When my kiddos come home from school they are famished, and we still have a few hours until dinner. Instead of them rifling through my pantry grabbing tons of junk food, I plan out some healthy options. These snacks work well because I can customize to my kiddos preferences. And with BeBe now in elementary school, she can make many of these snacks on her own after I show her how to do it.

Fruit Salad – Obviously this is one of the healthiest option and I generally offer this first. I let the kids pick out the fruit they want to buy for that week, so we are constantly switching up the fruit salad. We have a few variations everyone likes:

  • Sliced Apples with honey drizzled over the top
  • Bananas, Strawberries and Blueberry in a bowl
  • Watermelon, cantaloupe and/or honeydew pre-sliced in a large bowl

fruit salad

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Cracker platter– If I know BeBe has soccer practice, gymnastics or some activity when we won’t have time to eat until later at night. I set this out for her to eat after school. This snack gives her enough energy for practice and take the edge of her hunger. There’s many combinations with crackers, cheese and fruit, but our preference is:

  • Triscuit crackers topped with Gouda Cheese and blueberries usually served on the cutting board to save on dishes. But you can choose your favorites.

crackers and cheese

 

Chex Mix Variety– We often have pretzels, cereal, and Cheese-Its in the pantry. BeBe pours a little of each into a bowl and makes her own chex mix snack bowl, or into a big zip lock bag to have for the week.

chex mis

 

Customize Trail Mix– Our kids rarely eat all of the store – bought trail mix, and after wasting money I learned my lesson and make our own. We always use a base of unsalted peanuts and add any or just one of the following:

  • Craisins (My kiddos get burned out on raisins and I buy this instead).
  • Almonds (The fill the kids up for long time and our great for long road trips).
  • M&Ms (I rarely add these because they will only eat the chocolate, but every once in a while, they talk me into it).

trail mix

 

Veggies and Hummus –  We chop up celery stalks to put in a container with baby carrots and the kids can grab this with hummus. During the summer we pick vegetables from our garden (peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes) and they can eat with hummus.

veggies and hummus

These snacks are little more effort to put together, but it’s worth not to hear “I’m hungry” one million times before dinner.