If your kids are anything like mine, they are ALWAYS asking for a snack! Instead of filling them up on Goldfish and graham crackers right before dinner, I try to give them snacks with some nutritional value that they will actually eat. Of course, I do my best to minimize processed foods, sugar, salt, and unhealthy fats. Check out my Top 10 Kid-Friendly Costco Snacks!

1. No-Cook Veggies

Organic Baby Carrots

Luckily, my kids do eat vegetables. Sometimes. So when they’re begging for a snack, I always try to offer vegetables first, in case they happen to be interested. Missy Jo loves carrots, so I’ll give her a little bowl of organic baby carrots. Since they are pretty thick, I quarter them into 4 sticks to make it easier to bite through. If your kids aren’t into carrots by themselves, try serving them with some ranch dressing.

Organic Broccoli

Surprisingly, Jo Jr. will eat raw broccoli. Of course, he prefers the typical crackers and chips over anything healthy, but occasionally, I can get him to eat one or two. Costco sells a giant bag of pre-washed organic broccoli. I’ll steam up a batch to use as a side for dinner once or twice a week in order to use it up.

Organic Green Beans

Recently, as I was looking for more healthy Costco snacks, I discovered the organic pre-snipped and pre-washed green beans. I brought some of these as part of my lunch the other day and it was a healthy, easy snack that required no prep whatsoever!

If you’re kids won’t eat veggies plain or even with ranch, you can also try dipping them in hummus or guacamole. Costco sells individual servings of both!

Sugar Snap Peas

I bought a bag of Costco sugar snap peas once, and to my surprise, Missy Jo started devouring them. Then, she realized there were little tiny peas inside and she became obsessed with picking those out and eating them. Now, when we eat these together, I open them up and she picks the peas out. Afterwards, I eat the outsides. It’s a healthy snack for both of us!

Remember though, it’s important to read the labels and see which veggies are pre-washed and which ones need to be washed before consumption. The sugar snap peas are ones that still need to be washed.

Grape Tomatoes

Costco’s grape tomatoes are another easy, no-cook vegetable. Technically, grapes are actually a fruit, but since they’re not that sweet, I’ll keep them in the veggies section. This might seem weird, but growing up, my family and I ate tomatoes with salt. Sometimes, I’ll go through periods where I eat three or four large tomatoes or a big batch of grape tomatoes with salt a day. It really fills you up and has minimal amounts of calories.

2. Fruit

Costco is my absolute favorite place to buy fruit. I find the freshest fruit there, and there’s just enough of a selection to keep it interesting. The favorites in our household are: blueberries, blackberries, grapes, watermelon, clementines, peaches, bananas, and oranges.

I’m spoiled because my mother-in-law will wash our fruit for us throughout the week while she’s watching Missy Jo. If you don’t have the time or energy to do that, buy the pre-cut fruit tray that has cantaloupe, pineapple, strawberries, watermelon, and grapes. There’s a second fruit tray that also has mango and kiwi in it. The price is so affordable, that you’re really just paying a small amount for Costco to do the prep for you.

In addition, Costco sells apple slices in individual bags. These are a great healthy kid-friendly treat when you’re on-the-go!

3. Cheese

One of my favorite kid-friendly Costco snacks is cheese! We get the individually packaged string cheese and the Babybel round cheeses wrapped in wax. Missy Jo loves peeling the wrapper and wax off of the Babybel cheeses herself, so she’s always asking for these. Also, Costco sells both the red ones (regular) and blue ones (light).

After weaning Missy Jo from the baby bottle at 20 months give or take, she is much less interested in drinking milk. So, it makes me feel better that she is getting her needed calcium by eating cheese. In the summer, I’ll take her cheese on the go by sticking it in a lunch bag with an ice pack in it.

4. Pre-Boiled Eggs

Before I got my Dash Egg Cooker, I bought these pre-boiled eggs at Costco all the time! Eggs are an amazing source of protein and there’s all kinds of nutrients in the yolk. They’re also extremely versatile. With the extras, you can make egg salad, soy sauce eggs, deviled eggs, and the list goes on!

5. Yogurt

Another one of my favorite Costco snacks for kids is the Stonyfield Organic YoKids Squeezers organic yogurt tubes. This is the organic version of Go-Gurt. Each tube still has a little more sugar than I prefer (8g) but it’s also another good source of calcium. Even better, I put them in the freezer and the kids eat them like popsicles.

6. Dried Mangos

Costco offers two different kinds of dried mangos. One with added sugar, and one without. Of course, I always buy the Costco snacks without added sugar if possible. I love it when I look at the ingredients list, and all I see is one ingredient: dried mangoes. Don’t get me wrong though. The no-sugar-added mangoes still have a lot of natural sugar, so you wouldn’t want to give your kids free reign on them. The other great thing though, these mangoes are also unsulfured.

Jo Jr. loves these so much, I give them to him as a treat in place of fruit snacks or candy.

7. Nuts

Hopefully, your kids don’t have nut allergies. If they don’t, peanuts, almonds, cashews, pistachios and other nuts are great sources of protein. They’re also much more filling than crackers or chips. I’ll buy the organic Sun-Maid raisins at Costco and put them together with the nuts. Then, I can make my own “trail mix” where I can control the amount of sugar. In other words, I’ll give a higher nut to dried fruit ratio.

8. Sargento Balanced Breaks

On a per serving basis, these Sargento dried fruit, nut, and cheese snacks are on the expensive side. However, when you’re in a rush, they do come in handy. My son, Jo Jr., likes to have a snack in the car on the way home from daycare. If I don’t have time to wash fruit, I’ll grab one of these snack packs and bring it with me.

9. Chia Squeeze Pouches

These squeeze pouches with blackberry, carrots, and chia seeds are even better than applesauce or fruit and veggie pouches. Why you ask? Because of the sugar content! Each pouch only has 6 grams of sugar. If you compare with other baby food pouches, those can have anywhere from 9 to 14 grams per pouch!

9 to 14 grams of sugar may not sound like that much to us adults, but for a toddler who is 1/4 of your weight, that’s like giving them 36 to 56 grams of sugar in just one snack! Yikes!!

10. Moon Cheese

Oh my goodness y’all, moon cheese is the best thing since sliced bread. It’s made with just cheddar cheese, and they somehow make it super crunchy and shelf stable. In other words, it’s a great cheese snack that doesn’t need to be refrigerated. It’s also freaking delicious! Importantly, since it is cheese, it is high in fat content. So, don’t eat the whole bag yourself even though you will be tempted to do so!

You might be interested in reading my article on Healthier Food Choices: The Consequence of My Slowing Metabolism

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