Everyone loves snacks, let's face it. And these days it is easy to find fun, nutritional snacks to pack for school or to serve after school or anytime.

Be creative and let your children be a part of it. If they have a hand in selecting what they eat, they are more likely to eat it ... even if they don't know what it is.

Take your kids along to the store with you and ask them to pick out a new vegetable or fruit for a weekly "try-a-new-food" night. At home, let them help you prepare it.

Encourage your children to invent a new snack or sandwich from healthful ingredients you supply. Make sure you include a couple of food groups into the selection. You may be pleasantly surprised by what they come up with.

Who knew a dill pickle and low-fat cottage cheese sandwich is not only tasty, it's healthy served on whole-grain bread ... or crackers for a mini-munchie.

Remember, serving snacks can make a positive or negative contribution to kids' diets ... depending on what is offered.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has an abundance of information on eating healthy. Incorporating fun and the food pyramid -- grains, vegetables, fruits, milk, meat, and fats and sweets -- makes nutritious snacking a breeze.

The USDA offers these ideas of healthy snacks from the food groups:

-- Grain: Wheat crackers with cheese, cereals, flavored rice or popcorn cakes, ginger snaps, popcorn, trail mix, graham crackers.

-- Vegetables: Any kind of veggie stick (carrots, celery, green peppers, cucumber, squash), celery stuffed with peanut butter, cherry tomatoes, steamed veggies with low-fat dip such as hummus, bean dip and salad dressings.

-- Fruit: Jazzing up all fruits with peanut butter is a quick tip along with frozen fruits, fresh fruit cups, dried fruit, homemade smoothies.

-- Milk: Fruit and milkshakes, cheese with apple slices, string cheese or individual slices, mini yogurt cups.

-- Meat: Hard-cooked eggs, beans, canned tuna or salmon, lean lunchmeats.

Most snacks should come from the fruit and vegetable groups. But it is easy to see how to sneak in a few extras, say chocolate chips instead of raisins, and still be on the right track.

For more information, visit www.nal.usda.gov.

FUN SNACK IDEAS

Here are some fun and healthy snack ideas:

-- Take one medium-size banana and peel it halfway. Take a handful of raisins and design a funny face on the banana by pressing the raisins into the fruit. Spread a small amount of peanut butter all around the top for the hair. In the summer, make your banana and freeze it for a frozen treat.

-- Take one English muffin, cut in half and spread pizza sauce on each half. Sprinkle some cheese on top and put it in the oven to broil until the cheese starts bubbling.

-- Cut an apple in half and stick two pretzel sticks in the front of each half. Put a few drops of red food coloring anywhere on the apple and pretend it's an apple ladybug.

-- Cut a pear or other soft fruit in half. Fill the middle with nuts and maybe a dab of cream cheese.

-- For breakfast, fill half of a cantaloupe or honeydew melon with cottage cheese and maybe some granola.

-- Mix blueberries with sour cream and brown sugar for a light summer treat.