What fun snacks to make as a stay at home mom? I really find myself thinking about this all so often.
Being a mom to 2 growing kids, I have all my minds into thinking what healthy & exciting snacks can I offer to my kids, when the hunger starts to knock on their doors.
And hence I decided to work on making a handy collection of health, fun and home made snacking ideas For SAHMs to refer to.
What Fun Snacks to Make as a Stay at Home Mom?
| 1. Banana Pancakes |
| 2. Mix vegetable Fritters |
| 3. Cheesy Mushroom caps |
| 4. Cinnabons |
| 5. Banana Chocolate |
| 6. Hummus Pita Bread |
| 7. Frozen Fruity pops |
| 8. Calzone/Pizza Pockets |
| 9. Spinach corn Pizza |
| 10. Fried Egg with Sausages |
| 11. Churros |
| 12. Focaccia |
| 13. French toast |
| 14. Apple Cinnamon Honey toast |
| 15. Taco |
| 16. Frittata |
| 17. Mini Fried wrap with savoury filling |
| 18. Pesto Chicken Mini sandwich |
| 19. Mini burgers |
| 20. Fresh fruits with ice cream |
| 21. Waffles |
| 22. Flavoured Pop Corn |
| 23. Simple Salad |
| 24. Cole Slaw Sandwich |
| 25. Strawberry Smoothie with handfull of soaked nuts |
| 26. Potato and cheese cutlets |
| 27. Sweet Crepes |
| 28. Pizza sandwich |
| 29. Savoury Filling Crepes |
| 30. Handful of nuts and seeds |
| 31. Oats granola Bar |
| 32. Quiche |
| 33. Chicken Salad Mini Wrap |
| 34. Garlic Bread |
| 35. Almond Cookies |
| 36. Steam Vegetables with Mushroom Dip |
| 37. Berry Parfait |
| 38. Wheat Crackers cheese |
| 39. Boiled eggs |
| 40. Savoury Semolina Pancakes |
| 41. Tomato Twisties |
| 42. Bread Butter |
| 43. Loaded Nachos |
1. Banana Wholewheat Pancakes
A healthy twist the traditional pancake recipe that uses white flour. These wholewheat pancakes topped with chopped fruit of your choice and organic Manuka Honey. My other favourite is this wild raw honey.
Sometimes a more indulgent chocolate sauce can also be accompanied with pancakes instead of honey. But I always love to serve my kids healthy and natural alternatives. And a pure chocolate sauce is hard for me to find commercially so it is only an occasional indulgence at my home.
Whole Wheat Pancakes topped with banana & honey
2. Mix vegetable Fritters
A fun way to make kids eat their veggies. And you can go as creative & healthy as you want while adding the veggies. Dip the chopped vegetables in chickpea & rice flour paste and fry it in cold-pressed oil of your choice.
I usually use cold-pressed and unfiltered groundnut oil for frying my stuff and never reuse the heated oil.
I have tried spinach, fenugreek onions, potato, capsicum, broccoli. zucchini. mushrooms, cottage cheese and cauliflowers so far. And my kids were pleased to have usually Friday evenings after play snack to celebrate the start of the weekend.
Mix Vegetable Fritters
3. Cheesy Mushroom cups
Mushrooms are powerhouse of antioxidants, vitamins & minerals. And this recipe is rich in fibre & proteins too. Stuffing the mushroom caps with a mixture of grated boiled egg, cheese and chopped & sautéed mushroom stems is the first step in preparing this fun snack for kids.
I use just salt n pepper seasoning in the stuffing mixture however Italian seasoning goes extremely well with the recipe too. The final step is to cook the stuffed mushroom Caps covered in my favourite nonstick pan with a tablespoon of olive oil at low to medium flame. And voila you have it ready.
4. Cinnabons
I bake these with a mixture of white flour and whole wheat flour. Brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter are other key ingredients that go into making these yummy snacks for kids.
To make it healthier I use sourdough culture instead of the instant yeast. This is because I enjoy the sourdough baking and I do have the culture with me at home, If you don’t, use the regular bread yeast or instant yeast to get the dough to rise and fluff.
Cinnabons
5. Banana Chocolate
Peeled banana dipped in melted chocolate makes for a healthy and quick snack for my kids. I like to add some chopped almonds and walnuts on the top too.
6. Hummus Pita Bread
Whenever I think of What fun snacks to make as a stay at home for my kids, this is my top of the mind recall. Made from healthy chickpeas this dish has its origins in the Middle East. I love how healthy a snack it is and how versatile it is that it can be eaten with a variety of accompaniments and used in a variety of ways.
Added in this is the Tahini paste which is made from sesame seeds, and olive oil basically. Love to add garlic and hint of red chilli powder & lemon juice in it too.
Hummus can ve enjoyed as a bee in a pita sandwich with falafel balls n pickled veggies or as a dip to freshly cut carrots & cucumber slices too. In fact to make it more interesting, I sometimes also add a slice or 2 of beetroot to make it more colourful.
Hummus Pita Bread & Salad
7. Frozen Fruity Pops
This is purely a summer snack at my house. Blending the summer fruit like watermelon, mango, orange, etc. and freezing them is what all is required to prepare this fun snack for the kids.
I sometimes add chia seeds or sweet basil seeds to the fruit puree to make it healthier.
8. Calzone/Pizza Pockets
Use the pizza dough to make calzone or pizza pockets stuffed with cheese corn or vegetable cheese mixture & bake.
Calzone
9. Spinach corn Pizza
My kids love this white sauce pizza. Spinach and corn in white sauce spread a whole wheat home made base and a little bit of cheese grilled to perfection. And you have a healthy and favourite snack ready to grab.
10. Fried Egg with Sausages
A simple fried egg made in a star shaped mould and side with the grilled chicken sausages is something, i can serve as an anytime snack. It is healthy & protein rich snack.
11. Churros
This famous Spanish snack which is essentially the fried dough pastry is served with cinnamon sugar or chocolate sauce. I love this along with my kids and we often make these at home.
12. Focaccia
The basic bread dough topped with onions, capsicum, peppers, mushrooms, olives, olive oil & Italian seasoning and it goes straight in the oven. And yes, it is all set.
Focaccia
13. French toast
Bread dipped egg cooked in a pan with little oil. My kids love to have this with a little cheese grated on top of it.
14. Apple Cinnamon Honey toast
A whole wheat toasted bread with freshly cut thin apple slices and generously topped with honey. garnished with sesame seeds or cinnamon and I have my all time favourite hunger satisfier.
15. Tacos
I go simple with raw veggies salad, kidney beans, and chicken filling topped with a hint of sour cream. And my whole family loves these. My secret ingredient is this seasoning here.
16. Frittata
This is my go-to recipe when I am looking for a snack that is rich in protein and low on carbohydrates. Onions Capsicum Tomatoes and seasoning and a lot of eggs whisked with a little bit of milk and cheese. Baked to perfection and the yummy frittata is ready.
18. Pesto Chicken Mini sandwich
Cooked chicken with salt pepper and homemade pesto sauce. Put it in the bread of your choice lightly grilled and the sandwiches are ready to serve.
I usually prepare pesto sauce, hummus & tomato based sauce once a week and keep them ready in a refrigerator to be used whenever required.
Homemade pesto sauce is just 4 ingredients and very simple to make. Sweet basil, pine nuts and garlic and olive oil. That’s about it. I add salt and black pepper as per the taste too. Churn it in a mixer and you are done.
I have also used cashews and walnuts too at times when I don’t have pine nuts available at home, it tastes just good.
19. Mini burgers
This does not really need any introduction. Burgers are kids all-time favourite snack. And there is no one right way to make these.
I experiment with the patty by using traditional ingredients like potato or chicken but also some offbeat things like kidney beans, beetroot potato, mix vegetable patty and sometimes potato corn patty.
And I love how I can put in the raw salad as a part of burger and the kids eat it without the fuss.
20. Fresh fruits with ice cream
Any seasonal fruit teamed with vanilla ice cream makes for an all-time treat for me and my kids. However, like all kids, my kids love ice cream too and hence they are allowed to eat this snack twice a week and only in summers.
21. Waffles
This is an occasional snack at my home. Freshly made waffle with fresh fruits and chocolate sauce is how I serve waffles.
22. Flavoured Pop Corn
Instead of buying the packed and processed popcorn packets, I usually try to get the raw corn kernels and make popcorn at home with flavours of my choice.
So it is a cheesy seasoning at times or popcorn with nutritional yeast and pepper powder that I usually end up making. By the way, I love the taste of Nutritional yeast and I use it because its a great addition to the food to supplement the b vitamin in the body.
23. Simple Salad
A Bowl of freshly cut salad accompanied with cream cheese or hummus is something my kids love too. So when I can’t think of anything else, I give them this. Cucumber carrot, lettuce with bite-sized bread toasties and cheese…
24. Cole Slaw Sandwich
Cole Slaw salad in the whole wheat bread is also easy and quick to make a snack for kids. I am happy giving any snack to my kids which has vegetables in it so their finer and vitamin & mineral requirements can be catered to.
25. Strawberry Smoothie with a handful of soaked nuts
Strawberry yoghurt blended with a little bit of chopper and soaked nuts makes for a filling small meal for my family. I don’t add any added sugar in it but sometimes add dried fruit bits in it.
26. Potato and cheese cutlets
This is one snack which is loved by kids all over the World and our house is no different. Made from simple ingredients available in every home, these are quick to make a good way to fill the little tummies.
27. Sweet Crepes
The popular French Crepes are very much a part of my list here. We tasted authentic crepes around 3 years back in Paris when we were on a vacation there.
Top it with chocolate spread, strawberry sauce, or just plain honey and fruits of your choice and you have a healthy meal for your kids.
28. Pizza sandwich
A bread sandwich which sliced with tomato-based pizza sauce at the bottom and topped with cabbage, capsicum and some cheese, grilled to perfection are what makes a tasty Pizza sandwich.
29. Savoury Filling Crepes
Some innovation here and have the French Crepes served with savoury stuffing instead of sweet. Go as creative as you want and every time you would get a new dish coming out of the crepes.
I love my savoury crepes with spinach corn stuffing or a simple boiled potato & lentil sprouts stuffing. Infact cheese with red yellow peppers and mushrooms also work great with this recipe.
30. Handful of nuts and seeds
This is for the days when I don’t feel like cooking anything specific. A handful of nuts and seeds along with a glass of milk and yes we are done.
I use cashews, almonds, walnuts, foxtail nuts, etc. a lot at home. And my choice of seeds are sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds.
31. Oats Granola Bar
Again a quick recipe with toasted instant oats, chopped & roasted almonds, pistachio and any other nuts you want & add these to melted jaggery. You can also add chopped dates and raisins in there too, get it in the oven for a quick bake keep it to set & cool.
Cut it into the shape of your choice and you have your very own healthy granola bars ready for kids. I usually make these in lots and keep stored in a mason jar for about a week to 10 days in winters.
32. Quiche
I usually make this when I have leftover pizza dough at home. And yes I don’t use pasty dough here because of the amount of unhealthy butter in it.
So basic pizza dough topper with spinach some mushrooms corn cheese and a little bit of egg with milk mixture and bake it. My customised quiche recipe is simple and healthy.
33. Chicken Salad Mini Wrap
Getting whole wheat tortilla wraps and stuff it with chicken and salad with cheese or sour cream or any other dressing of your choice also makes for a great option for us SAHM to serve a healthy snack to our kids.
34. Garlic Bread
This needs no introduction. Garlic Bread topped with cheese is loved by kids and adults alike.
35. Almond Cookies
I started baking these when I wanted to give my son a healthy cookie to eat. I make these with 50% whole wheat and 50% white flour with ground almonds and baking powder, a little bit of classified butter and they come out really nice.
36. Steam Vegetables with Mushroom Dip
Simple steamed carrots beans and broccoli with a mushroom sauce used as a dip. I usually make it as an accompaniment to the grilled chicken or use it also in my one bowl rice veggies meal.
37. Berry Parfait
Yoghurt, Muesli, Honey, cut fruits, soaked and chopped nuts layered in a glass. My kids love the colours in their food like every other kid in the world and hence love to eat this Parfait.
38. Wheat Crackers with cheese
Whole wheat, baking powder, coconut oil and rosemary are my simple ingredients that go in making the dough for crackers. And then just bake, season, and serve.
39. Boiled eggs
Again a no-fuss snack. Perfectly boiled eggs cut and served with salt and pepper. Healthy protein-rich and quick – What else do we need from our snack?
40. Savoury Semolina Pancakes
Semolina and yoghurt mixture with added chopped veggies and grilled in a pan makes for an amazing and wholesome snack for my home.
41. Tomato Twisties
This is what my daughter started her cooking journey with. Inspired by “I can cook” series on CBeebies, she tried her hand on making these tomato spirals for baking. So we all have memories and emotional value attached to this snack. I still bake these often for my kids and they love it.
42. Bread Butter
This one is perfect for a tired mommy too. Slices of whole wheat or multi grained bread toasted to perfection and topped with butter. A glass of hot chocolate to go along and you have happy faces around.
43. Loaded Nachos
Nachos topped with kidney beans, chopped onion cucumber tomato, and melted cheese.
So this is all about What fun snacks to cook as a stay at home mom. If you try any of these, do let me know how your kids like it.