Idea for Cute and Healthy Snacks for Valentine’s Day

I’m always looking for healthy snacks. That dumb afternoon snack seems to get me every time…even with our snack jar, which has lately been completely bare. I wanted to plan ahead this year so I could share some Valentine’s day ideas with you too. I wanted to come up with a simple yet healthy snack for Valentine’s day. It needed to be quick and something the whole family would enjoy…meaning me as well. I came up with a delicious idea that I’m sharing with you today. Last year I manage to gain a few pounds that I am working to take off. I am not going to deprive myself, rather I’m going to look for healthy options or lower calorie and healthy options that will still satisfy me and my kids. So far, so good as I’ve lost almost 5 pounds. Yay!

I wanted to do something quick, easy and healthy for our snack on Valentine’s Day. I just don’t have the time to do something elaborate…I’m sure you know exactly what I mean. Yet I also want to do something to help make the day special. Let me show you what I came up with so you can do the same thing or something similar at your home.  OK, our family loves cheese. In moderation, cheese is a healthy snack as it offers protein and calcium. Our current favorite splurge cheese is a smoked Gouda. I added these little brioche toasts to the cheese to make it feel fancy. Again, eating 1 of these with cheese on top is perfect. I get to eat things I love and not deprive myself. We also love nuts for snacks. They are great snacks as most nuts are a good source of protein, fiber and the good fatty acids. Pistachios are a fantastic choice as they are considered the Skinny Nut and, in case you didn’t know, it is considered the Nut of the Year for 2015…I thought that was me. lol! It is me and the pistachio!

We love pistachios because they offer the fun of taking the shell off, which I love because it serves as a great reminder of how much I have eaten. Pistachios are also the lowest calorie and lowest fat nuts. Perfect for our lovely Valentine’s Day snack. The kids don’t even need to know we are eating these because Mommy wants to shed a few pounds. 😉 I quickly printed off the Valentine’s Day glass wrappers I made and posted the free printable for last year. That kept is really quick and simple for me(and you too). I added a few strawberries with our lovely snack pairing. They are quite the treat for us because they are really hard to find organic this time of year. Finally, I added the felt and burlap table runner I made last year to the table to help make our healthy snack a little more Valentine’s day. If you don’t want to make that table runner, I know you can buy Valentine’s table runners or placemats this time of year. It makes it quick and easy to add a little something extra to the table. I served our snack on these cute little heart plates my mom bought my girls a few years ago. It just makes it a little more fancy and a lot cuter…which always does really well around here. 🙂 If you don’t have plates like these, you can easily find some this time of year or even use some paper plates (though I always prefer re-usable over disposable).

I’m telling you, this healthy snack took me all of 10 minutes to put together with another 5 minutes to pull out the table runner and print off the glass wrappers. My girls LOVED it! They loved and ate the whole snack, as did I, leaving only a cute pile of pistachio shells behind. It made me feel really great that I came up with something that was easy and that they loved. Those are the things I love doing for my family. I know we will do this again on Valentine’s day…and maybe a few other days leading up to Valentine’s day.

I know you can create this same thing at your house or maybe this will inspire a similar idea at your house. Let me know what ideas you have… I love hearing when my readers have given an idea a try!

Don’t forget to enter the Pistachio Health Institute Sweepstakes, where you could win a year supply of Pistachios!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

More Valentine’s Day Ideas for you: For even more Valentine’s Day inspiration, follow my Valentine’s Day Pinterest board.

Follow The Real Thing with the Coake Family’s board Real Valentine’s Day on Pinterest.