It’s not uncommon for kids to come home after school complaining about being hungry. When’s dinner? What’s for dinner? Can they have a snack? It’s only a matter of time before you reach the end of your patience and hand them some crackers and peanut butter or point them in the direction of the pantry.
There’s nothing wrong with giving your kids a little snack when they get home, but why not make sure that it’s healthy? With a little planning ahead, you can give them healthier snacks without having to work any harder.
Muffins are great. They’re like cupcakes but without frosting and have the potential to be just as (or even more) delicious. Finding a healthy recipe shouldn’t be hard, either. Some popular ideas are banana nut muffins, blueberry muffins, lemon and blueberry muffins, or other fruit-based muffins.
The great thing about muffins is that while they’re healthy, they can be made ahead of time. Stock your fridge with a tray of muffins and your kids will be able to help themselves. It can also free up your time as you won’t need to make a new snack every day.
Fruit is full of healthy sugars and vitamins that kids need every day. Mixing some of their favorites to create the ultimate, after-school fruit salad is another fantastic idea. Once it’s made, fruit salad will stay good for a couple of days in the fridge.
If you want to upgrade your fruit salad game, turn it into a fruit pizza. All you need are some tortillas and yogurt. If you want to sweeten your fruit a little bit, a drizzle of honey goes a long way.
Just like with regular pizza, you’ll have a sauce (the yogurt) and toppings (the fruit). Set it all out and let your kids have fun making their own healthy pizzas.
What kid doesn’t love french fries? For a healthy and delicious after-school snack, you can make your own!
When you make homemade french fries, you can use regular potatoes or sweet potatoes if you want something a bit more special. If you choose regular potatoes, all you need to do is slice them up and sprinkle some salt and olive oil over them before popping them into an oven to bake.
With sweet potato fries, you’ll follow pretty much the exact same recipe as regular fries. Instead of using just salt though, add some pepper and smoked paprika like in this recipe by professional chef Jamie Oliver.
Maybe you’ve never heard of these frozen yogurt bites. That’s okay! They’re super easy to make and an absolutely delicious snack for hotter days.
To make them, all you have to do is get some yogurt, parchment paper, and a plate or cookie tray to put in the freezer. It works best if you have a piping bag like what’s used with frosting, but a spoon will work too. Cover your tray with parchment paper and pipe bite-sized dots of yogurt onto the tray. When you’re finished, put the tray in the freezer. It’s that easy!
Lots of kids love smoothies, but you might not have the time to make one for them every single day. Fortunately, it’s possible to buy reusable drink pouches that you can fill with smoothies ahead of time.
Once you have your drink pouches, prepare a delicious smoothie for your kids, fill the pouches, and put them in the freezer. Your kids will know right where to look for their favorite treat and you won’t be wasting your time or single-use drink pouches.
Freezing grapes is one of the best ways to save the fruit for later and also enjoy a delicious treat. Especially refreshing on hot days, frozen grapes taste amazing and are super healthy! All you do to prepare them is wash the grapes and put them on a tray in the freezer.
It is worth noting that you won’t want to stack the grapes as they’ll freeze together if you do. Instead, line them out and space them out so you don’t end up with one massive block of grapes.
Perhaps it’s a classic, but apples and peanut butter are simple and delicious. Even if you don’t use the healthiest peanut butter brand available, this snack is still pretty healthy.
To prepare it, make sure to cut out the core of the apples. You can either slice them so they’re cut into circles and make an apple and peanut butter sandwich, or you can cut them normally and use the peanut butter as a dip.
Similar to muffins, scones can come in many flavors and be made ahead of time. You can make orange scones, lemon scones, blueberry scones, or any other flavor of scones that you think your kids might like.
The great thing about scones is that once you find a healthy recipe that your kids like, you can change the ingredients and make different flavors. If the original recipe calls for chocolate chips, make it with blueberries one time. You could also add coconut to it.
Scones are easy to customize and are rather forgiving once you learn the basics of the recipe. You can get your kids excited about them by asking what flavors they’d like in the future.
Chips and hummus are a delicious snack after a long day at school. You can make it healthy by making it at home instead of purchasing greasy chips or high-fat hummus at the store.
If your kids don’t like hummus, you can try different dips. Homemade bean dip, salsa, and guacamole are other yummy treats that you can prepare ahead of time.
Let’s be honest, sometimes you don’t want to make anything. Fortunately, popcorn can be made healthy! You should be able to find plain popcorn at the store that you can just pop into the microwave when your kids get home.
Instead of drizzling butter over it, sprinkle in some salt or other spices. You can make the popcorn sweet or salty. However, your kids want it!
Many common after-school snacks can be made into healthier options as long as you’re ready to think outside the box. If you don’t want to try and think of something on your own though, there are plenty of great snacks above that are healthy and delicious. Give them a try and see how well your kids enjoy them!
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