Stomach Filling Snack Ideas For Kids

One of the biggest difficulties for mothers is to please their children with the food they cook. Children get attracted easily towards the junk food from outside. At home they expect variety, gets bored if the same food is cooked often. So for the mommies, not only planning the breakfast and lunch is challenging, but also snacks.
Why Do I Prefer Stomach Filling Snacks For The Evenings?
Today's children are very busy and active. Their day can be divided into 2 halves. In the first half, they go to the school and in the second half, they have multiple things to do like playing, going to hobby classes, doing homeworks, studying, etc., So the evening snacks are important for them to maintain their energy level high.
I have observed that if I give light snacks for my daughter in the evening, multiple times she comes to me before the dinner saying, "give me something to eat I am hungry again". So I have started giving her stomach filling snacks in the evening. For night, she prefers light dinner.
Here are some of the snacks that doesn't need much time to prepare, not deep fried, no maida, stomach filling, healthy, tasty and easy to prepare. Few of them can be breakfast recipes as well. I have not mentioned the exact quantity of ingredients here as it depends on the child's taste and the quantity consumed.

Cucumber Idli
Mix grated cucumber and rava in 1:1 ratio.

• Spicy Idli - To the above mixture, add chopped green chilly, coriander leaves, curry leaves, grated coconut and salt. Rest the mixture for 10 minutes and then steam in the idli stand for 10 minutes. Serve it hot with coconut chutney.
• Sweet Idli - To the rava and cucumber mixture, add jaggery and grated coconut. Rest the mixture for 10 minutes and then steam in the idli stand for 10 minutes. Serve it hot with ghee.

This can be served for breakfast as well.
Dry Roasted Ragi Laddu
Put the dry roasted ragi powder in a bowl, add grated jaggery and grated coconut, ghee and mix it. Now keep adding as much milk as required to form laddus of any size. Dry fruits can also be added. It can be stored for a long time if you skip milk and form laddus by only using ghee. It is one of the healthiest snacks for the kids.
Puffed Rice Upma
Put oil in a pan, once it gets heated, splutter mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, groundnut, curry leaves, green chilly. Add chopped onions and fry till golden brown. Add turmeric powder, salt and little sugar. Take a big bowl of water, soak puffed rice, squeeze it, add it to the pan and mix. Before serving, add lemon juice and garnish with grated coconut and coriander leaves. You can also add tomato/grated carrot. This can also be a breakfast recipe.
Thin Poha

• Upma - Put oil in a pan, once it gets heated, splutter mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, groundnut, curry leaves, green chilly, turmeric powder. Now add thin poha, salt and sugar. Switch off the stove and add lemon juice. Serve it hot with a lot of grated coconut and coriander leaves.
• Sweet Poha - Take a bowl. Put thin poha and add ghee. Mix it thoroughly. Now add grated jaggery and grated coconut, mix it and serve. It's very simple and lip smacking.

Idli Upma With Left Over Idlies
Put oil in a pan, once it gets heated, splutter mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, groundnut, curry leaves, green chilly. Add chopped onions and fry till golden brown, add little salt, sugar and turmeric powder and fry. Now add crumbled idlies and mix thoroughly. Serve hot with grated coconut and coriander leaves.
Show Your Creativity With Left Over Dosa/Idli Batter

• Variety Dosa - If you have left over dosa batter, add your child's favourite vegetables to it. It can be, chopped tomato, onion/spring onion, grated carrot /beetroot / cabbage, coriander/mint/ curry  leaves etc., Or else you can put these as toppings on the dosa. You can also pour the batter on the tava making different geometrical shapes, alphabets or try making tricolor dosa. Your kid will be amused.
• Masala Paddu - If you have a paddu tava, dosa batter can be used to prepare paddu as well.
• Masala Idli - If you have left over idli batter, prepare masala idli. For this, add soaked channa dal, finely chopped green chilly, grated ginger and coconut, curry leaves, coriander/mint leaves and salt for taste, then steam in the idli stand.

Peanuts

• Boiled Peanuts - Pressure cook the shelled peanuts in salt water, drain the water and serve hot. Let your child squeeze the peanut, suck the salt water and then pop the peanuts.
• Peanut Sundal - Heat a pan with oil and temper with mustard seeds, whole dry red chilies, curry leaf and asafetida. Add boiled peanuts and toss well with the tempering. Add freshly grated coconut while serving.
• Roasted Peanuts - Roast the shelled peanuts. It's healthy and tasty with smoky flavour. You can preserve it for a long time.

Field Corn(Maize)/Sweet Corn/ Chickpeas

• Field Corn - Boil whole field corn in salt water, cut into pieces and serve Or it can be roasted in fire, apply coriander-chilly-salt chutney and serve.
• Sweet Corn - Prepare sundal same as peanut sundal or just steam/boil/fry-in-butter and add salt and pepper powder.
• Chickpeas - Prepare sundal or boil with salt water, drain and serve.

Semiya/Vermicelli Upma
You get rice/rava/wheat semiya which is better than the instant maida noodles. Roasted or unroasted semiya can be used. Preparation is similar to rava upma, replace rava with semiya. Add all the favourite veggies of your child and make it more colourful.

Kids these days are not able to have breakfast and lunch peacefully as they have to rush in the morning and finish the lunchbox in a hurry during afternoon. Treat them with a variety of lip smacking snacks which keeps them energetic, refreshing and fulfill their nutritional requirements.