Non UPF ideas for vegetarian teenagers, especially gak/junk alternatives

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And I don't mean stuff like swapping dried apple rings for sweets - sure, that worked when they were toddlers but it's not working now!

We aren't strictly non UPF, for a start we are veggie and don't drink cows milk so we do use some meat substitutes and milk alternatives. But we are very much what my oldest calls An Ingredients Household 😂 with not much available for instant eating. There's always fruit in the fruit bowl and bread to make toast, but I would really like some suggestions for appealing late night snacks, movie night treats, and quick meals for teenagers that aren't just utter shite and don't require anyone to do batch cooking at weekends.

Things to sub for eg instant noodles (though we have discovered the Itsu ones which at least have a recognisable ingredients list), crisps, chocolate bars, potato waffles, that sort of thing.

As they gain more autonomy over their food choices I just want to have some stuff to hand as an alternative to what they'll go and get from the corner shop if there's nothing but "ingredients" in the kitchen when friends come round and they all fancy a snack. They can and will vote with their feet if all that's on offer at home is apples and toast 😬

I grew up with a vegan mum, and I am pescatarian and I have a vegetarian daughter, my other children and partner are meat eaters.

Even I struggle with this concept of trying to limit UPFs - it is so easy to just shove a veggie pie / sausage roll / nugget in the oven and be done with it.

I keep thinking back to my mother, she had a lovely mix of foods based on the cultures she had experienced. She would cook lentil burgers (blended lentils, flour and spices), hummus and vegetable dips, pumpkin seeds roasted in cinnamon and sugar (my favourite after carving Halloween pumpkins), sunflower seeds roasted with a little salt, fried dumplings and fried plantain, small pizza made from scratch (my teenagers like this). Avocado and toast with rocket is also quick and easy and healthy. But I must say - most of these require time.

I guess when I was growing up, nuts = snacks. We had every nut available for a quick snack.

Being vegetarian is easier because if all else fails, you can’t go wrong with a good old scrambled egg, beans and toast. It is definitely underrated.

Nuts and dried fruit are the easiest. Gets expensive though. Similar for muesli bars.

Home made potato wedges or potato skins or even chips?

Home made battered or tempura vegetables?

Polenta chips? You can make those by adding water to dried polenta and cook it for a bit till it's mushy, add olive oil and seasoning. Then put in a dish and cool. You can then cut slices to fry or oven bake.

Plenish or Alpro organic are both Upf free plant based mills.

Most salted crisps (think the big posh sharing bags) are just potatoes, oil and salt.

shortbread is usually Upf free.

breadsticks are much better recently and are often Upf free (even the supermarket brand ones).

itsu noodle pots are great as you say.

m&s garlic bread.

m&s chips (and I think some other brands too)

increasingly lots of M&S stuff.

hagen daz strawberries and cream ice cream.

some vanilla ice creams (eg the Yeo valley one).

pip and nut chocolate spread

require making but v quick to make:
popcorn from popping corn and salt/ sugar
boiled eggs

recommend the upf Facebook groups for more ideas.

What is gak

Nairns oatcakes (cheese ones very popular here)

bread and non-Upf nut butters

granola

Loads of toast, with butter, honey, peanut butter.
Nuts and fruit
Those very quick noodles, take 3-5 minutes to cook, can fry up with any veg + soya sauce
Shredded wheat

Home made rice pudding, make a big batch and they can eat when hungry

Good crisps. Popcorn.

Bagels? They make good mini pizzas in the air fryer with some sun-dried tomato paste, pesto, mozzarella, oregano. Or if not bagels then slices of nice bread

Oatcakes as pp suggested

It depends how you feel about wraps. Some are better than others or you can make your own but quesadillas are good for this as you can prep them in advance and put a stack of them in the fridge ready to be heated in a pan(I just spread it on one tortilla and fold the make 2 as it’s easier to turn than a larger one then dry fry them) for 2 minutes either side. Almost any filling works so long as you have cheese. I like black beans with diced peppers, cheese and red onion. Or fried mushrooms with cheese. Black beans and sweet potatoes, refried beans spread on it with cheese and peppers. Even baked beans and cheese works.

I love making scotch eggs with boiled eggs and pork mince, add some seasoning. You can roll them in nutritional yeast if you want a coating, then just bake them in the oven. Alternatively you can wrap a cherry tomato or a piece of cheese inside

I try to run a UPF free house too, here are my suggestions for UPF free snacking:

• shop bought popcorn is usually just corn, sugar and oil
• Lotus biscoff biscuits
• Some shop bought Shortbread biscuits

• Salted crisps or vegetable crisps

• Some brands of plain tortilla chips, served with salsa and guacamole or smashed avocado. Can get some shop bought that are UPF free.

• Nuts are a good choice. Salted n roasted nuts are a safe bet. You can also get caramelised sugar coated nuts for a sweet option.

• Premium brands of chocolate, if they like the taste of dark chocolate

• Some "All butter" labelled croissants are UPF free. Can even get the frozen ones that you bake at home.

Aside from this I'm afraid the only other way is to bake your own stuff. Cookies and muffins etc.

Junk food! Sorry, perhaps that's regional.

Some great ideas here, thanks everyone 😀

Lotus biscoff biscuits will go down a storm!! And I can get multi packs of mini bags of popcorn, I'm sure I've seen those somewhere before.

You can buy frozen edamame beans in the pod. Boil for 2 mins, salt, voilà. You can buy them not in the pod too but they are not as nice/fun.

I believe crosta and mollica pizzas are upf free and delicious as well!

You can also get BUCKETS of popcorn. They go down well on movie nights.

Gak is cocaine, is it not?

I find having homemade snacks in the freezer that can be microwaved or toasted works well.

Muffins, cookies, etc - zap for 1 min in the microwave.
Pancakes (thick American ones) - microwave or (if they are robust enough, depends on the recipe!) put in the toaster.
Pastry-less quiches that you cook in individual cupcake cases.

These are yummy https://www.ourhappymess.com/date-energy-balls/, there are some other recipes on that site, most are recognisable ingredients, assume you’d need to check each eg almond milk for potential upfs

Flapjacks? Dark chocolate. Popcorn you make yourself (v quick) with melted marg, icing sugar or salt, a nice trail mix with roasted nuts, dried fruit, dark choc buttons etc. Anything will go very quickly so probably only plan for weekends or when friends come over.

I'm not a UPF expert so I don't really know what is or not upf, sorry!

We are also an ingredients house (in general!) so my teens are necessarily good at cooking! Started with things on toast, graduated quickly to pasta (one batch cooks bolognese other favours pasta pesto), frittatas, egg fried rice, they bake brownies / cookies etc. of course there are various disasters along the way and I don’t love the fact they are back in kitchen two hours after dinner but I’ve taught them to shut kitchen doors / air the room well/ clean up properly afterwards. It’s good life skills and a lot cheaper than buying in non UPF snacks!

It’s usually the salty, oily stuff that teenagers crave.
Freshly made popcorn
Croutons from dry bread in the air fryer with oil and herbes de Provence (salty)
Roasted chickpeas or hummus (oil salt tahini and garlic)
Roasted vegetables cut into chips or chunks (20 minutes in the air fryer)
Anything dipped in peanut butter or cottage cheese.
Couscous (3minutes in the microwave) butter and marmite alla Nigella.

We make big pots of stewed apples (just cut them up and cook them on the hob with a little water and sugar for 10 mins or so). Serve with plain Greek Yoghurt and some cinnamon/honey if wanted. Nuts on top. Really good and filling.
Also cottage cheese on toast with salt... if you find a good quality one it's delicious. And high protein.