Healthy, budget-friendly snack idea?

[riverwed070707]

My DD has snack at preschool tomorrow. I'm already over my groc budget for the month. What should we bring??

There are only about 8 kids I think.

Thanks!

[bjl584]

If none of the kids are allergic to peanuts, a peanut butter sandwich is easy and inexpensive. I have them all the time as a snack.

[disneysteve]

Nuts, raisins, peanuts, cheese crackers, rice cakes, fruit.

[snafu]

Much cheaper & healthier to make snacks. Favorites here packed in mini cupcake papers: mini muffins, oatmeal/raisin cookies, oatmeal bars, puffed wheat or rice krispie squares, mini wheat/pretzel nibbles, trail mix, baked tortilla chips flavored with shredded cheese,sushi-like california roll/kim-bap [rice ball]. Carrot, jicama sticks, celery logs stuffed with yellow or creme cheese or pb & dotted with raisins, popcorn. Tea sadnwiches which is bread spread with creme cheese & cut with cookie cutters or rolled log-like and cut into mini slices.

To Buy: dry fruit like apricots, banana chips, cherries, pineapple, Edamane etc. Any special shaped crackers like Fish or Animal crackers works for little ones

[riverwed070707]

Thanks! There is a peanut allergy to no PB but these are all great suggestions!

[Frugal]

Zucchini bread. Zucchini is still in season, and extremely cheap if you or your family have some extra from a home garden on hand. I make mine with much less sugar than normal, and might add some flaxseed flour to make it healthier sometime. I also use over-ripe bananas to make a cheap snack: banana bread. Make it healthy for my family by adding less sugar, e.g. maybe under 1/3 cup sugar.

I also thought of carrot sticks, but I don't have young kids, so I don't know if nursery-school-aged kids could safely chew them or not. There are soft fruits like apples or pears or peaches that might work better. You could make some inexpensive, homemade applesauce, or even sub in peaches with it.

Hope that helps!

[disneysteve]

Zucchini bread. Zucchini is still in season, and extremely cheap if you or your family have some extra from a home garden on hand. I make mine with much less sugar than normal

Another tip is to substitute applesauce for oil. That adds sweetness and helps cut down on the sugar. Also, use egg whites instead of whole eggs to reduce the fat content.

[jasminhatcher]

Ooh applesauce for oil! That’s a great suggestion . I’m going to try that one of these days.