Great ideas for real food snacks that don’t take a lot of time to prepare! 5 minutes is all it takes and you can serve healthy delicious snacks that won’t break the budget! Be sure to check out 24+ best hiking snacks (easy, healthy, family-friendly) and 25+ best snacks for road trips.
Every year when school is in session.. if you’re like me, you could always use a few more ideas for quick breakfasts, healthy school lunches, and simple snacks to keep the kids satisfied until dinner time.
I love the convenience of packaged snack foods but, even the more expensive “healthy” versions of packaged snacks often contain flavors and additives I don’t want to feed to my kids.
It just makes sense to give them healthier and more affordable snacks instead…especially when they only take 5 minutes or less to make!
25+ Frugal Real Food Snacks in 5 Minutes or Less
I’ve divided this list of frugal real food snacks into 3 categories based on prep time:
- Zero Prep Snacks
- Snacks Ready in 5 Minutes or Less
- Make-Ahead Snacks
I personally draw from the Zero Prep list most days, but I try to mix in a few of the other ideas from time to time to keep things interesting and fun for the kids.
Zero Prep Real Food Snacks
- Fresh or dried fruit
- Raw veggies
- Raw or dry roasted nuts/seeds
- Hummus + pita (assuming the hummus is already made, but if not, it can be in 5 minutes)
- Nut/seed butter on a spoon (homemade nut/seed butter)
- Sliced cheese
Real Food Snacks Ready in 5 Minutes or Less
- Healthy Apple Nacho Recipe (pictured above)
- Smoothies (Orange Pineapple Green Smoothie pictured above)
- Healthy 5 min Ranch Dip for raw veggies
- Air-popped popcorn
- Fruit and yogurt parfaits
- Ants on a log
- Healthy Banana Split
- Trail mix (any mixture of nuts, dried fruit, popcorn, oats, flaked coconut, healthy cereal, etc.)
- 5 Minute Chocolate Hummus
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Hummus
- Cheese toast
- PB&J fold over
Make-Ahead Snacks
- Sweet and Salty Energy Bites (pictured at top)
- Fruit and Veggie Popsicles (pictured at top)
- Easy Homemade Cheez Its (pictured at top)
- No Bake Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Granola Bars (pictured above)
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chunk Snack Bars
- Homemade Applesauce – plain, cinnamon, and mixed berry
- Easy Probiotic Fermented Carrots
- Homemade Fruit Leather & Fruit Roll Ups
- Homemade Lunchables
Angie
do you have some healthy pre-packaged snacks you would buy if you did buy those kinds of snacks, when you don’t have time to prepare the others.
SJ - Team Crumbs
Hi Angie,
The team loves Thrive Market for all of their healthy options. Check them out at https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/go/thrivemarket/ or ready Tiffany’s review at https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/thrive-market-review/.
Debra
Unfortunately the Fruit & Yogurt link is no longer valid – thx!
Brown Saralyn
Thanks❣️you come up with good ideas
noemi Perez
love this website thank you so much