Daycare Snack Ideas
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Daycare snack ideas can get a little ho hum. We can get bored with serving the same things over and over again, so get inspired again for snacktime at your daycare. If you’re wondering about the child and adult care food program for daycare providers, check this out.
Everyone thinks about healthy food options and nutritious meals to feed their kids. This daycare snack menu will give you new ideas for more than a week’s worth of kids quality meals for your home daycare kids.
We all care about the young children we serve, but a lot of junk food is easier when we are already busy non stop taking care of educational activities, paperwork, and other obligations we face as busy day care providers. The work never ends, am I right?
But nutrition is a huge part of raising healthy kids, so we have to put some thought into what we serve at child care. Fresh fruit, cottage cheese, cheese sticks, cherry tomatoes, whole wheat bread and more can all be part of a healthy diet for kids.
We’d all love to serve foods that cost tons of money but budget is a concern. We’d love to serve all organic foods, but sometimes we have to make tough choices at the grocery store. This is a great place to get ideas for simple food, and cheap stuff that still meets the food program requirements, but also can be quick and easy for us, meet all the requirements, including the whole grain requirement every day, but still puts a fun twist on morning or afternoon snack and pleases even the pickiest eaters.
Get inspired with some new food ideas that help you serve the best quality food you can within your daycare budget and still keep the best interest of your child in mind. You got this!
Check out this daycare food menu meal planning guide for more ideas on how to plan out your menus well. These resources are going to be a great help to you! And if you want to buy menus already planned out, check out Daycare Time Solutions for monthly menu plans, click on shop all and menu plans for menus that meet food program requirements. Or if you want a sheet with a sample week and shopping list to get you started, check out this planning pack.
Here are a ton of snacks that I collected from a ton of daycare providers.
- English muffin and banana
- PBJ and apple slices
- Yogurt and strawberries
- Peanut butter and crackers
- Goldfish and oranges
- Cereal and raisins
- Pancakes and peaches
- Waffles and carrots
- Cinnamon toast and cucumbers
- Hummus and pita
- Apple salsa with cinnamon chips
If you are looking for inspiration for great meal ideas for young kids, check out this collection of Daycare Lunches for toddlers and preschoolers (even the picky ones!). Easy, simple, and tasty enough for the whole family to enjoy!
- Fruit with yogurt dip
- Veggies and ranch with wheat thins
- Pretzels and cube cheese
- Sausage balls
- Mini muffins and milk
- Guacamole and celery or carrots
- Annie’s organic bunnies and yogurt
- Cheese quesadillas
- Snap peas and string cheese
- Pretzles and cheese sauce
- Why not have the kids make their own snacks. Kids can make their own pretzels, you can do it in bulk and freeze them for later.
- Homemade pretzels
- Cat eyes
There are so many great things to let kids make, we even made our cooking lessons into a cookbook and gave it to the parents as a Christmas gift.
Daycare snacks
- Cubed meat and cheese with broccoli and dip
- Mac and cheese
- Plantain chips with peanut butter
- Dried cherries and wheat thins
- Dried blueberries and chicken crackers
- Celery and peanut butter
- Grilled cheese
- Cuties and chex mix
- Bugles and guacamole
- Cheese nachos
- Applesauce and cereal
- Yogurt and cheeze its
- Graham crackers and peanut butter
- Pigs in a blanket
- Fruit smoothies and oyster crackers
- Yogurt with frozen blueberries
- Homemade trail mix or snack mix with cereal and crackers plus dried fruits or nuts or both
- Fruit salad with granola
- French toast and cuties
- Sweet potato fries and crackers
- Sweet peppers and graham crackers
- Bagel and cream cheese with strawberries
- Egg cups with spinach
- Rice cakes and applesauce
- Broccoli and cheddar sauce
Toddler snacks for daycare
Do you like making your kids those cute little daycare snacks that look like stuff? If that’s your bag, then here are a ton of fun ideas for inspiration for fun toddler snacks that are healthy too.
- Spooky Halloween snacks for daycare
- Winter themed snacks for Christmas, snow, and Valentine’s
And obviously, older kids can eat cute snacks and toddlers can eat most of the snacks listed above. But a few tips for younger kids. If you are serving carrot sticks, microwave them for 2 minutes or so to soften them.
Also, for kids under 3, make sure you cut them up. The same with grapes, they need to be quartered, not halved, but there is a great grape cutter that quarters grapes and other small foods for kids.
Healthy snacks for daycare
If you’re looking for healthy daycare snacks, here are some great ideas for the top 35 healthy snacks for kids. And even more healthy snacks for picky eaters.
And for even more ideas, check out the ultimate list of snacks for daycare here with over 150 combinations.
Baby snack ideas
Baby daycare snacks can be a little different because they are just learning to eat. Puffs make a great first cereal until baby can handle a little cheerio to grab. A cut up boiled egg is a great finger food. Cooked beans are easy to grab and chew. You can also do small pieces of cheese.
Small pieces of bread would be good and smoothies work as well. Bananas, cut up berries, and apples softened in the microwave are good too. Or you could do yogurt or applesauce. Diced cooked vegetables such as roasted sweet potato chunks or squash can be picked up by baby but are easy to chew up.
Cooked peas and green beans are nice and soft, especially if you use canned. Also, avocado is great. Using frozen fruit that is thawed ensures softer textures for baby to chew and make a great baby snack idea.
Hopefully this list provides you some inspiration to think outside the box with your daycare snack ideas for making your daycare menu in the future.
And for more inspiration for daycare meals that will save you money too, check out these dirt cheap meals for daycare.
