Be Well Living /
18 Healthy After School Snack Ideas

September 4, 2024

Your child comes home starving after school. They toss a backpack on the table and beeline for the pantry. There are only a few minutes before you’re out the door for activities, so snack time needs to be quick. Naturally, you grab for what’s easy and convenient…which usually means it’s not all that healthy.

I’ve been there too many times to count. The back to school struggle is real! I’m going to show you 18 ways to upgrade after school snacks that are quick, convenient and healthful - let’s keep those kiddo’s blood sugar levels balanced for lasting energy and vital health!

All Good Snacks Start with the Fab Four Formula

The Fab Four is my easy-to-implement and incredibly effective formula to eating for optimal well-being and blood sugar balance:

Protein + Fat + Fiber + Greens

Keeping this balance in mind, it’s easy to get your child the nutrients they need to feel energized and operating at their full potential. This formula isn’t just for mealtime, but works for snacks, too!

What You Should Know About Kids and Snacking

While I’m generally not a fan of snacking for adults, I realize it’s healthy and normal for kids to have a snack between meals. Most children are extremely active and growing rapidly, so they can often benefit from a between-meal boost.

Snacks should balance blood sugar, not spike it. Have I hammered this one home? Big spikes due to sugar-y or carb-heavy snacks often lead to undesirable behaviors in children such as mood swings, hunger-related emotional outbursts, difficulty focusing, hyperactivity, fatigue, etc. Additionally, the lack of a fully matured prefrontal cortex in children makes it extremely challenging for them to manage these big feelings. We are definitely not doing our little ones a favor when we set them up for spiking blood sugar and everything that comes along with it.

My whole intent when grabbing or prepping a snack for my child is to offer something that will nourish, stabilize and fuel his little body with long-lasting and stable energy.

Here are a few boundaries I put in place when it comes to my kids and snacking:

No constant grazing. We don’t want to be continually elevating blood sugar by an endless buffet of snacks between meals. Additionally, constant grazing usually makes for poorer mealtime eating habits. I.e., your child won’t be hungry when it comes to his or her actual meal!
No ‘naked’ carbs. Few things spike blood sugar like eating a carb-heavy food alone. I always make sure to buffer my child’s carbs (such as fruit or crackers) with a high quality fat or protein (like raw nuts or guacamole). This keeps his blood sugar curve more stable and elongated.
Think twice about food quality. Most foods that test highest in heavy metals are actually lowest in quality. This includes mostly processed carbs like oats, wheat and other grains. For that reason I always try to opt for whole foods, especially regarding carbs, whenever possible.
Focus on the Fab Four 4. First and foremost, I’m looking for ways to offer my children protein, fat, fiber and greens for their snacks. These are what nourish their health and promote their well being at meals, and snacks are no different.
Focus on nutrient density. Rather than “What does he want?!” I like to ask the question, “What is best for his body?” I make sure every snack is first about nutrition and then about fun. And make no mistake, nutritional foods don’t have to sacrifice all the fun!

18 Healthy After School Snack Ideas

While the idea of serving up Fab 4 style snacks sounds great, sometimes we get in a mom-rut and grab for the same convenient thing over and over. Or we just cave to whatever our child asks for (Goldfish! Cheesy crackers! Fruit snacks!) because we simply don’t have a better-but-still-convenient idea off the top of our head. I’m here to help.

These are the snacks I most often prep or purchase for my boys. And I feel great about knowing they deliver a nutritional punch while still offering something delicious and beloved by my boys:

Apple slices (or even pear slices!) with nut butter - Make sure to choose a nut butter with minimal ingredients. It should contain simply the nut or the nut plus sea salt.
Raw nuts and seeds - These are so versatile, nutritious and easy to pack/travel. You can get creative and turn raw mixed nuts into a DIY trail mix by adding a few Hu Kitchen gems. Or serve raw nuts alongside any kind of fruit such as kiwis, berries, Cuties, melons, etc. to slow their digestion and blunt blood sugar spikes.
Go Raw makes individually bagged sprouted pumpkin seed packs, which are easy to throw into a backpack or diaper bag. And Pili Hunters packs contain my favorite low carb nut (can be found on Thrive Market). Regardless of which nuts or seeds you choose, be sure they do not contain added vegetable or seed oils, which are highly processed and inflammatory.
Nut butter on celery - Hold the ants to make it a more blood sugar friendly combo.
Raw vegetables with guacamole or hummus - Cucumbers, carrots and celery served with a guacamole cup or hummus is as quick and easy as it gets.
Raw vegetables with a dressing - Primal Kitchen ranch dressing (code KELLYSFAVORITE) with carrots and celery are a staple snack in my home.
Avocado slices rolled up in turkey - Just make sure to use nitrate-free turkey slices like those from True Story or Applegate.
Crackers with hummus or guacamole - Upgrade your cracker and go for a cleaner and more macronutrient-friendly option. We like Flax crackers, Simple Mills, or Mary’s Gone Crackers. You can always make your own hummus or buy a store-bought version that doesn’t contain inflammatory/processed vegetable and seed oils.
Snack plates - These are always a huge hit. Make it a Mediterranean plate with olives, nuts and a raw goat cheese. Or do a deconstructed parfait plate with unsweetened coconut yogurt, berries and some raw nuts. Serve it in a muffin tin for added fun.
Berries and coconut cream - The ultimate dessert-like snack! Opt for a coconut cream that contains no gums or fillers like Native Forest Simple.
Roasted veggies with a Primal Kitchen dressing (code KELLYSFAVORITES) or homemade dip. Honestly, we often use leftover roasted veggies, and they’re absolutely delicious with our favorite dressing!
Meatballs - I have so many great recipes like my homemade paleo meatballs, Moroccan meatballs and no fail flax meatballs you can try. Double the batch to have extras which can be eaten for a snack with some Primal Kitchen ketchup and/or mustard.
Serenity Kids pouches (use code FAB4) are my favorite easy to pack kids pouch. Their formulations are macronutrient friendly, made with high-quality animal protein, healthy fats such as extra virgin olive oil and organic vegetables.
Chomps or Paleovalley beef sticks are easy, fast, convenient and satisfying because of the high protein content.
Seaweed snacks are fantastic for their iodine, B12 and mineral content. Just make sure to purchase seaweed snacks made with olive oil as opposed to other vegetable or seed oils.
Some of my favorite easy-to-grab vegetable packets include Thrive Market olive packs and Eat Poshi veggie packets.
Brami lupini bean snacks are high in both fiber and protein as well as a rich source of nutrients.
Lesser Evil organic popcorn snack packs - These are better than your conventional popcorn snack pack, as they’re made with coconut, ghee or avocado oil. A much better choice than most varieties you’ll find on the grocery store shelves.
If you’re looking to make your own snack or get a little creative in the kitchen, I suggest trying my Refined Sugar-Free, Non-Dairy Chocolate Chip Protein Balls, Dairy Free Protein Perfect Bars or Homemade Granola Bars.

A Few Final Snacking Notes:

Keep It Fun: Maybe you have a picky eater. Maybe it’s been a struggle between you and your little one as you try to transition snacks from sugar-bombs to something more nourishing and healthy. It can help to infuse snack time with fun. You might find that what you serve automatically becomes more well-received. Here are a few ideas:

Grab mini cookie cutters and go to town with fruits, veggies and more! Who doesn’t love eating food in the form of shapes?!
Take a pinch of spirulina powder and stir it into coconut yogurt on St. Patty’s day for a green-colored treat (sans food coloring, and they won’t even taste the greens!). Try beet powder or any other healthy and natural “coloring” to make the food more festive and surprising.
Serve snacks in muffin tins, condiment cups or other novel ways.

It’s so gratifying when your kids learn that healthy food can be fun, too!!

Focus On Empowerment: I like to empower my boys by creating a “help yourself” bin in my pantry. I choose what goes in the bin and they get to choose what they want from the bin at snack time. It eliminates power struggles, allows my boys to exercise some choice and ownership, but still ensures they are getting a nutrient dense, Fab 4-style snack.

My Favorite Snacking Containers:

As much as possible, it’s a good idea to move away from plastic containers. They often contain BPA, BPS and other “forever chemicals” which are extremely hard to detox from the body. Many of these chemicals are unfortunately known or suspected allergen irritants and endocrine disruptors. Silicone, glass and stainless steel are better options.

Here are my choices for packing snacks.

Stasher bags - By far, this is my most-used container of choice for snacking. I use them to hold everything from berries to celery sticks, trail mix to bell peppers.
Austin Baby Co silicone bento boxes are perfect for snacking on the go.
Any stainless steel, insulated and leak-proof containers.
Elk and Friends makes adorable silicone snack pouch packs.
Thermos stainless steel containers are great if you want to keep snacks warm or cold. You can gently heat solids such as meatballs and know they’ll remain warmed in the container for a time!
Mushie makes great snack containers and other silicone feeding tools, including their silicone snack cups.