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
More Snack Ideas

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.
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/.
Unfortunately the Fruit & Yogurt link is no longer valid – thx!
Thanks❣️you come up with good ideas
love this website thank you so much