Eating me out of house and home, the need for after school snacks | Mum In The Madhouse

Eating me out of house and home, the need for after school snacks

Innocent Drinks sent us some lunch boxes to decorate along with a sample of their new juices and asked for me to discuss with you what I would put in the boys school lunches. Well I have a confession to make. I think that it is cheaper to give the boys school lunches at £9.75 each per week. I also am a great believer in the fact that they will get a well balanced meal and learn to try more food if they sit at a table with their classmates. Now it has to be said that I am very lucky that the boys are not picky eaters and they both love having school lunch and it helps that the lunches at their school are delicious.

 

One thing I have found over the last couple of years is that my boys leave school ravenous. so I have learned the importance of after school snacks to keep the hunger at bay until we have our family meal at 6pm. I asked my friends on twitter for some ideas of what they give their children for after school snacks and got some great suggestions:

    • Rachel at Tales from the village – carrot sticks, bread-sticks and humus
    • Liz at Violet Posy – Fruit, porridge or toast
    • Emily at Babyrambles – Bread sticks, crackers and occasionally a Jammie Dodger!
    • Vonnie from The Life Craft – Peanut butter and/or banana sandwiches
    • Deb (my SIL) – banana on brown bread toast
    • Helen – Fruit, cereal bars, school bars, yogs, toast, cheese cubes….
    • Jo (from Maxi’s NCT Group) Apple and cheese is a good combo … Or we do a snack plate of bits of ham, cheese, carrot or cucumber sticks and some crackers so they can make up their own idea. If it is cold we sometime do Heinz tomato soup or you could do a noodle plate … Egg noodles tossed in a bit of soy and sesame oil with “veg noodles” – cucumber and carrot cut into strips with a veg peeler … And for fun a set of kids chopsticks …
    • Rachel – Brioches, yoghurt coated fruit flakes, sun bites, rice cakes, fruit..
    • Tasha from Wham Bam –  marmite sandwich or Philadelphia and peanut butter. And a cup of pink milk (nasty Nesquik stuff, sorry)
    • Ella from Notes from home – cheese straws, chocolate rice cakes, breadsticks, sandwiches or homemade cupcakes/cookies made with less sugar and salt than usual. Sometimes a packet of crisps or bisuits if I have to bribe them to go out somewhere!

On our list at the moment we have:

    • Nutella on brown bread
    • home made flapjacks
    • savoury scones
    • berries
    • yoghurt
    • smoothies
    • cereal bars
    • bear fruit yoyo’s
    • home made popcorn
    • veg sticks
    • crackers and cheese
    • malt loaf
    • crumpets
    • muffins
    • scotch pancakes
    • cereal and dried fruit (mixed together in small bags)
    • Mini Jaffercakes (Mini’s favourite thing in the whole wide world)
    • Cheese and grapes
    • Milk and cookies

The best bit of advice I have received on school snacks is not to ban chocolate, crisps or biscuits, just to downsize them.  By limiting the amount you have in the house you are not depriving your child, but you are helping them to moderating their intake and teaching them about healthy choices..

 

We were also sent some Cars 2 lunch boxes from Clintons back to school range over the summer.  Mini had a day out last week, which required a lunch box and he decided that he wanted to use the Mater box, which is a pretty unusual shape, but actually it is a great shape for taking drinks upright and took all his lunch with room to spare, plus the great thing was that no other cold had one the same, which meant that it was easy to identify. The lunch box had a pull out handle, which made it easy to carry too.

I would love to know what you give your children for after school snacks.

Comments are closed.