Back-to-school Week 1 with 5 new and fresh ideas for nut-free and healthy options for kids! PLUS, 3 versions of super simple and delicious kid-friendly oat bites that can go to school! These healthy snacks for kids aren’t to be missed!
I feel like it’s WAY to early to be sending these posts into your mailbox, but alas the time has arrived for back-to-school.
If I can ease even just one round of snack ideas for you, my mission is accomplished.
I reached out to my favourites brands that I love and that I include in my twins preschool snacks all the time and 2 of my favourites were immediately onboard. When packing a treat for my kids I look no further than Love Child Organics for their cute organic ducks in the Tomato and Carrot flavour.
My kids would eat these for dinner if I let them. Nut-free and gluten-free, we all need a healthy kids snack that becomes a staple. 
Saltines, Kiwi, & Strawberries
We all need some easy crackers and fruit for snack some days. Throw a couple pieces of your kid’s favourite cheese in the snack pack for some additional calcium.
I love the idea of these kid-friendly oat bites, high on fibre, magnesium, and no processed sugar! They’re an awesome healthy snack for kids.
Make a batch at the start of the school year and park them in your freezer to pull out once or twice per week.
No sugar, simple pantry ingredients, and they’re incredibly quick to make, and they’ll last you a couple of months. Plus, this filtering of snacks means no one gets sick of them.
I like school snacks, which is weird I know, but let me explain. I like that my kids show up and I’m not at the table listening to them whine about whatever might be in front of them to eat.
What do I do to combat poor eating habits? I change their healthy snacks for kids all the time.
The variety of food offers them the opportunity to eat the rainbow, get all the nutritional value possible, and they’re most likely starving since they’ve been at school for sometime so they’re probably going to eat what I’ve packed. If they don’t eat it, then they know what’s for lunch!
Are some days better than others? You better believe it. BUT, offering them different foods throughout the week or even month allows them to be exposed to lots of different foods, colours and flavours.
Thus, getting them onboard with being better eaters overall. Now, I don’t give my cheese hating daughter cheese, but she will see apricots in her lunch even though she prefers peaches.
Saltines, kiwi (HUGE vitamin fruit!!! Massive fibre and vitamin C producer), hummus (kids LOVE dips), and berries are all great options for kids snacks. I added the carrots here so that food waste is minimized and leftovers get repurposed – smothered in hummus gives them a facelift kids like.
Some might be surprised to see a whole apricot here. If your preschooler isn’t familiar with eating fruits with pits, cut it in half, remove the pit and rub a tiny bit of lemon juice on the cut portions, this will prevent the apricot from browning.
Looking for a good way to look after yourself with all the back-to-school chaos? I’m still in love with these Mocha Momma Bites!
More healthy snacks for kids:
- Homemade Fruit Leather and 9 other healthy snacks for kids
- Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Loaf and 9 other school safe snack ideas
- Kamut Marshmallow Squares and 9 other snacks
3 versions of super simple and delicious kid-friendly oat bites that can go to school!
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 2 cups pitted dates medjool
- 4 tbsp hemp seeds OR chia seeds
- One of the options below:
- - 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips and 1/2 tsp vanilla bean pasta
- - zest from 1/2 lemon and 1/4 dried blueberries
- - 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 cup raisins
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Place a few dates into a food processor at a time and blend until a paste forms.
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Place date paste, oats, hemp seeds, and flavours (either chocolate chips and vanilla, OR, lemon zest and blueberries, OR, cinnamon and raisins) into a large bowl. Mix by hand until all ingredients are well blended. Place bowl in refrigerator for 10-15 minutes to make mixture easier to handle.
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Roll mixture into 15-20 balls. I found using 2 tablespoons of mixture made the right size of bite for my preference.
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Refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3-4 months.
Enjoy! xo
Spiked Peach Iced Tea
These are great ideas, I really love the lunch boxes!
Thanks so much!
Thank you for sharing the recipe, these energy bites look awesome! I’m definitely going to try them =)
Awesome! Thanks for the note and let me know how it goes if you get a chance 🙂
Those energy bites look delicious. I will have to make them for my husbands school lunches. 🙂 (He’s a teacher and need quick energy, so these look perfect!)
That’s a great idea! Someone else commented on how they’d be great for teachers as well … I originally didn’t think about that so I’m happy you all are.