Healthy Snacks with Agropur Products
All you moms out there will probably agree that after school time is the most hectic part of the day! You and the kids get home, dinner won't be ready for a while and you immediately hear "Mom! We're starving, can we have some snacks?" Of course, if I let the kids fend for themselves, they will usually reach for unhealthy junk food. I don't want them to starve until dinner, so usually I try to curb their appetite with healthier snacks to tie them over.
One of my favourite snacks are these homemade blueberry Greek yogurt pops. They are super yummy and by making them myself, I can control what goes into them and, more importantly, what doesn't. Whenever I have fresh blueberries I try to prepare a few batches to keep in the freezer. Of course, you're not limited to blueberries, these yogurt pops can be made with any kind of fruit. They are a great snack and perfect for the warm spring and summer days coming up. My boys, including my hubby, love them so they're great for all ages and the best part is they are super easy to make. All you need are four simple ingredients:
- 2 cups of Blueberries
- 1 TBS of Lemon juice
- 1 TBS Honey (optional)
- 2 cups iögo Greek Yogurt
- Puree blueberries in a blender or food processor to your desired consistency.
- In a bowl add mixture of yogurt, lemon juice, honey and stir until combined.
- Pour mixture into popsicle molds, alternating the purée. Depending upon the size of your molds, you can probably fill 4 to 6.
- Freeze for 4 hours or overnight, or until frozen solid.
I like to use fresh fruit, but frozen fruit works just as well. My preferred yogurt is iögo Greek yogurt. It is so smooth and creamy and is made without any artificial flavours or colouring. It's important to me to feed my sons healthy food, so iögo is my go-to brand.
When it's colder out, or the kids aren't feeling the yogurt pops, I always try to get them to eat some veggies, but that doesn't always go over well with them. "No thanks!" is a common answer when I ask them if they want some carrots, cucumbers or tomatoes. But, for some reason, whenever I put veggies on a snack platter, they gobble it up, go figure! My secret to snack platters is presenting the food on a nice board. Food really does become more appealing when it is presented in a certain way, especially vegetables. All it takes is a little re-branding, and boom, boring veggies becomes a fun snack. My snack platters always have at least two kinds of fruit, two veggies, some crackers, and of course some OKA mini cheeses and a glass of Natrel milk to wash it all down. I love serving them these platters because they get a nice mix of vitamins, minerals, nutrients, carbs and proteins.
As I'm sure you can tell, I love natural, healthy dairy. So, when I was approached by Agropur to highlight their products, I was excited because I had been buying their brands for years. They make healthy food that tastes great, making it easy for me to incorporate them into the diet of my picky little eaters at home. What makes it even better is that Agropur is a Canadian company, a dairy cooperative of 3,290 dairy farmers. I love buying Canadian! By supporting cooperatives like Agropur, you're choosing to contribute to the Canadian economy, and supporting the over 13,000 Canadian families within the co-op. I was also surprised to know that Agropur has more than $6 Billion in sales based on their unique business model of wealth sharing between its members. That's pretty cool!
If you'd like to know more about Agropur, check them out at: www.agropurpride.com/pride/
