My kids love snacks… I mean who doesn’t?! I am constantly trying to find new ideas for snacks that are at least semi-healthy for my kids. Here is a list of my go-to simple snack ideas for kids.

Updated 1/17/23

We are often on the go and it’s nice to have some quick and easy snacks for the kids, whether it is to eat quickly between activities or take on the go. It’s an added plus if they are snacks my kids can grab or prep on their own.

Some days it seems that I am constantly making a snack, cleaning, or making meals. I like to have a list of easy-to-prep snacks and snacks that are easy to clean up after. I don’t want to spend extra time making elaborate snacks when I have other things to do. Check out this post on great time saving tips for moms.

I try to meal prep as much as I can at the beginning of the week. If I can prep any snacks ahead of time, I try to do that on the weekends while I am meal prepping. We seem to eat and snack healthier when things are prepped.

However, many of the items are hard to prep days ahead of time. So I try to get them ready the morning of, especially if we have something going on that day.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these tend to be the go-to snacks at our house. They won’t work for everyone, but hopefully it helps give you some new easy snack ideas for kids!

These snack ideas are not only good for kids, but many of them are great for nursing mamas as well! When I was nursing, I felt like I constantly needed a snack on hand. Check out this post on how to increase your breast milk supply.

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Snack Ideas:

• Apples, bananas, and/or celery and peanut butter

• Pretzels with peanut butter or hummus

• Quesadilla-
  • We use a variety of toppings such as peppers, onions, olives, chicken, pepperoni, beef, etc. The toppings are based on what we have on hand at home.

• Tortilla with peanut butter, banana slices, and a few chocolate chips.
  • I usually throw it in the oven at 350 degrees for a few minutes until everything is melted.

• Apple sauce- the pouches work wonderfully for the park or lake.

• Veggies and ranch-
  • I try to cut up the veggies when I meal prep at the beginning of the week. My family is more likely to eat the veggies if I have them pre-cut. Plus it makes for a quick grab snack if they are precut and portioned out ahead of time.

• Popcorn
  • I like to have some individual bags of popcorn to grab on the go, like these.
  • I also like to make my own popcorn. I have this great popcorn popper that you throw in the microwave and you can add whatever toppings you like on your popcorn.

• Graham crackers with either peanut butter or whipped cream cheese.
  • I do like to add fresh strawberries or bananas if we have them.

• Pancakes with peanut butter-
  • I try to make a large batch of pancakes and then freeze the extra. The kids can just pop them into the toaster when they want to eat them.
  • I used to make homemade pancakes, but recently I’ve been using pancake mix to save some time.

• My kids call these “silly sandwiches”- 2 slices of cucumber with lunchmeat between.
  • We usually use turkey or ham and then dip them in ranch.
  • I do cut the cucumbers ahead of time. This is a nice snack to grab on the go. Plus they make very little mess.

• Crackers, meat, and cheese

• Tortilla with pickles, ham, and either ranch or mayo.
  • We sometimes roll them up and eat them and sometimes make them into more of a sandwich form.

• Yogurt with granola and fruit. Here is my recipe for Homemade Granola.
  • Now that strawberries are getting ripe at our house, my kids love mashed ripe strawberries on top of the yogurt and granola. We use Greek yogurt. They think they are getting dessert. So that’s a big parenting win!

• Bagel with cream cheese or peanut butter.

• Bagel sandwich
  • We usually put meat, cheese, and/or an egg
  • I usually buy the mini bagels. It seems to be a better portion size for kids.

• Peanut butter and jelly sandwich
  • It’s so simple and my kids love them. I usually add a small amount of jelly to try to keep the sugars my kids are consuming as little as possible.
  • This is another easy snack to take with you to the lake.

• Toast with melted shredded cheese and pepperoni on top.

• Cheese sticks with turkey lunchmeat wrapped around them.

• Fruit smoothie-
  • I typically put bananas and frozen strawberries in a blender with some milk and Greek Yogurt and blend it up.
  • We do like to switch it up with different fruit and juices at times or banana and peanut butter is another favorite smoothie at our house.
  • Here is a post from Wholefully for smoothie recipes.
  • Here are some smoothie mixes you can buy to make things easier as well.
  • Checkout this great blender for smoothie making.

• Plain fruit that is easy to grab such as grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, or strawberries.

• Go-gurt- this is easy and great for the kids to grab.

• Cheese sticks

• Crackers, granola bars, and other easy-to-grab snacks.
  • These aren’t the healthiest snacks on the list, but it’s always nice to have some snacks that we can grab on the go and they don’t have to be kept cold.
  • I typically keep a few in a bag with our swimming towels.
  • I do limit these snacks more than most of the others. If I didn’t, I am pretty sure my kids would just eat these and never any healthier options.
  • Here are a few of the easier-to-grab snacks we tend to get: Crackers, Snack Box, and Granola Bars

• No-bake healthy bars
  • I love the energy balls, but I don’t have the energy (pun intended) to be rolling all those darn things! I love this recipe for healthy no-bake oatmeal bars. They are still delicious but much easier than the energy balls.

• Cereal- this isn’t the healthiest option, but my kids love cereal for a snack.

• Trailmix

Everyone has a different idea of when kids should have snacks and how often they should get them. I typically let my kids have snacks when they are hungry during the day, but the rule is no snacks starting an hour before each meal. If I don’t have that rule, they tend to snack up until meal time and they aren’t hungry for the meals that I make.

My kids also know they can only have 1 “junk” snack during the day and the rest need to be healthy snacks.

We try to help our kids understand which foods are healthier options. I think it is good for them to have a good understanding of healthier options and the earlier we start teaching them, the better. You might be amazed at how young of an age they can pick up on this.

Hopefully this helps give you some new easy snack ideas for your kids. I would love to hear any ideas you have for kids snack ideas!

If you enjoyed this post check out my post on how to keep your house clean with kids at home. and money saving tips for moms.