Sending your kids off to school not only means packing a healthy lunch, but providing a variety of healthy snacks for morning and afternoon breaks and the after school drive back home or on your way to extracurricular activities.
Remember to check for nuts if your school has a nut free food policy or if your child, like mine, is allergic to tree nuts and peanuts.
Back to school store bought snacks
- SOYJOY bars – They’re free of trans fats, hydrogenated oils, artificial colors and flavors, preservatives, and chemical additives. Made from ground whole soybeans, the bars include all the nutrients found in soy such as high-quality protein, fiber and isoflavones. SOYJOY uses no genetically modified (GMO) soy and are gluten free. (The Raisin Almond and the Peanut Chocolate Chip varieties contain nuts.)
- Bear Naked 100% Pure and Natural Soft-Baked Granola Cookies These delicious and healthy indulgence comes in fruit and nut and chocolate flavors. (Both contain nuts.) They’re made with real whole grain oats and contain 10 grams of whole grain per serving. No artificial flavors, preservatives, cholesterol, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, or trans fat
- Beak Naked Pure and Natural Granola – Just put some granola in a plastic container or a LunchSkins reusable fabric sandwich bag to munch on during snack time. (Contains nuts.)
- Kashi’s snack bars – My new favorite is the Cranberry Walnut Fruit & Grain Bars. My kids love the GOLEAN Crunchy! Bars, though these bars may contain traces of peanuts and tree nuts. If you are nut free, try the TLC Cereal Bars in Baked Apple Spice, Blackberry Graham or Ripe Strawberry flavors. These have been a hit with my kids as well, though they do get smooshed and broken in their backpacks and lunch bags.
- Kashi cold cereals – These are also a great choice if your child likes munching on dry cereal. My kids think the Heart to Heart cereals (nut free) are fun to eat, especially the heart shaped pieces.
- Fruit leathers – My family’s favorites are Stretch Island Fruit and CLIF Kid Organic Twisted Fruit.
- Cascadian Farm Organic Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bars – Yummy, organic and chocolate – who needs more?
- More ideas – a cup of yogurt, a small bottle of kefir or milk, natural (no sugar added) apple sauce in a cup, dried fruit and low fat cheese sticks.
Homemade back to school snack ideas
- Classic things like cut up veggies or easy to peel fruits like bananas.
- Hard boiled eggs.
- Mango Lime Fruit Leather
- Healthy, home made muffins: Blueberry Banana Muffins, Raspberry Yogurt Muffins, The Mayo Clinic’s Morning Glory Muffins, Heart smart muffin recipe, Whole grain breakfast cookies
- Alton Brown’s Granola Bars (substitute pine nuts – which are seeds and not nuts – for the almonds if you need to make a nut free snack)
- After school snack ideas from Healthy Eats on Food Network
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Disclosure: I was a SOYJOY Brand Ambassador at BlogHer ‘10. Kashi and Bear Naked provided me with product samples. I attended a tour of General Mills (Cascadian Farms' parent company) and Kashi in 2009.
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What a great article. Here are some other ideas for healthy back to school snacks and lunches http://cuceesprouts.com/2010/08/healthy-back-to-school-snacks-and-lunches/
Love your blog, Cucee Sprouts!
I’m udandi on Twitter and have been following your this mama cooks tweets. my friends and I just started a new blog about packing lunches so I’ve been on the hunt for posts about lunches, snacks and everything related!