Healthy school snack ideas

[AmandaKDT]

I have a dck with severe peanut and tree-nut allergies, plus the school is nut-free, so I feel your pain! My son used to loooooove peanut butter - he'd probably be happy taking a pb sandwich to school every day if he could!

No store-bought granola bar is going to actually BE healthy, but my kids occasionally get the Quaker chewy fruit ones - they make a raspberry crumble and an apple crumble. I just read the ingredients, and while sugar is listed, corn syrup isn't, and they're nut-free. They have a strawberry-banana yogurt kind too. I don't have that box on hand, so I don't know about the corn syrup, and it's not really healthy, but at least I'm not sending my kids to school with granola bars filled with chocolate chips and marshmallows and covered in more chocolate!

My kids take celery sticks filled with hummus, taziki (ok how the hell do you spell that?), or baba ghanouj a lot, usually with raisins on top. Cheese, meat, and crackers so they can make their own "lunchables," yogurt cups, unsweetened applesauce and fruit cups, and they love homemade muffins! Carrot and oatmeal...I think I found the recipe on pinterest, and they freeze ok too.

Lunches are so hard to keep interesting...

Yes, I was hoping for some moderately healthy store bought snacks to keep in the cupboard for days when I don't have time for homemade - but it looks like that ain't gonna happen. I usually buy Kashi granola bars for snacks but they all have nuts... And I looked at the ingredients in them again today and even though the don't have corn syrup they still have different forms of sugar mentioned like 5 times (not a good thing). But even so, they still have less grams of sugar per serving than other bars and are higher in fibre.

I am such a label reader, I spend way too much time at the grocery store reading ingredient lists then not buying most of it because the ingredients are so bad for you. I keep hoping that I will be happily surprised. But actually, many of the Blue Label brand items from Superstore aren't half bad. When the promote it as a healthy choice it usually turns out to be true!

[torontokids]

anyone have a good low sugar cookie recipe? All the ones I have tried are pretty gross (in my opinion and the kids!)

[5 Little Monkeys]

That sounds good....except for the dates. Would it be okay to leave out?

[superfun]

I really like the superstore brand for a lot of things. I should start checking out the blue menu stuff. Do they fill it with the unhealthy substitutes? Like aspartame, etc?

[AmandaKDT]

I really like the superstore brand for a lot of things. I should start checking out the blue menu stuff. Do they fill it with the unhealthy substitutes? Like aspartame, etc?

I don't find that they do. Like they have reduced sodium spaghetti sauce, but it doesn't have a bunch of sugar or MSG to replace the salt.

[AmandaKDT]

The only one of my kids in school is 16, but he loves bite-sized food, so some of his favourites might work for your daughter I'm assuming you don't need ideas for fruit/ veg, just carbs and protein?

- hummus and pita or pretzels
- crackers and slices of cold sausage and/ or cheese
- mini pitas with cream cheese and a slice of cucumber inside
- pizza puffs (mini muffins with pizza ingredients in them- pepperoni, cheese, green peppers, sliced olives)
-chick peas
- homemade trail mix (pretzels, dried fruit, etc.- just leave out the nuts)
- baked cinnamon-apple chips or sweet potato chips
- homemade whole-wheat and oat cookies with raisins
- these are a new favourite: http://www.hellowonderful.co/post/YU...rful%20readers!
- homemade chex mix (leave out the nuts)
- triscuits baked with cheese

I really like the mini pita with cuccumber and cream cheese, that sounds good! Thanks for all the ideas

I am going to try the granola bites recipe. But I don't have mini muffin tins. Could I just make balls and put on cookie sheet?

[torontokids]

I made the granola bites today! I halved the sugar and used chocolate chips instead of raisins. I found the recipe a bit too dry so I added a little extra melted butter. I only had liquid honey on hand however if you use creamed honey I think they will stick better together.

Warning- they are super crumbly and dry and you will think you did something wrong. Push them in to the muffin tin and all will be fine!

[torontokids]

I used old fashioned oats. I just found the mixture crumbly but it packed down well and they held together. I think my problem was in part because my honey had crystallized a bit and so until it melted in the oven the mixture wasn't very wet at all.