For busy parents, guardians and even adult siblings, trying to find a balance between fun and healthy snacks can be tough. For calorie-counting guardians, their kids may feel like they’re being cheated out of enjoying the usual high fructose corn syrup snacks found in stores and often in their friends’ backpacks. But there’s a gray area between parents feeling like they’re fat-shaming versus trying to help a child stay physically fit.

However, approximately one in five U.S. children and adolescents are obese, including adolescents, Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black children, and children in families with lower incomes. Even former FLOTUS Michelle Obama dealt with some criticism for publicly mentioning her youngest daughter Sasha Obama was experiencing weight gain in her adolescent years. Instead of backing down from bringing up child obesity, Obama moved forward with the Let’s Move campaign, introducing healthy alternatives to parents. And quite a few healthy food options fall right under the umbrella of vegan after-school snack recipes. So which ones can sway children into wanting to repeatedly eat them? Here are seven options.

Oatmeal Fruit Smoothies

Some children love the taste of oatmeal, especially when it comes in fruit and cream packages, full of sugar that drowns out the whole grain rolled oats. Read the back of those ingredient packages and, along with 10–13 grams of sugar, quite a few of those quick-prep packages contain milk.

For two 8-ounce glasses, blend 1-1/2 cups of a plant-based milk with 1/2 cup fresh frozen fruit (ex. strawberries, blueberries, peaches, bananas), and then pour in a couple of tablespoons of oats. (Keep in mind that the measurements may vary depending on the size of your blender.) You don’t necessarily need ice cubes because the fruit is already frozen, but feel free to add a few if it’s not cold enough once blended.

Plain oats have multiple vitamins, minerals and antioxidant plant compounds. And they don’t necessarily have to be eaten warm like porridge to enjoy. Granola bars are proof of that. Blending oats into a fruit smoothie also comes in handy for children who aren’t sold on the visual appearance of hot oatmeal. As a smoothie, this vegan after-school snack recipe literally blends in.

Spinach Vegetable Smoothies

In the ’80s, parents could get away with convincing their kids that they could turn into the Incredible Hulk by eating or drinking green vegetables. But even when the animated character resurfaced in a 2008 film, that’s still a little outdated for today’s kids. And Captain America: Brave New World introduced a red version instead of the well-known, massive green man. Shrek probably isn’t a good sale. The Grinch could convince a few kids to guzzle down a spinach drink around the holiday season. But what else works outside of that? Apples!

Whether green or red, apples add a layer of sweetness in a green fruit smoothie that would make an otherwise spinach and plant-based milk recipe taste bitter. Remove the seeds and the skin ahead of time, so it’s less chewy. If the apple is still too crunchy for a child’s taste, consider using warm apples instead. Similar to the oatmeal fruit smoothie, for two 8-ounce glasses, blend 1-1/2 cups of plant-based milk with 1 cup of spinach, along with one apple. If the spinach taste is still a little too strong, try 1/2 cup instead. Add a handful of ice cubes too.

Cinnamon Warm Apples

With or without the 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar, cinnamon warm apples are an easy way to satisfy a sweet tooth without a lot of preparation. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Then, slice a few apples (four large or six medium) in half. In a bowl, mix melted plant-based butter and two teaspoons of ground cinnamon. Optional add-ons include two teaspoons of cornstarch and one teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Place the apples onto a nonstick pan, preferably wrapped in foil because this after-school vegan recipe is a little messy. Carefully pour all of the ingredients onto the halved apples. Bake the apples for 40–45 minutes: 20 minutes covered with foil and another 20–25 minutes uncovered.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich

There are plenty of vegan cheese options, such as Violife, Daiya and Field Roast. There are also a wide assortment of vegan lunch “meat” options, such as Tofurky and Lightlife. Vegan butters range from Earth Balance to Country Crock. (There are other well-known brands such as Imperial that have widely been believed to be vegan due to its use of vegetable fats instead of milk fat. However, Imperial margarine includes whey, one-half of the protein ingredients in milk.)

Finding vegan bread can be a little tricky too. While bread is usually made of three ingredients (flour, water, yeast), other store-bought breads include brioche, multiple soft breads and rolls, croissants, bagels, buttermilk bread and cinnamon raisin bread. Reading the nutrition labels is the most effective way to figure out which is which.

Once these four ingredients are collected, a vegan grilled cheese sandwich is made like a dairy version. Cover one side of each slice of bread in vegan butter, put the cheese and (optional) vegan lunch meat in the middle, and grill in a nonstick pan on both sides.

Vegan Cheese Dip

If you’d rather make your own cheese instead of buying it in stores, vegan cheese dip is fairly simple. First, soak 1-1/2 cups of cashews anywhere from four to eight hours. (There are blenders that can effectively chop nuts and seeds without soaking. They tend to be pricey.) Once the cashews are soft, the mandatory ingredients are 1/4 cup of nutritional yeast flakes, one teaspoon of Dijon mustard and 1/2 teaspoon of smoked paprika. (Other optional ingredients in vegan nachos include 1/2 to one full teaspoon of lemon juice, onion powder, garlic powder and jalapeños, along with two cups of vegetable stock and 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric.)

Vegan cheese dip can be used for pretty much any snack that uses dip, including fresh vegetables such as broccoli, vegan tortilla chips or French fries. If the goal is vegan nachos, tortilla chips are usually vegan (corn flour, water, oil and salt). However, flavored tortilla chips may have dairy ingredients.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich

It’s a protein-rich oldie but goodie. As long as the bread is not made of dairy, this is a safe snack to make. Be careful with the “jelly” though. Store-bought jars can contain as much as 10 grams of sugar and no fiber. The same goes for jam. (Jam has fruit as the first ingredient; jelly has fruit juice.) You could make your own jelly, which takes anywhere from one to two days before it’s complete. It’s a fairly lengthy process involving boiling fruit, using a wet cheesecloth to strain extra liquid, re-boiling, adding sugar and lemon juice, and refrigerating for 24 hours.

If you don’t think you’ll have the time to make jelly from scratch, choose a low-sugar jelly or “no sugar added” jelly without artificial sweeteners. Or, just make a peanut butter sandwich with a side bowl of fresh grapes, which are a good source of vitamin C, potassium and have one gram of fiber.

Vegetable and Fruit Platter (With Optional Dip)

As the easiest option in this list, this vegan after-school snack recipe involves cutting up celery and carrots. Add a few grape tomatoes. Then, find a non-dairy dip or a vinaigrette salad dressing to dip the fruits and vegetables in. Feel free to add other options, such as sliced apples, sliced pears, peaches, plums, watermelon, grapefruit and oranges.

Even more than the other six listed above, this brain food is especially significant because it gives children a chance to test out their own favorite fruits and vegetables without any added ingredients. This platter has no dried fruit (although that’s OK too). The produce is not mixed into granola bars, made into a flavor of ice cream or artificially copied into gummy worms. Eating fresh fruit will allow children to know what the fruit tastes like versus a processed (or artificial) version, and hopefully, it’ll make them crave the real thing more often.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are there easy vegan snacks for kids? 

Yes, and some snacks that children already eat are vegan without them knowing it such as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Are there vegan snacks for kids and picky eaters? 

Yes. However, with a vegan diet, children get a chance to really eat what the food is like in its natural state and without all the added sugars, high fructose corn syrup and other additives. That “picky” eater may not be so picky after tasting freshly picked food.

Are after-school snacks healthy?

Each after-school snack has its own grams of vitamins, fiber, sodium, fat, cholesterol and protein. The health perks depend entirely on the foods chosen, whether that’s in a garden or a grocery store.