Easy Healthy Snack Ideas Kids Love

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“Mommyyyyyyyyyyy I want a snaaaaaaaaack!”

Does anyone else hear this 53 times a day, or just me? I’m guessing I’m not the only one. I’m also guessing I’m not the only one who struggles to come up with easy AND healthy snack ideas that my kids will love- it seems like most snacks out there are either one or the other!

If you’re looking to up your snack game, look no further! Here are 42 ideas for easy, healthy snack ideas for kids!

P.S. If you want more Meal Planning help, be sure and check out our Master Your Menu Course!

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Easy Idea: Frozen Snacks

Pros: Ready quickly; nice cold treat in the summer; you can store a large quantity at a time without the food going bad
Cons: Not easy to transport

• Frozen Fruit Pops like these watermelon ones. A little bit of prep, but a simple enough recipe that kids could help make them, and it’s a healthy and cool treat!
  
• Peas! Butterfly LOVES frozen peas. She’ll sit there and eat a whole little bowl of them. And, they’re not very messy as long as they stay contained.
  
• Blueberries. These are a bit messier, so I suggest containing them to the kitchen. But they make for a super easy snack, and kids love them because they are sweet. Use common sense about giving them to littles though, as they can be a choking hazard.
  
• Grapes. Again, use common sense about what ages to use these for. You might can cut them up and freeze them, but I haven’t tried that- someone try it and let me know!
  

• Smoothies. We have two favorite ways that we like to do smoothies. One is pre-made smoothies in reusable pouches. This is a favorite of Butterfly’s, but the grown-ups like them, too! Our other favorite is making pre-made freezer bag smoothies (I’ll make a bunch at a time) and then using our Ninja (we have the one with the single serving cups) to make one whenever we want it.
  
  
• Frozen Pancakes or Waffles. I know this is a weird one, but we like them. And of course it doesn’t take long to pop them in the microwave to warm them up, either. I make a giant batch whenever I make pancakes or waffles and freeze them. And of course there’s lots of ways to make them healthier- protein pancakes, pumpkin pancakes, keto pancakes, paleo pancakes, Whole 30 pancakes, etc. And at our house we add Lilly’s Chocolate Chips (though I usually get them from Thrive Market to save a bit!).
  
  
• Mini Muffins. I have multiple friends who make big batches of muffins, freeze them, then pull them out as needed. I especially like recipes that can be adapted to be allergy-friendly.
  
  
• Bonus for the Moms: Coffee Pops. I’m not a huge coffee fan, but I’m really wanting to try this Keto Coffee Pop Fat Bomb recipe for my husband!

Healthy & Refrigerated

Pros: Fresh; you can prepare several servings and store for the week.
Cons: Not as easy to transport. Food can go bad if not eaten in time.

• Hummus. Hummus on all the things. I also love the little single serve hummus packs. They are slightly more expensive sometimes (my favorites are the ones from Aldi) but less gets wasted. And, it’s something even my 3 yo can get out and eat easily; she likes dipping her veggie chips/straws in them.
  
  
  • Guacamole. Along the same lines, I love getting the single serving ones of these for our snacks. It’s full of good fat from the avocados and you can dip just about anything in it.

• Raw Veggies. Peppers, cucumbers, carrots, snap peas, celery, broccoli, or whatever else your kid likes (or at least will willingly eat if it’s dipped in ketchup, right?). One of my friends also had the great suggestion of prepping a veggie tray at the beginning of the week, then putting it out each night before dinner for the inevitable requests for pre-dinner snacks.
  
  
• Fruit. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, kiwis, and more!
  
  
• Cheese. Cheese sticks, cheese wedges, cheese wheels (or whatever Babybel cheese are called?). Follow Your Heart brand even has good dairy-free cheeze slices (my favorite is the gouda!).
  
  
• Meat. Lunch meat, pepperonis, and grilled chicken strips make for easy grab-a-bite high protein snacks without being a full meal. My husband also likes these keto-friendly microwave pepperoni chips.
  
  
• Eggs. Personally, I’m allergic to eggs. However, my husband and my daughter love them! I didn’t used to make them very often, but now that I have an Instant Pot, it only takes about 10 minutes and I can make enough hard-boiled eggs for a week!
  
  
• Greek pasta salad. I haven’t tried this one yet, but I need to! A friend suggested this one- she says she makes a big veggie-filled batch at the beginning of the week and they eat on it for lunches and snacks all week long!
  
  

• Chia Pudding. My daughter loves making chia pudding with me (yes it’s a mess- I always count on losing at least part of the batch to the floor, counter, and taste tests!). I’ll include our unique version in a post one day, but for now here’s a start!
  
  
• Yogurt. Single serving yogurt containers are at nearly every grocery store, or you can also get a big tub of it and serve it up in my favorite reusable pouches. You can even freeze them for an extra cool treat!
  
  If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, it’s not too hard to make your own yogurt. It’s been awhile since I’ve done it, but it’s not hard in a slow cooker! Or, if you’re like me and can’t have dairy, I make 2 ingredient coconut milk yogurt in mason jars (tip: I like the wide mouth jars better because I could mix things in easier). Bonus: both kinds of yogurt have great probiotics for kids’ guts!
  
  
• Homemade Applesauce. My sister is the queen of this. She makes it in her instant pot and says it’s super simple. Then we freeze it in our favorite pouches and thaw to eat as needed. With this you can also add your own flavors!
  
  Pro-tip: when frozen, these make great ice packs to bring in your cooler- by the time you’re at the park (or wherever) they’ll be thawed enough to eat, and your lunch will still be cold.
  
  
• Fat Bombs. One day I’ll write a post on our favorite fat bombs, but we love these keto chocolate chip fat bombs. They’re easy to make, the 3yo can help, and I make a huge batch at a time and freeze them and bring them out a little at a time. Also, I make them in a pan and just cut them as we eat them- I don’t have time to roll things in to balls!
  
  
• And of course, combos. Peanut butter and bananas. Almond butter, raisins, and celery, carrots and hummus- lots of good options there!

Snacks your kids will love from the Pantry/Counter

Pros: Easy grab and go!
Cons: Tend to be higher in carbs/sugars (though not always!)

• Larabars. I am always looking for Larabars on sale. I recently found them on Thrive Market and stocked up, but I also generally use Amazon’s subscribe and save and get a pretty good deal that way.
  
  When Butterfly was a little younger, I especially liked their kid-size bars– the cost a little more per ounce, but we wasted less because she would eat the whole thing (and I wasn’t being handed half-eaten bars as often!).
  
  I like Larabars because the ingredients are simple and recognizable, and it’s not too hard to find a flavor that are allergy-friendly.
  
  
• Fruit. Apples, bananas, clementines, and other shelf-stable fruits are great. I like to bring a 3-in-1 utensil to cut them up on the go!
  
  
• Applesauce pouches. I lived on these first trimester for both of my pregnancies. We usually get them from Aldi now (using Instacart!)
  
  
• Dried fruit. Favorites in our house are raisins, mangos, and apricots. Trader Joe’s even sells dried apricots in little portion sized containers! And raisin boxes are typically easy to find cheap!
  
  
• Nuts and seeds. Pecans, pistachios, peanuts, cashews, walnuts, almonds, macadamias, sunflower seeds, or a mix! These work really well with the ice cube tray trick below, too!
  
  
• Nut butters. I get these on Thrive Market as well; their house brand almond butter (which is just almonds- no sugar) comes in ingenious pouch, which means no stirring!
  
  
• Trail mix. Our current favorite is cashews, almonds, and dark chocolate raisins (all great things for healing postpartum, btw). The one problem is Butterfly always wants to pick out the chocolate raisins and just eat those…not that I blame her because that’s what I go for, too!

Making easy, healthy snacks even easier…

I don’t know about you, but I get tired of trying to put together snacks. So here are a few of the things I do to make it easier to have snacks on the go:

• Store the snacks in a over the door shoe bin. If you’ve got more than one kid, you can even label whose snack is whose! For us, we have the top snacks are the keto-friendly ones for my husband, the middle ones are allergen friendly for me, and the bottom ones are for Butterfly.
  
  
• Pre-portion snacks. I really love these silicone storage bags as a reusable option, but ziplock bags work, too!
  
  
• Reusable snack containers + labels. I love these Munchkin snack catchers, and I go ahead and label them when I get them so they’re hard(er) to lose.
  
  
• Serve them in an ice cube tray. I stole this idea from my wonderful Mother-in-Law. Everything is more fun to eat from an ice cube tray!
  
  

Final Notes:

As you plan your snacks, please consider choosing allergy-friendly snacks for on-the-go; unfortunately there are an increasing number of us with food allergies, and for many even touching a surface with the food leftovers on it can mean an EPI pen or a trip to the hospital. No one needs that in their day!

If you want to get your kids more involved in eating healthier and participating in the kitchen, I love the resources from Kids Cook Real Food! She’s got free downloads for 10 Snacks Your Preschooler Can Make and Snacks Kids Can Make for older kids, as well as a No More Picky Eaters Challenge that’s great!

Want more ideas for Easy, Healthy, Fast Food for you and your kids?

I hope this list helps you to up your snack game while saving you time! If you’d like some more ideas for easy, healthy meals for your family, toss your email in the box below and I’ll send you a list of 100+ Easy, Healthy Meal Ideas (with links!) and a Step-by-Step Meal Planning Guide to make your family meal planning easier!

What have I left off? Leave a comment with YOUR favorite easy and healthy snack for kids!

Other things you may enjoy, Mama!

• If you’re all about the easy, be sure and check out this easy (and editable!) template for Family Chores!
• Check out this list all about simplifying your Mom life.
• Want more Meal Planning help? Check out our course: Meal Planning on a Budget with Trello!
  

I hope you enjoyed this list of easy healthy snacks kids love!

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