Parkland Dietitian Offers Tips For Cool and Healthy Summer Snacks

Simple ingredients, imagination create delicious options

DALLAS – As the summer heat begins to crank up and with 100-degree days just around the corner, everyone is looking for ways to cool down.

One way to chill is to create cool snacks for you and your children during the heat of summer. Ice cream isn’t the only refreshing option. By using a little imagination and plentiful seasonal fresh fruits and vegetables, a dietitian from Parkland Health & Hospital System explains, you can include nutritious snacks to your efforts to keep cool.

“Summer is a great time for picnics and barbecues and just hanging out by the pool or lake,” said Sharon Cox, RD, a registered dietitian at Parkland. “And while summer fare can be heavy and filling, it doesn’t have to be, especially when it comes to snacks.”

Kids are always interested in treats that are fun and tasty, and it’s easy to turn a few ingredients into something they’ll love, Cox said.

”Fresh fruit is affordable, nutritious and refreshing during the heat-filled days of July and August,” she stated. “Fruit can be mixed with Greek yogurt and frozen as a healthy replacement to ice cream. Fruit also can be used with cheese to make fruit ‘kabobs.’ Or you can whip up a fruit and yogurt parfait or make 100 percent fruit popsicles using fruit juice and diced fruit.”

Pudding spread over a single graham cracker square, topped by another square and then frozen makes a delicious treat; or you can make a vanilla wafer fruit pizza using cream cheese and diced fruit.

And, you are not limited to fruit, Cox added. You can make a tasty carrot and hummus snack in an ice cream cone or have salsa with baked tortilla chips. There are more great ideas such as hollowing out a zucchini or cucumber and stuffing it with tomatoes, cucumber and feta cheese, as well as a vegetable taco with cheese or wrap a slice of turkey in a lettuce leaf spread with cream cheese.

Other cool summer treats include:

• Banana-peanut butter wrap in a tortilla or wheat bread
• Fruit pizza on a graham cracker crust with cream cheese and sliced fruit
• Frozen watermelon, grape or peach pops on a stick
• Frozen yogurt sandwich with yogurt and diced fruit spread between two graham crackers
• Use a cookie cutter, or different shaped containers for frozen fruit pops and top with fresh mint

“As you can see, there are all kinds of fun and delicious combinations you can create with your family, and ones they will enjoy during the summer for years to come. And, the most important thing is that they are healthier alternatives to other snacks that are usually loaded with sugar, salt or fat,” Cox said.

You can find recipes for these tasty and healthy summer snacks at www.parklandhospital.com/Recipes. For more information about the services provided at Parkland, visit www.parklandhospital.com.