Mash it around until it's soft and push it all to one of the corners at the bottom. Once most of it is in a corner, take your scissors and cut a small piece of the corner so you can squeeze it out on the fruit.

PER SERVING: Calories 113 Fat 4 g (1 g sat) No cholesterol Sodium 6 mg Fiber 2 g Carbohydrates 20 g Protein 1 g

2. MOON PIE by Amanda Schneider, 17, Teresa Medrano, 18 and Nataly Mora, 17, Frisco High School

Recipe: Spread 1 tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter thinly enough just to cover 1/2 slice of very thin bread. Spread just enough marshmallow crème thinly enough to cover the second 1/2 slice of bread. Cut up 1/4 extra small banana into little circles and place on the marshmallow crème. Top with the slice of bread with peanut butter.

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