After School Snack Ideas

School is back! Horray! No more juggling working from home alongside your 7 year old who is more distracted by anything that moves than the school work that needs to be done by days end.

Shout out to teachers who are able to handle with 30 balls of energy in their class, I honestly do not know how you do it.

But now school is back, that means so is school lunch boxes and snacks. So our team at Wesco Hub have curated a small list of our favourite snacks for your child after a long day at school.

Even better, all these snacks require minimal effort and a maximum of 5 ingredients at most per recipe. Now, I have broken up the recipes into 3 different categories; beginner, intermediate and expert. Although all these recipes are fairly simple, some just require a few more creative and dedicate hands to take on the challenge.

Beginner

Okay, if Tiktok has taught us anything, anything foods in cute shapes is a staple in your child’s after snack pack.

Therefore, this simple little trick of using small cookie cutter to cut your fruit will not only be easy for you but also elevate your coolness by 100% in your child’s eye. Trust me, what 5 year old does not want star shaped watermelons? Heck, I even want star shaped fruit now. #Notaregularmum #coolmum. (Okay…I’ll stop now). This hack also works for sandwiches, star shaped Vegemite sandwiches? Yes please.

After School Snack

Intermediate

5 Ingredient Caramel Slice:

If you have not tried this recipe, stop what you are doing right now and make this mouth watering delight of a snack. Although please be warned this snack is addictive and once you have one, you may not be able to stop. So prepare yourself for you and your child’s new favourite guilty indulgence. Also did I tell you, this is absolutely no baking required… or skills needed.

After School Snack

Ingredients: Cadbury Caramello Block of Chocolate, Half a tin of condensed milk, A whole pack of Arnott’s Marie Biscuits, one cup of butter and lastly Old Gold 70% Dark Chocolate.

All you got to do is follow these simple steps:

Crush up biscuits into fairly small chunks
Melt butter and Caramello chocolate into a pot on medium heat (Please do not burn it).
When the butter and chocolate is melted, add your condensed milk into pot and turn off heat
Mix your crushed up biscuit into the pot and then transport your mixture into a cake pan lined with baking paper
Press your mixture firmly down and then place into the fridge for approximately 30 min or until the mixturehas cooled down
Melt your dark chocolate after your mixture hascooled down and then pour onto your cake pan . Place your caramel slice back into the fridge for another hour (if you can wait that long). And Voila, your caramel slice is complete.
Try and resist finishing your caramel slice in one sitting.. I know its hard.

Expert:

No I have warmed you guys up with our range of beginner and intermediate snack ideas, it is now time to advance to the expert level.

These range of recipes and snacks are not complex in taste, but they are fiddly. From Apple monsters to lady bug strawberries to DIY fruit roll ups.

Fruit Roll Ups

After School Snack

Okay, so Fruit Rolls Ups are not so much challenging but they are time consuming. Only 2 ingredients (one being water!) and a spare 5-6 hours.

These 2 ingredients fruit rolls ups originated from Iran, and are typically made in Summer which allows for the perfect climate to dry the fruits. These Persian Fruit Roll Ups typically use more tart fruits such as sour plums, cherries or peaches.

The flavours from these fruits should be enough to go without sugar, although you can always add a few spoons if you feel the need to.

Plums in a bowl

Given that this recipe only uses 2 ingredients and no added sugar, the Fruit Roll Up is a top pick from us!! The perfect snack for your child without the chemicals and added sugars of your typical store bought Roll Up.

Ingredients: Any stone fruit of your choice and water (that’s it.. really!)

All you need to do is put around a kilogram of any stone fruit of your choice and a quarter cup of water into a pot(I chose plums because they are in season and very sour at the moment…delicious). I also added strawberries to my roll up this time because I accidentally added to much water. Before you cook your fruits, preheat your oven to 73ºC . Cook your fruit on medium heat until the fruit has broken down and become a thick-ish texture, stir consistently. Take out all the pips and stones before laying your mixture onto a tray with baking paper. Your mixture should be around 1-2cm thick before placing into the oven for the next 5 hours. When your fruit has dehydrated in the oven it should be tacky to touch. And there you go, a healthy alternative to roll ups.

Fruit Roll Ups

Apple Monsters

4 ingredients, one sharp knife and some good cutting skills. You got this!

Ingredients: Dark or milk chocolate, White (small) chocolate chips, strawberries and any apple of your choice.

These apple monsters are incredibly delightful to look at, but they were a little tricky.

Cut your apple of choice into slices. Then using a small sharp knife, cut out a crescent shaped smile towards the bottom of the apple slice. This will be the monsters mouth. Slice your strawberries vertically down to create the monsters tongue. Place the strawberry into the hole you cut out to create the illusion that the monster is sticking out their tongue. Now the tedious part, melt some dark chocolate or some of your white chocolate chips into a bowl. This melted chocolate will act as a glue for your monster’s teeth. Using a tooth pick, put some of the melted chocolate onto the bottom of the white chocolate chips and place the chocolate chips into the mouth of the monster.

The final step, stick 2 little chocolate chips on to the apple to make 2 little eyes. Colour in the chocolate chips with dark chocolate to make the pupils. You can also draw on other facial features using the dark chocolate such as a moustache, eyelashes, crazy eyebrows or any other defining features to make your monster your own. Get Creative!

Animal Faces Kids' Bamboo Dining Set