Healthy (and Quick) Back to School Snacks Kids Will Love

By The Nutrition Twins on August 16, 2012

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As hard as it is to believe, the summer is flying by, and that means school is just around the corner!

In order to make the back-to-school rush less hectic, now is the time to start thinking about healthy lunchbox snacks that your kids will enjoy (and that won't take hours for you to prepare).

If you’ve fallen victim to easy and unhealthy eating this summer, fall is a great time to get your kids (and yourself!) back into the routine of eating healthfully.

Here are some school lunch ideas that Tammy loves to give her kids:

• Whole pieces of fruit (i.e. peaches, plums, and clementines)

• Hummus with sliced veggies (i.e. red pepper, carrots and cucumbers)

• Apple slices or celery with almond butter (If your school is a nut-free school, sunflower seed butter is a delicious and nut allergy-free substitution.)

• Homemade trail mix with nuts, raisins, and low fat granola

• Organic applesauce (Just make sure it doesn’t have too much sugar, unsweetened is a great option.)

If you’re lucky enough to have access to a refrigerator for you kids’ lunch and snacks, try:

• Fruit and cheese kabobs

• Low-sugar yogurt (or better yet, plain yogurt with your own fruit added). We like Stonyfield Farms organic yogurt.

• Part-skim string cheese (Organic Valley makes a great one) with whole-grain crackers

If we have a little extra time on the weekends, we’ll try to make homemade mini muffins and freeze them for the week ahead. We always incorporate whole-wheat flour and fruits and/or vegetables such as carrots and raisins, zucchini, blueberry, apple, or banana. The kids love them, and they’re nutritious, filling and easy to throw into a lunch bag.

Tammy’s kids always plead for a pre-packaged snack. Her kids love the little Sun-Maid raisin packets, Late July Organic crackers and Annie’s Bunnies, but we struggled to find one another snack that contained the healthy whole-grains until Happy Family came out with the Sunny Buddies, a new favorite of Tammy's kids. Happy Family is a mom-owned organic brand that started making nutritious and organic cereals and other food for toddlers and infants, but now makes delicious snacks for preschoolers and elementary school children, too.

They just introduced a new line of five single-serve snacks called Happy Times, all of which are made with organic ingredients, perfect for back-to-school. Sunny Buddies (part of the Happy Times line) are a crispy whole grain snack, packed with naturally sweet berries and organic sunflower butter. This snack is great to pack if your kids’ school is nut-free.

What healthy snacks do you pack for your kids? For more great lunchbox ideas, check out "The Kid (And Mom) Approved Snack List" and "Snack Ideas with Brooke Burke"

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