Can I have some of your favorite snack ideas?

[Jodi]

This should probably be in the nutirition area, but since I currently spend 90 percent of my time in the NROL4W area...I want to put it here. In light of my recent confession of being a twinkie eater...I want to hear some of your favorite snack ideas. I tend to rely on the same old snacks that get really boring.

I'm specifically looking for ideas for the mini-meal that a lot of us eat inbetween our main meals. Snacks I currently eat, which I tend to eat all the time are:

Apples and string cheese.
LF Yogurt with a bit of high-protein granola.
Fruit and cottage cheese.

I'd really like some new ideas!

Jodi

[LisaS]

celery, peppers, chicken strips & guacamole (and by chicken strips - this is plain left over chicken breast just sliced into strips for easy finger food)

lettuce leaf, roast beef slices, spread with a little cream cheese & pepperocini (or other pickled/hot peppers) then rolled up. I also get a premade habanero cheese dip/spread (Goldy's brand) and use that sometimes. mmm.

chicken leg (what can I say, I'm a simple gal)

[karenmc6]

celery with pb (& raisins when not in tnt stage 1)
celery with cream cheese
nuts
homemade eggnog (eggs, cream, vanilla & splenda - you can always use egg substitute if you're not into the raw eggs)
pita with hummus & veggies
apple & pb or cheese
hardboiled eggs
pb toast
grilled cheese
homemade granola or trail mix
yogurt & granola
quiche or other leftovers
homemade soup - generally tomato based that i almost always have made up
nuts & dried fruit
pita roll-ups with cream cheese & veggies
deli turkey or ham roll-ups with cream cheese & chives

just looking through my food log for the past month or so...

[Cynic]

Beef jerky + nuts + apple/fruit.
Yogurt + nat + salad.

[LisaS]

tuna in the little cans
on the weekend when I'm home an afternoon mini-meal is likely to be:
cheese & peppers
cheese & a little salami or sausage
mixed tree nuts (carefully portioned) & celery
quick caprese -- mozzarella, tiny tomatoes, basil with O&V
Greek salad - peppers, cukes, red onion, tomato, olives, capers, feta with O&V
1/2 of a chicken quesadilla on a LC tortilla

[nutbar]

My breakfast would make a good snack: 1 whole wheat "carb balance" tortilla, with some turkey and/or a scant bit of cheese. (Even better with veggies on top but, then again, everything is better with veggies on top!)

Then there's my beloved smoothies: banana, nonfat (or lowfat, depending on what I'm doing) yogurt, whey protein, and berries. I need to work on getting peanut butter into some of my smoothies, due to my brand spankin' new taste for peanut butter.

Chicken breast (boneless, skinless) on the Foreman grill, topped with a sprinkling of part-skim mozzarella, further topped with mushrooms and tomatoes, maybe some olives if you want even more calories. (I had this for dinner tonight -- YUM!)

Greens & veggie salads -- I'm a salad freak so I can eat salads any time. Mix a scoop of whey into a vinaigrette and it makes it Caesar-like.

Handful of walnuts.

Lately, a banana and a TBL of peanut butter.

Handful of raw oatmeal. (I've done this since I was a kid.)

Ooh, handful of raw oatmeal, mixed with a spoonful of peanut butter sounds good! I gotta check the nutrition stats on that! LOL

[Cynic]

For the sweet tooth:

1/4cp heavy cream.
1/4cp fruit or berries (raspberries work well).
1pkt splenda.

Puree the fruit/berries.

Whip up the cream.

Blend in the fruit.

Add 1 pkt of splenda.

It's a nice, low-carb treat to sooth the sweet tooth.

Should be ok for the second stage of TNT, but I can't be certain. It was good for phase II of atkins.

I suspect cherries would be really good for this, and probably not need splenda.

[Jodi]

Thank you so much, great ideas!!!!

[LaraT]

1. hummus and raw veggies
2. apple slices with 1 TBL of raw almond butter or peanut butter (natural)
3. Fage Greek Yogurt with 2 TBSP of Ezekiel Food for Life 4:9 Original Cereal (sprouted whole grain cereal, texture of grapenuts but no additives) and/or berries
4. small bowl of oatmeal w/whey powder

For those of you not familiar with Fage Greek Yogurt I HIGHLY recommend it. Greek yogurt is strained, so very thick almost like sour cream consistency. Look for the fat free or 2% versions (full fat has like 20 gr fat) It is super high in protein, like 18 grams for a 1 cup serving. No flavors, sweeteners, thickeners, additives, etc.

[DanceDiva]

LaraT: Is Greek Yogurt tart?

[LisaS]

not LaraT but - yes, good Greek yogurt is tart and thick

[DanceDiva]

Thanks LisaS. You know you've been a good source of info for me

[LaraT]

It is tart, I like to add a bit of honey or agave nectar to it (not a fan of artificial sweeteners) It is also delicious with some almond butter. Yum. I eat it almost every day and miss it when I don't. It is my crack.

[rixatrix]

A small handful of almonds with an apple
Cottage cheese with pineapple
Cottage cheese with cut up apple + cinnamon + Splenda
Hardboiled egg whites and fruit
Apple and TB of natural peanut butter

I'm lazy about snacks and like to just have things that are self-contained (apples, oranges, eggs). For meals though, lately I've been making the adobo-rubbed pork and pico de gallo from Tosca Reno's Eat Clean Diet - only I use chicken instead. It's so delicious, I've been making extra pico de gallo to put on everything. Sometimes I just eat it with a fork right out of the tupperware.

It's tomatoes, onions, green onions, black beans, fresh cilantro, lemon juice, chili powder and salt. AMAZING. I'll make a really thin crepe-like omelette and roll some pico de gallo up in it for breakfast.

Tosca Reno's diet book and cook book are generally just really flavorful, and it's all clean, whole foods. I'm going off on a tangent now...suddenly I've made myself hungry. It's not hard these days!

[MightyAl]

• Cottage cheese with diced avocado, flax meal & stevia or sweetner of choice. Mix it all up and enjoy.
• Brocolli slaw(packaged shredded brocolli) with hummus & handful of nuts. Mixed together like salad. Sometimes if I'm really hungry, I'll add a tofu veggie burger to this.
• Carrots with almond butter. Satisfies a sweets craving!

[RedWifey]

Cass's rice cake snack in the book is to die for IMO.

[Aoife]

whole wheat wrap with some nut butter spread along the inside. then use it to roll up either a banana (pealed, of course) or apple slices. yum.

veggies in some sour cream
fruit in cool whip (barely any cals) or cream cheese
both of which would also prolly be pretty awsum in a wrap.

[LWilson212]

Hi Jodi-

It sounds to me like you are on the right track with thinking of a snack more like the mini meal. That is what helped me shift away from sugary carby stuff.

cottage cheese w/raisins and honey-roasted slivered almonds is my favorite

frozen diet meal (lots of them are only 300 cals or less and fairly balanced macros)

1/2 of whatever I had for lunch - this lets me eat something higher calorie / more indulgent sometimes

cans of tuna w/lite mayo and hot sauce

hard boiled eggs

mixed nuts and raisins or fruit

protein shakes and smoothies

[rem1956]

How about low fat turkey bacon and/or pepperoni
triscot crackers with PB or cream cheese

Also I make salmon cakes...canned samon, a raw egg, spices, whole grain bread crumbled up, mixed together and form patties, then broil in toaster oven till done. Once they are cool, they can be eaten in your hand or on a cracker

also small pouches of tuna, tuna snack kits, bags of peanuts/sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds, small cans of chicken breast meat.

[kfisherx]

This IS the right way to go. My trainer for weeks would look at my food log and say, "Popcorn isn't a snack" I didn't get it because it is low in cals (only 100 in a package) and low in fat and has some protein and fiber. Now I get it. So now I drink a frozen fruit protein drink with my popcorn.

[Jodi]

Thanks for all the great ideas! I really appreciate it.



Jodi