Snacks for teenagers

[Starlightstarbright1]

My teen eats loads of rubbish food, trying to balance that out

He is at home alone after school etc so needs grab foods he might eat.

Not much i am buying is getting eaten

Anyone ?

I think we need more info
Is it an evening meal or a snack ?
How old is teen ?
IME it is normal for them to eat a huge amount of junk in year7/8, part of new freedoms and growth spurts.
Mine are now 15&17, the 17yo is something of a health freak, 15yo less so.
They would both eat fruit, hummous/ guacamole and bread sticks, "healthy" crisps like snack a jacks or pop chips.

Cereal

We're veggie, so might be less useful.

But I buy veggie protein balls, vegan sausage rolls, blueberries, and cereal. There's always milk and cereal and crumpets. Lots of crumpets.

My teen likes a specific Korean (I think they're Korean!); Instant noodles. Well, they take 3 minutes and sometimes he soo hungry,even 3 minutes is too long to wait!

I struggle to find snacks that aren't just carbs. Or processed to shit. Hence the blueberries!

And he has a velvetiser, so plenty of while milk and sachets for that.

If he had his way, he'd have piles of eggy bread for every snack (and lunch and dinner!)

What are you buying at the minute?

Will he make a sandwich or cheese and crackers? Rice cakes with peanut butter? Fruit?
What are you buying that he’s not eating?
Homemade muffins or flapjacks are better than shop bought and you can get oats and sultanas and nuts in them.

Prepare some pasta with pesto or whatever to eat come or heat up.

Microwave packet rice
Healthy pot noodle type thing

Mine would have a sandwich and fruit or chopped veg. Sometimes toast a peanut butter, or houmous.

Beans on toast or soup.

If you have no crap in the fridge they have to eat real food!

What are you buying that he's not eating?

I think it's so hard to fill teenagers up! I never know what constitutes a healthy snack anymore either- so someone up thread suggested cereal but to me that's not healthy. Things like veg and fruit don't have enough calories to fill them up either 🤷🏼‍♀️

Mine will eat fruit though highest chances comes placed as close to sofa as possible.

He made toast at 4.30am , eats things like crumpets, bread sticks, sometimes a ham sandwich with carrot sticks though suspect the carrot sticks are fed to his indoor rabbit.

DD is veggie and will eat carrot sticks, veg sushi, tomato soup, sometimes make veggie English breakfasts with beans, mushrooms, toast, egg, tomato and orange juice. She also loves cereal like special K.

Mine have granola, toast, sandwiches, croissants, instant noodles, omelettes in wraps, fish fingers, spaghetti hoops,

@friedeggandsauce

I think it's so hard to fill teenagers up! I never know what constitutes a healthy snack anymore either- so someone up thread suggested cereal but to me that's not healthy. Things like veg and fruit don't have enough calories to fill them up either 🤷🏼‍♀️

I suggested cereal Why is they not healthy?

that

You're probably looking for something that doesn't exist, unless perhaps you're prepared to spend a lot of time and/or money on this and monitoring use by dates, eg by having ready to eat, healthy grab foods that are more attractive than his favoured rubbish foods constantly available.

Would he do minimal prep, eg peanut butter on toast, pasta and jar sauce or an omelette, or does it literally have to be 'pick up packet, put in gob'.

If he's not interested in healthy eating and not prepared to put in basic effort, then it's going to be an uphill struggle to overcome, because we're bombarded with instantly available cheap unhealthy crap at every turn.

TBH, if you have a home alone teen after school and before you get home from work, they should be preparing an actual meal for both/all of you a couple of times a week.

On other days, could you set the slow cooker going so he can come home and have dinner if he is hungry, rather than filling up on rubbish?

Mine ate leftovers from previous night's family dinner. Microwaved. I upped the quantity cooked for that reason. Or a fave 'snack' was a rotisserie chicken in a loaf cut crossways

@ThatsAllFolks

Mine ate leftovers from previous night's family dinner. Microwaved. I upped the quantity cooked for that reason. Or a fave 'snack' was a rotisserie chicken in a loaf cut crossways

Came on to say this.

I way prefer leftovers and proper food over snacky bits. They just don't do the job.

Pasties, samosas, cheesy bread rolls are mine’s go-to instant snack. Sometimes yoghurts. If they’re prepared to spend a couple of minutes preparing, pot noodles, instant ramen bowls etc. toast. PBJ sandwiches. Cup a soup had a good run for a while, with a pile of bread and butter. I do try to make sure there are lots of savoury and protein based options around.

Leftovers here too. My teens will always go for proper food over rubbish if it's available. We have a lot of casseroles and pasta sauces which reheat well. As pp said the microwave rice packets are good for a quick snack.

My teenager snacks on

microwave rice packs - he loves the spicy ones in a wrap

Wraps with ham / rice eggs

Super noodles

Milk and protein shakes

Cereal like weetabix

He does a lot of exercise and needs filling up

Tinned things like ravioli, baked beans with sausages, spaghetti
Cereal (unsure why it’s been said it’s not healthy)
Tuna pasta
Pasta with pesto
Leftovers heated up
Sandwiches of some kind
The uncle bens rice pots seem to go down wel and I’m sure there’s a pasta equivalent

I think because most cereal has a lot of sugar in it.

My ds is the same op.
He'll eat grapes, a pie, carrot sticks (bought pre cut), chips, croissants.

@ihateliningup

I think because most cereal has a lot of sugar in it.

My ds is the same op.
He'll eat grapes, a pie, carrot sticks (bought pre cut), chips, croissants.

Ah ok. We don’t buy those.

Weetabix, oats etc

Kbyodjst it depends on the cereal. Something like frosties or coco pops are complete crap. Weetabix, bran flakes, corn flakes would be a better choice.

I certainly wouldn’t be spending money on expensive packs of snacks which to a teen amount to fresh air, like pop chips, snack a jacks etc.

Mine liked making toasties in a toasty maker, whole meal bread, peanut butter, cheese, tuna etc.

Noodle pots.

Flapjacks (I made big batches)

Bags of peanuts from Lidl.

My active growing teen boys needed calories, complex carbs and protein in quantities that to me seemed endless.

DS age 15 will do minimal effort so crisps, cereal bars, fruit, toast and at a push a sandwich
DD age 13 will make pasta and sauce, noodles, stir fry, bake some brownies or cookies from scratch etc etc.