Summer Kitchen Pantry Restock: Healthy Snacks Your Kids Will Love!

- By Holly Larson, MS, RD
Reviewed and updated by BB Nutrition Team 2025

Summer is here! And with that comes more freedom in the schedule and changes in the routine. Kids love snacks; kids eat when they’re hungry and when they’re bored. Kids in the US may consume as much as one third of their daily calories during snack times - let’s discuss seven tips and tricks to make snack time healthy time, strategies to empower your children to make their own healthy summer snacks and ways to reign in that refrain of “I’m hungry!”

1. Make the healthy choice the easy choice. 

In your house, kids are “shopping” from the choices that you provide. Providing healthy choices that are visible and accessible may have family members of all ages grazing on the healthy stuff that is sitting out. Providing a snack bowl, tray, or bin can provide choices that contribute to overall nutrition, while still allowing kids the independence to grab what they want, when they want it. A bowl of fresh fruits, a tray of cut-up veggies, or snack-pack-sized dried fruits, unsweetened applesauce, nuts, and snack bars that are low in added sugars are great options to keep out during the day.

2. Communicate expectations.

There are many ways to set up a healthy snacking routine; you get to decide what will work best for you and your family this summer. Together, you can decide that your kids can choose one snack from a snack bin each day or that only fruits and veggies are allowed at snack time, or that any snacks are allowed between 3-4 pm or a snack is only permitted after an hour of active play. Find the system that works in your house and stick to it consistently. When everyone knows the plan, you can diffuse the refrains of “I’m hungry” by reiterating the snack guidelines in your house. “You have had your snack choice for today; dinner will be ready at 6pm. Would you like a glass of water now before you go outside to play?”

3. Stay active.

Sometimes snacking is a cover for boredom. Encourage your kids to play outside and limit screen time. Let their active play fuel their appetite!

4. Hydrate.

It is really easy for our brains to mix the signals of hunger and thirst. As your kiddos are playing and enjoying the summer, encourage them to regularly drink water to prevent dehydration. They may think that they’re hungry when really they just need a cool glass of water. You can be creative with making water accessible and even fun by setting out a water pitcher with various added ingredients to add flavor. Strawberries, mint, cucumber, basil, orange, lemon, or lime slices are all simple, healthy ways to add a light flavor to the water. Encourage your kids to try different water ingredients and taste tests to determine everyone’s favorite way to drink water!

5. Pair fruits and veggies with a healthy fat for a snack that lasts.

If you have kids with a bottomless stomach, quench their appetite with some healthy fats. For example, apples dipped in peanut butter, carrots dipped in hummus or homemade ranch dressing, guacamole and jicama sticks.

6. Freeze it.

Eating a familiar food but frozen can change the taste and texture of the food, creating a cooling fun snack! Frozen grapes make a cooling treat to pop into your mouth on a hot day, or slicing fruit and drizzling with dark chocolate, or vanilla yougurt can add extra flavor with minimal added sugars. Protein smoothies with blended up spinach and mixed berries is also delicious in popsicle form and can still provide a variety of nutrients and protein.

7.  DIY Snack Charcuterie Tray.

Get creative with your kids to create a personalized charcuterie snack tray! Using a plastic tackle box, you can pack each section with a different treat, creating a personalized snack mix. Offer a mixture of salty nuts and seeds, dried fruit, low-sugar cereal, and popped popcorn, and watch as your children make their own personalized mix in addition to the traditional meats, cheeses, and crackers.

Enjoy a free recipe for a healthier ranch dressing to encourage kids to crunch on a rainbow of vegetables!

Simple Ranch Dressing Recipe

1 cup mayonnaise

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

3/4 teaspoon onion powder

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 cup full fat canned coconut milk, blended

1 handful fresh herb of choice or 3 tablespoons dried parsley

Blend with an immersion blender in a wide mouth mason jar for approximately one minute! Don't start incorporating herbs until the last 15 seconds or it will turn your ranch green. Store in the fridge up to one week, if you still have any left!

Note: For a thicker ranch dip, skip the coconut milk, or use less. Adding the coconut milk makes a thinner, dressing consistency.

About Balance 360 Nutrition

Balance 360 nutrition focuses on research-backed recommendations to optimize brain health, development and performance. By providing education and support around our pillars of nutrition we empower you to set a foundation of a brain-healthy lifestyle. Through one-on-one meetings with our nutrition experts we meet you where you are and help you set realistic, achievable goals to elevate your brain health.

Our primary areas of focus consist of fuel, hydration and reducing systemic inflammation. Fuel provides our bodies and brains the nutrients needed to function at an optimal level. Proper hydration affects every cell in our bodies. We work to identify and minimize common dietary drivers of inflammation including added sugars, ultra-processed foods, dyes and artificial sweeteners.