15 after School Snack Ideas

15 after School Snack Ideas

Do your kids come home nearly starving to death? Yep, I hear you. I’ve put together a handful of nutrient dense ideas to feed those munchkins so they can make it until dinner.

1. Hard boiled eggs with sea salt.

Talk about simple. If you have an instant pot you can make up a batch and even peel them super easy to keep in the fridge ready to go!

2. Oatmeal Balls.

Packed with protein and fiber and they taste delicious! I like to make these up and keep them in the freezer.

 

3. Trail Mix.

This is a super simple recipe that you can get your kids involved in making and adjusting to their liking!

4. High quality deli meat with veggies.

My kids love to use cream cheese and a veggie like pickled asparagus or cucumber wedges, to make a little meat roll up.

5. Seed and fruit snack.

Low allergen, great for adrenals, energy and blood sugar.

6. Hummus with crackers and/or veggies.

Costco usually carries the small serving size of Hummus. For crackers I recommend Simple Mills brand as they have way more protein and fiber than typical crackers and they taste good!

7. Protein bars.

Making your own is always a good option, but I know that is not always doable. Epic, Kind, GoMacro and Sunwarrior are all ok (double check for allergens).

8. Fruit and nitrate free beef jerky.

Hemplers beef sticks at Costco are my kids favorite with apple.

9. Yogurt Parfait.

Yogurt, granola, and fruit.

10. Chickpea snacks.

11. Apple with nut-butter dip.

It’s fall and apples are in season so a great option! You can use any nut butter or even a mixture of high quality yogurt with the nut butter makes a yummy dip.

12. 5 Ingredient Blender Muffins.

Super easy and no dirty mixing bowls! You could even try different mix in’s like raisins, hemp hearts, or the chocolate chips as my recipe mentions.

13. Organic Fruit Leather.

This would be a great option to pair with a handful of nuts or seeds.

14. Healthy Cookies.

Try a recipe like this, packed with 100% whole food ingredients.

15. Ants on a log.

This is a fun take on celery and nut butter (or sunbutter), with added raisins or other un-sulfured, no sugar added dried fruit.

Hope you and your family are having a great back to school season and that these ideas are helpful to limit those after school “hangry” moments! 😉

5 Ingredient Blender Muffins

  • 1/2 cup sunflower seed butter
  • 1 medium ripe banana
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 tbsp pure maple syrup (or honey if not low FOODMAP)
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Spray a mini muffin tin with cooking oil and set aside.

  2. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until very smooth.

  3. Fill each mini-muffin cup until it is almost full.

  4. Bake in the preheated oven until the muffins are cooked through, 8-10 minutes.

  5. Let the muffins cool completely before removing from the muffin pan.

  6. Pro-Tip I add a few dairy free chocolate chips on top of each muffin prior to baking because…well chocolate is yummy.

This will work with regular sized muffin tins, just adjust baking time as needed. 

3 Comments
  • Pingback:3 Tips for Busy Families – Nielsen Integrative Nutrition LLC
    Posted at 09:25h, 30 September

    […] said than done I KNOW! Start small by adding in nutrient dense snacks (nuts and seeds, olives, fruit, veggies and hummus, nitrate free lunch meat roll ups etc). The move […]

  • Pingback:10 ways to improve family nutrition – Nielsen Integrative Nutrition LLC
    Posted at 00:26h, 19 March

    […] Better yet, keep unhealthy snacks out of the house most of the time. If I have a box of fruit snacks or sugar laden granola bars out on the counter or even in the pantry, guess what? Yep, that’s what my kids are going to grab for a snack. Instead I really try to keep my fruit bowl stocked up with in season fruits and veggies that are an easy grab. Oatmeal balls are currently a kid favorite around here right now, I’ve been making a triple batch and keeping them in the freezer. For more snack ideas, including the oatmeal energy ball recipe and some better for you packaged snacks that you can buy check out this blog post. […]

  • Pingback:Top 5 Favorite “To Buy” Snacks and Treats – Nielsen Integrative Nutrition LLC
    Posted at 21:33h, 08 October

    […] treat ideas for kids so we put together a nice list with some links for you! Our favorite “after school” or mid-day snacks are always fresh fruit / veggies with a protein like nut or sunflower seed […]