5 healthy homemade snack packs

Sending your child off to school with a snack shouldn't mean sacrificing health for the sake of convenience. Here are some ideas and easy recipes for healthy snack packs you can send with your child to school. They will also keep well over the course of a day.

• Clean and cut several celery sticks and wrap in plastic.
• In a separate covered container, place a dip such as sugar-free peanut butter or cream cheese.
• Your child can dip the celery stick into the flavorful dip for a healthy, protein-rich snack.

Flour tortillas make fun sandwich alternatives that you can fill with salad ingredients. Here's how:

Ingredients: shredded lettuce, shredded cheddar cheese, chopped tomato, flour tortilla

Instructions:

• Lay a flour tortilla on top of a large piece of aluminium foil.
• Place a line of shredded lettuce down the centre of the tortilla.
• Sprinkle cheese on top of the lettuce.
• Drop a few pieces of the chopped tomato on top of the cheese.
• Roll the tortilla up like a burrito and wrap the foil tightly around it.

As your children eat, they can keep the tortilla salad inside the foil so nothing falls out. You don't need dressing because the chopped tomato adds moisture as well as vitamins.

Most kids love eating hot dogs because the bun is small enough to fit in their tiny hands. However, the meat in hot dogs leaves a lot to be desired in terms of nutrition. You can give your kids a healthier hot dog with this option:

• Place a hot dog bun inside a plastic lunch container that has a lid.
• Lay a piece of romaine lettuce inside the roll. The lettuce will keep the moist ingredients from making the bread soggy.
• Place a few tablespoons of cold chili on top of the lettuce.
• Sprinkle shredded cheddar cheese on top of the chili.
• Place the lid on tightly, and your child is all set to roll.

• For this snack, you'll need an assortment of soft fruit, such as strawberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, bananas and raspberries.
• You'll also need some plastic drinking straws -- but not the bendable kind.
• Use the plastic straw to skewer a variety of fruit.
• If you have trouble getting the straw through the fruit, you can prime a hole by using a wooden skewer such as the kind you'd use for grilling vegetables.
• Pack the fruit straws inside a cardboard tube, such as the inside of a paper towel roll.
• Use colourful cartoon stickers to decorate the outside of the cardboard tube.

• Who says muffins have to be sugar-filled junk food?
• Make your own healthy muffins by using a carrot cake or zucchini cake recipe and filling your muffin tins instead of a cake tin.
• Spread a thin layer of cream cheese on top for frosting.
• Pack inside a plastic sippy cup with the lid tightly secured.
• Whenever you substitute junk food for healthy food in your children's snack packs, you'll be rewarded with the knowledge that you're doing your best for their health.