It’s usually several hours between the time middle schoolers eat lunch and the time they arrive home. They typically need a hearty, healthy snack before they can settle down to study and do homework.

That doesn’t mean that you must wait in the kitchen to fix them a mini-meal. Instead, hand your child this list of recipes for nutritious snacks that middle schoolers can make himself:

• Fruit or veggies on a stick. Thread pieces of fruit or raw vegetables onto a skewer. If using apples, bananas or pears, dip in orange juice first. It keeps them from turning brown.
• Frozen bananas. Crush a cup of breakfast cereal. Dunk a peeled banana in yogurt, and then dip it into the cereal. Cover the whole banana. Place it on a piece of waxed paper and freeze.
• Shakes. For a fruit shake, mix ½ cup fruit yogurt and ½ cup fruit juice. For a pudding shake, mix ½ cup milk with three tablespoons of instant pudding.
• Put the ingredients into a container with a tight lid. Shake hard and pour into a glass.
• Ants on a log. To make this old favorite, fill a half of a stalk of celery with peanut butter or cream cheese. Top the spread with a line of raisins.

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