The Snack Dilemma

My kids are both in grade school. Moving from being homeschooled until last February to public school for this whole year. Food there is a real problem, I have never seen more nutrionless offering than the school lunches, thankfully easily fixed by making them take their lunches.

Snacks however has become a problem for me because I have not been cooking and baking as much while I have been sick. They want to take crackers and stuff that is all carbs, and I put my foot down - for their snack at school in the morning they have to have balanced foods, ot be able to function thinka nd not get sugar hyperactivity. So since I am not cooking what do I send?

My favorite (but not theirs LOL) is raw almonds and organic raisins in a nice cute little snack bag. But as much as I love this snack even I would get tired of it 5 days a week. I am currently looking for good easy ideas for a kids snack and have come up with a few:

Almonds and raisins
Carrots and PB (throw in a little raw honey into natural PB)
Celery stuffed with PB with some natural coconut on top to keep the PB from smearing all over the baggie
Compromise foods ( not perfect whole food goodness but better than goldfish crackers and pop-tarts):
Organic granola bars (min 4g protein)
Sweet and salty nut bars
Packaged trail mix
Crackers (preferably whole wheat all natural) and Cheese (also whole and organic if I can afford it which is not often right now).

When I find myself getting too caught up in them having the perfect snack - I ask my kids what they want and I get choruses of Poptarts/goldfish crackers/sugar filled cereal bars etc. And I feel better because I really believe that every little bit counts and I am sending healthier food than they would pick on their own!

I guess it is just the small steps that work with this way or learning to eat naturally. I look for stuff with whole ingredients, no MSG or soy, and as little sugar/cornsyrup and white flour as possible.

So if any of you have any quick and easy whole food snacks that work good for kids at school (can't be refrigerated or heated) feel free to send them my way. I also swap these in and out for lunch stuff too.