By Marisa Renwald Post-Tribune correspondent
The Post Tribune

Every September, the same routine starts up again. Your kids, exhausted from a long day at school, come home, throw down their backpacks, grab a glass of milk and the bag of chocolate chip cookies hidden in the cupboard, and sit down in front of the tube for an hour of mindless relaxation before they “hit the books.”


“It’s time for dinner,” you tell them when 6 o’clock rolls around and they still haven’t budged from the television set.

“I’m not hungry,” they say.

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have eaten that whole roll of cookies.”

“But I was hungry THEN.”

This whole ordeal probably wouldn’t have happened if they had eaten a decent after-school snack, you think. Now it’s too late and they’ve gone and spoiled their appetite and their motivation to start their schoolwork.

It’s not too late. Next to your child’s school lunch, the after-school snack is the most important source of power for tackling homework, after-school activities or any other events of the day. Taking time to prepare a tasty, satisfying and healthy snack for your children will keep their minds focused during that brief after-school lull, and it won’t spoil their appetites.

There’s nothing wrong with cookies and milk. After all, this treat is the most classic of after-school snacks. So while kids are entitled to a cookie or two every once in a while, there are definitely better snacks out there that will provide energy without the extra sugar.

Marlene Lessner, director at St. Paul’s Lutheran Child Care in Munster, recommends incorporating vegetables and fruit into the snacks, instead of resorting to cookies or sweets every day.

“We do veggies and dip, peanut butter and apples, fruit and dip, and a lot of times we throw things together,” said Lessner, who creates midafternoon snacks for the children at the care center. “Today we tried popcorn and Cheerios. It keeps things exciting.”

By incorporating high-protein foods such as homemade energy bars, “gorp” (good old raisins and peanuts), or any snack containing cheese, peanut butter or nuts, your child will be likely to get the energy he or she needs to perform any extracurricular activity.

In fact, according the American Dietetic Association, to receive proper nutrition, the perfect after-school snack should contain both protein and carbohydrates.

However, a problem arises when you have children who refuse to go near fruit or vegetables.

“A lot of our problem is that we can make a lot of healthy snacks, but the kids aren’t going to eat it,” said Janelle Mayer, director of Little Angels Enrichment Center in Highland. “They’re pretty picky eaters.”

Lessner agrees, and sees the problem stemming from the fact that kids eat with their eyes before their mouths.

“With kids that are preschool age, it’s really tough to get them to eat because when they see someone else turn their nose up, they know that they’re not supposed to like it,” Lessner said. “You really have to introduce new or unusual foods gradually.”

It’s hard enough to get your kids to eat their dinner. Is it possible to get them to eat a simple snack?

Mayer said it is, and doing something as simple as encouraging them to help in the kitchen will get them excited over food.

“They are more apt to try things that they’ve made,” Mayer said. “Even letting them choose from a few options is more exciting to them.”

So as the new school year comes around, and the bag of cookies in the cupboard starts to call out to your children when they arrive home each day, surprise them instead with a tasty recipe that’s energizing, easy and, most of all, fun to make.

Tasty twist on ‘ants on a log’ snack

Creamy peanut butter, crunchy celery and gooey raisins — it’s probably the favorite school-time snack of children everywhere, so who says that you can’t bring this snack home for an after-school treat?

To create a little excitement, try experimenting with a few different ingredients, using this chart as your guide. Feel free to mix and match!

Log Spread Ants

Celery Peanut butter Raisins

Pickle Cream cheese Olives

Banana Honey Chocolate chips

Apples Sour cream Shredded cheese

Crackers Cheese spread Chopped nuts

Ladyfingers Jam Dried fruit/berries

Biscotti Cashew butter Pine nuts

Liked what you read? Buy me a coffee!

Sphere: Related Content