Four easy after-school snacks

Celery snails and caterpillars

Prep time: 10 minutes 

1. To make the snails, fill the celery stalks with nut butter. Top with one thin slice of apple, orange, kiwi, cucumber or tomato –this will be the snail’s shell. Add a cashew nut for the head. Use a tiny dab of nut butter to glue on the candy eyes.
2. To make the caterpillars, cut one piece of celery into very small, thin matchsticks to make antennae. Fill the celery stalks with nut butter. Top with a line of grapes, blueberries or cherry tomatoes for the body and head. Use a tiny dab of nut butter to glue on the candy eyes and press the celery antennae into the top of the head.

Skinny baked sweet potato crisps

Prep time: 5 minutes 
Cooking time: 60 to 90 minutes 

1. Preheat the oven to 110°C/gas mark ¼. Line two baking sheets with non-stick baking paper.
2. Using a mandolin slicer, cut the sweet potato into very thin slices. If you don’t have a mandolin, you can cut the potato into super-thin slices using your sharpest knife. Put in a mixing bowl and pour over the oil. Add a decent pinch of salt and mix well to coat all the crisps.
3. Put the potatoes on the lined baking sheets in a single layer. Bake in the oven for 1 to 1½ hours, until crisp, rotating the sheets halfway through. Allow the crisps to cool for 5 minutes before eating.
4. Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to a week.

Easy hummus

One of the easiest after-school snacks of all is to simply make a batch of hummus and toast some wholemeal pitta breads for dipping. We put three or four garlic cloves in our hummus recipe, but if you don’t like your hummus that garlicky, just use less. 

Prep time: 5 minutes

1. Blend all the ingredients together in a food processor until you reach your desired texture, but we like our hummus to be reasonably smooth.
2. Serve with toasted wholemeal pitta, crackers, falafel, raw carrot sticks or simply eat off straight off a spoon!

Crudités with almond butter dip

Prep time: 5 minutes

Prep a selection of raw fruit and veg, such as apple wedges, banana slices, clementine segments, whole grapes and carrot, celery and cucumber sticks. Assemble the prepped fruit and veg on a plate and put a bowl of almond butter in the middle for dipping.