Healthy snacks for kids

ladygrey_2

Big cheers for your children giving up something they love for lent
I've given up sweets

kiwichick

Pink-winged wrote:

milkshakes: whizz a banana or a tin of stawberries and milk with a hand blender

I have a friend who makes a huge batch of smoothies at breakfast and put the remainder in a jug in the fridge for pouring throught the day. Prehaps you could do the same??

Lucie_2

The combination of growing fast & lunchtime/after school sports practice probably mean that your kids are famished when they get home. I know I always was. Fruit is great, but they probably need a carbohydrate boost so something like toast, flapjack or muffins. Do they want sweet or savory? If savory then cheese is easy - on toast, with crackers or on it's own. If sweet then you might need to do a bit more baking! What about a fridge cake - crushed digestives, chocolate, nuts, cherries etc left in the fridge to set? Very little baking required. Is that technically still a chocolate biscuit?!

saving-grace

What about peanut butter sandwiches on wholemeal bread? I know peanut butter is high in fat but teenage boys need loads of calories plus its high in protein too. I like Whole Earth peanut butter as it has no added sugar.
Also as someone else suggested, toast. I would prefer my children to have some toast, or bread and butter, to keep them going rather than a sugary snack.

mossy

Apples and cheese chunks, you could cut up the cheese in chunks and leave in the fridge but you might need to slice the apple when they arrive home.

Otherwise as someone else mentioned popcorn, they can even make it when they get home. When I was younger a friends mum used to do that and put a big bowl in the table and small bowls of brown sugar, icing sugar and salt and the kids could add a little bit of whatever if they wanted it.

Raisin covered in yoghurt? or maybe just some yoghurts.

ChocClare

Thanks for all your very useful suggestions, everyone. It was just what I needed - a bit of inspiration. You know how when you find yourself cooking the same old things and just need a bit of a shove to remember other things you used to cook?! Well, this was the same sort of thing. I feel fairly inspired now - mind you, I spread out HM flapjacks, assortment of fresh fruit, wholemeal muffins, cheese in cubes and breadsticks yesterday and the little so-and-so wolfed the whole lot while I was still bringing in shopping from the car and then announced he was starving! And he ate a huge supper at 7pm and at 8.30pm asked if there was any chance of scrambled eggs on toast...

Gingham_Ribbon

My 2 year old eats more than I do on some days. A sandwich is a pretty good instant snack. Eggy bread doesn't take long to fry up, neither do pancakes. Fruit, dried fruit and yoghurt are pretty instant.

Savoury muffins, flapjacks, breadsticks, crackers and cheese. My son sometimes asks for 'peas and sweetcorn'. (Just frozen ones cooked through in a bowl so he can nibble. It was his idea!)

Trouble is with muffins, scones, flapjack and home made biscuits, that they never last long enough to put away for instant snacks. They get wolfed down within a day or 2.

getcarter

My sons love FROZEN peas!

ChocClare

Gingham_Ribbon wrote:

Trouble is with muffins, scones, flapjack and home made biscuits, that they never last long enough to put away for instant snacks. They get wolfed down within a day or 2.

That is SO true. I made some brownies one Monday: OH and DS were hovering as I took them out of the oven; I told them they could have ONE for pudding but made the mistake of putting them on the table. Managed to grab one to put in DD's lunchbox for the following day - the rest were all gone by bedtime...

Rachie_B

same here lol

nothing seems to last when i bake ,but now i make most things when kids at school and hubby at work so i can actually get to freeze some before they are scoffed up!!

my kids like to snack on

dried fruit
fresh fruit
smoothies - fresh or frozen fruit
yogurt with fruit,honey,nuts mixed in
malt loaf
HM flapjacks / muffins / traybakes / breads etc sweet and savoury - ok so not v "healthy" but healthier than shop bought ,you can alter the ingredients to make it lower fat,sugar etc to suit
cheese and crackers
HM popcorn
veg sticks and HM dips
filled wraps - sweet / savoury / hot / cold
filled pitta pockets - beans and cheese or cream cheese and ham etc
quesedillas
celery sticks with cream cheese or peanut butter,then topped with raisins
rice cakes