Snacks

[hidinginthegarden]

Really sick of my teenagers moaning there is nothing to eat but having no ideas what they want.
What snacks do your teenagers like and need little prep!! I'm starting to think maybe in need to do a tray bake every night but not sure what.
Disclaimer - both are really active and do sports most days so can warrant the calories.

Are they snacking because they are hungry or just fancy something?

ds is constantly hungry and his snacks are more like mini meals to stop him coming back again and again for more -

eggs - he can make a cheese omelette, scrambled eggs, poached eggs in 5-10 mins and has these as a "snack" at least a couple of times a week

frozen microwave baked potatoes that are ready in 5 mins with a quick filling such as cheese, coleslaw, tuna, left over bolognaise
fruit - usually a banana or sliced apple with 100% peanut butter
toasted bread/scone
cheese and crackers
protein yoghurts/skyr/greek yogurt with fruit
protein brownie (he has these for before/after the gym usually)
I make banana bread every week or so if we have overripe bananas
Leftovers - chicken leg, meat, rice/pasta

14 year old DS is over 6 feet and growing almost visibly, under 10 stone and plays loads of sports - he constantly forages but is lazy and would like to live on crisps and sugar. He does randomly bake cookies if his little brother will bake with him (he's actually very sweet) but its usually the younger one who cba. He makes himself toast and porridge but although he can cook (has to make family dinner once per week and doesn't grumble too much) he's too lazy to cook much more for himself.

I make cheese straws or sausage rolls sometimes (both quick with ready made pastry) or oat cookies but they're basically gone instantly so sometimes it doesn't feel worth the time taken, and they're not madly healthy.

Sometimes I cut up a massive plate of fruit and carrot and cucumber for all the kids and DH helps himself too like you would for toddlers.

Home made popcorn is easy and quick and cheap - we have a huge glass jar of the corn and make it in a normal massive pan with hot oil.

My 16 year old cooks elaborate and beautiful snacks for the sake of the process and presentation - I don't know where she gets this from except that her circle of friends do it too and they send each other photos of their food 🤣🙄😂

@UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme

14 year old DS is over 6 feet and growing almost visibly, under 10 stone and plays loads of sports - he constantly forages but is lazy and would like to live on crisps and sugar. He does randomly bake cookies if his little brother will bake with him (he's actually very sweet) but its usually the younger one who cba. He makes himself toast and porridge but although he can cook (has to make family dinner once per week and doesn't grumble too much) he's too lazy to cook much more for himself.

I make cheese straws or sausage rolls sometimes (both quick with ready made pastry) or oat cookies but they're basically gone instantly so sometimes it doesn't feel worth the time taken, and they're not madly healthy.

Sometimes I cut up a massive plate of fruit and carrot and cucumber for all the kids and DH helps himself too like you would for toddlers.

Home made popcorn is easy and quick and cheap - we have a huge glass jar of the corn and make it in a normal massive pan with hot oil.

My 16 year old cooks elaborate and beautiful snacks for the sake of the process and presentation - I don't know where she gets this from except that her circle of friends do it too and they send each other photos of their food 🤣🙄😂

Do you put anything on to flavour the popcorn ?

I have a popcorn maker which is quick and doesn't involve oil, sure they would find that fun, they are not very expensive. I usually add a bit of melted butter and icing sugar but lots of other suggestions come with it for savoury versions. Other than that I keep Staffordshire oatcakes, pikelets, bagels and lots of cereal milk, yoghurt in as well.

KingCatMeowInSpace sugar or melted butter and salt (old school) - not the healthiest but better than some syrup with high fructose corn syrup or other modified ingredients which are still basically sugar IMO.

If you have those glass storage containers with locking lids, you could keep some pasta in one and homemade pasta sauce in another. (And batch cook the pasta sauce if it’s not a cream based one, so it’s easy to take out of the freezer). You could griddle/roast some vegetables and if they are super lazy have grated cheese in another. They can then build what they like. Similar for wraps and salads and sandwiches. Grilled chicken, lettuce, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers washed and ready. Tortillas in a zip lock bag. Tray bakes are good. There are good recipes floating around for granola bars that use orange juice for sweetening instead of sugar which taste very nice. As teenagers it is probably best to not get them too addicted to sugar just for lifelong habits in the home. Seaweed snacks are nice too (if they like them).

I always cook much bigger dinners than we need. My teens tend to gravitate towards savoury and they'll plate up leftovers as a snack.

For various reasons, I made a pasta bake with chicken in a couple of weeks ago which didn't get eaten so I put it in the fridge intending to re-heat it (somehow) for a meal but it turned out that the DC seen to prefer cold pasta bake and that it makes a brilliantly filling & easy snack. I am seriously considering making one each week.
The only downside was that, if the DC had already had a pasta bake as a snack, they couldn't then have pasta for dinner a couple of hours later and we usually have that the one night a week when everyone is doing activities at different times.

Some ideas -

Pancakes (small ready made ones that fit into toaster)

Frozen fruit with yoghurt

Granola

Tortillas + cheese folded into pockets and toasted (watch the smoke alarm)

Lidl bakery section. Especially bagels, apple turnover, cheesy rolls.

Rice (microwave stuff though am planning a DIY version)

Crisps/snacks - I get multipacks of the really cheap ones, they tend to be eaten first so I keep spares in car boot rather than cupboard

Mangoes

Popcorn

Biscuits

Drinks - smoothies, fizzy water, milk, basic fruit juice.

Flapjacks - pack with dried fruit and nuts
Crumpets
Chicken legs
Fruit salad - often more appealing than reaching for an apple
Cheese and crackers
Rice cakes with peanut butter
Oat and berry muffins
Hotdogs - not at all healthy but a bit of fun!!

I make a huge tray of flapjack. I use protein powder, nuts and seeds and less sugar and syrup.
I basically use the Tate & Lyle recipe online and add extra.

These are fairly healthy, cheap and easy to make and they love them with a glass of milk.

The beauty of them if your teenager doesn't trash the kitchen whist getting a snack!

Would a bread maker help?

Popcorn from a cheap easy popcorn maker, little melted butter and a shake of sugar, salt, chilli powder, paprika or cinnamon.

Mini egg muffins, I make 24 at a time and freeze individually. They take 30 seconds in the microwave. Just make like a quiche, add ham, chicken, mushrooms whatever and cheese and make in muffin trays.

Cheesy scrambled eggs (sounds weird but it's what the 12yo likes to make!)

Quick cheese quesadillas.

Any and all biscuits they can get their hands on.

Babybels, fridgeraiders and pepperamis

Supernoodles, mugshots and cup soups (but only the ainsley Harriet ones cos they are lovely and thick)

Slightly different but my 5yo is a grazer rather than preferring big meals. We have/

Unlimited fruit bowl/carrot/cucumber/pepper stick access

Plain biscuits (digestives etc)

Ham and cheese for sandwiches

Olives

Toast

Homemade popcorn

Granola bars

Crackers (tuc biscuits etc)

Yogurts

Low sugar ice lollies

Crisps (try to limit these!)

Oh tins of low salt beans and spaghetti hoops- usually served with grated melted cheese on top.

coodawoodashooda I've never understood the point of breadmakers - if you buy the bread mix packets you can just bake the bread in a loaf tin. It only takes a couple of minutes longer to mix up the ingredients with warm water, knead and leave to rise and leave to rise as to load the breadmaker, and breadmakers take up loads of counter space and the pans scratch easily after which the bread is a bugger to get out, the blade gets stuck in the bread also making it difficult to extract etc. My mum thinks they're the best thing ever, but I bake bread from a packet mix several times most weeks (we're a ling way from a shop) and it's less bother than the bread maker, plus you can make two loaves at once... I bake four loaves at once at work sometimes if we're out of bread (residential setting) and that'd be four bread machines worth and it takes very little active time with the pre mixed bags of flour, dry yeast, seeds etc.

Sorry I know that's a bit of a tangent!

A big tub of full fat plain / Greek yoghurt in fridge: they can add muesli, any fruit around, spoonful of jam.
The muesli is mixed at home : honestly very little faff and full of filling nuts and seeds as well as the oats and raisins. It gets eaten up quickly and seems to satisfy them for a bit.
The discount baked shelf + freezer is handy at this stage. Or home baking if it's what your family does.
Leftovers: we just cooked far more than thought necessary. Any leftovers in fridge and they do get used.
Boiled eggs as a snack. They were resistant to this but get it now as they are satisfying.
Chopped carrot.
When all else fails they warm up tinned soup!

@UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme

coodawoodashooda I've never understood the point of breadmakers - if you buy the bread mix packets you can just bake the bread in a loaf tin. It only takes a couple of minutes longer to mix up the ingredients with warm water, knead and leave to rise and leave to rise as to load the breadmaker, and breadmakers take up loads of counter space and the pans scratch easily after which the bread is a bugger to get out, the blade gets stuck in the bread also making it difficult to extract etc. My mum thinks they're the best thing ever, but I bake bread from a packet mix several times most weeks (we're a ling way from a shop) and it's less bother than the bread maker, plus you can make two loaves at once... I bake four loaves at once at work sometimes if we're out of bread (residential setting) and that'd be four bread machines worth and it takes very little active time with the pre mixed bags of flour, dry yeast, seeds etc.

Sorry I know that's a bit of a tangent!

To be honest i agree. I know they work for some people though. I like making soda bread. No big cumbersome cooking equipment taking up space in the kitchen.

I tend to do huge dinners to stop my 12&13 year old being “starving” straight after. They snack on toast, biscuits, fruit, tinned peaches, hummus and breadsticks, cereal, crisps. I don’t think they boy (13) has hit peak growing yet but when he does I know he’ll just be eating piles and piles of toast

@Passthecake30

I tend to do huge dinners to stop my 12&13 year old being “starving” straight after. They snack on toast, biscuits, fruit, tinned peaches, hummus and breadsticks, cereal, crisps. I don’t think they boy (13) has hit peak growing yet but when he does I know he’ll just be eating piles and piles of toast

I've got 3 boys. Im a single parent. What's a huge dinner? At the moment my weekly shop is about £60.

Thanks everyone -some good suggestions here and I'll certainly start using some of them. I've also bought some chicken legs and prawns which they will eat cold out the fridge. Wondering about making samosas too. Bread isn't hugely popular (weirdly as I'd eat it all day long) but I'm sure flapjacks and granola bars would be!

@coodawoodashooda yesterday’s was toad in the hole (lots of Yorkshire), lots of mash, vegetables and baked beans (for one). Today was a big portion of pasta (chicken, veg and passata) and a large portion of garlic bread. Jacket spuds are a common theme with some protein. And bread on the table if there’s chips (cooked in the actifry). Shepherds pie made with quorn mince and diced veg, with more veg on the side. Roast chicken, spuds, Yorkshire, veg. Etc etc. I wouldn’t say I buy expensive food but can see your issue. I was brought up on stodge and it worked for me (I’m 6ft and was a bottomless pit while growing!)

@coodawoodashooda I find adding a lot of potatoes helps. I also think if they aren't overly fussy eaters (which becomes a whole other thread) then the teen years are the time you can put out cheap basics things like liver, onion and gravy with a lot of mash and they'll eat it.