Healthier Snacks

My go to lately has been homemade granola, and it is working out great for me. When you buy all of the ingredients I will admit that I was disappointed by the total, but then I got home and made my first batch only to realize that I had the ingredients to last me about a year so in the end I saved a lot. It is delicious, healthy and it goes great with some yogurt in the morning for a good breakfast.

 

My go to snack is popcorn, I got an air popper as a Christmas gift. I make my own cookies and muffins as a snack for the family. I make one hi fiber cookie that works very good for anyone that is having issues in the bathroom.

 

I definitely need to start making my healthy snacks at home, no doubt about it. Snacks are expensive where it is, healthy snacks are super expensive! If it has nuts, if it has no gluten, dried fruit, everything like that that is good for your health and has no added sugars and refined and chemical ingredients get way more expensive than what they already are! The best thing is trying to make things at home .

 

I think sometimes it is hard to snack healthy because when you think healthy you equate it with something that does not taste as good. I like to snack on cottage cheese with tomatoes or orange peppers. I like the orange instead of green or red bell peppers because they are sweeter. Almonds are another thing I like to snack on but not often because they can be expensive. I would like to try some of the recipes I have found on Pintrest. I think they would be better than store bought versions and the kids would have fun making them.

 

Not only for the nutrition but native snacks are far cheaper than those bought in the store. Right now our housemaid is boiling sweet potato. After taking off the rind and slicing it in pieces, the dip makes it very delicious. The simple dip for the boiled sweet potato is grated coconut with brown sugar and sesame seeds. And the drinks? No soda for now, just gelatin strips with syrup and vanilla flavoring. That can beat any hamburger and fries when it comes to cost and nutrition.

 

Those sound like interesting snacks @Corzhens. I love coconut, brown sugar and sesame seeds. I do sometimes have a small sweet potato as a snack, but never thought of making a dip like that for it. I usually just add a little butter, and sometimes salt/pepper.

I started a thread a while ago about making Ricotta cheese, in case anyone's interested in the recipe, so they can try it. I've been having it with fresh fruit for a snack or dessert, and occasionally will even have it for breakfast. Here's the

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, it's extremely easy to make.

@rz3300 I know what you mean about the up front costs to make the snack bars at home, it's just prohibitive for me right now. Nuts are especially expensive, and although I love them, I often have to forego them when I'm shopping, to stay on budget. I can see how long term it would be cost effective, because many of the store bought bars are expensive, but I can't get over that upfront cost hurdle right now.

There is a thread about homemade protein bars, as well, and I believe it has recipes, in case anyone's interested.

 

As I'm very restricted in what I can eat and can only eat totally natural foods made from scratch - I've always made my own and although snacking is not something that we do much of in my household - I'm never short of ideas when the need arises - as not only are there plenty of natural healthy foods that can very easily be made into tasty nutrient rich snacks - but as most of the ingredients are usually sitting in everybody's pantry’s - they're generally extremely inexpensive to make too.

For example

Fresh or dried fruits and vegetables - sliced or whole
Sweet/savory cookies and crackers
Olive oil potato chips
Roasted chickpeas with either a sweet or spicy coating
Bread Sticks and Cheese Straws
Chocolate dipped fruits and nuts
or a selection of
Crispy potato skin fries - either plain or in a wide range of flavors

The latter of which - are not only a totally delicious snack that resembles a cross between a french fry and a potato chip and one that almost always disappears in next to no time whenever I make them - but also one that costs virtually nothing to make - as they're generally made with the peels leftover - after peeling potatoes for making potato chips or mash.

 

I always get fruits and veggies and cut them up for the kids. They love it.
Otherwise, we also like to have salt sticks and chips to munch on.
You can take saltsticks and stick them in banana pieces. That's yummy, too.

 

I have heard that Jicama is a good snack. I have seen it periodically in the veggie aisle at the store, but have never tried it. I think I might buy one and try it. It is supposed to have a sweet taste and can be eaten raw or cooked. And it is supposed to be healthy, too.

 

Most people's concept of a snack is an oily sugared cake or some processed salty carb or meat product that is pleasing to the palate. Whether these are cheap or not is not relevant in the long run. This is because once a person takes them regularly, they develop a sweet tooth and it becomes hard to break the habit and maintaining the habit is where things get expensive. The most cost effective and healthy way of snacking is to limit yourself to veggies. There are not only cheap and healthy, but they are also fresh. My snack of choice in case I develop the tendency is the humble banana and groundnuts.

 

True, if you like eating healthy but less tasty food then you could just prepare them at home. But you can also buy cheaper snacks too like nuts and sunflower seeds. Although in all honesty, I prefer my snacks sweet, fatty and oily, lol.

 

I agree it's often more healthy to make your own snacks at home, but it's just so easy to buy Doritos or snack cakes or something and pig out at home. Right now there's a big bag of Doritos calling my name, but I have been able to resist. I also have fruit, but I'm so lazy that I don't feel like peeling an orange. Ugh I know it's terrible, but yeah when it comes to snacks I try to eat semi healthy ones like yogurt or granola bars.

 

I agree. Even if you start just deep frying vegetables at home and turning them into chips chances are you'll still end up with a healthier product since you aren't pumping the food with chemicals as the mass production factories do which is of course necessary for them. Even better you could research a lot of new healthy snacks that you don't even have to deep fry since nowadays people are sharing all their ideas online and there are even some great video tutorials out there and some of them don't really take up that much time or effort.

 

I do my best to make my own healthy snacks. A lot of time we have crackers and peanut butter for snacks. Homemade smoothies make great snacks as well. I like to do a platter with cheese cubes, crackers, pickles. Or for treats I'll freeze yogurt into popsicle moulds. Fruit dipped into chocolate or served on skewers is always a fun snack too. I try to not buy chips or soda to cut down on our family's intake of fats and sugar. For drinks I like to make our fizzy drinks. We'll do half 100% juice, usually pineapple or mango, and half club soda. It's refreshing and the kids like it better than Coke or Pepsi.

 

I try not to go with store bought snacks because they're often packaged as being healthy when we all know most of them are heavily leaden with hideous amounts of salts and sugars. I mean, take the 'health bars' that we all fell for for a very long time! So I try to opt mainly for fruit, veg and nuts most of the time. You can't go wrong with those. Over here we also have something called biltong, which is very much like beef jerky. Sometimes when I'm craving a salty snack, I grab a handful of that over a bag of crisps.

 

I am personally a big fan of some peanut butter on an apple or banana when I'm trying to be more health conscientious. It is an extremely filling snack and the healthy fat in the peanut butter will satisfy a lot of your craving. I would recommend a natural peanut butter instead of the regular though.

 

I tend to buy my snacks but i go for the cheaper kind. And i know they're not exactly healthy due to the fact that they are filled with sugar and other preservatives but they're delicious. I've always wanted to make my own health bar concoction but for some reason i keep forgetting. I think i'll definitely do that this weekend.