after-school snacks!

[LaLoose]

My children are going into Year One next week. As we all know, when you pick them up from school, they are STARVING. The walk home is 25 minutes or so, so I usually give them a snack to help them along the way (and stop the whingeing). I will draw a discreet veil over what those were last year(!) I am keen to give them something relatively healthy this year, and savoury rather than sweet, but don't especially want to turn this into performance parenting and give them crudites... Any ideas?

We've usually had cheese - chedds sticks by cathedral city. They keep changing them though and I can't see them on tesco, only the nibbles.

Homemade cheese straws
Homemade muffins
Fruit
mini sandwich
yoghurt pouch

DD gets often something sweet if she ate fruit and yoghurt. As we don't have dinner until 6.30pm I need a snack I know she eats than just nibbles.

well mine have biscuits after school for snack. fruit doesn't fill them up in the slightest so they would have to have something else with it (plus they have fruit at breakfast, morning play, lunch and after dinner). A couple of biscuits doesn't hurt in my opinion.

If you want more healthy then yes it will be fruit/cheese (but too much cheese isn't good for them either)/sandwich etc it is hard really - banana will fill them up the most and is easy to eat walking along. raw carrot is also easy to transport and not messy.

I would try to avoid bread if they eat it at breakfast and lunch, too much of one thing isn't good. cream crackers?

Thanks so much everyone; lots to think about here and plenty of excellent ideas. I"m very grateful.

We have after school snacks but not until they are sat at home at the table! Theyve not really been allowed to eat walking along so have always waited but in the full knowlesge there would be something!

If I've baked there might be something baked, or fruit and breadsticks or a sandwhich or sometimes twiglets.

Muffins are good to.

if you need to eat it walking along though you're limites to packets arent you ?

DD generally gets carrot sticks, sugar snaps, a little pot of cherry tomatoes, cubes of cheese, pot of grapes, an apple or a banana (depending on what I've got laying about) and then a couple of biscuits when she's finished that unless its Friday when there's a little bag of sweets/a chocolate bar too

Bread sticks , dried fruit, digestive biscuit, crackers, banana

great thread, I've been thinking the same thing really. Thanks for all the suggestions. I got really bad by the end of last year and was giving sweet treats nearly every day!! I've had a little discussion with my kids (aged 5,4,2) and told them that this year will be a bit different from last year and that we'll still have snacks on the way home, but they'll be a bit healthier / more nutritious and have assured them that we'll still have treats occasionally

I now just need to make sure that I'm organised enough to have healthy portable snacks on hand.

Once you're off the school-premises, and as long as you don't have nut-allergies, nuts are great. Mine like plain cashews, brazil nuts and pistachios. They also like salted peanuts but I try not to do those too often...

I can't say we do this every day - but when we can:

nice fresh bakery loaf and butter (DD2 likes tea/ DD1 has juice)

Muffins/ buttered or with Jam (tea/ juice)

Bagels (w/ tea or juice)

soft boiled eggs & toast soldiers

scrambled eggs/ hard boiled eggs (both very fast - but you can do the hard boiled eggs earlier)

raw vegetables nibbles: (get an economy pack of peppers, brighter colours the better), cucumbers/ carrots/ celery/ cherry tom - girls like them plain but less finicky kids may like them with houmus or ranch dressing or some other dip.

fruit - I really like to treat them to seasonal fruits. So we should be entering prime apple and pear season soon, grapes improve from now too, around December satsumas/ clementines get good/ Feb-April is slow, but by May you can get a nice range of berries (we wait until British produce is available). (check out 2 for 1 offers and think about using extra as break snacks/ after school snacks).

Make your own sandwich - so have all the meats/ fillings/ spreads + extras (mayo/ mustard/ lettuce/ tomatoes/ etc...) but let them work out their favourite combinations.

Pizza/ Quiche - homemade or store bought. You can buy ready made bases and decorate as you like - which can be a lot of fun too.

Philadelphia cream cheese and bread sticks. (we make little hedge hogs first - use table spoon & scoop out a large lump, then decorate with bread sticks as spines & use bits of olives as eyes/ nose).

definite treat for first nice warm day of spring: ice cream cones/ Popsicles

definite treat for cold winter days: mug of hot chocolate (with marshmallows)

autumn treat: hot apple drink: heat up ordinary apple juice, but add a cinnamon stick & a few cloves. Just warm it to steaming hot, don't let it boil.

Puff pastry treats: We use an old Delia Smith recipe (from her Christmas book) and sprinkle grated mature cheddar & use parma ham in centre, fold the dough over it - add a bit more, fold the dough over again - bake & in 15-20 minutes - gorgeous hot snack. You can just do plain cheese ones, or add things like olives or anchovies (although our DDs won't touch them).

HTH