Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Snacks!

I'll admit it - I am just one of those people who loves to snack. I could easily eat snacks all day long instead of three main meals. But vegan snacking can be tricky - especially when you're on the go - so here are my top 6 favorites:

1. Nuts and Dried Fruit
Seriously cannot go wrong here. You're packing in the protein, the fruits satiate that craving you have for something sweet and this is totally portable. But here's the trick - experiment with combinations. It will blow your mind. I always start with a 1/2 cup measuring cup and fill it with varying combinations. I buy all my nuts and dried fruit in the bulk aisle at Whole Foods (don't buy trail mix - it's ridiculously expensive and I find that I eat more when it comes already mixed together!) - but here's the cost saving trick: compare the price per pound on the bulk bin to the price per pound on the packaged ones they have in the same aisle. Sometimes the packaged is cheaper! Here are some of my all time favorite combos:

Raw Almonds + Raw Pecans + Dried Sour Cherries + (vegan chocolate pieces if you really need chocolate)

Raw Almonds + Pepitas + Lightly Salted Sunflower Seeds + Dried Cranberries

Raw Cashews + Dried Blueberries + Hazelnuts

Pepitas + Lightly Salted Sunflower Seeds + Dried Cranberries + Pecans + Almond Slivers

2. Toast with Avocado and Flax Seed Oil
Ok, not so great for on the go but this is seriously one of my all time favorite snacks. I toast one slice of bread, then pour about a teaspoon of flax seed oil on it and spread it around, then I take some avocado (maybe a quarter) and I mash it on top of the bread and top it with some sea salt and freshly ground pepper. I just ate a slice...nom nom nom.

3. Fruit
No-brainer. Fruit's one of the most portable snacks you can find. Bananas, berries, and apples are my favorites because they're the least messy. I will never bring an unpeeled orange to work. NEVER. I can just see orange juice spraying all over the papers on my desk; squirting a co-worker in the eye. Temporary blindness! Yea, not happening.

4. Dates stuffed with Pistachio
Remember that detox J and I did last winter? This was one of my favorite snacks. Buy a container of pitted diglet dates from Whole Foods and raw pistachios. Put pistachios in a food processor and process the heck out of them. It becomes a sort of powdery-ish pistachio paste. Slice the dates open, stuff them with the pistachio paste and top it with some unsweetened shredded coconut. I have an extreme sweet tooth as you may have guessed (after all, I am a baker) and this totally does the trick when I'm going out of my mind with cravings.

5. Hummus
You really can't go wrong with hummus. We always make ours at home because, well, for one thing it's cheaper, for a second, we can make it ANY flavor we want, and for a third we know where our ingredients are coming from and it's super duper fresh. Here's recipes for our Cucumber-Dill Hummus and our Ginger-Lime Hummus. It's not hard, I promise. I like to dip in sliced veggies - but sometimes we'll use it as a condiment on a sandwich too.

6. Pop Cakes
So Pop Cakes are these crazy things they sell at Whole Foods and our cat Bob is addicted to them. We like them too. They're sort of like rice cakes, only more compact and they don't fall apart or taste like cardboard. They're so versatile! Have them with hummus, PB&J, tapenade, Tofutti - the possibilities are endless.





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