Building Healthy Easter Traditions {with recipe}
| 3 min read
Easter is not only a celebrated religious holiday – it’s also time for chocolate, candy, jelly beans and Easter basket treats. Trust me, I am not against chocolate or treats, but you want to be careful when overdoing it, especially for the kids.
Collectively, Americans spend billions of dollars on Easter every year. Some of the healthiest, best basket-fillers are affordable and can even be found at a nearby dollar store. When it comes to filling baskets, traditional treats can lead to the overconsumption of more than twice the daily recommended sugar intake in one sitting.
Beyond Candy
Think outside of the box with fun gifts or better yet, active treats that don’t involve chocolate or candy:
- Movies
- Socks
- Little toys
- Balls
- Chalk
- Jump ropes
- New tennis shoes
- Music
- Activity or coloring books
- Crayons, pens or markers
- Jewelry
- Games
The recommendation for school-aged children is to limit consumption of added sugar to 4 teaspoons per day. Instead of marshmallow candies, try dried fruit or trail mix with mini marshmallows added to the mix, or make our recipe for “bunny poop” below.
You can also indulge in natural dark chocolate bars. Remember, everything in moderation! Dark chocolate has many benefits and contains fiber, zinc and minerals. It’s also high in antioxidants and can even help regulate levels of stress-induced hormones.
You don’t have to cut out all of the sweet treats, but try to mix them up with some healthy ones, too:
- Add grapes to milk chocolate eggs
- Dip berries in chocolate
- Dip pears and apples in caramel
- Make your own fruit snacks or dried fruit — for example, preheat your oven to 350 degrees, wash and hull strawberries and place on a cookie sheet, and bake for about 10 minutes for a delicious, healthy and easy treat
- Make rainbow kabobs with the kids using fruits and vegetables
- Enjoy making deviled eggs with the decorated hard-boiled Easter eggs you made; you don’t want them to go to waste
- Eat veggies with dip or hummus and tell your kids you are all eating like a rabbit
- Have an Easter egg hunt or a fun scavenger hunt as a family to get moving
- Tell the kids they have to hop around like a bunny for a certain time period throughout Easter day
Once you start incorporating some of these healthier ideas into your Easter they can become yearly traditions everyone will look forward to.
Do you have any fun family Easter traditions? Tell us about them in the comments.
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Photo credit: Fat Camera
