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Fun and Healthy Holiday Treats

The holidays are here and with them come lots of treats and baking. I love indulging in a treat from time to time, but I also worry about overloading ourselves with sugar. It’s all about balance in my book. That’s why I’m here today to share some fun and healthy holiday treats with you!

My son loved making these healthy treats with us. They are really simple and easy. It’s a great way to involve your child in meal prep and get them excited about eating fruits and veggies. If you’re in need of a last minute Christmas gift, you can also consider a nice cutting board, kid safe knife, or dough scraper for your child. All are great options for getting your child involved. I’ve found my son always snacks on what we’re making too. I won’t complain about him sneaking extra bites of fruits and veggies!

Celery Christmas Trees

These celery trees are so easy and customizable. We started by chopping celery and arranging it on the plate to resemble a tree. Cucumber sticks would work well for this too. Same goes with sugar snap peas or I bet even broccoli. Any green vegetable can be your base to build the tree. Want a snow-covered tree? Start with some cauliflower!

Next comes the fun part, decorations! We added tomatoes and sliced baby carrots. There are tons of other options. Any mix of brightly colored veggies will do. Radishes would be really fun. Just as with the tree building, my son sampled during the entire decorating process. He had fun snacking on veggies as we created this and has already asked when we can have it again.

For the tree trunk, we used soy butter. Your favorite nut or seed butter will do. It becomes the perfect dip for the veggies. As we are a dairy-free household, our topper was a star-shaped carrot chip. If you’re not dairy-free, a shaped slice of cheese works great as well.

These trees can also be a fruit tree. Mix things up and go with veggie one day and fruit the next! Honeydew melon or green apples are the perfect base. Berries of any sort make the decorations. I know my son would LOVE these. I might add a chocolate dip as the base instead to make it extra special. All about balance, right?

Strawberry Santa Hats

These strawberry Santa hats balance the treat and health factor perfectly. I also love how easy they are. You need 4 things and you’re good to go. Start by slicing a banana to make the base of the hat. Next, wash your strawberries and slice off the top so they sit well on top of the banana slice. The last thing you need to do is attach your marshmallow. We used toothpicks for this but next time, I think I’m going to try soy butter.

I like the idea of soy butter (or maybe even marshmallow fluff for an extra treat) because then you don’t have to worry about little ones forgetting to take the toothpick out before they snack. If you want to add more fruit to these, use green grapes below the banana and they become “Grinch bites.” A super fun snack!

A few other healthy, holiday treat ideas I’ve seen are broccoli wreaths (with cherry tomatoes as the berries), candy canes made from sliced banana and strawberry, and even a snowman with banana slices, chocolate chip buttons, and a strawberry hat. The possibilities for creating fun and healthy treats are endless!

 

This post was written for us by Abbie Jefferis. Abbie is the founder of ollergy, a site dedicated to spreading food allergy awareness and helping families who have children with food allergies. Her son is allergic to peanut, tree nut, milk, egg, sunflower, sesame, and all legumes except soy and kidney bean. She can be reached at ollergy@gmail.com. For more information about food allergies, please visit www.ollergy.com, www.instagram.com/ollergy, and www.facebook.com/ollergy.