Well, maybe they don’t want healthy snacks. They would rather have cupcakes and chips, but they need healthy after school snacks.
Kids usually have four or more action-packed hours between school lunch and getting home from school. A satisfying snack at this time puts kids in position to eat a good dinner — rather than mindlessly grazing on empty calories and ending up too full for their evening meal.
It gives them needed energy for after-school activities, too, and helps develop positive eating habits for the future.
We have a couple of super-tasty snacks here that will provide the nutrition kids need, without the pushback you might get if you went with carrot and celery sticks every day.
These sweet, sticky, crunchy morsels may remind you of your favorite childhood treat, but they pack a lot more nutrition. Brown rice cereal, nuts, and dried fruit replace empty-calorie ingredients with fiber and protein. Mix up the dried fruit and nut choices next time you make them — peanuts and raisins or sunflower seeds and snipped dried apricots make great alternatives.
Super Fiber Marshmallow Treats
2 T butter
3 c. mini marshmallows
3 c. brown rice cereal
3/4 c. craisins (dried cranberries)
3/4 c. chopped pecans
1/2 c. dark chocolate chips
Melt butter and marshmallows together, stirring, over low heat. Stir in remaining ingredients. Spread in pan and allow to set. Cut into squares to serve.
We used a food chopper to let the kids get a chance to help chop the nuts.
Sometimes you need a heartier snack. German immigrants brought bierrocks — bread stuffed with beef, cheese, and cabbage — to the Midwest, and this mini version makes a balanced mini-meal.
These hand-sized meat and vegetable pies take a little time to prepare, so have fun making them on the weekend and store them in the fridge for after-school snacks during the week.
Mini Bierrocks
1 recipe bread dough (we mixed ours in a bread machine, but frozen will work, too)
1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1 chopped onion
1 c. coleslaw mix or broccoli slaw (both in the produce section of your supermarket)
grated cheddar cheese
Cook the ground beef in a skillet till brown. Stir in the vegetables.
Divide the bread dough into 12 pieces and flatten each into a disk. Put 1 T. grated cheese and 2 T. of the beef and vegetable mixture into the center. Fold each disk in half and use a fork to close the edges. Arrange on a cookie sheet. Top each bierrock with a spoonful of grated cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, till done.
Eat these out of hand as a filling snack between school and sports.