YES we want snacks.
Snacks can do a lot of things for you, when done right.
From adding extra nutrients to your day to just adding to your “joie de vivre“*, snacks can be an important part of your daily calories. BUT, we don’t want to do great all day just to derail ourselves at night when we want, “I don’t know, something…“
These snacks here will not derail you! However, they do add extra calories (and extra nutrition) so indulge mindfully.
If you’re in a hurry and you need a QUICK FIX snack – Jump down to “Non-Cooks”
SWEET
I LOVE cookies. They are probably my second favorite food, after Nuttzo!
These cookies are somewhat guilt-free. They won’t damage your blood sugar levels, they aren’t inflammatory and they have ingredients that can add to your nutrition. If it wasn’t for the extra calories, they’d be the perfect food.
The 2 oatmeal cookies are very similar but they have small differences
Can you tell I like chocolate? If you want more dessert recipes, head over to my recipe listing.
SAVORY
When you need a little extra something in the afternoon to get you to dinner… these savory snacks can come in handy. Some of them are sauces that we saw on our dinner page and some of them are items that appeared on lunch. So you know they’re healthy and nutritious if we’re showing them twice!
These can be eaten with the crackers as shown, or another HEALTHY cracker of your choice (see Non-cook) – OR – To up your phytonutrients and antioxidants even further, pair them with veggies: Sliced carrots; celery stalks; zucchini or cucumber rounds; endive or other lettuce leaves… the possibilities are ENDLESS.
NON-COOKS
There are so many non-cook options for snacks. BUT be careful. What looks and tastes delicious in the store could be your worst enemy.
Great options for savory snacks are –
Celery sticks and organic nut butter.
Veggies and store-bought hummus – Baba Hummus at Whole Foods is made with good ingredients. Olive oil and no citric acid. Good option!
Olives in olive oil and and herbs/spices with some healthy crackers.
And speaking of crackers – Whole Foods has these whole wheat crackers that are not bad. Mary’s Gone Crackers (GF) at Whole Foods (and I’m sure other stores) are a good option. Trader Joe’s has seed crackers that are very good. Their Norwegian Crispbread crackers are good but they are NOT gluten-free, if that’s important to you. BE CAREFUL, they have another version of this same cracker, looks very similar, and it IS gluten-free, but it has canola oil in it, so you don’t want that. Another organic, gluten-free, seed cracker at Trader Joe’s is their Organic Seedy Crackers.
Sprouts (and Whole Foods and probably Ralphs, Albertsons, etc) has a gluten-free tortilla chip called Siete. They have good ingredients and are well made. You don’t have to be gluten-free to enjoy them. They are very good.
Trader Joe’s has a nice air-popped popcorn that has olive oil added AFTER it’s been popped and sprinkled with sea salt. It’s called Organic Popcorn with Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil and it comes in a green package. They are NOT showing it on their website, so I hope it’s not being discontinued. My second favorite is Lesser Evil Organic Himalayan Sea Salt at Sprouts (and I’m sure many other markets.) When I’m having an oil, I’d rather have olive oil than coconut oil, but it is still better than most products on the market. I usually just pop my own in my air-popper, but that IS a bit more of a deal than just opening a bag!
Sweet Snacks
Well, there isn’t enough room on a page to talk about all of the sweet snacks available to us. BUT, most of them are NOT what you want.
A great sweet snack is an apple sliced with organic nut butter and sprinkled with cinnamon.
A handful of (dry-roasted or raw, organic) almonds and organic raisins will always hit the spot.
A date, stuffed with (dry-roasted or raw, organic) almonds is a surprisingly satisfying treat. Also, you can try it with nut butter. I like the contrast of the crunchy nut and the soft date better than nut butter, but they’re both good.
I have found a couple of cookie brands that I like (because remember, I LOVE cookies.) I found these at Sprouts – Simple Mills Crunchy Almond Flour Double Chocolate and Siete Mexican Wedding Grain Free. Both of these brands have additional choices in cookies and I haven’t seen any that I don’t like the ingredients. I haven’t tried the Siete, but I have tried the Simple Mills. They can also be found at other stores.
*Joie de vivre is your delight in simply living your life
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To Life - To Health 