10 Quick and Easy After School Snack Ideas

It’s that time of year again…school is in session and after school the kids will be looking for something quick, and easy to eat. As concerned moms, we don’t want our kids running to the vending machine to get chips and soda. If you’re a homeschool mom, hearing your kid say one more time, “There’s nothing to eat!” it’s going to drive you mad. No worries, I have some creative–and easy ideas for you!

Fun After School Snack Ideas your Kids Will Love:

1. Smoothies
Sometimes it’s hard to get your kids to eat enough fruits and veggies so parents tend to try and “hide” these in other foods to get their kids to eat them. Fruit smoothies are delicious and naturally sweet.
Garnish them with a fresh strawberry or orange slice; top it with fresh whipped cream and add a sprinkle of chocolate chips or chocolate shavings or blueberries.

You can also experiment with vegetables mixed with fruit. At first, you may want to add carrots, then kale. It’ll probably take a while to find the right ingredients and color of the drink. Color is important because it has to be visually appealing.

Another variation you can make is slushies using any flavor of Kool-Aid mix. The only thing you have to worry about is the sugar content so you may want to use a honey or other natural sugar alternative. Add some ice cubes and water and blend everything together.

2. Parfaits
These are yummy! Use granola, yogurt and a variety of berries. You can add other fruits like peaches, mangoes, raisins, dried cranberries, and banana.

3. Apple (or other fruit) and Dip
Apple slices and cheese slices make for an excellent and nutritious after school snack. Use variety by melting the cheese for dipping instead. To add sweetness, use peanut butter, caramel or chocolate sauce instead. Cream cheese is also another yummy alternative.

4. Crackers
Crackers with cream cheese, peanut butter, jam or an herb dip. You can use a variety of cracker snack toppings like deli meat, slices of pear, cucumber, tuna, bacon with thin slice of hard boiled egg, banana with fudge sauce, salsa etc.

5. Popcorn
Air popped popcorn is healthier than your Orville Redenbacher variety. This way you can create your own seasoning. To make it healthier, you can drizzle with olive oil or use a butter spray and then add your seasoning like white cheddar. You can make a peanut butter mix, cinnamon butter, Parmesan butter mix etc. You can toss in some chocolate chips, nuts, M&Ms or Smarties.

6. Dim Sum
It’s nice to have a hot and creative after school snack on cold and rainy days. You can buy frozen dim sum foods and then steam them.

7. Pita Pockets
To stay away from the processed foods like pizza pops is making your own using whole grain pitas and fresh ingredients. For variation: cram cheese and fruit in a pita pocket.

8. Fruit Kebobs
You kids can put these together on their own or you can have them ready in the fridge for quick grabbing.

9. Ice Cream Cone Ideas
Here’s something fun to do with an ice cream cone. Put your kid’s favorite kind of protein salad like chicken or tuna. Instead of trail mix in a bowl, put it in the ice cream cone and you can bake muffins in them too.

10. Jell-O and Frozen Treats
You can make Jell-O jugglers in fun shapes and you can add fruit to make fruit cups. You can use yogurt and add fruit and then freeze it for a yogurt popsicle.

Getting kids to eat healthy after school snacks (and in general) should be our goal and we should not be afraid to encourage them to try new things as we get our creative juices flowing!

Copyright © Lara Velez, Moms of Faith, All Rights Reserved