Snack ideas

[Dollygirl2008]

My DD is 13 and is very self conscious about her size. She is by no means overweight but is slightly a victim of lockdown etc. I thought she'd lose it once her sports and school started back up but hasn't.

She's a fussy madam and I mainly cook healthy balanced meals, but with all children, there is the odd takeaway or lunch out with friends which I feel is fine as it's "normal" and I don't want to make a big deal out of it.

But she's now asking me to help her with school food. She has cereal for breakfast but that's at 6am so she then takes belvitas for her morning snack to stop her stomach rumbling. Lunch tends to be a wrap of some sort, with fruit and a small treat. She'll then take another snack (breadsticks, skinny whip etc) for after school as she does sport most days after school. It feels like a lot of snacks!

Any ideas how to cut out the snacks or at least ideas for healthy ones?!

That doesn't sound like a lot of snacks at all or a lot of food however you could improve on breakfast I guess. Cereal isn't filling and is generally very high in sugar

I would say she needs a better breakfast. Porridge is the obvious one. Take a banana instead of biscuits.

Then, it sounds like she needs more protein for her snacks. Breadsticks aren't going to fill her up. Could she take a pot of peanut butter to have with the breadsticks? Or hummus.

That does sound like a lot. My dd had no breakfast, cooked school lunch then dinner. If she had a snack when she got home it would be a piece of fruit.
I don't see why she needs a snack after school unless you have dinner late, and if she needs one it should be an apple, not more carbs. And change cereal for an egg and yoghurt - protein will keep her feeling fuller longer.

It doesn't sound like a lot of food tome for an active teen, but it's a bit heavy on refined carbs which won't be very satiating. Porridge is a good call, or an egg if she has time. I don't find cereal fills me at all. Breadsticks don't really offer much nutritional value, again something oaty would be better. Little bag of dried fruit would give a bit of post exercise boost too. Look for more protein and less refined carbs. She could eat slightly fewer calories but not feel hungry that way.

That's quite a lot of sugar and sweet carbs (no judgement btw, my teen often eats the same sort of thing).

Could she eat boiled or scrambled eggs for breakfast?

Maybe oats for the snack? Maybe oat crackers with a slice of gouda and an apple?

Or banana and apple and peanut butter?

Greek yoghurt and berries?

Hummus with the bread sticks?

Tuna wrap?

I sometimes make home made snack bars of dates, sesame seeds, oats, grated apple etc: look on- line, there are a million recipes for healthy snack bars.

Home made fruit salad in a mini zip plastic bag?

Ditto crudités and sticks of cheese or hummus?

Popcorn? Maybe with dried fruit & nuts?

Banana bread?

It's not a lot of snacks if her main meals are snall, which it sounds like they are. My 13yo DD eats snacks like crazy as her main meal appetite isn't big and she's very active (after school sport every day), as well as still growing. She's also v slender so we would get anxious if she stopped snacking!

You can certainly try to aim for more protein in the meals and snacks to if she's generally not eating much protein over the course of the day (would she eat an egg at breakfast? Is there protein of some kind in the lunch wrap? Nuts and seeds and yogurt are great if she'll eat them).

But tbh I think that some people / kids are just natural snackers, and others are more suited to 3 main meals a day without snacks. There is no 'right' way that everyone should eat in that regard. I've got 2 kids who would really struggle without snacks and one who can happily not bother with them. If your daughter is eating a reasonable variety of foods, has plenty of energy and activity and isn't gaining a huge amount of excess weight, she's probably just eating to her natural rhythm. I'd let her crack on.

My son does a lot of excercise and has a pereroni stick, carrot batons with humours or a banana if he is hungry between meals.

Sorry I meant crack on with including snacks, - since she has asked for help with improving her school food you can definitely suggest alternative snacking options as PP have listed. I just meant she shouldn't feel like she needs to cut out snacks, particularly if she does after school sports. My 3 had breakfast (cereal, toast hot chocolate), morning snack (fruit, cheese, crackers), lunch (chicken and rice or sandwich, bit of carrot / cucumber, bit of cake), after school snack (eg milk or yogurt, fruit, biscuit, toast), family dinner, and usually pudding. There was, tbf, probably too much sugar. But they were all healthy, happy, slender and very active. Snacking is fine, if it is part of the overall day of food/nutrition and fits with the kids' overall energy levels and use.

Overnight oats for breakfast
Flapjack for mid morning
Up fruit and salad bits for lunch
Popcorn

Swap the cereal for porridge with banana which will taste sweet, is very filling and would probably see her through to lunch. Belvitas are basically biscuits so ditch them.

In ds's school lunch is quite late after 1pm so he takes something for mid morning "snack" at 11:30am instead - usually a roast chicken breast and salad wrap. The protien in the chicken keeps him feeling full. Then he has a light school lunch sometimes with fruit. He tries to avoid the habit of treats/crisps/biscuits in school and instead has them out of school such as mcds.

Also make sure she is drinking enough water during the school day as thirst can make them feel hungry.

When he gets home if he is hungry he'll have a protien quark/Skyr yoghurt and an apple (or a carrot!) which will keep him going until dinner. Or if he is going to the gym a quick 2 egg omelette then dinner later.

Thanks for all your suggestions. She definitely needs more protein so I'll put some of these ideas to her.