After School Snacks!

I have a fun little book called "Healthy Snacks for Kids" (ISBN 1-55867-159-5) that you might look into. =)

My kids love apples. We keep them available at all times, and often they go straight for the apples when they get home. If he's not hot about that at first, cut it into wedges and let him dip it in a yogurt dip or peanut butter. They also go for raisins ... can't keep them stocked fast enough!

Also, we keep fresh cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, and celery available. They love those with some ranch dressing/dip. Try to have them cut and ready to go so there's no prep time for either of you. Also, celery with peanut butter is another kid favorite.

Yogurt is also good. Try to get the "adult" kind rather than the kid stuff that has tons of extra sugar & artificial colors. But avoid anything with fruit chunks, most kids don't like those.

Or toast with honey or jam and a glass of milk.

Hope a few of these ideas help!

Stop buying the junk food! There is no nutritional value in junk food, so giving it to your son is as useless and detrimental as feeding him dirt or cotton. Please stop.

Give him normal food. Fruits, vegetables, sandwiches, soup, cereal, cheese, dinner leftovers. No juice, which is, again, junk food. It's sugar water. It's one of the contributors to America's rampant problem of obese children. Water and milk only. This is how my children eat, and they're the very healthiest kids of any family I kow.

Stop purchasing the junk food. It contributes to bad habits and ill health for all household members.

Try apples and peanut butter. Or cheese and crackers. Those are both simple, but have protein and kid appeal.

I dehydrate apples and make fruit leather. My son tanks up on these when he comes home.

Some good options can include yogurt, crackers and cheese, fruit, and if you get motivated earlier in the day, I love to make banana bread. I make it a little healthier by substituting the white flour with whole wheat. I will also add nuts for protein. When they were younger and didn't like nuts, I would chop them very fine with my food chopper and they didn't even notice them. My kids also like peanut butter or cream cheese spread on celery, peanut butter spread on apple slices, etc. Have fun experimenting, hope you find lots of options that make you both happy!

My kids love apples with peanut butter; crackers and cheese; celery and cream cheese; pita bread and hummus; fruit (usually berries) with vanilla yogurt--and you can add honey to it if you want to make it sweeter; and for cookies and crackers vanilla wafers, animal crackers and graham crackers aren't too horribly junky. Smoothies made with frozen fruit are tasty, too. I just try to get my kids to realize that the occasional treat is fine, just to remember that it's a snack--not a meal!
Good luck!

Hi, I am graduate student at MSU in nutrition. I also work for Child and Adult Food Program. Snacks are the best time to create something simple and fun, that can also be heathy. It definitely takes a little planning though... so if you're busy you might have to try things that you have to make up ahead of time. Kids love interactive food, you probably know... so if you have some yummy dips (hummus... which is so simple to make, basicly canned garbanzo beans and peanut butter in a blender for a kid friendly version)or yogurt-cucumber sauce... you can do ants on a log with peanut butter and celery... keep it fun so you stay interested and so that your child will think of this time as a fun time, and will be more likely to eat veggies. There is a great cookbook... "cooking for the whole family" which has a number of excellent recipes for kiddos. I found it for $5 on Amazon, used. Good luck! You can also ask for resources from Katie Bark or Molly Stenberg at MSU.

My daughters favorite after school snack is what we call "the grasshopper". You put 1/4 cup chocolate flavored protein dry mix, 4 - 5 chocolate mint cookies (like thin mints...keebler makes some), 1 cup milk, 1 cup ice. Throw it all in a blender and mix until smooth.