7 fun, healthy food ideas for your kid’s birthday party

Planning a birthday party for your child can be stressful, especially for mothers who are not thrilled about the idea of their children gulping down sugary drinks and binging on unhealthy snacks. But hey, it’s a party and it has to have fun food that kids will love. So how do you combine the elements of healthy and fun in your child’s birthday party food? Well, we have some interesting ideas. Here are a few food ideas for children’s parties that will help you plan a healthy and exciting menu for the next party. 

1. Simple party foods: Always stick to ingredients and flavours that you know kids love so that they don’t avoid eating. Go for some crowd favourites like bananas, strawberries, apples, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, sweetcorn, avocado, and even peppers. 
2. A ‘make it yourself’ buffet: Children love getting involved in food preparation. Let them be creative and have some fun with their friends. Get them excited about making their food. Set the table with different healthy toppings, tacos with a variety of fillings, various ingredients for a homemade pizza or pasta with homemade sauce options. The more options there are, the more fun it will be. Frozen fruit lollies are easy and quick to make and quite inexpensive. You can use lots of different fruits and juices to create unique combinations too. If you do not have moulds, you can even use yoghurt pots. 
3. Colour foods using natural ingredients: Kids love colourful food, and you can use the juice of beetroot, spinach, and oranges to add a pop of colour. You can also blend fruits with colour-boosting ingredients like blueberries, strawberries, mangoes, pineapple, and kiwis and use these to colour any icing, smoothie or cake filling. 
4. Get creative: Give fun names to smoothies that kids can relate to, like a ‘Shrek’ juice or ‘Princess Elsa’ blueberry shake. You can even set up a juice bar and make juices to order, with a blender or juicer on the table. 
5. Chocolate covered fruits: Melt dark chocolate and dip diced banana or apple in it for a tasty treat. You can also spread the melted chocolate over chopped nuts, dried fruits and seeds. Let it cool on greaseproof paper and then break off chunks for the little ones. 
6. Healthy alternatives to fizzy drinks: Avoid fizzy drinks and serve freshly made fruit or veggie juices. You can even flavour up some plain water with fruits, herbs and some edible flowers too. To sweeten your juices, you can use some honey instead of sugar.
7. Mask the healthy stuff: Dips are a great way to sneak in healthy ingredients at a children’s party. Hummus, guacamole, or tomato salsa are great dips for any party. You can also make some sandwich fillings with these. Nut butters flavoured with cacao, vanilla, caramelised banana are also great options. 

We have compiled a few recipes that you can make for a children’s party.

1. Classic deviled eggs: Place all the eggs in a saucepan with enough water. Let it simmer on a medium flame for 10 minutes. Remove the eggs from the hot water. Cover them with ice-cold water and let them cool down. Peel the eggs and halve them lengthwise. Remove the yolks and put them in a food processor along with non-fat Greek yoghurt, onions, mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper and blend till they’re smooth. Fill the egg whites with one tablespoon of the filling and sprinkle it with paprika. 
2. Baked sweet potato fries: First, preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, toss the sweet potato wedges with some oil, salt and pepper. Spread these wedges on a baking sheet and bake them for about 20 minutes until they are brown and tender. 
3. Sweet potato skins with guacamole: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wrap the sweet potatoes tightly with a foil and place them on a baking sheet. Roast them for about fifty minutes to one hour till they are tender. Unwrap them and cool them. Cut the sweet potatoes lengthwise and scoop out the flesh. Place these halves skin side up on the baking sheet. Brush some oil on them, and sprinkle some salt. Then bake them until they are crisp, for about twenty or thirty minutes. Cut the skin off and place them on the baking sheet, skin side down. Sprinkle them with cheese and bake for eight to ten minutes until the cheese melts. You can make the guacamole using some mashed avocados mixed with lime juice, garlic, and salt. Top each of the sweet potato skin with some guacamole, tomato, and onions. 
4. Honey peanut popcorn: Combine some freshly popped popcorn and peanuts. Whisk together butter and honey and drizzle it over the popcorn and peanut mix. This can be a healthy sweet-salty snack.
5. Garlic hummus: Cook the chickpeas and drain the water except for a quarter of it. Now transfer the chickpeas along with the liquid into a food processor. Add the tahini, oil, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, chilli powder, and salt. Puree it all till it’s smooth. You can serve it with some vegetable chips. 

If you have kids with allergies coming over, make sure to label foods with allergens like nuts, dairy, etc. using cute labels. If possible, try to avoid ingredients that can cause these allergies. Children’s party food ideas need to be creative, fun and should have some ingredients that they love and some funky names that they can relate to. 

To learn more about growth and possibilities for your child visit www.nangrow.in