and it actaully has some value as a food

I would doubt they would consider muffins a sweet but I guess you won't know unless you ask.

I tryto go with healthy snacks for my kids and they ate them OK. Peanutbutter finger sandwiches work well and if you want you can make them very healthy. My daughter likes carrot sticks and strawberries.

Trail mix usually goes over well and if you have a sprouts or other grocie store that sells a lot of bulf food you can get a pretty good selection and you cna even let them sample at most stores. A lot of them do have m&m sytle candy though.