Healthy eating and a kid’s birthday party! Typically things you don’t associate together, let alone in the same universe. The question is though, can you serve healthy party food for a kid’s birthday? It sounds dauntingly impossible. We live in a time where everyone is talking about food choices, healthy snacks, no sugar, and calorie counting so lets look at how we can tick all these boxes with party food.
Healthy eating for our kids should be something that is always on our minds from the shopping list, the cooking and at the dinner table (even if there is a battle with picky eaters). But there is a massive debate about what to feed them, how much, and when which has made it absurdly difficult for us parents to keep up. When it comes to a birthday party for our kids, the first thing that comes to our mind is SUGAR. Our minds will start running at 100 miles per hour to make the party as healthy as possible without our kids scrunching up their noses. The challenge may not be as difficult as you would think.
Healthy Snacks For A Kids Birthday Party – Really?
There is a saying that “stress is a gap between our reality and expectations”. We as parents hold ourselves to such a high standard on what we put in our kid’s mouths, which can make the task of ‘healthy eating’ even more difficult.
We hope and dream that one day our kids will eat whatever we put on their plates, no objections about it, and they will lick their plates clean in no time. They will then not even ask for sweets and the snacks you have put for yourself at the back of the cupboard (haha). Ahhh that is the dream :p
Unfortunately, things do not work this way for most of us. In my opinion, I think it is more than ok for them to have a little bit of treat now and then. Like us, they are human and need a little something extra to get them through the week. We try to avoid going all out on the junk food train when we do treat our family by introducing healthier alternate ingredients. The healthier alternatives still may not be the best foods in the world, but they are definitely way better for us and our little ones.
Children’s Birthday Top 10 Healthy Finger Foods
These ideas are what I recently did at my my two-year-olds birthday party and ideas I have been playing around with over the last couple years at other special occasions. After using this healthy-ish strategy for a while now, my son now has a taste and liking for the less sugary sweet treats which is a huge win! The excitement and thrill from eating a naughty treat is still there, however the high amounts of sugar and bad fats that are normally associated with these treats are massively reduced. Less creamy cakes, sugary chocolates, fatty chips, or junk nowadays as we are all (me included) satisfied with the healthier treats because they are still sweet, yummy, and colorful!
The golden rule when preparing any healthy treat – it has to look amazing! So while arranging a party, I always try to make the food tempting by its presentation and the colors used. Like adults’, kids also go for anything that looks good, because there is a higher chance it is going to taste good as well. We eat with our eyes.
Here are the party treats that are my go-to for kids’ birthday parties, home barbecues, and sleepovers.
Healthy Finger Food #1 – Fruit cones
Waffle cones filled with colorful fruits and dipped in sugar-free chocolate. It is a very tempting and tasty party snack for all the kids (and adults) at the party. You can use crushed nuts with different fruit ingredients to make it up to your mark. To help keep it all together and to make it look more ice cream like, you can use some normal yoghurt, sugar free frozen yoghurt or even an avocado chocolate mousse – Blend avocado, with some sugar free cocoa and a dash of a sweetner of your choice (honey, sugar free maple syrup, rice malt syrup or agave).
Healthy Finger Food #2 – Mini Pancakes
Partying in the morning, afternoon, or evening? These mini pancake stacks will be the best thing to serve on any occasion. To add that sweet taste, without the sugar, you can add sugar-free maple syrup, honey, or rice malt syrup. A cherry on the top will be an actual cherry on the top (lol), a berry, melon bite, kiwifruit, or any fruit that is colorful and attention-grabbing.
A super easy and healthy pancake recipe you can use:
- 1 x mashed banana
- 1 x egg
- 1 x tbs milk
- 1 x 1/3 cup of self raising flour
Mix all together and cook your mini pancakes. This makes 8 mini pancakes. For a party with 10 kids I would make 5 lots of this which is as simple as just multiplying all the ingredients by 5. My kids love blueberries so I also like to add a few blueberries to each mini pancake right before I flip them over in the pan.
Healthy Finger Food #3 – Vegetable pizza
This pizza uses flat bread or a tortilla wrap as the base, or you can use whatever suits you. To make it more delightful, add lively vegetable colors to it. Everyone will find It irresistible to bite their teeth in to these yummy savoury pizza bites. The key with these mini pizzas is to make sure the veggies are chopped up into small pieces and are placed under the cheese so they are half hidden. Use ingredients like pineapple to amp up the sweetness and to speak to younger tastebuds.
Check out this tortilla pizza recipe which is quick, easy and a hit with all ages.
Healthy Finger Food #4 – Sandwich Skewers
The simple sandwich, easy to make and a sure fire hit when presenting like this. Whether you pair it with ham and cheese, or peanut butter and jelly, these simple sandwiches will surely catch a kid’s attention with this pleasant representation of this dish. Plus, you can play with different shapes of bread and skewers. This easy-to-make sandwich will never disappoint you. My husband is convinced that kids will eat anything that is on a skewer, so skewers are a frequent sight in our house 🙂
My go to sandwich skewer is a simple ham and cheese with a little apple on top. Not a normal ham and cheese sandwich, but I don’t care, the kids love them so ham, cheese and apple it is 🙂
Healthy Finger Food #5 – Frozen Yoghurt Dip
Kids have a curious nature, when you present them with something different and it looks good, there is a high chance they will try it. The ingredients for this one on their own are pretty boring and nothing special. But when blitzed up together, they create something that even the fussiest of kids will be tempted to try.
It is simple to make, just blend yoghurt with any bright colored fruit and it is an explosion of nutrients and color. You can use any fruit, mix with greek yoghurt or low sugar yoghurt, freeze it, and you are good to go! To turn up the wow factor, add in some sugar free choc chips, crushed nuts, or berries right after you blend it together. Serve in a takeaway cup or cone and add some bright colored fruits to make it really pop.
Healthy Finger Food #6 – Tortilla Roll-Ups
Tortilla roll-ups are easy to make, easy for little hands to hold, and even easier to eat. You can use whatever ingredients you want here to put together your roll-up masterpiece. Similar to the sandwich skewers from earlier, you can use normal ingredients or unconventional ones, just go with what you know will be a hit. My kids love brekky wraps so we will roll up some scrambled eggs, ham, with a little cheese and hashbrowns. So not super healthy, but the goal here is to have healthier alternatives at the party. I would much rather the kids eating this compared to foods that are laced with sugar and trans fats.
Healthy Finger Food #7 – Coconut Sprinkle Party Popcorn
This popcorn treat is one of the quickest things to whip up in a jiffy. You only need a few things for this: popcorn, coconut oil, and sugar-free sprinkles. You just need to mix all the ingredients together, pop it in the fridge and your colorful sweet coconutty popcorn is ready. If the coconut oil taste is overpowering, add a bit of natural sweetness with a dash of honey, rice malt syrup or agave. It also helps the sprinkles stick to the popcorn 🙂
Healthy Finger Food #8 – Fruits And Nuts
Fruit can be used in various ways, but again it is all about how it looks which will determine its success. It is up to you how creatively you are going to plate it and how much time you want to put into it. You can make colorful fruit skewers which are easy for little hands to grab and a novelty for them to eat (this is my husband helping again with his skewers).
A simple fruit platter with bite sized pieces is always easy to prepare and it can be jazzed up with a dipping station – small dipping bowls with peanut butter or almond butter, melted sugar free chocolate or yoghurt with a few other bowls with toppings that will stick to the dip. Crushed nuts, sugar free sprinkles, mini sugar free choc chips or cacao nibs. Warning – you may need an adult on standby for this one to fight off the double dippers…
Another easy alternative is just grounded nuts and dried fruit like sultanas and apricots in fun colourful boxes.
Healthy Finger Food #9 – Banana Split Bites
Ditch the ice cream, cookies, and whipped cream, they are filled with unknown ingredients, and god knows how many preservatives they are laced with. Now this next one, banana split bites, it is still pretty indulgent but it packs way more nutrients than the former sweet treats.
These banana bites along with other fruits like pineapple, strawberry coated with sugar-free chocolate, and sprinkled with nuts, are the favorites in my house. Simply choose your fruit and jam a skewer or ice cream stick into it, lay it out on some baking paper, drizzle with melted sugar free chocolate, sprinkle your nuts over the top and put it in the freezer until the chocolate is hard. Super easy and is a contender for the most popular kids party food, even when compared with traditional unhealthy party foods!
Healthy Finger Food #10 – Mini Fruit Pizza
The sweet cookie fruit pizzas are utterly delicious, and one of the best kinds of cookies one will ever have. These are just standard off-the-shelf sugar-free cookies with yoghurt frosting and fruits of your choice as a topping. These are the favorite food among kids as well as adults (I have been known to toss a few of these back at kids’ parties).
Healthy Snacks For A Birthday Party – Easy & Tasty
At first thought, delicious food that looks like a treat and is healthy can seem like a real struggle. But hopefully from going through the above top 10 healthy finger foods for a kids birthday party, you are leaning more towards the idea that it is not an impossible task to do.
To make it short, for kids, color is the key to success. Try to add as many colors as possible to your recipes. As an example, my sons favorite colors are blue and purple, so I know pretty much anything that has blueberries, grapes, or plums in it will be a winner. Nature has given us so many beautiful colors in the form of fruits and vegetables. Used wisely, we can create a rainbow to fill your party table, helping to keep the smiles on your kids faces, without the sugar crash and mood swings…. Hallelujah!
Let us know which ones you try at your next party 🙂
