I don't know about the rest of you, but when my children arrive home from school, they are starving! Some days it feels as if it'll take a horse to fill them up. I really don't mind if they eat junk some days, but not every single day of the week. In the last year, I have really tried to add to my list of snacks and add some more healthier options. Some have gone over well, while others tanked! I usually try to get our snacks simple since I am usually doing prep work for our dinner at the same time.
Here are some of our favorite After School Snacks:
- Smoothies. I always toss in some wheat germ and flax seed for good measure!
- Yogurt. I just made my first ever batch of homemade yogurt, hopefully I will be able to convert them! So much healthier.
- Cereal. I'm not much of a cereal fan for breakfast, so I let my kids grab a handful of their favorites for snacks. Corn Pops, Bluebery Muffin Tops, Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks and Honey Nut Cheerios are our favorites. They thought they were in heaven when I bought Cocoa Puffs for them a few weeks ago! ;)
- Hummus w/HM Pita Bread or carrot sticks.
- Fresh Fruit.
- Chopped Veggies. My daughter could live off of cucumbers and cherry tomatoes!
- Milkshakes. This is a rarity, but they love it when I make Chocolate Peanut Butter Shakes.
- Apples with Caramel Dip. (Cream cheese, brown sugar and vanilla) This was always my favorite growing up.
- Home baked snacks. The possiblities are basically endless here, just depends on what I've made for the week. We love HM Banana Bread, muffins of any form (they are stuck on Strawberry Muffins right now), and of course cookies. Since they are homemade, I generally try to sneak in some whole wheat flour, flax or wheat germ. You can find some of my recipes under the Recipe Label.
- Granola Bars.
- Granola/Yogurt
- Cheese and Crackers.
- Sweet Pickles
- Jalapeno Jelly w/cream cheee on Wheat Thins. Sounds crazy, but it is oh so good!
- I came across an idea recently from Parenting.com that I can't wait to try. They took cream cheese and jam (homemade would be perfect), mixed it together and spread it on a graham cracker. Yum!
- Family Fun also has some really great ideas that are not your normal after school snack. I can't wait to try the Peanut Butter Balls or the Cookies and Milk Bars (don't forget that you can make your own Sweetened Condensed Milk for these.) You can find more of their recipes here.
What do you give your kids for After School Snacks??
4 comments:
I will TOTALLY vouch for the jalapeno jelly. Is there anything better??
Great list. I'll have to try the apples with peanut butter and also do a more consistent job with the smoothies. I tend to only pull those out when I've got a fridge full of almost rotten fruit.
I've only had hummus once in my life. Really liked it... why don't I buy some?!
I have been struggling with this since my kids started school this week. They come in 1 at a time between 3 and 4:30. The last one is tough, because it is almost dinner time. They are starving! I need to do better about having something prepared ahead of time. Thanks for the tips.
My kids like when I make homemade trail mix. I mix some type of whole wheat cereal (whatever I have on hand), raisins or dried cranberries, some type of nut, and some chocolate chips. Very easy and they eat it up!
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