10 easy snack box recipes

The September school rush is just around the corner, and whilst you might have all back-to-school essentials you might be wondering how to keep your children’s tummies satisfied with yummy but nutritious snacks. Last week we had a busy time in the kitchen coming up with a range of savoury and sweet snacks that your children will love. All of or snack boxes can either be made by yourself in less than 15 minutes in the kitchen or can be bought in the shops!

Mexican snack box

Discover some of the vibrant and tasty flavours of Mexico in our Mexican inspired snack box. In our box we have added some fresh radishes and carrot sticks to also dip in the guacamole. The avocado in the guacamole contains key nutrients including healthy fats, fibre and are full of lots of vitamins and minerals. Key tip, to keep the guacamole going a brownish colour in the box, add some lemon or lime juice on top of the dip! If you fancy making your own guacamole, here is a simple 2 serving recipe you can make in seconds.

Ingredients

• A handful of cherry tomatoes
• 1 1/2 avocados 
• 1/2 a lime (juiced)
• 1/2 a small red onion
• 1/2 a red chilli (optional)

Method

Chop and squeeze all of your ingredients into a bowl and grab a fork and start mashing them together until you are left with a delicious bowl ready to be devoured with your tortilla chips.

Dipping snack box

Who doesn’t love a dipping box? Here you can add your children’s favourite vegetables, all you have to do is cut them into sticks. The team at Citron have opted for carrots and cucumber, as well as some tomatoes and chopped pita bread. Instead of your average plain hummus, we decided on red-pepper hummus, but you can again choose whichever flavour you like! Hummus is great as part of your children’s snack box as it is high in protein and fibre which will leave them feeling fuller for longer. Fun fact, you can make your own made hummus with just 5 ingredients that you probably have in your cupboard. To make 2 servings of hummus all you will need is:

Ingredients

• 410g can of chickpeas (drained)
• 1 large garlic clove
• 2 roasted red peppers
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Method

To make your hummus, simply drain the chickpeas and then add all your ingredients into a blender until smooth. If you want to add some extra flavour into your dip, you can add a mixture of chilli powder, garlic powder and onion powder.

Healthy breakfast snack box

We have another breakfast inspired snack box that kids will love at any time of the day. We have added our favourite flavour of yoghurt which is strawberry, berry granola and fresh fruit. P.S. Blackberries are in season at the moment and you can pick them yourself. If you go for a walk in the countryside, you will probably walk past a lot of blackberry bushes - take a bag with you and get picking! Make sure you wash them before you eat them and take ones from higher up.

 

Japanese snack box

We love that as children get older, their taste buds evolve and they want to try new flavours and different cuisines. Sushi is one of those great snacks that is so versatile. Whether you want to make it at home or buy it from the shops, whether you’re a die-hard tuna sushi fan or you only like veggie sushi, you can make it your own.  As a fun family activity, we love to make sushi together and this time we made salmon and avocado sushi with a soy sauce and wasabi dipping sauce. Making sushi can be time consuming so we don’t blame you if you want to buy from the shops, but if you do feel like giving our recipe a go, here it is.

Ingredients

• 300g sushi rice
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 large avocado
• ½ lemon juiced
• 4 sheets of nori seaweed
• 4 slices of smoked salmon 
• A handful of fresh chives
• Soy sauce
• Wasabi

Method

1. Add the rice to a saucepan alongside 600ml of water and cook for 10 minutes. Once the water has been absorbed and the rice is cooked, stir through the vinegar and sugar and leave to cool. 
2. Next cut your avocado into chunky strips and squeeze your lime juice on them to prevent them from going brown.
3. Lay your nori seaweed sheets down and evenly spread your rice onto each sheet - you should aim to leave a 1cm border at the top and bottom to make it easier to roll.
4. Next layer your salmon, chives and avocado in the centre of your rice.
5. Now it is time to roll. Top tip you  can dampen the top border or your seaweed with some water to help it seal before rolling. Once rolled you can either cut it into slices or you can wrap it in clingfilm and pop it into the fridge before serving.

Caprese snack box

What child or adult doesn’t love the flavours of Italy? For a quick and easy snack box that takes minutes to make - this is the box for you. Grab some fresh cherry tomatoes, basil leaves and little mozzarella balls and add them to a skewer one by one. To add some extra crunch we have added croutons and an olive oil dipping sauce. Alternatively, you could add pesto into the sauce section of the snack box, the choice is up to you! If you have a loaf of bread that has gone a little stale, you can make a delicious tray of croutons for this snack box or they can be added to salads. 

Simply chop your bread into cubes, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with dried herbs and some salt and pepper. Chuck the cubes into the oven and cook at 180°c for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. 

Charcuterie-style 

This snack box will be loved by both children and adults as it contains small pieces of food you can nibble at using your fingers. In our snack box we have pretzels, cubes of red Leicester cheese, blackberries and a salami rose. 

Method

1. To make your salami rose, grab yourself a small glass or shot glass and a packet of salami or chorizo.
2.  Take one slice of salami at a time, and and fold it over the rim of the shot glass so half of the salami is on the inside of the glass the other half is on the outside.
3. Add another slice of salami and overlap half of the previous salami slice.
4. Keep adding slices till the rim is covered and then repeat with another layer.
5. Once you have used up your salami, flip the shot glass over and your salami rose will pop out.

Birthday party snack box

The Citron team came up with this snack box because it reminded us of all of the classic snacky foods you can find at a children’s party. In our children's snack box we have added mini cupcakes, popcorn, cocktail sausages and ketchup. For our snack box we made mini butterfly cakes, they are perfect for batch cooking and you can freeze them as well - consume them within three months once they have been frozen. This recipe will make around 12 average sized cupcakes and 20 mini cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 100g golden caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g self-raising flour, sifted 
• 1 levels tsp baking powder

For the icing

• 175g unsalted butter
• 250g icing sugar
• Jam

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°c and place your mini cupcake cases in a tray.
2. Add all the wet ingredients in a bowl and mix together until they are combined.
3. Next mix together your dry ingredients into a bowl and mix together
4. Now it is time to fill your cupcake cases with the mixture and cook for 12 minutes or until golden brown.
5. To make the icing mix together the butter and the icing sugar, you can also add a few drops of vanilla extract.
6. Once they are cooled, it is time to take a teaspoon and scoop out a small hole into your cake. Next add your jam, icing and the section you cut out onto your cupcake. 
7. To make it look like a butterfly, cut the small scoop of cake in half and add each section to your icing to make them look like wings.

Breakfast-style snack box

This could be one of our favourite snack boxes because it gives us weekend vibes and we love that! All you will need is mini pancakes, fresh fruit like raspberries and bananas and your choice of pancake topping. This time we have chosen Nutella, but you could add peanut butter or maple syrup. This time round we bought the mini pancakes from the supermarket and popped them into the toaster! We suggest for this snack box that you bring along one of our portable cutlery sets so you can spoon out the Nutella onto your pancakes.

Italian snack box

Who doesn’t love pesto pasta? Adding pasta into a snack box might not be your first choice, but if you have some leftovers from the night before - it is a great way to use them up! If you want to add more veggies into your child’s pesto sauce, here is a very scrumptious recipe that will become your go to pesto pasta recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 large bag of spinach leaves
• 22g basil leaves
• 40g parmesan cheese
• 30g walnuts
• 1 clove of garlic
• 60ml olive oil
• Salt to taste

Method

1. Add all of your ingredients into a blender and blend - add salt and pepper to your taste buds.
2. This recipe will make around 6 portions of pesto sauce so you can freeze it into ice cubes top take out when you need them.

Protein snack box

Remember the hummus you made or bought earlier? You can use it in this high-protein snack box as well. Boiled eggs are a great source of protein, omega-3 and iron which helps to reduce hunger throughout the day and helps with brain growth. To add a few more picky bits, we added cashew nuts, carrot and radish sticks to dip into your hummus.

Whether your children need snacks during or after school or at the weekend, there is a range of snack box ideas to help give your child some variety of foods to try this year. Keep an eye out on our Instagram for even more snack and lunch time recipes.