Healthy after-school snack ideas

By Sarah Alder

It’s a familiar scene across the country at school pick up time. Children come running out of the classroom to greet you and instead of ‘hello’, it’s: ‘can I have a snack?’. So how do we satisfy their ravenous after-school hunger with healthy foods?

It’s good to have some quick and easy ideas to hand to avoid spending a fortune on packaged snacks.

Savoury

Fun bites

Fruity

Celery sticks filled with peanut butter and raisins or cream cheese and tomato are really yummy and can even be presented as a stack to make a Gruffalo log pile house!

Vegetable sticks (carrot, cucumber, pepper etc) are easy to prepare and work well with houmous. Or, for something a bit different, try bread sticks with a yoghurt-based dip or guacamole.

I’m a great fan of savoury muffins. These can be batched cooked and frozen. For a great courgette, spinach and cheese muffin recipe, head to https://bit.ly/ ktsavourymuffin

To ramp up the novelty factor, you can make a simple but tasty savoury mix and keep it in an airtight container for the kids to snack on throughout the week. There’s one at https://bit.ly/kttrailmix you can try. Or you can mix together some dried fruit and seeds if you don’t have much prep time.

Don’t forget healthy cereals which make a great snack especially if paired with some fruit and milk or yoghurt - think popped rice, Shreddies, Shredded Wheat or Cheerios. And then there’s the fun favourite – popcorn! Try popping your own and experimenting with flavours (think cinnamon, smoked paprika, Marmite butter…)

Top Tip

Think of snacks as mini meals which should ideally include a small amount of foods from different food groups to ensure your kids stay fuller for longer. This will reduce the demand for more snacks!

Not always a firm favourite with kids but fruit can be offered in different ways to keep it interesting. Think fruit salad, fruit kebabs, chopped apple, banana and grapes, berries and natural yoghurt (you can use frozen berries to save some money and to offer them all year round).

Fruit smoothies are really tasty and go down well with kids, whilst home-made fruit muffins don’t even feel like fruit! See https://bit.ly/ktsmoothie for recipe.

Carb Filled

Think oatcake with peanut butter or cheese, toasted fruit bread or even a fruity, low sugar flapjack - there’s a great recipe at https://bit.ly/ktflapjacks

You can also serve cheese with crackers or plain scones with cheese. Great for days when the kids really need to get their teeth into something….

Images, top row from left to right: celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins, savoury mix, fruit kebabs and natural yoghurt. Bottom row from left to right: courgette, spinach and cheese muffins, popcorn, fruity, low sugar flapjack.

Sarah Alder of Kitchen Titbits (www.kitchentitbits.co.uk) is a meal planning and family mealtimes mentor who works with parents to support fussy eaters. Visit her site for lots of tips and advice and to find out about her courses and workshops.