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

If you have time could you do a big stir fry with some protein in it. Chicken thighs are also good saves them just eating carbs. Also fish finger wraps and pitta breads. Throw some frozen French fries in the oven.

@Delatron

I do think they need the protein to fill them up (and help them grow). But loads of carbs for energy too so balance is key.

So peanut/almond butter on toast/bagel with banana on top. Cheese and veg wrap. Greek yoghurt (more protein than normal yoghurt) plus granola and fruit. egg muffin (crack egg in microwave and pour on top of muffin).
If they’re really sporty chocolate milk is actually a good post training drink. I make my DS a smoothie with Pro-teen which is designed for active teens. In the smoothie I put milk or almond milk, the powder, frozen berries, banana.

I have a nutritionist friend and her view is teens need to eat A LOT. Especially those that do lots of sport.

Can you explain the crack egg in microwave thing

I think I’m allowed to add this as it’s not my Instagram! But a useful account I follow on Insta with loads of ideas for teens. There’s the egg muffin in a microwave tip and other ideas!

Mine’s a 16 year old girl and isn’t one of these hungry always eating teens. She makes sure she eats enough protein. She likes porridge, Greek yoghurt, kvarg, skyr, those u fit protein drinks (like a milkshake) protein powder in drinks, misfits protein bars.
She eats apples and easy peelers but also likes packs of fruit - I often go to Aldi or Co op in evening to stock up as they heavily reduce - 50p for raspberries is more palatable than £2 a box.
I buy the protein bars and u fit drinks in bulk online.
She makes and takes her lunch to school which saves a lot versus canteen, doesn’t like fast food or Starbucks Frappuccinos etc. So personally I don’t mind spending on snacks she likes - yes she could have a Kat Kat but if she’s happier with a vegan protein bar I buy them.
She also likes heck chicken burgers and their Piri or Italia nuggets - they are just chicken no breadcrumbs. Easy to cook in airfryer.
She has a friend who bakes so makes a tray bake at weekend and has a piece each day.

@Mundra

My DS has yoghurt, because he doesn't have to make it! Toasted teacakes are his favourite, but he's scared to use the gas grill (he's 12, and dyspraxic) so he only has those if I'm home. I think he'd rather eat those than supper most days tbh. He doesn't eat crisps/fruit etc, and he'd definitely eat leftovers over snacking things

Do you have or can you get a toaster with wide slots that he could toast the teacakes in? Anoooshka Would he be ok with almond or cashew nut butter?

She also likes those flavoured rice cakes too - kaloo? Blueberry, Caramel. Come in a big pack like biscuits. You can obviously put peanut butter or banana on top etc.

This is something I have for breakfast but it’s an egg wrap. So beat 1 or 2 eggs, pour in frying pan top with wrap, flip and brown wrap - you can add ham, cheese whatever you like and sauce or nothing then fold. I just cut it but there’s a tik tok thing where you fold it in a fancy way. Takes under 5 mins.

I always make an extra portion or two of dinner so the leftovers can be snacks the next day. Last night we had a homemade curry with chicken and veg in it so I put a couple of small portions of curry in tupperware containers which they can heat up. There are single portions of microwave rice in the cupboard they can have with it if they are very hungry. After a roast on Sunday I'll leave the sliced meat and veg sides leftovers in the fridge on a big plate so they can help themselves. This tends to be best for my teen DS who can eat loads so the protein fills him up but he is getting extra veggies too.

Get a toastie machine and keep a box/bag of grated cheese in the fridge/freezer. Pots of Greek yogurt. Agree with CEREAL, I sometimes think if you cut DS17 open, breakfast cereal would flood out like a piñata. Those wee bags of fridge raiders give me the heebie-jeebies because of the name, but my boys love them - and at least it's a sort of protein.

Ours got a waffle maker for Christmas which has been a success. Can make a big batch, freeze, and then they just can go in the toaster. I don’t put much sugar in the mix to try and counteract all the maple sugar they pour over the top

@Sammysquiz

Ours got a waffle maker for Christmas which has been a success. Can make a big batch, freeze, and then they just can go in the toaster. I don’t put much sugar in the mix to try and counteract all the maple sugar they pour over the top

Ooh, there's a waffle thing on our toastie machine, great idea!

DD (age 17) always prefers to snack on ‘proper’ food if available. If I cook veggie burgers, bolognese, stir fry, pasta bake etc I’ll make extra and put it in the fridge so she can heat it up when she wants. Always keep quick things she can make like tortellini, ready made soup, instant noodles (Itsu satay + katsu ones are a favourite) + rice packets in the house. She only tends to eat junk food if there’s nothing else available or very pushed on time - plenty of crisps and chocolate in the house if she wants it but that’s a very rare occurrence!

Do you really need to wash grapes and grate cheese for a teenager? I would expect them to sort that independently. And if they’re after packets of biscuits/crisps in high amounts it surely wouldn’t make much difference.

Stop buying packs of biscuits/crisps if you don’t want him eating them. Or limit how many you buy. Buy sandwich stuff instead. If there’s nothing else he’ll work out the art of a ham and cheese sarnie.

No need to grate cheese but it’s done in prep to keep bowls of it in fridge. The point isn’t whether I grate it for him - it’s that there’s always a bowl in it ready in the fridge for quick sandwiches. He gets hangry fast!
He does occasionally grate it himself.

Does nobody do nice things for you? 🤣 Don’t be a joy sucker!

Not a joy sucker. Just don’t think washing fruit and grating cheese for teenagers is likely to somehow make them choose healthy meals over biscuits and crisps.

Surprised at the amount of people who do every single thing for their teens though. I would expect a teenager at home alone after school to be confident in making themselves a sandwich and some fruit, if not making dinner for themselves.

Having either a tub or bag of grated cheese visible in the fridge can be the difference between "there's never any food in this f**king house" and the grill or oven going on to turn a wrap or bagel, pesto and chicken into a pizza/toastie/something she will eat. Even if the wrap/bagel, pesto and chicken are also there in both scenarios....

Teens are bottomless pits with no imagination....

Greek wraps with smoked salmon, cream cheese or tzatziki

Veg and hummus

Cheese biscuits and cheese

Cereal
Porridge

Lots of fruit

Big rice cakes
Bread products - cheese on toast, protein bagels with cream cheese, etc
Pot noodles occasionally..,

I've also had success with leaving pancake batter mixed in a bottle in the fridge - similarly to someone else, reduced sugar to counteract the half a jar of Nutella it will be covered in...

Sometimes, a pasta salad (pasta, peppers, chickpeas, onion, olives, feta and dressing) is welcomed. Or bowl of tuna mix (tuna, peppers, onion, corn, mayo) to eat with a spoon or turn into a toastie.

(But some days, nothing is acceptable...teens are a different species)

My teen DS likes Eat Natural cereal bars, his current favourite is peanut and salted caramel. He also likes instant noodles, Aldi version of mccoys crisps, Jaffa cakes , cheese, toast with Aldi nutella and bagels with cream cheese.

Mine eat cereal by the bucketload - mainly weetabix and every so often I buy a box of crunchy nut cornflakes or similar sweet crap and it's usually gone within 48 hours! If I'm feeling generous they like sushi snack packs otherwise instant noodles or bread based products such as muffins, brioche, crumpets. I sometimes make a batch of flapjack or muffins but they never last long. My 15 year old does lots of sport and weight trains so is permanently hungry but doesn't have a great diet - he doesn't eat much fruit, veggies I try and load up at dinner time but he certainly doesn't get 5 a day too often

@Kanaloa

Not a joy sucker. Just don’t think washing fruit and grating cheese for teenagers is likely to somehow make them choose healthy meals over biscuits and crisps.

Surprised at the amount of people who do every single thing for their teens though. I would expect a teenager at home alone after school to be confident in making themselves a sandwich and some fruit, if not making dinner for themselves.

Maybe try not to be so judgemental. My teenager is at boarding school & lives half the time with his dad, so it’s nice for him when he’s home here that he doesn’t have to grate his own cheese for speed - it helps him make healthier food choices. He sometimes grates his own, he sometimes doesn’t 🤣

It’s not a big deal. You’re overthinking it!

Just remembered something else we do which a PP reminded me off when we make Yorkshire puddings, I leave readymade pancake batter and he dries himself some pancakes which he likes with cheese (yes, I might grate it for him 🤣) and ham. He sometimes fries himself mushrooms & garlic to have with it, too.

Fries not dries

@TheGirlWhoLived LOL. I missed out a dec imal point there. £2.50 not £250 though a lot of their stuff has more than double din price since Christmas I noticed!

@WeaverofWords

I’m not being judgemental. Just replying to the op and disagreeing with some other posts.

If the boy is overloading on junk food when home alone realistically the only cure for that is to stop buying it - he isn’t going to see a bowl of grated cheese and think ‘hmm I won’t thundergun a whole pack of chocolate biscuits now. I can easily throw myself a panini together.’

It’s not the difficulty of sorting cheese, it’s the availability of tastier sugar filled snacks.