Summer Snack and Lunch Ideas for a Budget

This is not on the go, but we love frozen grapes, and frozen bananas!
We always have a fruit salad going. Sliced watermelon is an ongoing item.

We make out own snack mix.. Gather the cereals, pretzels, dried fruits, and yogurt covered raisins to make the mix..

We keep and ice filled cooler in our car going all summer long with drinks and fruit.. I even place our sunscreen in a ziploc and keep it in there, it feels so good on a hot day on the skin..

My son is allergic to dairy and loves soy yougert. Believe it or not, I can get Silk soy yougert at Vitamin Cottage for about $0.70 each ( I think they are $1.20 at King Sooper's). Vitamin cottage is also less expensive on several of it's other dairy free products, and often has more choices.

As for inexspensive snacks, we love crakers/pretzels/veggies with hummus, fresh fruit, making our own trail mix, granola bars .

My daughter has recently discovered honey nut cherios and eats them as a snack.
We make our own chex mix (use generic brand cereals).
Fresh fruit (now that it's in season, its within budget)
rather than lunch meat, use cut up chicken
pasta salads (pasta, salami, tomatoes, broccoli, black olives, mixed with italian dressing - add whatever your kids like)
tuna (if you use the kind packed in oil, just add some seasoning no need for mayo)
veggie sticks (can use humus for dip) beans (a cheat and buy the canned black beans and rinse), you can add to a salad or tacos
hard boiled eggs (or make egg salad)
corn on the cob, it's great cold

Beans! Dry beans are really inexpensive, and you can make burritos or mix beans and rice and have a nearly complete protien, if there is any cheese she can eat, you could add it in to round it out.

It is not exactly protien, but a cheap snack is popcorn, in kernal form that you pop yourself. Cheap, and kids like it. My daughters friends like to come to my house because I make it, and they get more than they get from a bag!

Sunflower butter may be an option, my friends boy had the same issue with nuts. My kids love peanut butter an bananas, and he would eat the sunflower butter that way, but I gather it is a bit more expensive than PB.

M.

We are into veggie wraps! We take lettuce, avocado, tomato, cucumber and add a little vegenaise (soy mayonnaise that's also dairy-free) and sometimes a dash of vinegar and oil. Very healthy and so good! We also add lunch meat sometimes, turkey and roast beef taste good in wraps. We fold the tortilla and I wrap it in plastic wrap.

For snacks we like apples, bananas and baby carrots. For veggie dip I use Vegenaise and sometimes add spice packets to make ranch or french dip. We like peanut butter on our fruit but you can't do that. You could try Tofutti, which is like cream cheese but made from soy. I only had it once, it's not quite like cream cheese (just like veganaise is not quite like mayo) but you get used to it.

I find the soy products to be worth the extra money. I just cut down on other stuff we don't need like expensive cereals. I'm allergic to dairy so I enjoy rice ice cream and rice milk. I know it's extra, but health is worth it!

I also forgot, tuna fish mixed with a little pickle and vegenaise on a bagel. Toast it in the toaster...YUM!

baby carrots are my favorite on the go snack. They are cheap, easy and delicious. An even cheaper option is to buy the big ones and just cut them into sticks. Hard boiled eggs are also cheap and easy. And I absolutely love banana chips. My local grocery store has them very cheap, but I am not sure if all do. Banana are also pretty cheap and for a nice treat we like to make chocolate covered bananas. Crackers topped with cheese and pepperoni is also a favorite in my house. And good old fashion jello is a great summer snack. Love jello jigglers :)