Snack Ideas

Quick, healthy and filling snacks:

·         Nut butter and apple wedges for dipping makes an instant and very nourishing mid-morning or mid-afternoon (or midnight!) snack. A few tablespoons of nut butter (almond, peanut, sesame, etc.) are complemented perfectly by the tart-sweet-crisp-juicy apple (carrot sticks are ok but they just don’t have the tart component). For a particularly tasty treat try adding 1 part honey or syrup to 2 parts plain sesame or flax seed butter.

·         Plain yogurt with a drizzle of maple syrup or molasses; fruit or berries optional.

·         Fresh fruit and a small handful of nuts or seeds (pre-soaked is best)

·         Smoothie

·         Whole grain toast with butter or alternative and brown sugar or molasses or a bit of jam

·         Hummus with bread, crackers or raw vegetable sticks (carrots, bell peppers, celery, zucchini, cucumber, etc.)

·         Edamame! Boil these shelled or unshelled green soybeans for a few minutes, right out of the freezer. Warning: these may tempt you to grab a beer.

·         Sprouts; by themselves or in a salad

·         Baked potato or yam in jacket (scrub well, do not peel and microwave for 5 minutes). Enjoy with butter, yogurt, hummus, tofu dressing, sprouts or Indian relish

·         Small bowl of re-heated rice with pickles or sea vegetables & tea.

·         Quick quesadilla. If you have tortillas, mashed beans, grated cheese and salsa/chili sauce on hand you can throw together this small meal or hearty snack on a skillet or microwave in under 3 minutes.

·         Instant fried tomato feast: You want and warm and savory snack and there are fresh tomatoes, herbs and bread in the kitchen… Heat up some olive oil and toss in a minced garlic clove (optional) followed by 2 chopped tomatoes. While the tomatoes are frying (about 2 minutes) chop up a healthy handful of fresh herbs (parsley, basil or cilantro) and add to the tomatoes with a pinch of salt, frying for another minute before removing from the stove. Mop up this goodness with thick slices of bread. If you’re especially hungry, warm up some cooked beans too.

·         Air popped popcorn (get a bag of popping corn and a popper for $25 and you’ll be way ahead in terms of costs and health vs. buying just 5 boxes of microwave popcorn or 10 bags of already popped corn). My favorite way of adding a ton of unami flavor to home-made popcorn is with an oil mister/cooking spray, soy sauce or Bragg’s liquid aminos spray bottle, and a sprinkling of nutritional yeast flakes or toasted sesame seeds. Once you have a basic way of getting flavor to stick to your popcorn (with an oil mister and salt powder or salt/soy sauce spray) you can experiment with any of your favorite herbs and spices (e.g. smoked paprika and/or cumin; dry thyme and parmesan or nutritional yeast). For a sweet version try sprinkling on powdered sugar and cinnamon onto oil or butter misted popcorn.