Superpower your after school snacking

Picking up hungry, tried children after school (esp if they have not eaten a good, or enough lunch!) can be a challenge. Here are some top tips to help you make good snack choices that will fuel them well before dinner time.

Include healthy fats and or protein

This will keep them satisfied for longer as it stabilizes their blood sugars. This includes things like a Boiled Egg, Avocado or some Hummus with Vege sticks. We also include healthy fats in our Coconut Bites and Nutty One Bar. A great option for the handbag!

Fruit snacking

It is always a better option to have the whole fruit (not juices or pure fruit leathers or fruit flavoured Haribos!), opt for organic berries, apples or green bananas. Berries and green apples are lower in sugar and a great way to get a colour as well as deliciousness into their diet! Green Bananas are packed full of resistant starch, so they get carbohydrate without a sugar rush and it feeds their gut!

Vegetables

Vegetable sticks – make it appealing, colourful organic peppers, cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks and pop it with some hummus or some almond butter! This will keep them going for a while.

Fueling Snacks for Sports

As they get older it can be trickier as they try and reach for the sweet hit. Making sure there is fat and/or protein in a snack alongside some satisfying complex carbs (without added refined sugar) is key here. Mini Frittatas, boiled eggs and hummus pots are great for this. But for something as a quick hit grab snacks like The Nutty One, a Flapjack or Oat Cookie (nut free). Our Flapjacks and Oat Cookies contain gluten free oats, but do NOT use refined flours to make them, they are packed with seeds or nuts containing protein as well as healthy fats.

When looking for a snack like this, always check the back of the pack. Anything with refined sugars, dextrin, added numbers or ingredients you don’t recognize avoid. These are not going to fuel them, they may give an initial hit but It will shortly be followed by a slump and not fuel our growing kids/teenagers enough.

Whilst playing continue to fuel with water (avoid the energy drinks), green bananas and some of the ideas above are a great option.

Ineke’s top snacks for after school 

Organic Berry Pot with some Nourish Cacao Coconut Bites or Cookies (all nut free!)
Boiled Egg (with a dollop of Hunter and Gather Mayonnaise (if at home))
Vegetable Sticks with almond butter (or hummus)
Energy Balls (find a recipe HERE)
Green Bananas
Mini Frittatas! See the recipe below.
Nourish Strawberry Bites
The Nutty One (A good snack for Mum or Dad too to keep them fueled and blood sugars in check until dinner!)
Oat Cookies/Flapjack – You can find them HERE
For the older ones – a baked sweet potato before heading out to a sports club alongside ½ an avocado.
In the summer time – a smoothie packed with wild berries, green banana or avocado, handful of favourite greens, almond milk and a large spoon of almond butter.