Homemade or inexpensive school snacks needed!

[TashaRVT]

Hi all - I'm going broke buying school snacks for DD9 and DS6!

They need snacks for both am and pm recesses, and attend a peanut-free school, so snacks must be peanut-free. Both my kids (esp DS!) are healthy eaters, and have healthy appetites. I don't want to send Dunkeroo's or Fruit Rollups, or any of that kind of crap, but there doesn't seem to be much of a selection other than that stuff!

Any suggestions?

 

[Belle4mygrl]

the produce section has precut veggies or do it yourself and place in baggies. alot cheaper doing it yourself

homemade muffins

fruit cups or fresh fruit

homemade granola minus the nuts

and send the occassional Little Debbie cakes for a treat

hope that helps some

 

[NaplesRI]

How about grape jelly (or whatever their fav flavor is) on Ritz crackers?

Mini carrots? They are on sale often and are a great snack. You could even give them some dressing (I like creamy Italian) to dip them in.

 

[micheleq]

Homemade chex mix? You can use the store brand cereal and add anything you want - raisins, pretzels, other dried fruit and cereals/crackers. I made five batches of white chocolate chex mix for the holidays and everyone loved it. Obviously, you don't want the chocolate, but there are alot of recipes out there for chex mix and for trail mix as well.

Good luck!

 

[Teresa Pitman]

How about:

cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, celery sticks (perhaps with some kind of dip, like garlic hummus or a salad dressing in a small container

mini-muffins or slices of banana bread or carrot bread or zucchini bread

home-made rice krispie squares

home-made cookies made with whole grains (like oatmeal cookies or chocolate chip cookies with whole wheat flour)

pinwheels: take a tortilla wrap, spread it with hummus, cream cheese or mayo, top with some lettuce or baby spinach, make a row of pepper slices and/or grated carrots, and other vegetables, roll up and then slice into bite-sized pinwheels. Wrap snugly.

ants on a log: celery sticks, filled with cheese spread, and topped with raisins
(or filled with a peanut butter alternative)

a nut-free homemade trail mix: raisins and other dried fruit, pretzels, goldfish, oat clusters, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, etc., with maybe some m&m's added

Teresa

 

[Belle4mygrl]

yes the trail mix. I make this all the time for my family.

I use chex cereal, raisins, apricots if I have in pantry, pretzels, and m&ms. I tend to use peanut m&m but you could use plain.

 

[TheLittleRoo]

This is a challenge for us too. DD has an AM snack that she must bring daily. The teacher built a lot of no-no's into the list of possibilities:
No tree nuts
Nothing needing a spoon
Nothing sweet/ cake-y
No bananas (?!?)
Nothing requiring refrigeration

So, that leaves very little room to work with. But I have come up with some goodies that she likes and eats pretty well, and stolen a few good ideas from other moms!

Raisins, grapes, strawberries, cut up apples, blueberries, etc in a ziploc baggie
Celery sticks with cream cheese
Goldfish and Cheez-Its are good standbys
Special K protein bars - strawberry flavor (she loves this)
Quaker Oatmeal breakfast bars (a square cookie thing that's full of protein)
Cheese stick pullaparts
Dried banana chips, apricots, etc
Yogurt covered raisins
Those snack packs that have pretzel sticks and cheese dip (she LOVES this)
Teddy grahams

 

[prncess674]

Since it is peanut free, substitute tahini paste (found in the asian aisle) for your kids favorite peanut butter type snacks. Tahini is ground sesame seeds and is so wonderful and taste very similar to peanut butter. You can also make your own hummus with it, which can be paired with crackers, cucumbers, mini carrots or any other fruit and veggie sticks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahini

 

[Ellisa]

My ds5 is the same way.
Here are our solutions:

carrots & hummus
hummus & pita triangles
string cheese
cheese & crackers
homemade trail-mix (IE, bottom of the bag of everything I have left that week)
celery with cream cheese in it
pretzels
mini rice cakes
granola bars
raisins
homemade muffins or slices of breads (cranberry this week, pumpkin or banana the following week)

 

[tthe4taylorz]

mine love dry cereal or dried fruit

 

[Mouse House Mama]

If you have a popcorn maker (or even if you don't you can use a pot on the stove) you can make popcorn and put it in little baggies to put in their lunchboxes.

 

[madfelice]

Small pita bread or soft tortillas or flatbread spread with cream cheese and sprinkled with tasty cheese or raisins or whatever your kids like, then rolled up into a cylinder like a swiss roll. If they wont stay rolled you can secure them with a rubber band before wrapping in cling wrap. They are yummy and peanut free!!

 

[snookhams]

Things to fill up lunches for my boys are a big issue for us our eldest DS is a swimmer and if there was an eating olympics he would probably win it!! I have found one of the best things to fill them up are porridge oats (not sure if you call it the same in US!) these are good in flapjack type fingers - they have a slow release of carbohydrates so help with keeping them feeling full up, and they contain a substance that naturally keeps cholesterol down! we get through bags of it a month the following recipe also incorporates dates (some thing my boys would not agree to eat if I offered them, but I always make a double batch of these and they are normally eaten up pretty quickly)
I hope that someone can convert the recipe for US use

DATE AND OAT BARS
175g pitted dates, chopped
75g brown sugar
75g porridge oats
25g sunflower seeds (if you don't want to use these use another 25g oats)
200g plain flour
175g butter, melted
2 tablespoons syrup

preheat the oven to 150C/130F/gas mark 2. Grease a shallow square tin.
Put the dates into a saucepan with 25g of the sugar and 4 tablespoons water. Cover and simmer stirring occassionally for 5 mins. or until the dates are soft and the liquid has been absorbed, take of the heat.
Mix he oats, remaining sugar, sunflower seeds and flour in a large bowl. Add the melted butter and syrup then mix well. Spread half of this mix in the tin, spread over the date mix and then top with the remaining oat mix.
Bake for 45mins. When cooked mark into fingers whilst still warm - it is easier to do this then, and leave to cool.

 

[disneymarie]

I get the oranges that are navel and tangellos seedless that can be pre peeled and seperated. I also use the pita's they have some that look mini, and the wraps with all kind of filling.

Those little snack tray packs with the pretzels and cheese in a bulk sale find. Popcorn in a snack bag. Oatmeal no bake cookies. Any cookies i can usually substitue with applesauce instead of oils or oleo.

Peel cheese also, and go-gerts on sale. Bag of tositos and a mini dip cup. I got 4 for $1 and put in hummus, cream cheese or homemade salsa.

Club or Sociable crackers with cheese spread or any other they like.
When I am out and there are crackers in packets I take mine home with me just to do the snack packing.

I think since the teacher is so picky, let her create an affordable list of acceptable snacks!

Can't they use those reusable ice cubes a few in zip lock snack size to keep things cool in their carrier? I had on shaped like a life saver and another like a giant M & M.

Lots of great ideas here. I love the pin wheel idea!
di