Cheap snacks to fill up teenagers

Butterfly_Brain

I have a teenage son who is the same...So I always have a batch of twinks, HM cheese straws, HM cakes and cheap noodles on hand

determined_new_ms

Big pot of pasta - some meat but more pasta and sauce- hm bread (if poss), my childminder always used to give my kids a thick slice of bread and choc spread after the main meal to "fill their bellies"

would definately recommend hob nob recipe cheap and very easy

sweet tooth ice poles, do a taste test on apples and get the variety they love. I never did force my kids to eat fruit and veg, alot of kids don't like them my teenagers went off them when they turned into teens. I hated the stuff when I was younhg but now could live on fruit and veg alone

massive hm pizza - u can put anything on it , some in the fridge for them to snack on and freeze some

pancakes also great idea, my teenagers always made them when they were hungry/bored/fancied a munch!

The other thing is freeze most things - harder for them just to devour and in my experience teenagers are a lazy bunch who are largely after quick gratification and can't be bothered if its too much work becuase of this I used to only buy the stuff that I knew they could make a nice and fairly munch. If its not there they can't eat it!

Puddleglum

My two are horrors as well so I make a batch of Twink's hobnobs each week and two cakes which go towards packed lunches as well as snacks. If there is fruit in the bowl then they can go for that.

Best of all has been "opperation - Hollow Legs" which I started after a discussion on Weezle's thread where she suggested porridge and toast for breakfast. Now, I cram as much into them at breakfast time as they will take and it does seem to help a bit. It has proved to work out a lot cheaper providing porridge and toast for all of us than it was when everyone was eating the cereal of their choice.:T

SunnyGirl

As a Mum to three teens and another one getting there slowly I can reccommend the Twinks hobnobs (Post number 4). I often put dried fruit such as cranberries, sultanas, apricots etc in as well. Also Weetabix cake goes down well here. It's lovely sliced and buttered and for a cake with no fat in it, it lasts for ages.

I'd second the idea of soup as a starter and of pasta. I keep a big bowl of pasta in the fridge for lunches/snacks. They will put grated cheese or some pasta sauce (pre made by me & frozen God forbid that the kids would make it themselves :rotfl:) on and it makes for a filling snack. Serve bread with nearly every meal. Vary it for a change - garlic bread, seeded bread, wholemeal bread, pittas, naans & rolls always go down well here.

Use toast as a filler too for suppers - peanut butter or marmite for the savoury lover & jam or marmalade for the sweet one. Eggs are another good filler and a valuable source of protein. Scrambled, poached or boiled with toast and as an omlette with some cut up veggies like celery, peppers, carrots or salad. My DD & DS2 both love a salad made from grated carrot with a good handful of sultanas and peanuts thrown in.

We also have a soup night once a week, usually on a Saturday when I don't want to cook much after a week at work. I always do a homemade soup with a fair quantity of breads or cheese on toast and then follow with a pudding & custard. It feels like a nice treat to have a hot pudding and it fills everyone up a bit more :rotfl:

Porridge or toast for breakfast as I stopped buying cereals when I started on my money saving path. 2 of the boys could get through a 600g box of Co-Co Pops in a day and still be hungry :eek: I sometimes make pancakes at a weekend and freeze them layered up with greaseproof paper for quick & easy breakfasts/snacks.

Pink, one of our Board Guides, suggested to me last year giving them peanut butter on plain digestive biscuits and it worked a treat :T Along with a glass of milk it keeps the 'starvation' at bay for a bit longer!

Hope this helps somewhat and apologies for the long post.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Put padlocks on the cupboards...stealing food/emptying the cupboards out of boredom/greed is plain wrong.

And if they are 13 or over, suggest if they want more food, they get jobs to pay for it themselves.

Although, on a less reactionary tack, perhaps they would benefit from an increase in protein in their diet?

Carbs are not bad in themselves, but the fact that they are easily burned off for energy also means that they do not leave you feeling as full for as long as protein. This satiety is one of the main attractions of the Atkins-style diets, btw.

Rather than allowing takeaway kebabs, perhaps spend a half of the usual kebab cost on a load of lamb shoulder/neck fillet, chop it up and marinade it to tenderise, cook in v.hot pan and serve with roasted veggies and w/m pitta or flat breads (called khobez at the nearest shop to me)?

Pad out mince with dark coloured lentils - use a brightly coloured sauce and they won't notice, peel and grate courgette too for the same reason.

Bung chickpeas into chicken curry - smashed up or blitzed into the sauce if necessary.

Pizza - make bread recipe, place on base of big roasting tray, spread with tom puree and lots of veg, bit of cheese and some creme fraiche, maybe some pineapple if they want sweet too, or barbeque sauce.

Then to keep their need to munch going, cheesy sesame breadsticks (grated gran pandano - sp? - as cheaper than parmesan - and sesame seeds twisted with pastry, baked and shoved in tins), plus cheap basics jelly with fruit added in individual plastic cups or evap. milk mixed with jelly left in the fridge?

Or, don't buy it and let the poor dears suffer, telling them to microwave a potato or make a microwave sponge (egg, flour, sugar, fat) if they're that desperate. If they are that desperate then they will make it. If not, they'll just throw a paddy, at the end of which they will still be wanting rubbish but you will know they're not actually hungry!

samanthaneww2d

I have four betwen the ages of 13 and 19 the eldests metabolism has started to slow down a bit now hes at uni most of the time ( home in hols and some weekends)but he was the worst when he was 15 the other two boys are 15 and 17 and are quite often needing extra food ( they do football aikido gym swimming etc) but they know they can have fruit a bowl of ceral or cook themselves pasta and thats it I think if they are hungry enough then they will be bothered to sort themselves out I think most teenagers( especially boys) seem to have hollow legs I think though there needs to be rules about what extras they can have or they'll empty everything and theres a difference between hungry and eating when you are bored.
good luck

nickyhutch

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I dunno, if you're feeding them an adequate meal in the evening they cannot be "starving" just an hour later. I'd limit them to what they can and cannot have outside mealtimes so you're the one in control of supplies, not them. What's wrong with a couple of slices of toast? Marmite or peanit-butter for the savoury-snacker and jam or honey for the sweet-toothed one

Yes they can, they're teenagers.

OP, as has been said, try to encourage snacking on protein as it will fill them up for longer.

Kimitatsu

Hiya Genius

You have my sympathy I too have a teenager who can empty a kitchen in half an hour like a swarm of locusts - the only thing I am sure about is that it is entirely normal! When he brings home the rest of the rugby team (who are all like him, gangly, hollow legs and never put on an ounce of fat :mad: ) they are all the same.

Peanut butter is always a good one, or you can ring the changes by making different butters. I make cashew butter sometimes too. They can have that on hm bread or oat cakes or digestives. Similarly there are always nuts in the cupboard to eat, we did try cheese and biscuits but they can go through cheese like I dont know what so not very MSE.

Houmus is a good one, that with cucumber/celery/carrots, or a yoghurt dip for the sweet toothed one. I bake a couple of times a week, I will make flapjacks, muffins, cupcakes, victoria sponge etc, that way there is something sweet to have that doesnt cost the earth and I know what has gone into it. Home made bread is a godsend, they can have a slab of that with anything on it, although be warned my lot can go through half a loaf a day without issue. Bulk up main meals where you can with brown rice, polenta, pasta, veggies or lentils and I try to cook extra so they have it to take with them to school the next day or when they come in. Fritata is a great fridge staple as is yorkshire pudding (I make mine with milk, eggs, flour and then when cold they can eat it straight from the fridge as well as hot with dinner)

My boys had a talk with the rugby club from a professional coach who reckons that whilst they are growing this quickly they probably need 5-6 small(ish) meals a day just because of the bone and muscle development that they are going through. He is probably not wrong as my DS1 has put on 3 inches in the last 4 months and has not hit his growth spurt yet :eek: I am fast becoming the "little one" in the house.

HTH!

sammy_kaye18

Im loving this thread - I have a 5 year old son and a 9 year old step son. 9 year old step son inst too bad but I'd swear you would think my 5 year old is completely hollow because he never stops eating! :eek::eek::eek: also his father is exactly the same so I have a 31 year old and a 5 year old with hollow legs and a bump on the way - so god only knows what she'll be like!

My son tends to have on a typical day

Breakfast
- bowl of cereal (with no sugar)
- 2 pieces of jam on toast
- glass of diluted juice
- piece of fruit or handful of grapes
(and 2 spoonfuls of Haliborange liquid multivitamins)

Mid morning
- small box of raisins
- handful of dried apple rings (from holland and barrett)
- fruit yoghurt or probiotic drink

Lunch
- sandwich (home made bread and cheese)
- small packet of mini cheddars
- small home made jelly
- small banana

Mid afternoon snack
- twinks hobnob or handful of dried apricots

Dinner
- Mashed Potato
- Peas / Carrots
- 2 small Fish cakes
- A dessert of either fruit/homemade jelly/yoghurt/something I've
baked/bananas in custard

Supper
- Bowl of cereal OR 2 slices of toast with a glass of milk.


I would definitely recommend Twinks Hob nobs although they can be lethal for all concerned and I'm lucky if the mix makes it to the pan in the first place - I know - no self restraint but it is yummy! and I have to hide them once they are baked otherwise OH and DS would scoff the lot in one sitting.

I find home baking helps a lot as OH and son have a sweet tooth but lucky as my son is more fruit/ yoghurt loving but things like banana bread are easy to make and store well and are filling. Scone mixes also go well and you could either divide the mixture or make double and add fruit to one and cheese to the other so you get savoury and sweet, the same could be said with muffins. Another sweet thing which I like is Apple Cake (basic sponge mix and add 5/6 eating apples to it) goes lovely with custard!

If they aren't big fruit lovers I would suggest giving the baking a miss if you wanted to get them on to fruit and keep a well stocked fruit bowl in the kitchen/ living room table etc with the likes of apples / bananas / grapes / oranges or satsumas in it. That way if they want something to snack on they have no option to. I like my fruit chopped up with a few spoonfuls of natural yoghurt on top. Again you could always add some oats/muesli to this to make a sort of granola.

Can I recommend for the sweet toothed getting some bags of dried fruit from Holland and Barrett - they have a huge variety and some coated in yoghurt too which they could have a handful of as a snack - my little boy loves the dried apricots and dried apple rings and they are chewy so not too much hard work for him. He's asked for banana flakes next and at least you know they are getting part of their 5 a day!

Using Oats / Lentils to bulk meals out might help them fill up more too.

Do they eat fish? as this has a very low calorie content so nice and healthy but filling too. Maybe a fish pie topped with cheesy mash which could be frozen so they need to blip a portion in the microwave?

Only other thing I can think of is getting some popping corn, show them how to make it and then if they are hungry tell them to make it themselves (if they are old enough) that way it pops plain and they can split it and add their own flavouring - maybe a sprinkle of cinnamon for the sweet tooth and some paprika for the savoury ?

hope thats helped!

sammy_kaye18

Oh I forgot to add EGGS!

Scotch eggs could be cooked and cooled and kept in the fridge for easy nibbles!