Homeschool Snacks

I’ve been falling down on the job. Our meals and snacks have been downright boring… and often not as healthy as they could be. So, the past 10 days or so, I’ve been challenging myself to offer the kids a variety of (reasonably) healthy snacks.  That’s what this post is all about!

Our meals started out well at the beginning of the semester, but lately our meals – and especially our snacks – have been uninspired.   I don’t know about you, but sometimes I find it challenging to keep the momentum going in all areas of our homeschool life.  Unless I’m mindful about it, I can stop thinking about and providing a good variety of healthy snacks.  It’s easy for me/us to get into an eating rut.

I put together a list of snacks to help me out when I’m making my shopping list.  I thought I would share this list with you today. I also thought I would share a couple of our current favorite recipes as well.

Down at the bottom of this post, you’ll be able to download the free Snack Ideas Printable  pdf with these recipes and the snack list.

Snack List for KidsSo here is the first half of the Snack List!

  •  Fruit Skewers (melon, strawberries, bananas, grapes)
  • Sliced apples and almond butter
  • “Dessert Apples” – just peel and slice up apples, boil until soft (no added sugar, but maybe a touch of cinnamon). My kids love this!
  • Dried fruit (dates, apricots, raisins, banana chips)
  • Vegies and dip
  • Snap peas
  • Celery & peanut butter
  • Salad with a variety of toppings (My son insists that lettuce with a few shredded carrots is not a salad! I hope I’m not the only one who has plopped a bit of lettuce on the plate and hoped my family wouldn’t complain about the “salad”!)
  • Humus & pita bits
  • Chicken and pesto wrap (lettuce, tomato and avocado)
  • Grilled veggies on a skewer (marinated in balsamic vinaigrette)
  • Shrimp (place in boiling water; done in 5 minutes)
  • Hard boiled eggs (or deviled eggs)
  • Sardines & crackers
  • Olives
  • Smoothie (banana & milk, fruit and yogurt, etc.!)
  • Graham crackers (we have a homemade graham cracker recipe that we’ve been making for years)

Black Bean Wrap (with avocado or cilantro)

My kids really love these!  The recipe is quite forgiving; I’m never precise about the quantities.

  • 1 can of black beans rinsed
  • frozen corn (I never measure it, I just dump it in. I probably use about a cup.)
  • a small amount of finely chopped onion (I used a little less than 1/4 cup.)
  • salsa (maybe 1/4 cup or so)
  • avocado (when I use an avocado I add in about 1 teaspoon of lime juice) or 1/4 cup fresh chopped cilantro (the kids prefer this when I make it with freshly chopped cilantro)

Place a tortilla in a frying pan.  Warm one side. Flip it over. Add the black bean mixture. Fold the ends over. Flip it over to brown the other side if you’d like (though sometimes the filling falls out, so I don’t bother.  Still, my kids prefer when the tortilla is crunchy so most of the time I brown both sides!)

Black Bean Wrap


Roasted Chick Peas

My kids really loved these and I like that they are so easy to make!

Just drain and rinse a can of chick peas.  Place on a baking sheet. (As you can probably see in the picture below on the left, I have a touch of olive oil on the baking sheet). Add desired spices (I used a bit of garlic powder, but you can use cumin, pepper, etc.). Then roast in the oven at 425° for 25 mins!  My kids really like these.  Ours are mostly crunchy, though a few are still soft in the middle after 25 mins.

Roasted Chick Peas


Brioche Bread

This time of year, I love making bread in the bread maker! We probably make a loaf once a week (and have it with homemade jam, yum!!).  My friend shared an amazingly yummy recipe for Brioche. You can’t use the delay timer, but it is SO good! I can’t even tell you how many times we’ve made this!

Brioche Bread Recipe(for a 2-pound loaf in the bread maker)

Place these ingredients in the bread maker:

  • 1/2 cup plus 1 Tablespoon milk
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 3/4 cup bread flour
  • 2 1/2 Tablespoons of sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon of gluten
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 1/2 teaspoons of bread machine yeast

Start the program on the Basic cycle (for a 2 lb loaf). I did mine on ‘Dark.’

  • Set kitchen timer for 10 minutes. Over a minute or two, slowly add 1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons (ie. 1 1/4 stick) of unsalted butter cut into small pieces.  Close the lid

When baking cycle ends, open the lid and let the loaf sit in the pan for 15 minutes.  Then remove loaf and cool on a rack.


Amish Bread

The other bread recipe I use a lot is an “Amish Bread” recipe. I like this because I can put the ingredients in the night before:Amish Bread Recipe

  • 1/4 cup oil (I use plain coconut oil)
  • 1 cup and 2 Tablespoons of warm water
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 3/4 cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon of yeast (make an indent in the flour so it stays dry until the cycle begins if you use a delayed start)

I use the “dark” setting for a 2 lb loaf.

We sure love waking to the smell of freshly baked bread! 🙂


Here is the 2nd half of the Snack List:

Here are some of the snacks I’m trying to rotate through. 🙂

  • Trail mix
  • Nuts or seeds (cashews, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pistachios, peanuts, soy nuts)
  • Roasted Chick Peas (drain and rinse a can of chick peas; roast on a tray 425° for 25 mins)
  • hard boiled eggs
  • Wraps (tuna wrap, chicken wrap)
  • Rice & corn
  • Popcorn
  • Homemade pretzels
  • Fruit leather
  • Cottage cheese
  • String Cheese
  • Black bean wrap
  • Multigrain bars (granola bars, Cliff bars) – My family loves these Homemade Nutrigrain bars
  • Quesadillas
  • Guacamole
  • Meatballs on a toothpick
  • Rice cakes
  • Baked bread/roll

 

We like to make homemade graham crackers and the recipe is in the pdf below.

Homemade-Graham-Crackers

We also make Homemade Nutrigrain Type Bars with oatmeal and jam fairly regularly… You’d have to make it with plain flour (we sometimes use a bit of almond meal in ours).

IMG_4860Nutrigrain-Type-Bars

If you are interested in printing out any of these recipes or the snack list I mentioned above, just click here:  Snack Ideas Printable. This is a free pdf printable.

Hearlthy Snack List for KidsHere are a few other (but not necessarily healthy) recipes I’ve shared here in the blog!

PeanutButterBars

Pumpkin-Muffin-recipeDo you have any snacks that your kids especially love? I’ll happily add it to our printable list and my kids will be happy for the added variety! 🙂

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Homeschool Den StoreHappy Homeschooling, everyone!!  ~Liesl

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