Yesterday was the kind of day where I barely had a chance to sit down and the next thing I knew it was 10:00 pm. Do you ever have those kind of days? Emails get unanswered, phone calls don’t get made, blog posts don’t get written…
One thing I accomplished from my to-do list yesterday was getting some things for Meghan’s Easter basket. If you read my post about Halloween candy, you know that I want to put off giving Meghan candy for as long as possible. Halloween worked out great because she had no idea what she was missing.
I feel much better about Easter because I have control. We aren’t at the mercy of other people’s parenting choices because we don’t go door-to-door collecting candy like on Halloween. The Easter bunny brings the candy right to our house–and I get to decide what kind of candy the Easter bunny is going to bring. Meghan’s still never tasted candy, but we’re going to let her have a few pieces in her Easter basket this year.
I was extremely selective when choosing what candy I was going to allow her to have. I knew it was going to have sugar and this would be one of those once-in-a-while occasions where she can have some sugar. I don’t think total deprivation is a smart path to take when it comes to our children’s diets, so having treats with sugar on occasion is what we’ll allow. I draw the line, however, at some of the other ingredients in standard Easter candy out there.
Let’s take a look at what you’ll find in a Palmer chocolate Easter bunny:
“Sugar, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Palm Kernel Oil and/or Palm Oil), Whey, Cocoa, Lactose, Skim Milk, Soy Lecithin, Vanillin, Artificial Colors (Blue #1, Blue #2, Red #40, Yellow #5, Yellow #6 & Red #3). May contain Peanuts/Nuts.”
If you go down the regular Easter candy aisle at your grocery store, you’ll be hard-pressed to find Easter candy without extra funky ingredients that are harmful for your children. These are the ingredients I am avoiding in my selection of Meghan’s candy:
-any and all artificial food dyes
-preservatives
-partially hydrogenated oils
-high-fructose corn syrup
-anything “artificial”
Rather than run around town looking for the perfect healthy and natural (okay, healthy-ish) Easter candy, I ordered on-line. These are the two sites where I got all of the candy for our Easter baskets (yes, Tim and I get Easter baskets, too):
Indie Candy: “All Natural and Allergen Friendly”–this is also a great source if you need to avoid certain ingredients for allergy purposes.
Natural Candy Store: “All the Fun without the Funny Stuff”–this site has a great selection of natural and organic candies with familiar ingredients. They also have natural baking decorations if you’d like some natural colorful sugar or food colorings to decorate your Easter cookies or cake with.
While I am going to put some candy in Meghan’s Easter basket this year, it will still be mostly filled with other things. Candy won’t be the star. You can build a healthier Easter basket for your family by putting things in it that are non-candy food items or non-food items all together. Here are some ideas to help you:
Healthier Food Options:
-Raisins and other dried fruit
-Fresh Fruit
-Homemade cookies or muffins
-Hard-boiled eggs
Non-Food Items for Younger or Older Kids:
-Books
-Bubbles
-Kite
-Seeds with gardening gloves and other tools
-DVDs
-Art supplies
-Board games
-Play-Doh
-Lip gloss
-Temporary tatoos
-Stickers
-Small toys like cars, Little People, etc.
-Jump Rope
-Sidewalk chalk
-Sand toys
Question: Do you have any great tips to add on how to build a healthier Easter basket?
very wonderful blog thanks for healthy natural easter basket for children’s and elder one’s so they will be happy for this.
very wonderful blog thanks for posting.
http://experiencelife.com/newsflashes/link-love-mindfulness-and-work-natural-easter-basket-treats-and-more/
Easter is and always has been my favorite holiday. I hope my children grow up with the same fond memories of Easter traditions that I hold dear to my heart. While family and church were always the center of those traditions there was always a pretty new dress, an Easter basket with candy, and an Easter egg hunt with real hard-boiled eggs. We continue those traditions and have added some of our own. One tradition I have tried to start with my own children’s Easter baskets is to include a new bathing suit and some items for summer fun ~ dive sticks, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, .
What a small world ~ Indie Candy is located just down the street from my house. I walk or run by it almost everyday yet have never darkened the doors. I might stop in this week to try to fill in some holes in my children’s Easter basket! Thanks for the suggestion…
Your Easter memories are priceless! I love the idea of adding summer fun items to your children’s Easter baskets. What a fun tradition. Wow–how cool that you live so close to Indie Candy. Very convenient. 🙂
When I was a kid, I got the whole chocolate bunny, chocolate eggs, jelly beans-you name it! I know my kids (in the waaay future) will be getting my yummy, sugar-free treats (that still taste great!) With a few candies thrown in so she/he doesn’t feel left out. But I love your ideas for non-candy treats!
good tips! we don’t have kids yet, but I can’t wait to do stuff like this when we do 🙂
Thank you for mentioning the Web sites where you purchased healthy candy!
I do not have the sweet like my husband does–he makes up for my lack of a sweet tooth. But our almost 3 year-old daughter knows how mommy does not like her to have candy and such. And it makes me laugh, because when daddy tries to give her something sweet that she knows mommy probably does not want her to have, she says, “Nooo, daddy!” And then she looks at me to see what kind of expression I have on my face 🙂 I have her trained well 🙂
I will probably give our daughter some Annie’s Honey Bunnies and fruit.
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
Aw, I love it!! Your daughter is a smarty. 🙂
I love it! Such a good idea. I like to make natural PB cups with dark chocolate PB inside. No added sugars or flours and they taste like REESES! Oh and you can make fun trail mix. sheesh, can you tell I am thinking about food? hehe.
Ooooh–PB cups with dark chocolate PB inside?! Sounds amazing!! That wouldn’t be a bad way to get introduced to the world of candy, would it? 😉
I’ve often wondered how I am going to handle candy-giving occasions once I have children. It seems like it would be difficult to tell our families they can’t give our children candy, but then again I do not want them eating it. Good things I live near health food stores with “better” candy…
I usually put Annie’s Bunny Grahams (which sometimes seems a bit morbid – eating bunny shaped crackers from the Easter Bunny?), money, cashews and a few jelly beans. I don’t stress too much about the ‘natural’ candy, since I only let them have a few pieces. My approach with holidays, especially once they get older and are exposed to non natural treats at church/school/friend’s parties/grandparent’s house/etc is to let the kids pick 2 or 3 to eat and then I toss the rest.
Maryea, thank you–you don’t know how happy this makes me! I just placed an order at Natural Candy Store and may or may not have dropped a couple things in the cart for my own Easter basket!
Glad I could help! 🙂
Great ideas! I will have to check out those websites and pass them on to some friends with kids with allergies. I don’t think I am putting any candy in Libby’s basket…she has had it, but doesn’t really care about it too much and definitely won’t know that it’s “supposed” to be there. I think I may include Annie’s Fruit Snacks and her most recent obsession- raisins. I got her a bunch of books, a cute Little Mermaid blanket (got a great deal on at the Disney store!), stickers, and a plush bunny.
I hope Meghan won’t care too much about the candy, either, but I’m afraid she’s going to llluuuurve it! If she’s anything like her dad…
I was lying in bed wide awake last night thinking about the healthier and non-food items that will be in my kids’ Easter baskets this year. We always give each of them a new DVD and hot wheels cars. But, this year I decided to add shelled pistachios (we all love them, but they’re more of a special treat) and fruit leather as well as some natural and organic candy. I hadn’t even thought to get online and order candy. Thanks for the great advice!
Great ideas! I don’t have any children yet, but I am going to try to keep sweets away from them, or limit them for as long as possible.
As a teenager I remember babysitting and the mother telling me the older boy (about 7) could have 1 piece of chocolate after dinner. I asked if the younger boy (about 2) could have chocolate as well. She said, “No, he has never had it. He doesn’t know what he is missing”. Genius! I have a niece who I think was giving candy in her bottle and now candy and sweets is all she cares about. I don’t want that for my children.
I love your thoughts and views on this topic. There are much healthier options that taste good too!
Candy in her bottle?!! I’ve never heard of such a thing!
Never mind, Maryea, I just placed my order with Indie Candy. I called them first to make sure I still had plenty of time to get it before the Easter holiday and they said, no problem. Thanks for passing this on again. Like Meghan’s Easter basket the candy will not be the star in my boys’ baskets, either. I bought them a few select pieces of candy and the rest will be toys/art supplies/DVDs or Leapster games, and I always like to put some summer sand/beach/swimming toys in there, too.
You’re welcome! 🙂
Oh my goodness, Maryea, thanks for sharing. I wonder if I still have time to order? Would you mind sharing what kind of candy you got for Meghan? I was hem hawing around trying to decide what to do about this and you answered it for me. I hadn’t had a chance to try and research where I was going to get some natural candy from and I’m so glad you wrote about this. So helpful! I was thinking about just going to Whole Foods or Fresh Market so I’m glad I can browse around on these sites. I’m just concerned about getting it in time. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing those web pages! I love the fact that healthier candies are available. While I do allow my boys candy in their baskets, I try to keep it to a minimum. We like to do money in plastic eggs. That way they can learn about saving for something they want, or take a little trip to get frozen yogurt one day 🙂
Money is a great idea!