Cheap healthy snack ideas for kids

[Fairyjuice]

Summer holidays start here next week so I'm going to have 3 kids aged 5 and under eating me out of house and home. They have a fairly healthy diet but get sick of the same old cream cracker/fruit/yoghurt/dry cereal snacks.

They don't eat nuts or peanut butter so that's out unfortunately.

Need some varied snack ideas that won't cost the earth please!

We just have what you mentioned, and a ton of different fruits, and tgen cucumber and carrot. Hummus, breadsticks, tomatoes, that kind of thing?

Popcorn. Although not sure how healthy that is!

I’ve been perfecting my apple chips/crisps. It takes time and an oven but no sugar added.

Popcorn is a chocking hazard unfortunately. Depending on the age.

Home made popcorn, probably cheapest snack there is! Maybe not suitable for very little ones. Rice cakes. Make your own oatcakes, flapjack, savoury scones, pancakes, ice lollies. Lentil curls, veg crisps lots of different things in the crisp aisle that aren't fried potatoes. They don't need a whole packet each. Smoothies with frozen fruit. Popadoms from an Indian shop, really cheap! Cook in the microwave in 30 seconds, ours love seeing them puff up!uni falafel- buy the dry mix and cook in oven healthier than deep frying, can make them any size to suit.

Yes we have popcorn sometimes but I'm paranoid about choking and my 2 yo tends to shove handfuls of things in her mouth 🙈

Ooh I'm interested in the poppadoms! We have the prepacked ones from Tesco with dinner sometimes. Will look out for the ones you cook at home. Love pancakes too so will keep them in mind.

How long do apple crisps take to cook?

You can make healthy ish muffins eg banana oats and honey or savoury tomato and cheddar and so on. Lots on google. You can also make banana pancakes (one small portion is one mashed banana, one tablespoon self raising and one egg) and eat them later once cold. We sometimes make a smAll stack and then put them in lunchboxes.

Homemade hummus/baba ganoush/guacamole with carrot and toast dippers
Frozen banana lollies dipped in dark chocolate
Non-dairy flapjacks
Trail mix packs, can be tailored to their individual likes e.g. no nuts
Oatmeal energy bites, can use date syrup for a healthier version
Courgette fritters with chimichurri (huuuge hot snack win in our house)
Apple 'doughnuts' with a thin icing layer plus strawberry pieces
Fattoush with pita chips
roasted spiced chickpeas
Rice wrap spring rolls (Vietnamese style) with a sweet chilli dip

Homemade muffins (cheap because you can use oil instead of butter and they only need 1 egg)
Basic biscuits/cheese biscuits
Frozen yogurt
Cut up fruit (somehow more appealing when it's cut up)
Cherry tomatoes
Banana bread
Pop Tarts!

I cooked a small bowl of peas the other day in an attempt to get my 2yr old to eat a vegetable. He ate 1 and licked several others before discovering that the dog likes peas. I'm still calling that a success!