A ready supply of snacks for your child can make your day go a whole lot more smoothly at times!

I thought it would be good to draw up a list of easy, healthy and cheap snack ideas for Bristol Mum readers to refer to so I recently asked parents on the Bristol Mum Facebook page for their tried and tested snack ideas.

So, whether you’re in need of some school pick-up snack ideas or whether you have a grizzly toddler at home, the following parent-recommended list of easy, healthy and cheap snacks should hopefully be of use!

Savoury Snack Ideas:

1. Any fruit, cucumber, pepper or carrot sticks (with dips e.g. hummus or taramasalata)
2. Ants on logs – peanut butter on celery sticks with raisins dotted on them
3. Left over or ignored breakfast cereal (dry) ‘re packaged’ as an exciting snack in a snack pot
4. Bread sticks/toast with hummus
5. Rice cakes, crackers, bread sticks
6. Corn cakes are nice (“bit tastier than rice cakes”)
7. Yoghurts
8. Cubed cheese
9. Popcorn cooked in coconut oil with no other additives
10. Cheesy biscuits, potato and cheese baked biscuits
11. Avocado on toast/biscuit with a bit of olive oil (with a bit of mooring powder added too)
12. Crumpet pizza faces made with grated cheese on top and half cherry tomatoes for eyes and nose and pineapple/raisins for the mouth
13. Quesadillas – melted cheese in a tortilla, with ham if wished
14. Spinach, bacon & egg muffins – can be eaten hot or cold
15. Low fat cottage cheese and poached egg on brown toast (“Very low in fat and full of energy/vitamins and also very cheap! That’s what my kids have in the morning for breakfast”)
16. Cheese, peanut butter and sliced apple sandwiches
17. Go to your local Polish shop and ask for Tygryski Sticks (“They’re like giant corn poles. Excellent for babies, last forever”)
18. Chickpeas, oat and peanut butter cookies
19. Cheese straws with hidden ground almond
20. Olives
21. Frozen peas in a bowl (handy to give them when dinner running late)
22. Crispbreads from Lidl or Aldi with various toppings, e.g, low-fat mozzarella
23. Muffins (“I make loads of muffins and other bits then put them in the freezer and get them out either the night before or even in the morning. All freeze well and I send my little one off to the childminder with a couple each day”)

Sweet Snack Ideas:

1. 1 egg, 1 banana, 1 teaspoon almond butter – pancakes!
2. Banana ice cream- chopped frozen banana in a blender with a bit of milk. You can add frozen berries too if you like. Tastes like ice cream 🙂
3. Banana sushi – cover the banana with peanut butter or anything of your choice, coat with rice Krispies or something else then you cut into sushi pieces
4. Yoghurt ‘bark’, a take on frozen yoghurt. Pour yoghurt onto greaseproof paper. Top with fruit and freeze. So simple and makes a change to standard frozen treats and a change to standard yoghurt!
5. Fruit
6. Home-made sorbet/ice lolly from fruit
7. Also homemade lollies that are just frozen juice
8. Angel delight butterscotch, add slices of banana and top with chocolate Angel delight. Add chic chips or crushed biscuits to sprinkle on top before serving… lots of milk for teeth and bones plus banana
9. Cornetto cones filled with fruit, e.g. slices of banana or strawberries
10. Frozen raspberries
11. Homemade flapjacks …..makes 24 and virtually sugar-free. (Put one dessert spoon of golden syrup in a pan and melt, then add in 3/4 pint of water….or more depending on how big your tin is. Add 2 teaspoons cinammon, 1 grated apple, 1 grated pear, 1 chopped apple, 1 chopped pear, 1 mashed up banana and some frozen berries (but you can use any fruit you like). Add in 400 – 500g oats gradually until it looks like the water has soaked into them. You can just add more water / oats to get the right consistency. Put into a tin, sprinkle with cinnamon and a tiny bit of Demerara sugar and pop into the oven….180 for approximately 20 minutes until it goes a bit golden on top).