What healthy snacks/treats can I get in for the kids?

[FoodWoes]

Am over hauling our eating habits

What better choices can I make?
Obviously fruit but what about stuff with a better shelf life?

Cheapest tortilla chips are ok - lightly salted. Oatcakes & peanut butter. Dried fruit - apricots & raisins. Breadsticks, gherkins.

Following for advice, I struggle with this sometimes!

I completely overhauled our diets....we didn't eat badly really...not compared to some. But we always had biscuits in the house.

Now, the only snacks we have in the house are as follows.

Unsalted nuts...cashews, walnuts, almonds
Fruit...whatever is in season
Eggs...the children can boil a couple if they're extra hungry
Cheese
Plain crackers

That's it. I do buy some crisps once a week or so....and a tub of icecream a week. We live in Australia so in summer, I do buy ice lollies..the plain juice kind.

That's it...three meals a day should be enough.

Soreen malt loaf
Make up little bags of raisins and nuts
Frozen blueberries
Carrot and hummus

All favs for my two

They eat way too many sweets.

It's MY fault.

I'm putting new rules in place. I've made bad choices up till now.

Is tinned fruit bad if it doesn't have sugar in?

Dried fruits are basically like sweets. Terrible for teeth.

And breakfast to replace chocolate cereals

Ooh frozen blueberries!

Mine eat frozen peas.
But too kuch toast I think.
Love hummus and toasted pitta too.

Baked apple/banana chips
Blueberry pancakes
Carrots and cucumbers as crudités
Dates
Smoothies/smoothie bowls - love smoothie bowls with fruit and granola
Trail mix
Yoghurt - they can have with a little bit of jam or nuts and berries or granola

Breakfast....boiled or scrambled eggs or porridge...add some fruit to the porridge.. Most cereals are crap...they won't really fill a child up for long.

That's it...three meals a day should be enough.

But then you list all the snacks you have

And there’s no “should” about it.
My 9 year old goes to an exceptionally sporty school. 3x a week in pool at 7.15 doing length, cross country training and lunch playtime and then football training after school until 6pm.

The school stuffs the boys! Morning snack, very big hot lunches and often seconds and then a pre after school sport snack (usually sandwiches).

Then I collect and he has dinner at home - and WOLFS it down!

Breakfast... a fav here is toasted pita stuffed with scrambled egg and flaked salmon or cream cheese and mackerel

Chapter it's mainly because my DC do a lot of activities...sometimes they miss a meal. Or don't like whats on offer...so they can make something from the list.

Also, DH is underweight and he needs to try to put weight on. He needs more protein.

I miss breakfast sometimes as I have a condition which causes nausea in the mornings...so I eat a handful of nuts or some boiled eggs later.

When I say "Snack" what I mean is food that's not part of the ingredients for a main meal necessarily.

Hummus and mini pitta/breadsticks/vegetables

If I cut up crudités and leave them in the table whilst making dinner, there is nothing left by the time I serve it.

Malt loaf mini loaves

Homemade banana flapjack

Fruit

Little portion of cereal (shreddies or wheetabix) is good to refuel mine after exercise if they need supper before bed.

"fav here is toasted pita"

Totally just read that as a toasted pain in the arse

Popcorn?
Smoothie ice lollies?

Breakfast egg or beans on wholemeal toast. Porridge on rugby days.

Snacks: vegetable sticks with houmous
Omlette
Roast chicken slices
Boiled eggs
Cold meats and cheese
Plain yoghurt with berries

I'm watching this too as my food mojo often runs low.
Big kids loves olives so always have a jar on the go but not very filling.
Pears or apple slice with cheese and raisins or grapes.
Porridge.
Wraps with hummus or ham.
Crackers.
Can't do nuts as little kid is only 3 and until very recently big kid had braces.
That's all I got. We seem to eat a lot of fruit which whilst ok doesn't really fill you. Fine if you eat decent meals which we generally do but sometimes they need a bit more.

Fruit - apples, tangerines, and grapes last longest I think (as in don't go mouldy)
DS likes a bit of cheese and some cherry tomatoes.
Hummus and mini pita or bread sticks
Pea and lentil crisps from Aldi

I chop a whole load of vegetables up for crudités every Friday when I get home from work. Stick them in a box in the fridge with a couple of dippy bits (usually hummus and ranch yoghurt dip) and those, along with breadsticks and apples from the fruit bowl, are 'fair game'. All other food has to be asked for...

Do they need snacks? I think most snacking is done out of boredom rather than hunger and even if they are hungry, it won't hurt them to wait a while, they do , afterall, need to be hungry at mealtimes.

When I was young snaking was frounded upon "it will ruin your dinner". Then when my DC were young it had gone completely the other way and it was important for parents to always carry processed expensive snacks that they could convince themselves were healthy snacks but I think the tide is turning and it's now recognised that regular meals is more important.

Mine are hungry after school and I think a mid afternoon snack is quite normal!

Can't do nuts as little kid is only 3 a

Why not? NHS says can be introduced from 6 months and recommended by 12 months

I'd call a scheduled after school snack a meal and give them a light tea. I agree, food at that time is probably better than a heavy dinner late in the evening.

Much easier to do a healthy "meal" than a satisfying snack which will almost always be based around processed carbs. Children who are genuinely hungry aren't going to be satisfied by fruit and veg sticks.

I do a platter of tinned sweet corn, cut up carrot, peppers and cucumber, cubes of cheese, a few tortilla chips, cut up apple or grapes, crackers with butter, bit of hummus - whatever I have in the fridge. I find they will eat loads of veg this way while watching telly while I get the dinner on or as a light lunch if I'm feeling lazy. Tinned fruit is a great convenient pudding that you can keep in stock.

They don't need many snacks, plain cornflakes, Weetabix, shreddies are all goo breakfast options. 9I always buy the own brands.) A plain rich tea biscuit or digestive is an ok snack or a a piece of fruit or banana. BReadsticks and cheese. Don't need much more for snacks.