Pre-packages snacks. A love-hate relationship. On the one hand, the are convenient and my kids love them. On the other hand, they are usually either wildly unhealthy or expensive. When we are home, I opt to give my kids non pre-packaged items like trail mix (nuts and dried fruit, no M&M’s here), fresh fruit, a hunk of cheese, homemade popcorn or simply a few crackers. BUT for school and on the go, pre-packaged is life!

I have rounded up my top 5 clean (and in my opinion, healthy) pre-packaged snacks for kids and where I buy them for the most savings. MY goal is to pay no more than $1 per snack as a general rule.

Things I look FOR: organic, non-gmo, grass-fed when possible.
Things I AVOID: artificial dyes, natural or artificial flavors, added sugar, inflammatory oils (canola, vegetable, sunflower etc) and just a laundry list of ingredients or highly processes foods.

I hope this is helpful as we enter the school year and needing day after day of quick, easy snacks! Here’s my roundup:

(I am having zero success finding Costco links, so I am including links to Target or Amazon- these will be more expensive so just take that into account!)

1. That’s It Mini Bars: these are probably our most frequent and consistent snack in our snack basket. They are the perfect size for little ones and have only one thing in them: dried fruit. No preservatives. At $16 for 24 bars thats only $0.66 per bar.

2. Archer Mini Beef Sticks: also from Costco for $17 per bag of 28 thats only $0.60 per stick. No artificial or natural colors or flavors added, no sugar and all grass-fed beef, these beef sticks are about as clean as they get and have 4 grams of protien!

3. BEAR Fruit Rolls: My 3rd Costco fav are the BEAR Fruit Rolls. Last time I went they were on sale for $11 for a box of 24. That’s only $0.46 per roll which was WAY cheaper than buying at Whole Foods for nearly a dollar each. These are come and go at Costco though, so I only buy them when I find them there. They are simply one thing: dried fruit. They aren’t organic, but they are super clean!

4. Hippeas: We usually get the large bag of these (from… you guessed it, Costco) but the last time I went they had this large box of individual bags. Unfortunately I cannot find a link to the box I snagged- it was $11 for 24 bags, or $0.46 per pag. Best I can find is an 18-bag variety pack on Amazon.

Unfortunately when I was reviewing the ingredients again I noticed these include natural flavors! So, this would be the least healthy of all these options, solely because of that. They also contain sunflower oil which can be highly inflammatory. I would switch these out for Lesser Evil Popcorn. Less nutritionally dense, but also less concerning ingredients. All this to say, its a process and every time I sit down and read or re-read ingredient labels I grow and learn! Sometimes something “checks the boxes” at one stage of life, and as you learn more you can do better the next time. I opted to leave all of this in this post to be vulnerable and share the journey with you!

5. Good & Gather Date & Nut Bar (generic brand Lara Bars): While not organic, they just contain dried fruit, nuts and the occasional seasoning like vanilla extract or cinnamon. There is zero added sugar, unless you go for one of the varieties with chocolate (which we sometimes do just for fun! ) While cheaper than Lara bars, they will run you about $1 per bar, but I do often find sales on these in store, so keep an eye out for that and stock up! We love the Blueberry and Apple Pie flavors.

Finding pre-packaged healthy snacks for on the go can be tough! Let’s help each other out Mama’s, drop your favorite kid-approved snack below and why it works for your family!