After School Healthy Snacks

Looking for After School Healthy Snacks? Here are ideas for if you eat dinner early or late, before practice snacks, car snacks, non-perishable snacks and more.

Hi friend!

A couple of years ago I rounded up some of my favorite recipes for after school snacks in this post- 10 Healthy After School Snacks For Kids. It covers everything from English muffin mini pizzas to energy balls to oatmeal. Since I know that at home, homemade snacks are not realistic for every family every day, I wanted to give you guys a few more good after-school snacks (both homemade and storebought) for specific after-school scenarios.

If you’re looking for store-bought snack ideas, here are some posts that may help:

Easy After School Snacks

Healthy Snacks for After School

If you eat dinner later or have a couple of hours between the kids getting home/leaving school and dinner time they may need a fairly substantial snack, especially if they ate lunch early:

Smoothie
Microwave Egg Sandwich (or Turkey Cheese Avocado, PBJ etc)
Overnight oats or warm oatmeal
English Muffin Mini Pizza + fruit
Waffle + peanut butter
Homemade energy balls or Made in Nature Figgypops
Sweet Potato White Bean Bar + lifeway kefir
Amy’s frozen burrito
Simple Mills crackers + turkey + cheese
Clif Nut Butter Bar or Larabar or KIND bar
Beanitos chips + Guacamole
Kodiak Cake pancakes + yogurt
Barbara’s Puffins or Love Grown cereal + milk

Easy After School Snacks To Make

If you eat dinner fairly early and just want something to tide your kids over until then without ruining their dinner. Added bonus- these are simple after school snacks kids can make themselves with minimal help from you!

Veggies with hummus or ranch + pita
Apple slices with peanut butter
A hard-boiled egg and some raisins
A small bowl of Cheerios with milk
A handful of trail mix
Lentil Banana Muffin (or another nutrient-dense muffin/bar)
Freeze-dried veggies like Rhythm Superfood carrot sticks with string cheese

Healthy Pre-Workout Snacks

Have kids headed to sports practice after school? Here are some ideas:

Granola bar
Cereal or muffin
Half a bagel
Apple or banana with peanut butter
A small bowl of oatmeal
Crackers with turkey
Trailmix- raisins, cereal + peanuts
Yogurt + fruit
Clementine + hard-boiled egg

Healthy After School Snacks To Buy

I have a whole post of after school snacks to buy – 60+ Healthy Packaged Snacks For Kids so check it out for tons of ideas. I also have lists for Healthy Costco Snacks, Best Trader Joe’s Snacks and Healthy Walmart Snacks. But in general, here are a few of my favorite packaged snacks:

Skinny Pop or Angie’s Boom Chicka Pop
Cheerios/Barbara’s Puffins/Love Grown Foods cereal
Lifeway Kefir or Chobani or Siggis lower sugar yogurt – For the kefir, I make a glass with half plain/half flavored to reduce the sugar, for the yogurt I would pair with fruit
Simple Mills Almond Crackers or RW Garcia Sweet Potato Crackers
Sabra Hummus or Wholly Guacamole with crackers/veggies
Larabar or another from this list of Healthy Store-bought Granola Bars For Kids
Biena Roasted Chickpeas
Made in Nature Figgy Pops
Kashi Waffles
Kodiak Cakes pancakes

Healthy Car Snacks

I wrote about Low Mess Snacks for Kids here. Here are some simple pairings that won’t make too much of a mess in the car. Keep a little trash can or bag in the car for wrappers.

Yogurt tube + banana
Cheese stick + That’s It fruit bar
Chomps Meat Sticks + clementine
Egg wrap + apple
Smoothie made with milk/yogurt, fruit, and spinach
Turkey, cheese, and apple or avocado rolled in a tortilla
PBJ sandwich
HB eggs + granola bar
Cold pizza or quesadilla (less mess than when they’re hot!)

Healthy Non-Perishable Snacks

Ideas for non-perishable snacks if you have to pack them in the morning and need them to still be safe to eat after school:

Granola or protein bar
Trail mix
Popcorn
Healthy Muffin/Bar
Chomps meat sticks (aff link) + fruit (try fresh fruit, fruit cups, dried fruit or fruit/veggie pouches)
Dried fruit + Whisps cheese crisps
Low sugar cereal + Horizon Organic shelf-stable milk boxes
Peanut butter sandwich
Roasted chickpeas or roasted edamame (you can add these to trail mix!)
Squeeze pouches of nut butter + crackers /banana/celery
My SuperCookies/bars
Bitsys crackers
Triscuits/Simple Mills/RW Garcia crackers
Bare Apple chips
That’s It Fruit bars
Fruit & veggie pouches

After School Snacks for Teens

Have a teenager? Here are some snack ideas:

Tuna Salad + Crackers
Scrambled egg + toast
Turkey Sandwich
Smoothie with fruit, yogurt or milk and spinach or a smoothie bowl topped with cereal
Popcorn trail mix
Deviled eggs
Ramen
Chicken quesadilla
Rotisserie Chicken wrap
Energy balls
Oatmeal
Yogurt parfait
Frozen waffles
Frozen Fish sticks/chicken nuggets/potstickers
Freezer breakfast sandwiches or burritos
Avocado toast
Nachos with guacamole
Charcuterie snack plate