healthy after school snacks

If your children are anything like mine as soon as they have walked through the door after school you are more likely to be bombarded with ‘what can I eat?’ before they have even said hello! They often won’t have eaten anything since lunchtime so it is important to give them something to tide them over until your evening meal.

I will admit sometimes it is a case of my kids just grabbing a biscuit(in the UK sense of the word) from the tin and although this isn’t ideal as they are just full of sugar and fats, just occasionally won’t hurt them. Here is a list of my favourite healthy afterschool snacks:

A piece of fruit

A small handful of dried fruit

Yogurt

Crumpets

Toast

cheese(with or without crackers)

A small handful of seeds or nuts

Healthy muffins

Homemade pancakes

Banana Pancakes

This is one recipe that I use a lot to make banana pancakes. I know in the US these are probably classed as a breakfast food, but serve them in small sizes with some apple slices instead of butter and syrup and they make great snacks. They are also very quick and easy to make!

You can even make these before hand, I usually cool them on a rack so they don’t go soggy underneath. If you want to freeze, just keep them between layers of greaseproof paper to stop them sticking. They will defrost in a few hours, or put them in the microwave for 2 minutes (depending on your microwave of course)

Ingredients

1 cup of plain flour (all purpose)
2 Tablespoons of sugar (you can drop this to 1 tablespoon or even add a substitute)
2 teaspoons of baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 egg
1 cup of milk
2 tablespoons of melted butter (or oil works just as well)
2 bananas mashed or chopped

Method

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, make sure this is mixed thoroughly. Make a well in the centre.

In a separate bowl lightly whisk the egg, add the butter/oil then the milk and stir together.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk together until thoroughly combined.

Stir in the mashed/chopped bananas.

Melt a little butter or oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. I use a 1/4 cup measure for the batter to make small, snack size pancakes.

Turn over when you see some bubbles appear on the surface then cook for a further minute or two on the other side.

I also like to change things up a bit sometimes by slicing some of the banana then frying it in some butter till it browns. I put one of the slices in the frying pan, where the centre of each pancake will be before pouring the batter  over the top. You then just cook as usual.

Do your kids go on the rampage for snacks when they come home from school? What do you usually give them to tide them over till tea time?

 

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