After school snacks

When you think about, your kids may spend more time at school than you do work. You drop them off, drive to work and pick them up after you've finished your shift. That can be 8 1/2-9 hours for most children.No wonder they want to raid the frig the second they've dropped their back packs at the door! Below are some decent snacks that won't spoil dinner.1. Fresh fruit. Keep a bowl of grapes, melon, berries or other fruit in your frig and bowls that are easy to reach. Bananas or apples with a little peanut butter are easy for kids to fix, too.2. A cup of cereal. Keep some coffee mugs and spoons available and let your kids enjoy some Cheerios or other low sugar cereal an hour or two before dinner. A cup of cereal and 1/2 cup milk provides ~200 calories at most.3. Veggies and dip. Stock the frig with cut up cukes, cherry tomatoes, snap peas, pepper strips and baby carrots and your kid's favorite ranch or hummus. Most kids don't eat enough vegetables to start with.4. Fruit smoothie. Show your kids how easy it is to whip up some yogurt, milk and frozen fruit into a smoothie. If they don't mind the color, encourage fresh or frozen spinach or kale, too.5. GORP. Good Old Raisins & Peanuts is about as easy as it gets, but moderate the portion size. Mix 1/4 cup nuts and 1 Tbsp. raisins.6. String cheese and fruit. Choose cheese made with skim, 1% or 2% milk to limit calories and saturated fat. Any fruit will do- try kiwi for more potassium and vitamin C.7. Hard boiled eggs. Eggs are a great protein source and kids like to peel the shells off.8. Baked chips and salsa. Limit the serving size of chips to 1 oz. Salsa is an excellent source of vitamin C and lycopene.9. Yogurt & low fat granola. Mix a Tbsp. of low sugar granola (like KIND) to their favorite yogurt. Plop a few blueberries in while you're at it.10. Celery & cream cheese. While cream cheese isn't a nutritional powerhouse, try Greek cream cheese. It's lower in fat than light cream cheese and provides 4 grams of protein per serving. Oh- and it tastes good!