Today we’re going to talk about snacks for those hungry kids of ours. I have teens, tweens, and young adults living at home, and generally we have Greek yogurt with a bit of honey and sometimes homemade granola as a snack. That’s our go-to, and sometimes we vary it. But they’re always hungry, so here are some ideas for snacks. Some of these are no-bake and no-cook, and some require a bit of cooking or baking.
Easy, Delicious, Homemade Snacks
Homemade granola is a great snack because you can eat a few spoonfuls of it on its own, or you can sprinkle it on things like yogurt. Here’s our homemade granola recipe. Obviously, it’s much cheaper than buying granola – for some reason that’s very expensive. You can decide whether to use honey, which costs more, or to just put some kind of sugar on top. Basically, you mix everything up and then bake it, and then you mix in a few things afterwards, like chocolate chips, coconut, et cetera. I’ll put the recipe in this blog post.
You can make some kind of chocolate crispy squares. You need a little melted chocolate and a little peanut butter, almond butter, or any butter. I like macadamia butter. Take equal quantities of chocolate and nut butter and melt that together, and pour it over something like puffed rice cereal, and then press it into a tray. You could also pour the chocolate over a combination of nuts and seeds that you’ve chopped up.
A snack that’s easy to make at the time is fruit with nut butter. Take peanut butter, almond butter, or whatever you like, and then slice up some apple or pear to dip in the nut butter. You could also do little fruit kebabs with strawberries, little pieces of apple or banana, and grapes. Dip those into the nut butter, or you could drizzle them with a bit of Greek yogurt, or dip them into the yogurt.
You could make wraps into pinwheels. Take some wraps or tortillas, and spread some cream cheese or some mayo onto them. Then add slices of ham or another deli meat, your favorite cheese, pieces of chicken, and maybe lettuce. Then roll them tightly, slice them into spirals and lay them out as nice little bites.
Energy bites are great. You can make them with a combination of oats, seeds, nut butter like peanut butter, and maybe some chocolate chips. You can find the recipe for my nut and seed bar in episode 133, which is on easy breakfast items and grab-and-go foods for moms. Those nut butter and seed bars or balls are great. You can use almost any combination of ingredients. Take about a cup and a half of oats, then grind up some nuts and seeds, about a tablespoon or two of each kind, and then mix in about a jar of nut butter. Mix it in bit by bit to see how much you need. That’s quite an easy snack. Just press it into a container with a bit of greaseproof paper, and then put it in the freezer and cut it up when it’s ready.
Then there’s a popcorn mix. You can either buy ready-made popcorn, or you can make your own. If you have a popcorn machine, use that, or just put a little coconut oil or something in the bottom of a pot with a lid. Pop your popcorn in there, and add a bit of butter and salt afterwards. That’s always delicious if you mix in things like pretzels, raisins, or even mini marshmallows, Smarties, or M&M’s. It’s like a popcorn trail mix. You can also do a regular trail mix using nuts and seeds. Add pretzels, chocolate chips, and whatever else you like. If you like, you can add dried fruits like raisins, cranberries, et cetera.
Chocolate dip treats are always a hit. Dip some strawberries, banana chunks or pretzels into melted chocolate, and keep those in the fridge for people to grab, or as a a dessert.
Then there are cracker stacks – you can build your own. Put out a board or platter with crackers, slices of cheese, slices of cucumber, little tomatoes, cream cheese, sliced chicken or deli meat, and maybe chutney. Everybody can build their own combo of cracker stacks using some of those ingredients, either between two crackers, or just piled on top. This is a great one because it’s very easy, there’s a good variety, and everybody enjoys it.
Some Amazing Baked Snacks
Here are some ideas for baked things – obviously you can do cookies, like chocolate chip cookies. You can make little pizza muffins. Take bread or tortillas, and press them into muffin cups. Add a little tomato sauce or puree, and a few toppings like chopped ham , pineapple, mushrooms, or whatever you’d use on pizza. Sprinkle mozzarella on top, add a little bit of salt and maybe some oregano, and bake those. You can keep those in the fridge, or just put them out for a good snack.
Cheese twists are very easy to make if you have puff pastry. Cut it into strips and sprinkle grated cheese over, maybe with a little olive oil. Twist them, and then bake them till they’re crisp. They don’t need a lot of oil because there’s already quite a lot of butter in the twist, so it’s more to hold the salt or Parmigiano-Reggiano for that strong flavor – the oil will help that to stick to the dough.
Muffins are always a hit. We like to make chocolate chip muffins using spelt flour, which is whole grain freshly ground. Those are very nutritious with the eggs and all. You can make any muffins, maybe little mini muffins, or you can even buy muffins and have those ready if you need.
Then there are crispy tortilla chips. Those are amazing with hummus, salsa, guacamole, or any kind of dip. Just take tortillas, and you can be fancy and cut them into triangles, or just tear them into little strips or triangles. Brush them lightly with some olive oil and salt, and maybe add something like onion powder or smoked paprika. Then lay them out on an oven tray, and put them in the oven for about 10 minutes until they’re crispy. Just watch that they don’t catch and get overdone.
Mini sausage rolls are also quite easy. You can use sausage links or boerewors, as they say in South Africa. It can be chicken or beef, and little cocktail sausages are great as well. If you’re using a long piece of sausage, then wrap puff pastry around the whole thing, and then slice it after it’s cooked. You can also use little cocktail sausages and wrap some puff pastry around each one. Put a little bit of seasoning on top, brush them with egg, and then bake them for about 25 minutes until they’re crispy and golden. Puff pastry works well if the oven is hot when you put it in, so put the oven on around 200 Celsius – 400 Fahrenheit, and then after you put them in, turn it down to about 360 or 180 degrees.
Brownies are great. You can cut them into small squares, add a swirl of nut butter on top, and have those topped up either in the freezer or the fridge. The fridge works well for grabbing, but the freezer’s actually even better because then they last longer. Everybody just needs to take out what they need, and they defrost enough to eat in about 10 minutes. Then the rest are safe in the freezer, even if it’s a long time until you need them. The same goes for the nut butter balls or bars, or the oat seed balls that I mentioned. They work great in the freezer, and you just need to take them out as you need.
Halloumi cheese is a fabulous substance. It’s so different from other cheeses. I think it’s similar to paneer cheese, although I’ve never used that, but it’s got a different texture to most cheeses. Halloumi cheese works great if you bake it in the oven or fry it in a pan with a little bit of lemon juice and salt on too. It’s best eaten fresh, but you can also keep some in the fridge, and toss it in the pan whenever you want to warm some. It does work best if you eat it fresh, however.
Another idea is potato wedges. Cut some potatoes into big wedges and season them well with paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, a little bit of oregano, olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then cook them in an air fryer. Those are really yummy. You can also do them in the oven at a high temp as well. Those get lovely and crispy. You can have a dip like tzatziki, tomato sauce, or guacamole with those.
A lot of these snacks are things that you can make at the time and put out for an afternoon snack, and others work well as something to keep in the fridge or freezer to grab. You can also put veg sticks in the fridge, like chopped up carrots or celery. The best way to store them is in a jar filled with filtered water. Just leave that in the fridge, and they’ll stay fresh, and it’s easy to grab a stick out of there.
Cheese quesadillas are great – tortillas filled with cheese. You can put leftover meat or chicken in there, and then toast them in the pan. Mozzarella works great, or a combination of a yellow cheese and mozzarella. It gets lovely and melty. You can also add some seasoning like salt, onion powder, and smoked paprika – you can tell those are my favorites. Toast them on both sides in the pan, and then cut them into triangles.
You can make French toast sticks. This works great for younger kids. Soak your bread in a mixture of egg, milk, and add some seasonings like salt and onion powder. You also need to season your bread directly after you put it in the pan. Soak it in the egg, and then cook it on both sides in the pan, seasoning both sides with a little salt. Then you can sprinkle the slices with cinnamon sugar afterwards, or you can leave them savory. Cut them into strips.
Snack Stations and Snacks Kids can Help With
A snack station is always a great idea – younger kids and teens will love this. One version is a nacho bar. Have some nachos out, and put out some grated cheese, salsa, corn on the cob, and perhaps some beans and sour cream. You could do a waffle bar or a pancake bar. It works great with mini waffles or mini pancakes, and you can put out things like raspberries or other fruit, some honey or maple syrup in a jar, a bit of yogurt, and maybe chocolate sauce, and everyone makes their own combo.
You can have a mini sandwich bar. You can have small rolls or half slices of bread with a bit of butter, then some cheese, deli meat, ham, sliced chicken, and a bit of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and some sauces. Everyone can make their own lunch there, or a snack. That works great – it’s less work for mom.
You can also do cupcake decorating. You provide the icing, sprinkles, chocolate chips, et cetera, and you can buy plain cupcakes to do this with. You can also have snack kebabs – kids can help you make them. Put out some cheese cubes, fruit like strawberries and grapes, pieces of cucumber, and pieces of chicken. Put out some short little skewers. You can do salad skewers, and meat skewers separately. You could do Greek salad skewers, like I’ve mentioned before, with the olives and pieces of feta. You could have cheese skewers with different types of cheese on one skewer. You can have a plate with cheese skewers, a plate with fruit skewers, a plate with salad or vegetable ones, and a plate with meat skewers.
Here are a few more ideas – you can make loaded rice cakes. Get some rice or corn cakes, and then you can put out some cream cheese, or spread it on them yourself. You can use cream cheese, peanut butter, or a chocolate spread, and top them with bananas, strawberries, et cetera.
You could make yogurt cups – layer Greek yogurt with some granola and fruit in small little cups. Put a bit of honey or some chocolate chips on top. Everybody can grab their own little cup of yogurt. A nice treat is clusters made from pretzels and melted chocolate. Mix up small pretzels with the melted chocolate, and then spoon them into little cupcake holders and leave them to set.
Also, you could do cucumber and carrot roll-ups instead of the tortilla roll-ups. You can use a vegetable peeler to slice long strips of cucumber or carrot, and then spread cream cheese on top. Dry them a bit with a paper towel if they’re damp, and then you can add grated cheese or some meat like ham. Then roll them up and slice them. That way, it’s wheat-free. You can also try making apple nachos with thin slices of apple drizzled with melted chocolate or nut butter, and sprinkled with granola. Those are great to grab and bite.
Another great way to make mini pizzas is to use either English muffins or puff pastry cut into squares. Just spread pizza sauce or tomato sauce onto them, add any vegetables or meat you want, and then sprinkle them with mozzarella. You can even spread all that on a big sheet of puff pastry. Spread on your sauce, sprinkle on all your cheese and toppings, and then roll it up, slice it and bake it like that. Then you have pizza pinwheels.
Homemade cheese crackers are delicious, as are loaded baby potatoes. Roast some baby potatoes, or halved big potatoes with the open side down, with a bit of oil and salt. Then they become nice and crispy. Then top them with cheese and sour cream. Let the cheese melt a bit, and then sprinkle them with something like spring onions. There are also mini pita breads that you can cut open and put out, and then everybody can put their own little filling inside. You can use things like tuna salad or chicken salad with celery and mayo. Obviously, for a snack you’d use a smaller quantity than you would for a lunch.
Tortillas and puff pastry, chocolates, chocolate chips, cheese, little crackers, frozen berries – those are all great to have on hand. You can turn those into quite a lot of snacks when you need to. Here are a last few very easy ideas – there’s cheesy crackers. Just top crackers with cheese and grill them until it’s melted. You can make mini s’mores with biscuits or sweet crackers. Add a little chocolate and a few marshmallows on top, and warm them until it’s gooey.
You can do pinwheels with jam. Take puff pastry, spread jam on it, roll it up, slice it, and bake it. For banana bites, slice up some bananas, dip the pieces in melted chocolate or drizzle it on top. Then add a little nut butter or sprinkle some chopped nuts over. You could also make peanut butter dates by stuffing pitted dates with a little nut butter, or maybe a little chocolate. Grab a few of your bread slices that are getting a bit stale, tear them into little bits, and sprinkle them with onion powder, garlic powder, salt, and olive oil. Then toast them in the oven to make little garlic bread bites.
I think once you get into the zone and start thinking, there’s so many ideas. I’m sure you’ll come up with lots of others that you can do, but hopefully this has inspired you and got you thinking of some out-of-the-box ideas, or just some fresh ideas. Have some fun! Enjoy making these, or get your kids to make them. Just put out the stuff, give them the general idea, and tell them they have to clean up afterwards.
Homemade Granola
Ingredients:
- 4 cups organic rolled oats (use gluten-free oats for gluten-free granola)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt (if you’re using standard table salt, scale back to ¾ teaspoon)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ cup coconut oil
- ½ cup honey
- 1 teaspoon vanilla or a little vanilla powder
- Optional mix-ins: ½ cup chocolate chips or coconut flakes
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a large, deep baking sheet with parchment paper, or grease a large casserole dish.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the oats, salt, vanilla powder and cinnamon.
- Melt the coconut oil in a saucepan.
- Combine the warm coconut oil and honey (and vanilla if liquid), so the honey can melt.
- Pour the granola onto your prepared pan and use a spoon to spread it in an even layer.
- Bake until lightly golden, about 25 to 30 minutes, stirring halfway (for extra-clumpy granola, press the stirred granola down with your spatula to create a more even layer). The granola will further crisp up as it cools.
- Let the granola cool completely. Break the granola into pieces with your hands if you want big chunks, or stir it around with a spoon if you don’t want extra-clumpy granola. Store the granola in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 to 2 weeks.
