Thanks for all of your supportive comments on my morning post! To me, cleaning up my diet means eating less of the unhealthy stuff and eating more of the nutritious stuff. I find that if I eat well-balanced snacks and meals, I actually don’t crave sweets (and other junk food) as much.
With that said, I’m going to try to incorporate more healthy snacks into my diet. At the Dole Healthy Lifestyle Blogger Summit, we learned that Dole provides free fruit and veggie snacks to their employees every day of the work week. They have fruit in the morning and veggies in the afternoon. I think this is a really neat idea and a fantastic way to add more nutrients to my diet, so I’m going to eat a couple of fruit- and veggie-based snacks each day.
Here’s the list of snack ideas that I made for myself:
- Hummus + veggies
- Fruit + cheese
- Greek yogurt + berries
- Hardboiled egg + veggies
- Banana + nut butter
- Fruit + handful of nuts
- Celery + peanut butter
- Soy milk latte
- Greek yogurt mixed with pumpkin + cinnamon
- Banana Bread Smoothie
- Gingerbread Smoothie
- Pumpkin Pie Smoothie
- Sweet Potato Pie Smoothie
- Roasted chickpeas + veggies
- Canned tuna with relish, mustard + veggies
- Apple Pear Salad
- Feta-Walnut Stuffed Cucumbers
- Honey-Roasted Root Vegetables
- Lemon-Glazed Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Bananas
- Sweet Potato Fries
I don’t really have a specific portion size in mind for my snacks””I’ll probably just base their size on my level of hunger and my activities for the day””but if you’re looking for more concrete nutritional targets, Real Simple offered these guidelines for snacking in their September issue, which I thought look helpful:
About 200 calories: This is enough to keep your metabolism humming, says Bethany Thayer, a registered dietitian in Detroit.
At least 3 grams of fiber: Fiber is digested slowly and helps sustain your energy. It also absorbs water and expands in your stomach to keep you full.
At least 5 grams of protein: “Protein releases a hormone in the body that increases satiety,” says Elisa Zied, a registered dietitian in New York City.
No more than 12 grams of fat: This will help ensure that you don’t get more than 20 to 35 percent of your daily calories from fat, which is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recommendation.
What are your favorite healthy snacks? I’d love some more ideas!
Snack
Speaking of snacks, here’s the one that I ate mid-morning: arugula with grape tomatoes, crumbled feta, and leftover balsamic-mustard dressing. Hooray for veggies!
Lunch
A couple of hours later, I made lunch: Spicy Rice Quinoa Soup.
With a side of roasted broccoli and some Kashi TLC Fire Roasted Vegetable crackers.
After lunch, I whipped up a homemade mocha with Starbucks French Roast coffee, hot chocolate, and soy milk.
Mmm”¦ the perfect sweet treat in just seconds!
Snack
CrossFit is on the agenda for this evening, so I’m fueling up with peanut butter and banana slices on a whole wheat Sandwich Thin right now.
mypressi TWIST Espresso Machine Giveaway
Hopefully, you guys aren’t sick of the giveaways on CNC because here’s another one!
Tomorrow, OpenSky is offering a deal on the mypressi TWIST Espresso Machine, so they want to drum-up excitement by giving away one on my blog this afternoon! If you’d like to enter, just click over to this post and leave a comment!
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Off to walk the pug! See ya!
Great ideas for snacks! One of my favorites is raw cashews with strawberries. Sounds weird until you try it! I am also a big fan of the salad-snack. I like salads but not as meals. As a light snack, its perfect!
~Ang
PS. The soup looks so delicious!
Is it bad that the only thing I can focus on from this post is that you have Keurig and I am insanely jealous? lol Didn’t even know they made Starbucks pods for Keurigs!
@Liz @ Tip Top Shape: They do! And they’re quite tasty! 🙂
That quinoa soup looks sooo good on a chilly day! I love your snack list, it’s always good for me to plan my snacks (so I don’t end up eating a pan of peanut butter popcorn like I did today!) Recent favorites are rice cakes+hummus+ cucumber slices or mini tortillas rolls w/ banana+sunflowerbutter+pumpkin butter. Mmmm
When I give myself “permission” to snack, I find I’m much more moderate. The minute I try to set up “rules,” I get all sugar-snack-monsterish. It’s such a hard balance to strike! I wish you luck. I just signed up for CrossFit too, but my classes don’t start until January 3rd! I am PSYCHED. When I was living elsewhere, I took an amaaazing class similar to CrossFit, and it changed my body. Now I just run, run, run, and the body stays the same. Change is good, I hear.
One of my favorite cold weather snacks Is warmed apples and raisins tossed w/ a sliver of butter and tossed in cinnamon- sugar and topped with or mixed in Greek yogurt. Tastes like a mini apple pie. Yum!
Great snack ideas! My favorite is greek yogurt with blueberries, a touch of stevia, and a tablespoon of shredded & dried coconut flakes…yum!!
My fav and food I am completely addicted to is hummus w/veggies. I love hummus, I eat with tortilla chips, carrots, and anything crunchy.
Do you like the Fire Roasted crackers? I’ve had them a bunch and they taste a bit like cardboard…sadly I still add them to soups our crumbled on salads just because they’re there.
@Alyssa: I agree, they’re a little cardboard-y, but I like the flavor a lot. They have kind of a kick to them!
I like to mix a bit of light ricotta with canned pumpkin, spices and stevia and dip apple or pear slices in it…yum!
Hey there! Well I have set up my blog – not to great so far! It is pretty plain so far…..I am sure it will get better. Just wanted to let you know. I am trying to get people there to see so I posted on Facebook. Thanks for your support!
@Peggi: Nice! Congrats! I’ll check it out! 🙂
I also tend to base my snacks around fruit/veg and then add in a side of carb/protein depending on what I am feeling! I love smoothies or Greek yogurt with fruit & nuts as both feel like a substantial snack! Another one I am loving these days is chocolate soy milk heated up as a bed time snack”¦it lasts quite a well and definitely hits my chocolate craving!
Thanks for listing out your fruit and veggie snack ideas, it gives me a go to list for when I have a snack attack. Also, your arugula salad is making me hungry – it think it is time to go to the store and buy some arugula!
2 minute Oatbran pancakes are an amazing snack. Mix made with: 1 egg white (or whole egg), 1 TBSP of oat bran and half a banana. I eat these with quark and berries. Very quick, low cal, energizing snack which is protein rich and full of fiber! I have some pics on my blog somewhere…
@Nicola: Mmm! I need to start buying oatbran again. Thanks for the reminder! 🙂
@Tina: I’m bringing oatbran back!
Found them: http://www.thedailycalorie.com/2/post/2011/07/check-out-my-stack.html
@Nicola: Awesome! Thanks!
Thanks so much for posting this list of healthy snacks! I’ve actually been trying to think of healthier versions of snacks because I NEED to have a snack between lunch and dinner or I’m so famished that I overeat at dinner. Since I, too, am trying to clean up my diet (in preparation for pregnancy, hopefully!) this is awesome.
I’ll just pretend I didn’t have hot chocolate, chocolate covered pretzels, and chocolate covered thin mints for dinner last night and fall asleep at 5:30pm. And sleep until 6:30 this morning. Haha! One step at a time, I guess 🙂
Can’t wait to try that pumpkin pie smoothie you listed as a snack!! I’m on such a huge pumpkin kick lately, and am trying to find healthy ways to consume it! (pies and lattes don’t really count!)
@Kait: It’s so good! Def try it! 🙂
That’s a great list of snack ideas! Thanks for sharing. I also have an off topic question – I’m planning my first trip to Boston for Easter weekend. Can you please tell me if when stores will be closed over the weekend? Where I’m from stores are closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. If stores are closed, would other more touristy places be closed as well, like Quincy market or the Boston aquarium?
@Laura: I’m not sure. It just depends on the store. I’d call ahead to see if they’re open.
Thanks!
You covered most of my fav snacks, but one that I really love is 2 rice cakes with a little bit of peanut butter or preserves spread on them! Yum 🙂
I love to take half a whole wheat tortilla, spread with a tablespoon of peanut or almond butter and top with thinly sliced apple (or sometimes I sub dates or raisins). It totally fills me up until dinner!
Great post! My favorite snack is banana with peanut butter spread on it – I call it a “Slippy Slide”. I just did a cute strawberry holiday snack today see:
http://www.snack-girl.com/snack/low-calorie-holiday-treat/
Recently, a friend brought the best snack on a ski trip…dates filled with almond butter. They’re delicious and would also make a great healthy dessert. I also like just shoving a couple of almonds inside a pitted date as a quick snack.
nuts are my go-to snack. and carrots or crackers with homemade hummus. mmm.
raw nuts are my go-to snack, but I have to portion them out or I can easily eat a whole bag in a couple days. carrots or crackers with homemade hummus and apples or bananas with nut-butter are other favorites. I also like the odwalla protein smoothies when I’m out and about and unprepared for hunger pangs. mmm.
I loveee cottage cheese [or Greek yogurt] mixed with a little TJ’s Apple Butter [or any jelly] topped with Peanut Butter Puffins 😀 Egg whites and popcorn are also some fave snacks- they hold me over for a long time between meals…
Workout early helps me to stay healthy the rest of the day!