By Marcie Barnes
Our son's birthday falls on Easter Monday this year (thankfully this will never happen again) so I am planning a "Healthy Easter Egg Hunt" for him and his guests. A cursory look at Google on this subject matter yields few results, which is a little unsettling. I think it's high-time we start filling those Easter baskets with something other than unhealthy candy. Now, I am sure some of you think I sound like a scrooge, and that's fine :) Our son is allowed to have a little "dessert" after dinner - and for the most part I try to make sure it's high-quality organic (dark) chocolate, with some fresh fruit. In any case, I though I would share with you my list of "healthy" items that will be going into jumbo plastic Easter eggs for the "healthy hunt":
Non-food items:
Play-Doh (make your own or buy the small containers that will fit inside a large egg.) I also found plastic eggs filled with different colors of clay at the dollar store.
Bubbles - most craft stores have those tiny little bubble bottles people buy for weddings that will fit in an egg.
Money - depending on the age of your child - use bills or coins, or even tokens from their favorite arcade.
Magic towels - I found egg-shaped ones at the dollar store.
Other misc. toys - I also found some "stretchy" and "bendy" toy rabbits that would fit in eggs, as well as some small battery-operated musical instruments. See what treasures you can find at your dollar store!
Food items:
Popcorn - I'm not a proponent of the "low fat" label being healthy. But for an egg filling it's probably best to use "dry" popcorn.
Baby Carrots - (in individual packs)
Dwarf Pink Lady apples - or any other fruit you can find that will fit in an egg :) such as:
Clementine oranges - really easy for kids to peel themselves!
And yes - dark chocolate - I bought these chocolate-covered cranberries and almonds. This is a yummy way to get powerful antioxidants and phytonutrients from all three of these very heathy foods: cranberries, almonds and dark chocolate.
And here are a couple ideas for next year:
http://www.wellbaskets.com/ceorcheaba.html
http://www.sweetearthchocolates.com/level.itml/icOid/183Photo credit goes to: joewilsondallas on Flickr. Thanks!
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