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Many kids may rely on after-school snacks to bridge the gap between lunch and dinner. If your summer snacking is hectic and unpredictable, you may be looking for some easy snacks for after school to get back into a normal routine. Check out these 30+ ideas!

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The shifts in season can be challenging for parents, and often take a few weeks to get into a new routine.

Shifting from the summer snacking schedule (which may be errotic) to the after school snack schedule may take some practice!

For instance, I always forget how hungry my kids are after school. The backpacks hit the floor and the first words out of their mouths are always: ‘I’m hungry!”

Do you ever feel like your kids come home without eating anything all day? It’s like they come home absolutely starving, despite eating “lunch” just a few hours ago.

Unless we’re eating a 4:30 dinner, I usually offer an after-school snack of some sort. There are so many options.

As a Registered Dietitian, I’m here to help you serve nutrient-dense, yet fun, easy snacks for after school.

Because oftentimes, if they ate lunch a few hours ago and they have another few hours until dinner, they do need some healthy after school snacks to bridge that gap.

What Makes a Great After School Snack?

There is no one “perfect” after-school snack. How much and what you offer may well depend on how soon you’re planning on serving dinner, if your child has a sport/event to go to, if they skipped lunch, etc.

But, here are a few things I like to emphasize and prioritize.

• Multiple macro groups – By this I mean, I generally don’t just serve a carb alone (The exception is unless we are eating dinner within the hour!). Serving just crackers or a piece of fruit generally isn’t filling and will leave your child hungry in 20-30 minutes again. I usually pair a carb snack with a protein and/or fat. So, fruit with peanut butter or hummus, or raisins with string cheese. Skout bars also have a natural balance of nutrients!
• Quick and easy– When making an after school snack for kids, rarely do I ever spend more than 5 minutes at the time they want it. Either I’ve prepped something before hand (like healthy banana pumpkin bread or any of these meal prep snacks), or I’m making a quick snack plate or pairing on the go in under 5 minutes.
• Portable and shelf-stable (if necessary) – If you need a quick snack for on-the-go if you’re heading to soccer or piano practice, make sure your snack for after school is portable! Things like NOKA pouches, raisins, Skout bars, dried fruit bars, goldfish, nut butter bites, single-serving yogurts, yogurt pouches, breakfast muffins for kids, etc.
• Kid friendly and customizable – Kids may have different snack preferences than grown-ups, so I always have kid-friendly options and several toddler snack ideas for younger kids. Make the snacks customizable, so you can serve it one way on Monday and another way on Tuesday. For instance, apple nachos (with yogurt and peanut butter) one day, and a cottage cheese fruit dip to dip the apples into another day.

Homemade Snacks for After School

When serving an after school snack, you can either go the homemade route, or storebought route. And I’ll share examples for both choices.

In terms of homemade easy snacks to make after school, here are some of my favorite options to offer:

• Smoothies – So many kid-friendly smoothie options. And these are some of my favorite options for kids to help with! Some of our go-to’s are a mango kiwi smoothie, banana pear smoothie or this black bean smoothie which tastes like mint chocolate!
• Muffins – Muffins can be an instant after school snack if you’ve made them ahead of time! I love to infuse my muffins with a fruit or veggie of some sort for extra fiber. Some of our favorites are banana cottage cheese muffins, easy chickpea flour muffins with fruit, or chocolate veggie muffins.
• Oatmeal bites aka energy bites – Some of the recipes we make often are carrot cake bites, lemon protein bites and chocolate pomegranate bites.
• Cereal – As easy as it gets!
• Trailmix or trailmix bars – You can make homemade trail mix bars with cheerios, nut butter, nuts and seeds.
• Homemade turkey + cheese roll-up
• Cheese tortilla – Add beans for some extra protein and fiber.
• Fruit pizza – A gluten-free fruit pizza is one of my favorite ways to use up fruit. ANd we’ll make a yummy chocolate yogurt frosting.
• Hard boiled eggs – Serve with fruit or crackers.
• Healthy cookie dough – You can make edible vegan cookie dough or freeze it into frozen cookie dough bites!
• Pizza bites – Air fryer pizza bites are ready in 15 minutes and remind me of the bagel bites I enjoyed as a kid!
• DIY yogurt pouches – We love yogurt pouches because they offer 5-6 grams of protein per pouch but the costs can add up. You can learn how to make your own yogurt pouches!
• Greek yogurt bark – Making frozen greek yogurt bark is a fun snack for hot weather – and kids can pick their toppings!
• Dips– Make a yogurt dip or a high protein dip with cottage cheese! In the fall, try this pumpkin cottage cheese dip.
• Popsicles – Popsicles can be a great after-school snack, especially on hot days! We love strawberry banana greek yogurt popsicles or coconut popsicles!

Want some more fun kid-friendly recipe ideas for snacks and meal prep? Check out our dietitian-approved 30 healthy recipes for toddlers and kids!

I want healthy recipes to help my picky eater!

Store Bought Snacks for School and After School

Here are some healthy storebought snack options! Fortunately, when I lack the energy to meal prep snacks, I rely on my favorite buys at Thrive Market, which has so many healthy options. 

• Pouches – My favorite pouches to buy are My Serenity Kids pouches, Noka pouches, and applesauce pouches.
• Kids bars
• String cheese + fruit
• Skout bars – Our absolute favorite! There are so many fun flavors to choose from – even healthy cookies.
• Fruit cups – We buy them from Costco and it’s fruit in their own juice, not added syrups.
• Yogurt and granola – Greek yogurt with cereal or granola/fruit is a great after school snack.
• Mini bagel with nut butter or cream cheese
• jerky or beef sticks – so many options to choose from!
• nut butter bites

Make sure to check out the Managing Mealtime Madness podcast for more snack ideas for feeding kids.