Nut Free Snacks That Use Seeds Instead

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Nut Free Snacks For Kids have become an absolute necessity. Peanut allergy and tree nut allergy are two of the 8 most common childhood food allergens. If you have a child with one of these allergies you will of course avoid using either peanuts, tree nuts or both.

Because of the relative common incidence of peanut allergies and tree nut allergies many facilities such schools and day cares have nut-free food policies to keep children safe. This means no more peanut butter sandwiches and that most parents will need a collection of Nut Free Snacks for lunchboxes.

A six photo collage of nut free snack recipes for kids.

Nutritional Alternatives to Nuts

Nuts are healthy energy dense snacks that provide healthy fats, protein and fibre. Which is why they are so popular as snacks.

This is where ingredients such as seeds can step in to fill this nutritional gap. These ingredients have similar nutritional profiles to nuts.

  • Sunflower seeds
  • Pumpkin seeds, pumpkin kernels, pepitas
  • Chia seeds
  • Flaxseeds, Linseeds
  • Hemp hearts
  • Chickpeas, beans, pulses, and legumes

25 Nut Free Snacks

A collection of Nut Free Snacks that are packed with the goodness of seeds.

Peanut allergy and tree nut allergy are relatively common in children.

Many schools and child care centres have nut-free food and lunchbox policies to avoid exposing children in their care to nuts.

Nuts are packed with protein and healthy fats, perfect for fueling growing bodies and minds, when you aren't able so use nuts in your snacks, seeds are the perfect alternative.

Sunflower Seeds

Sunflower seeds are rich in unsaturated fats and protein, they are also a good source of Vitamin E.

They are mild in flavour and make an excellent and affordable alternative to nuts.

Pumpkin Seeds

Punpkin seeds or pepitas are another great alternative to nuts. They contain unstaurated fats and are a source of protein. They are also rich in Magnesium and Phosphorus.

I often use them when I make pesto, but they are great for lunchbox snacks as well.

Chia Seeds

Chia seeds are very small, but add protein, fibre, unsaturated fats and micronutrients such as calcium, magnesium and selenium to recipes they are used in.

One of my favourite way to use them is in chia seed puddings such as my banana chia pudding or chocolate chia puddings.

All the seeds

Some recipes use not just one type of seed but ALL of the seeds. These recipes combine flax seeds, sunflower seeds, pepitas, chia, and sesame into seed loaded snacks.

Other Nut Free Alternatives

This post has focussed a lot on seeds, but there are some other very handy substitutes for nuts in recipes

  • Chickpeas
  • Coconut
  • Quinoa

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4 Comments

  1. These look tasty! I have a little one off to kindergarten and it's a nut free school, so I'll be trying some of these for sure!