Favourite healthy snacks?
 

As I mentioned in my introduction post, I struggle with snacking. I tend to reach for unhealthy snacks - I'm solving the problem by keeping the rubbish out of the house ... and I have lots of low calorie snacks which I enjoy, but I'm getting bored with them. So I'm looking for new ideas!

What are your favourites?

I don't have low calorie snacks. In fact I tend not to "snack" too much but eat 6 small meals a day, so I suppose the ones that fall between traditional meal times could be called snacks.

If I'm hungry outside of those times I'll usually eat an apple or a bit of fruit to keep me going. Also an oat cracker with all natural peanut butter on. Or a handful of nuts, I also like dates too.

As for mini-meal snacks - 1 slice of bread with 5 slices of deli turkey on it, porridge (oatmeal) with an egg whipped in and some fruit, turkey and hummus, goat's cheese and some fruit, low fat mozzarella, protein shake, malt loaf (for between kickboxing classes), chicken in a pitta with lettuce, cottage cheese on toast, cottage cheese with raisins, oats and cinnamon and all sorts of other proteiny goodness! :)

I eat 5-6 mini meals also...My favs for mid afternoon or morning is 1/2c cottage cheese with fruit, mango, strawberries, blueberries... I don't limit myself to the usual snacks for example I just had at 10am chickpeas and tuna :shrug: what the heck I was :hun:... After I workout I like a protein shake with a fruit either a banana, or frozen berries...I also like celery and peanut butter but I can OVER eat peanut butter very easily...I alos like adding yogurt to my cottage cheese and fruit, sounds funny but it really is very good...

Like 2frustrated and Ilene, I would recommend fruit...because it's tangible. You can have one pear, or one apple or banana or whatever and it's easy to measure. I'd also recommend yogurt (personally, I get ones that are 50 calories per serving) as it's again -- easy to measure. Veggies already washed and placed into little bags are good too. Or a bowl of cereal with skim milk and a cereal that's either really high in fiber (to fill you up) or really low in calories (like puffed wheat/rice). Oh, and if you like pickles, you can have a rather generously sized dill pickle for about 8 calories. I also like ricecakes (only 35 calories for the ones I buy) with peanut butter. But you can also get flavoured ricecakes (like caramel, or chocolate chip, or tomato basil) for about 55 calories and they are tasty on their own.

For snacking I find it best to have foods that have clear stopping points -- not like digging into a bag of chips or a box of crackers where the stopping point could be when the box is finished. IMO, what does a person really eat when they're finished eating an apple? Maybe another apple? If they really want another, then that's ok, apples are good. :shrug:

My favorite healthy snacks:

1 apple
1 tangelo
1 yogurt (ff Fage with 1/2 frozen banana whipped in)
6 Triscuits with 1 wedge Laughing Cow Lite cheese
1 Kashi roll (kind of like a Payday candy bar)
1 baggie of cut up carrots, celery and sugar peas (about 1.5 cups total)
1/4 cup nuts

I usually pre-bag the loose things (like the crackers, nuts and veggies) and take them to work rather than bringing in the whole box. I keep a few at my desk or in the fridge to eat when needed.

canned green beans, orville redenbachers smart popcorn, canned mandarin oranges, string cheese, granola bar...

I've just discovered Boost smoothies on a stick - it's an icy pole (I'm trying to remember the American word for icy pole ... is it icy lolly? popsicle?)

Anyway, they're 97% fat free - they're made from yoghurt and fruit. No preservatives, added sugar or colouring. Yum.

I'm not a fan of rice cakes, but I do like corn thins - I usually have them with some tomato, basil and a tiny bit of grated cheese. Or vegemite - love my vegemite!

I've got snow peas growing in my garden at the moment - I've been snacking on them a lot.

I honestly get a bit sick of fruit - I like it, but when it's all I snack on, I find it a chore to eat it. I don't like having that mindset with regards to healthy food, so I'm not eating much at the moment (I usually try to have 2 serves a day - I find if I have more than 3 or 4 pieces I'm consuming too much sugar - and even though it's natural sugar, it's still high in calories).

I read somewhere about someone who snacked on 1/4 cup endamame and a mozzarella stick....tried it yesterday and it really filled me up for a few hours. Had precooked the endamame at home and just warmed it up in the work microwave.

What is endamame?

they're a type of bean...they're green. and sorta look like peapods. they're tasty.

Edamame are the soy beans themselves... I have some frozen I must try it or they'll go bad ....

They shouldn't go bad if they're frozen. I keep a bunch in my freezer and then throw them in boiling water for a min or two and then drain and sprinkle with a little kosher or sea salt...so tasty

I'm currently snacking on purple peas from my garden! Yummmmmm.

Originally Posted by Ilene:
Edamame are the soy beans themselves... I have some frozen I must try it or they'll go bad ....

Oh I loveeeeee edamame! Yeah I hate how they go bad quickly...

as for a healthy snack, I always like whole dill pickles. They probably have a bunch of sodium in them.... but they're like 12 calories, they take a while to eat, and they're delicious!