On a wet and windy winter’s evening it’s fun to have a family movie night at home. Pick a movie, bath the kids, put on pyjamas and curl up under a toasty blanket or duvet. Of course a movie night just isn’t the same without some sustenance…

The obvious perfect movie snacking food is popcorn* and you can either buy it pre-popped or pop it yourself. Home-popped corn is ready in a couple of minutes and the natural type (without added butter or salt) is a wholegrain food that is low in fat, sugar free, high in fibre and a great source of carbohydrates. Some of the flavoured popcorns, like caramel have high sugar contents so it’s worth checking out the nutritional panel if you don’t want the kids bouncing on the duvet instead of staying under it.

You could opt for pretzels, which now come in some interesting flavours and can be straight or curly. The curly ones are fun as you can eat different parts to make letters of the alphabet.

Assuming there are no nut allergy sufferers in your family, nuts* make a great movie snack and are a great choice as they contain polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats which are considered ‘good’ fats. Nuts are also a valuable source of vitamin E, zinc, fibre and protein, plus they taste good. Try cashews or mixes like nuts and raisins or apricots and almonds. The roasted unsalted nut varieties are often better as the lower salt content doesn’t bring on a raging thirst and you can taste the nut flavour better. For older children pistachios are good fun as they can crack the nuts open themselves – just beware of empty shells in the duvet!

Then of course there are chips and dips. You can buy the small individual packets of chips or just a big one for sharing. For a healthier option choose chippies prepared with canola, olive or sunflower oil to minimise saturated fat intakes.

More ‘sturdy’ chips are good for scooping up dips. For example rice crackers, corn chips, pita bread crisps and crispy bagel slices make a nice change to potato chips and may be more nutritious too. It’s probably best to steer away from the jalapeno and chilli flavours for the kids and stick to cheese and barbecue. 

For movie watching you may want a fairly solid dip to avoid splodges on the blanket. There’s the old favourite of reduced fat cream and onion soup mix. Alternatively you can choose a tomato-based salsa dip that’s full of the antioxidant lycopene. If you feel up to it, you could make a lovely creamy guacamole with fresh avocados – it always goes down well with corn chips.

Try rounding off with the traditional Kiwi movie-watching - Jaffas while the credits roll or if you’ve got English heritage, Maltesers may appeal. Kids always love marshmallows or you may choose to finish the movie with a jelly snake – the ones with natural colours and flavours are yummy!

So have fun choosing a movie, get the treats in and curl up and stay warm this weekend!

* Remember that small hard foods can be a choking hazard. Always stay with children while they're eating.

Endorsed by our New World Nutritionist  ||   Proudly Partnering with Parents Centre

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