Looking for simple, kidney-friendly snacks you can make at home? CKD dietitian Kellsey Reed, RDN, LDN (@ckd.nutrition.coach) shares three quick and delicious recipes you can whip up with ingredients you already have on hand.
These snacks are CKD-friendly, easy to prepare, and perfect for anyone managing chronic kidney disease who wants to enjoy healthy, satisfying options.
Peanut Butter Energy Bites
Makes ~14 balls
1 cup rolled oats
½ cup natural unsalted peanut butter
3 tbsp honey or maple syrup
¼ cup mini dark chocolate chips (low sodium)
2 tbsp ground flaxseed (flax meal)
2 tbsp hemp hearts
1 tsp cinnamon
Mix everything in a bowl, roll into ~14 balls, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before eating.
Nutrition Facts (per bite):
120 calories
4 gm protein
2 gm fiber
60 mg sodium
15 gm carbohydrates
7 gm fat
100 mg potassium
Peanut Butter Fruit Dip
Makes 4 servings
1 cup plain unsweetened yogurt
2 tbsp natural unsalted peanut butter
1 tsp cinnamon
Optional: 1–2 tsp honey for extra sweetness
Whisk everything together until creamy. Serve with apple slices, strawberries, or grapes.
Nutrition Facts (per ¼ cup dip):
90 calories
5 gm protein
1 gm fiber
50 mg sodium
7 gm carbohydrates
5 gm fat
160 mg potassium
Savory Veggie Dip
Makes 4 servings
1 cup plain unsweetened yogurt (or Greek yogurt for more protein)
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp dried dill
½ tsp black pepper
Fresh veggies for dipping (carrots, bell peppers, cucumbers, celery)
Stir yogurt and spices together until smooth. Serve with fresh veggies.
Nutrition Facts (per ¼ cup dip, not including veggies):
60 calories
5 gm protein
0 gm fiber
40 mg sodium
4 gm carbohydrates
2 gm fat
180 mg potassium
👩🍳 Watch now to learn how to make each recipe step-by-step!
Hi everyone, my name’s Kelsey. I’m a registered dietician that specializes in chronic kidney disease and I help people feel confident about eating for their CKD. I’m so happy to be with you today to share some amazing kidney friendly snacks. This video is brought to you by patients like me, an incredible community where you can connect with others living with CKD and get real support. I am so excited to partner with them to bring you these recipes today. And since it’s back to school season, I thought it would be the perfect time to share some quick, easy, kidney friendly recipes and snacks that work great for kids and adults. So, let’s start with one of my all-time favorites. These are energy bites. You may have seen these before. Um, and these are really a great swap for packaged granola bars or packaged energy bites, which can sometimes be a little high in sodium, which we know is not always the best for those with CKD. They’re also great to keep in the fridge or bring to the office or school for lunch every day. Um, and what I love about these especially is that you can make them in just a few minutes. And they’re full of a couple key nutrients that are really helpful for those with CKD, like fiber, plant-based protein, healthy fats, and all of these nutrients help support your kidneys, your blood sugars, and help keep you full and satisfied throughout the day. So, let’s get started. We have our first ingredient here. This is just some rolled oats. So, you’re going to take a cup of these rolled oats here, and you’ll pour them into a big mixing bowl. Really, the bigger the better because you’re going to really need some some uh elbow grease in there. And then we have some other key ingredients here. And this is going to make up the bulk of our energy bites and give us some really good nutrition. And I always get this common question from so many people that I work with and people in the kidney community and they always say, “Well, can I actually have nuts and seeds with CKD?” And the answer is yes. You can enjoy nuts and seeds. And that’s exactly what we’re adding to these energy bites. We’re adding some peanut butter, some flax seed meal, and some hemp hearts. And what these nuts and seeds do is they help to add fiber, healthy fats, and plant-based protein. They also, the flax seed meal and the hemp hearts have omega-3s in them, which are really great for heart health. And so, when you combine all these nutrients and vitamins and minerals together, what they do is they help to protect your kidneys and support your overall kidney health, which is what we want, right? That’s exactly what we want from our kidney friendly snacks. So yes, you can enjoy these nuts and seeds with CKD. Now, if you are someone who needs maybe a potassium restriction, you don’t have to cut out these nuts and seeds. You can actually still enjoy them. Maybe you want to be mindful of your portion sizes. Maybe you want to um be mindful of how often you’re enjoying these foods and really balance out your potassium throughout the day. And remember, everyone’s different. Not everyone needs a potassium restriction with CKD. So, we also added another ingredient, and this is what I like to call a fun ingredient. And this is where we get a little bit of sweets. We get some more flavor in there. And those are the mini chocolate chips. And yes, you can enjoy sweets with CKD. The key is really balance, right? Just like with anything else, we want to enjoy our sweets in moderation and also enjoy a, you know, fruit and veggie, whole grain, healthy fat rich diet that’s balanced and full of variety, too. Again, that balance is so key. So, what we’re doing here is we are mixing all these ingredients together. Okay, so we got our oats, flax seed meal, peanut butter, mini chocolate chips. I really like the Enjoy Life brand. That’s a great option. They are dairyf free and free of the common allergens, which is nice if you have allergies to foods. They’re also typically a lower potassium, lower phosphorus option if that’s something you’re looking for. And so you can see when I’m mixing these energy bites, what I’m doing is I’m kind of smooshing it all together. That’s the key here. And we want to get it kind of as mixed together as we can. And if it’s sticking to your spatula, your spoon, just kind of use another spoon to get it off. That peanut butter might be a little sticky. And for peanut butter recommendations, I get this question a lot too. It’s helpful to buy peanut butter that maybe the only ingredients are peanuts or peanuts and salt because then you really know you’re just getting those healthy fats. And usually it’s low sodium, no added sugars because we’re adding some sweetness to this already. We are going to add one more ingredient and it’s just a little bit of honey because the research shows us that sweets in moderation are definitely acceptable for CKD. Now, if you’re someone who prefers artificial sweeteners, that’s something you can definitely talk to your healthcare team about. Remember, everyone’s different, but when it comes to sweets, moderation is key. So, we added about a tablespoon or so, and that is going to help it stick together a little bit more. We’re going to mix it. And as you can see, it’s getting a little bit more moist. Perfect. That’s what we want. All right. And then this is where we roll our energy bites. And usually this batter makes about 12 to 14 bites. if they’re a little on the smaller side, about eight to 10 if they’re a little bit bigger. And so you’ll see the nutrition information as well. We going to get a plate here. And this is actually where we’re going to roll our energy bites. So you can just wash your hands. And then you will want to kind of gather some batter into your hands. And we are just going to roll it here. And if you’re finding that it’s a little too dry, you can go ahead and add a little bit of like a splash of almond milk or plant-based milk. But this is really what we’re making here. Okay, this is our little energy bite. See, nice little bite size, kind of like a granola bite. And then we’re just going to repeat that with the entire uh mix here. Okay. If you want to, you can also add a couple other ingredients. Some people like to add dried cranberries. Those are a nice low potassium fruit option. Uh shredded coconut flakes. You can also add some spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, especially with the fall season upon us and the holidays coming. That’s a nice little fall twist. And some people like to instead of adding the chocolate chips, they like to dip these like half of it into melted chocolate. So you can switch this up however you want. I’ve also seen some people do some pureed pumpkin for a little pumpkin spice energy bite. So again, these are a great kidney friendly snack, especially if you’re looking for something quick, right? that came together in just a few minutes. I like to keep these in the fridge because it helps keep those healthy fats stable for longer and they’re nice when they’re a little bit refrigerated, a little bit cold. So, there we go. We have our energy bites here. All right. So, now we have a little bit of a different snack. And this is going to actually be our fruit and veggie dips. So, for our fruit and veggie dips, we are going to use similar ingredients, but the spices and seasonings we add are going to be different because we’re going to make a sweet and a savory. Now, while we just made our energy bites, those are really great for like on the-go snacks, right? But this is kind of better when you’re at home. Maybe you just get home from work or school. Um, or even if you need a little treat after dinner, too. And both of these dips are also packed with some protein to help keep you full and satisfied, right? Everyone with CKD still needs some protein. And then they’re also packed with some healthy fats as well. We are adding peanut butter to one of our dips just like with our energy bites. And then the best part, they’re low sodium, so they work for you if you are trying to manage your blood pressure and your kidney health. So we also have apples to dip in our fruit dip and baby carrots to dip in our veggie dip. So let’s get started. We’re going to start with our fruit dip. It is so easy. We only need a few ingredients. Cinnamon, peanut butter, and yogurt. And so I get this question a lot from people with CKD. What kind of yogurt is best? And really the answer is it depends on your goals, your individual needs, and your nutrition plan with your healthcare provider and your dietitian. So this right here is plain vanilla yogurt. Um, it’s not a Greek yogurt. It’s not an Icelandic yogurt. Those are typically higher in protein. Plain yogurt, it can be a flavor, but plain is considered a lower protein option. You can also do a plant-based yogurt. Some common brands I like to recommend are Forager brand. They have a cashew based plant-based yogurt that is awesome. All right, so basically we are going to add some cinnamon here. We got our peanut butter, our yogurt. Now, since this is a vanilla yogurt, we don’t really need to add any sweetness because it’s flavored a little bit with vanilla. But you could get a plain yogurt and add vanilla extract if you’re trying to watch your blood sugars maybe a little bit more closely. And this is really just a nice way to make eating your fruit a little bit more enjoyable and also making your yogurt a little bit enjoyable, too. All right. So, we are going to stir that cinnamon, peanut butter, and yogurt together until it’s nice and combined. Okay. And that is perfect. And you can also taste as you go. And then if you want to add more cinnamon or a little bit more peanut butter or a little bit more yogurt, you can always individualize it to your taste and preferences. But this is what it’s going to look like the finished product. And really, we are going to dip our apples in it. See that beautiful, easy, perfect fruit dip for enjoying some nice fiber richch fruit with CKD. All right. And then we have our veggie dip. And this is for our beautiful baby carrots here. The only fruit or veggie that is 100% off limits with CKD is starf fruit. Other than that, you can enjoy all fruits and veggies, but remember, everyone has different needs. So, do what works best for you. We are using baby carrots cuz they go really well with this dip. And we are actually using plain yogurt that’s unflavored because we don’t need any sweetness here, right? This is a savory dip. So, we are going to take about a half teaspoon of all of our spices. And these are no salt added spices. So, we have garlic powder. We have onion powder. We have some basil. And we have a little secret ingredient. We’re going to do a full teaspoon of this. This is nutritional yeast. This is a nice way to add some B vitamins and also a little cheesy, nutty, savory flavor. Okay. And then lastly, this is like the key spice that I use in every single dish, black pepper. It’s a great alternative for salt because it it’s going to give you that pack of flavor, but without the extra sodium. Okay. So, we have all of our spices here. And we are just going to stir this up. Now, you could also use like a sour cream to do this instead of yogurt if you don’t like yogurt. And of course, yogurt has that little tangy flavor. So, sometimes I’ll add a little drizzle of olive oil. Mix that in. Balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar. That just kind of helps change the flavor profile a little bit. And look at that. It looks like a beautiful veggie dip, right? So then we have our baby carrots. I have some rainbow carrots here. Look at that beautiful veggie dip. Amazing. So why do we have these kidney friendly snacks today? To show you how easy it is to make these delicious snacks really in just a few minutes. Keep them on hand in your kitchen, your pantry, so that you are choosing hearthealthy, kidney friendly options to protect your kidneys and manage your CKD. I hope that these recipes are something you can start to include in your everyday eating habits to make eating for your CKD so much easier. And thank you so much patients like me, for having me.
Dining and Cooking