Cheap snacks to fill up teenagers

babyshoes

TBH as long as they are getting a balanced diet from 'planned' meals, I would be tempted to let them eat cheap carbs to fill them up in between. As a teenager I regularly ate loads of instant noodles, but also had to eat my veg at supper time too! Teach them to cook a potato in the microwave, can be eaten with a dollop of butter/marg/cream cheese or mayo.

What about those instant custards - I buy the Mr T one for about 9p a sachet. I sometimes have one as a quick, hot but sweet snack. Good to use with HM cakes etc as it bulks it out and being hot feels more filling.

Sometimes thirst can be mistaken for hunger. Try offering them a milky drink such as value hot choc / horlics / ovaltine / hot milk or plain old tea if they are 'hungry' soon after a meal. In summer offer fruit juice, low fat choc milk etc. If they are still hungry afterwards, they will probably eat a smaller snack than they otherwise would have.

Along the same lines, a cup of HM soup or 'cup-a-soup' is a handy snack to have around, or even bovril, if they like it.

To get them to eat fruit, my latest favourite is frozen chocolate bananas. Slice bananas, dip in chocolate and freeze. Just like banana icecream with chocolate, slightly different (harder) texture. Yummy! You could get them do do a whole load this school holiday or at the weekend, and put them flat on a baking tray to freeze, then dump into sealable bags to store. Keep a few bags at the back of the freezer, and only have one near the top so they don't think 'oh there's loads here, I can eat plenty'...

I agree with protein being very satisfying, which is why the Atkins diet works. When we were on it, we used to batch cook bags of sausages, chicken portions and boiled eggs to keep in the fridge for snacks. Not particularly cheap, I know but they will probably learn to eat less of these foods once they realise they feel full after eating less. At first though they will treat them like other foods and binge, then feel a bit sick!

The advantage of having 'finger food' handy is portion control. Make it a rule that they can't take more than one portion of food out at a time (define a portion eg, one chicken leg one sausage, a handful of nuts etc), so they have to go back for more if they are still hungry afterwards. With cereal etc, one bowlful can end up being a very heaped bowl with almost no space for milk, or even use of a large mixing bowl!!!

Rummer

Lots of great ideas here! My DD eats loads of cereal and it costs us a fortune so I am going to take on board the ideas of the porridge and the toast! In our house I am the one who likes to graze as does my OH and we have been spending a fortune on snacks from the local shop so I think I will need to start trying some of your ideas, thank you!

Pink.

Hi Genuisscuffy,

It's an expensive time when you have teenagers in the house, my sixteen year old is eating out out of house and home at the moment. This thread has more suggestions that may help:

Cheap snacks to fill up teenagers

I'll add your thread to that one later to keep the ideas together.

Pink

hex2

Hi,

I have a similar problem with my step sons and would echo the suggestions of 8p noodles, lots of cheap bread for toast,etc. The other thing I did was started buying plain nuts - so plain unsalted cashew nuts from Aldi, they are very filling. Lidl do a good mixed nut and fruit cheaply as well.

The constant emptying of cupboards drove me mad so I introduced a snack box system. They each have a named tub (from the £shop!) which gets filled once a week by me up to a set value. It is then up to them to ration themselves over the week. If they run out then they have to spend their own money buying stuff. I buy bulk stuff from Home and Bargains, biscuits cheap or on offer, nuts as above, value chocolate/sweets and so on. It works reasonably well for us and people have stopped pinching the contents of my baking box.

I still have to hide pack lunch stuff in my wardrobe though.

[Deleted User]

We have a family member who eats like a waste disposal unit. When he comes to visit, I will be serving a main meal loaded with boiled potatoes and veggies plus thick hunks of home-made wholemeal bread, wholemeal muffins, and saucepan full of stove-top rice pudding. The idea is to give as much unprocessed, high fibre foods that are filling and nutritious, plus stodgy pudding. I make the pudding using semi-skimmed milk, not much sugar, grated nutmeg and another slice of home-made wholemeal bread and jam on the side.

jennyjelly

I make way too many roasties with every roast dinner, they keep in the fridge for several days and mine love them cold.

Bolognese sauce and cooked pasta shapes in seperate bowls in the fridge, they then just help themselves and bung it in the microwave.

Toast, toast and more toast. Any reduced bakery items like currant buns etc.

A massive batch of potato dish (this recipe) to heat up as and when.

Hope these are useful suggestions.