What on earth do teenagers eat after school?

[IbizaToTheNorfolkBroads]

15 yo ds, tall and skinny but filling out.
He'll come in from school and eat whole packets of biscuits - albeit his preference is for cheese biscuits - and pot noodles, slabs of cheese. Whatever cake and sweet biscuits he can lay his hands on. Needs cajoling into eating an apple. Very unadventurous with other fruit. Ok with veg as part of a meal. Won't touch soup or yoghurt. He wants to be a biomedical scientist or biochemist, so I thought I'd get him onboard with the whole healthy eating/body as a machine thing - but when discussed what he'd like/think is a sensible snack food he says "dunno".

DD(12) - canes pot noodles, and also has a very sweet tooth - unfortunately she has to walk past a sweet shop on her way home from school. I think she may have stopped growing, and is stacking on weight, which ee need to get under control. She's also not mad on fruit.

I find my DC's eating habits quite alarming! I'm veggie and wholefoody (was largely brought up that way). DH is medically advised not to eat raw fruit or veg - and the dc model him! They were weaned on humus and lentil bake, but are never happier than when they have a plate of roast meat and something involving pastry and custard for pudding!

There is a wider issue to resolve about how we eat as a family, but for now I'm thinking about after school. What can I give/leave the dc to eat after school that's a happy medium between healthy and tasty? I'm prepared to bake. They both have lunch at 12 noon, and we don't really have our evening meal until 6.30-7pm, so they need something.

Jacket potatoes

Cold chicken drumsticks

Cereal...my ds15 eats a lot of cereal!

Honestly, mine walk past the fruit bowl and head for the processed snacks. Their meals are nutritionally well balanced and they're pretty healthy so I grit my teeth and pretend not to care.

I was a very sporty teen and would have pot noodle equivalent sometimes, but quite often cooked myself beans on toast or pasta with tinned fish after school, so basically a whole extra small meal.

I dont have teens, mine are 6 and 8 but still they can eat. I'm dreading the teen years for this!

Will they eat cold boiled eggs? You can keep some ready done in the fridge? Or they can boil/scramble themselves.

Cheese/crackers/grapes/sliced apple/cucumber/carrot sticks
Houmous? .
Flapjack.
Toast?

I think its important to keep sweet stuff out of thus snack time, if they're having pudding after dinner

Noodles
Beans or spaghetti on toast
Soup and bread
Cheese on toast
Egg on toast

I feel like I must be starving my DS (14 and 12) based on this. They might have a small snack like a banana or piece of fruit loaf after school, dinner at 6 and then a piece of fruit or yogurt at 8. They don’t complain about being hungry?

For context on my post - I was eating after school, doing a couple of hours sport, and then eating an evening meal at 8/9pm

DS17 will cook up leftovers (rice gets stir fried), or make a 4/5 egg omlette and/or eat bowls of cereals. And then have dinner. He’s v sporty, over 6” and lean. He’s costing me an arm and a leg but I’m pleased he doesn’t eat too much crap.

At this age you’re fighting a losing battle. Just make sure main meals and lunches are as healthy as you can manage within the realms of what they’ll eat and in the great words of Elsa, let it go.

I used to leave bowls of healthy food in fridge for my hungry teens x 2 extra main dishes a week. Chunky Lentil soup or minestrone. Chickpea casserole. Cheese platters with apples and crackers and celery. Simple pesto pasta with cherry toms. Shredded chicken breast in a salad. A baguette with mozzarella, pesto, basil roasted peppers and toms in.

So on two or three evenings of every week I would make an extra something or leave enough of that evening’s dinner for leftovers the next day. One of my teens grew five inches in a year so they need the extra ballast sometimes.

Cheese scones
scrambled egg on toast
Houmus and pitta
Babybels
Bagels with ham/cheese/chicken
Bowl of whole-wheat cereal

I sometimes try and make a small plate of food with the leftovers of last nights dinner so that DS2 can just grab something that's not nutella toast when he gets in from school. Cheese, crackers and a cut up plum or apple works quite well too.

Are you at home? On the days I wfh, shortly before they get in, I chop up some apples, pears, bananas and leave that on a plate along with some pitta bread or wraps, hummus, cucumber & carrot sticks, some roast chicken (I roast one each a Sunday just for this purpose) or cheese and, if anyone has done any baking, some of those items. The DC come in, hoover that up and, whilst they might still eat biscuits & crisps afterwards, I feel at least they've had something nutritious. It does annoy me as neither of them seem capable of picking up an apple from the fruit bowl (well, unless to hold it as a prop cricket bowl when practising their arm action whilst standing in the kitchen!) but I feel slightly better for doing it.

I’ve said to my kids that if they are that hungry they should eat a proper meal. The endless snacking comes from the fact that the snacks aren’t enough nutritionally or for feeling full, so they keep going.

Leftovers from dinner
Make proper stock and keep it in the fridge- easy to heat up and add noodles, chopped veg, chopped cold chicken/tofu etc. much better than pot noodle.
can also keep bags of prepped salad and dressing in the fridge for them to assemble with cold meat/cheese/avo
All sorts of eggs
Cheese and/or beans on toast

I found things got better quickly when we all thought about this as a mini meal rather than a snack. I think the snack concept makes them focus on snack foods ie crisps, biscuits and ultra processed stuff.

Ideal world: more protein like the suggested hard boiled eggs, or cooked chicken, hummus, a glass of milk.

In the potentially more realistic world: how about toast with peanut butter, or cheese on toast, or some porridge.

Should add, this is for older teens/young adults.

Mine like things like
Omelettes,
chicken wraps,
grilled cheese, spring onion, tomato toast quesadillas,
tuna Mayo rolls,
Humous, tortilla chips/pitta bread and some veg sticks

This. 2 bowls of cereal seemed to be the norm.

Might they eat bircher/overnight oats with apple or banana or berries in?

If you don't want them to eat processed snacks don't have them in the house.

Drumsticks is a good shout.
He quite likes hard boiled eyes too.
He had a much less sweet tooth than his sister.

The healthiest thing would be leftovers. As you cook from scratch they will be nutritionally balanced and satisfying.
My teen doesn’t eat fruit apart from the off satsuma at Christmas but eats vegetables in meals so I’m not concerned about that aspect.

If you don’t have leftovers then leave another lunch for them. A baguette with their preferred filling would probably help calm the hunger pangs.

lol!! I think you might be right.

Scariest autocorrect ever 😱😱😱

I do think at this age it partly about asserting their independence & you have to roll with it & not turn it into too big of a deal.

Encourage exercise/ exercise with them - give nutritious meals, inc nutritious puddings, have healthy snack options in the house but don’t push/ nag too much.

5'4" to 6'3" in the last 3 years and still going!! (My brothers, dad and dh are tall too, thus height is not surprising, it just needs feeding)

I only used to have a bourbon and a custard cream after school, seemed to keep me going anyway 😆