How to Make 13 Easy Summer Snacks for Kids

By Grandma Sandy | June 18, 2025 |

“I’m hungry!” Aren’t they always?

With more frequent visits from grandkids during summer vacation, keep a repertoire of easy snack ideas.

First, some caveats:

Substitute sunflower or sesame seed butter, or soy nut butter for peanut butter for kids with nut allergies.
Children under 12 months should not eat honey
Substitute lollipop sticks or coffee stirrers for skewers for younger kids.

#1 Celery Caterpillars

An easy summer snack for kids: celery caterpillars are grapes held in place on celery sticks with peanut butter as the "glue." Eyes are plastic picks; antennae are slivers of green onion. — **Celery is the base, grapes make the body, peanut butter is the “glue.” The eyes are plastic picks.**

Instead of Ants on a Log, make caterpillars. Spread peanut butter in the cavity of celery sticks and line with seedless grapes. Make antennae from slivers of green onion. For eyes, insert eye picks used for bento lunches. Alternatively, make a small x with the point of a pairing knife and insert a raisin for each eye.

#2 No-Cook Snack Balls

Combine uncooked oats and mini chocolate chips with just enough peanut butter to hold the mixture together. Form into balls. Instead of chocolate chips, you can substitute raisins, dried cranberries, or chopped dried apricots.

#3 Trail Mix

Combine a few of these choices into a snack bag: small pretzels, cereals like Cheerios or Chex, raisins, dried cranberries, chocolate chips, roasted salted peanuts, pita chips, or sunflower seeds.

Roll red pepper strips in flour tortilla that has been spread with cream cheese. Cut into one or two pieces. — **Easy summer snack: flour tortillas, cream cheese, and red bell pepper strips.**

#4 Tortilla Roll-Ups

Spread softened cream cheese onto the entire surface of a flour tortilla. Lay red pepper strips at one end and roll tortilla to encase the strips. Cut into pieces.

Other roll-up ideas: use cucumber strips or carrot strips. Substitute homemade hummus or peanut butter for the cream cheese.

#5 Frozen Banana Pops

Insert a popsicle stick into half a banana and freeze. Or roll banana in yogurt first, then in crushed cereal before freezing. Or make a chocolate-coated version by dipping in melted chocolate and coating in nuts.

#6 Fresh Fruit Parfait

This parfait features a layer of granola, layer of sliced strawberries, nonfat Greek yogurt, and more granola. It's the perfect easy summer snack for kids. — **This delicious parfait features layers of granola, sliced strawberries, and nonfat Greek yogurt.**

Summer is the best time for creating easy snacks for kids. Layer granola with nonfat Greek yogurt and fresh fruits of the season such as sliced strawberries, peaches, apricots, nectarines, or seedless grapes or pitted cherries.

Instead of granola, you can crush a granola bar, cookies, or graham crackers.

#7 Fruit Smoothies

In a blender, blend together fresh fruits like strawberries or peaches with low-fat yogurt or milk. If your blender can crush ice, add a few ice cubes to make a slushy smoothie. Or use frozen fruit to get that slushy consistency.

#8 Mini Pizzas

This is one we all made as kids. Split English muffins in half. Spread split sides with pizza sauce, add shredded mozzarella cheese and toppings of your choice (pepperoni, sliced vegetables, etc.) and bake in a toaster oven at 375 degrees F. about 10 minutes.

#9 Avocado Toast

If avocados aren’t prohibitively expensive, mash avocado and season with lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Toast sourdough bread, drizzle with olive oil, then spread with the mashed avocado.

Skewer feta cheese cubes and prunes on toothpicks and drizzle with honey for an easy summer snack for kids. — **Feta cheese cubes and prunes are threaded onto toothpicks and drizzled with honey.**

#10 Feta and Prune Pick Ups

People who claim not to like prunes have probably never tasted one. Increase their appeal by calling them “dried plums,” which is what prunes are, after all.

Use toothpicks to skewer a prune, then a small cube of feta cheese. Drizzle with honey and garnish with mint leaves. The tanginess of the prunes with the salty feta and sweet honey make a dynamite combination. You can try other dried fruits like figs or apricots.

#11 Grilled Cheese Soldiers

Make a grilled cheese sandwich and cut them into strips, or soldiers. It’s more fun to eat them that way. In our family, it’s usually Dubliner cheese and sourdough bread grilled in a panini press. The soldiers are also perfect for dipping into tomato soup.

Thread cherry tomatoes, basil leaves and fresh mozzarella balls on skewers and serve with balsamic glaze as a dip. — **Thread cherry tomatoes, basil leaves, and small fresh mozzarella balls. Serve with balsamic glaze.**

#12 Vegetable Kabobs

In this takeoff of a caprese salad, thread cherry tomatoes, basil leaves, and small balls of fresh mozzarella onto skewers. Season with salt and drizzle with balsamic glaze.

Another alternative: thread cubes of firm cheese like Cheddar or jack with ripe olives, cherry tomatoes, and rolled-up salami on lollipop sticks.

#13 Vegetable Flower Pots

Cut vegetables into flower shapes using vegetable cutters. Use a toothpick for the flower stem and plant into cubes of cheese. Or, cut flower shapes from cheeses and plant into vegetables like thick slices of cucumber or carrots.

Flowers, made from cheese and vegetables, are cut with vegetable cutters and planted with toothpicks on cheese cubes or vegetable slices. — **Make flowers from carrots, cucumber, and cheese and plant on vegetable and cheese bases.**

More Easy Summer Snacks for Kids

For more snack ideas, search this website under “snacks,” where you will find more recipes and tips. Some are food projects kids can do themselves this summer.

Sign up to Get Grandma’s Favorite Recipes–Free!

A cover copy of Grandma's Favorite Recipe.

Sign up here for my email newsletter. Every Wednesday, I’ll give you a new idea for an activity or insight to nurture the little ones in your life. And once you subscribe, I’ll send you a link so you can download your set of quick and easy recipes as my thanks to you.