Healthy Snacks Don’t Need To Be An Oxymoron Revisited

By rkutchjm on July 19, 2013 • ( 0 )

There was a survey conducted in 2012 by a research group called Hartman Group in the state of Washington.

Have the link for the article available here:

Results showed over 90% of the United States snack daily. We take in on the average of 500 extra calories per day just on snacks. The most popular snacks contain loads of sugar, salt and fat. This is part of the reason for the high amount of obesity in the U.S.

Healthy Protein Snacks:

Roast a chicken or turkey. Then cut it up in easy to consume pieces.

Boil, grill or sauté shrimp and cut them up. Use toothpicks and make a dipping sauce out of soy, garlic, pineapple and ginger.

You can do more than just cut up a bunch of celery or carrot sticks. Turn your night of snacking upside down with these little Saccharomyces Cerevisiae. Another name for:

1. Nutritional Yeast

Use this yeast as a nutritional condiment to top off your air-popped popcorn. It has a nutty, cheesy taste. You can always buy the healthiest microwave popcorn and then thrown this yeast on with little added cayenne for a nice kick in your mouth. You can find the yeast at the:

2. NUTS

One Ounce Displayed

Use unsalted walnuts, almonds, pine and any other nuts. If you want a lot of added flavor, kick it up by toasting the nuts.

Walnuts, about 1 minute in the microwave, spread equally around the dish.

For other types of nuts you can either toast them on the skillet or in the oven.

In the skillet, make sure they are all about the same size. Then, on medium-high heat, shake or stir nuts constantly for about 5-7 minutes. Look for the golden color.

In the oven, first preheat to 400 degrees. Then spread around the nuts in a single layer roast nuts on the roasting dish for 7-10 minutes till golden brown.

Watch your quantities because 1 ounce tops 200 calories.

3. Frozen Fruit

Eating an apple or an orange is just plain boring. It just seems a lot better if they are all cut up on a dish waiting to be consumed by you. Love a plate of cut apples, oranges, kiwi, and banana. But to make it even more fun, it’s so nice to have a snack that incorporates frozen fruit. Here are the best fruits to freeze:

A. Grapes

B. Oranges

C. Bananas

D. Kiwi

E. Pineapple

F. Berry Fruits

The trick is cutting up everything in small pieces before freezing, except for the grapes. The grapes need to be washed, dried and laid out on waxed paper before freezing.

An option to make the snack even cooler is to kebab the fruit on wooden sticks before freezing. An alternate, is melting dark chocolate, and dipping either the fruit or kebab before freezing on wax paper.

Skewer a peeled banana, then roll in melted dark chocolate, cover in nuts and freeze. Great treat to make smiles appear everywhere.

4. Crackers And Cheese

There are 10 or more varieties of Wasa flatbread crackers or any other whole wheat cracker in your supermarket. Put them together with a spread/slice of low-fat cheese with whole fruit preserves. This is very filling, healthy and delicious.

5. Melba Crackers W/Salmon Or Tuna

6. Triscuits

My personal favorite all time snack. I can put anything and everything on this whole wheat cracker. Always searching the markets for the “Hint of Salt” variety box, because I love the taste. That variety is hard to find and usually sold out. The “Reduced Fat” variety is also very good.