My Kind of Snacks

Snacks are my very favorite topic in the whole world... because they're my very favorite foods in the whole world!  Through October I'll be posting about what I feed my family for Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Snacks.  But to be quite honest, snacks are probably 75% of what we eat so I figure I'll go ahead and start there.  However, this is such a HUGE topic, I'm breaking it into two posts.  Snacks for ME and Snacks for the Kids.  Of course I'm going with the ME ones first! :-)

When I first started Weight Watchers, finding snacks that fit the points I could have was very difficult.  I'm a grazer.  I'll eat all day if I can.  A bite here, a spoon there, a donut now, and another one, and another one...  You get the picture.  Starting WW and learning the points system made me realize I was eating in one day the amount of points I was allotted for an entire week!  I had to drastically change something.  I've already mentioned before that I'm the world's biggest Sugaraholic.  Sugar is (WAS!) literally my drug.  Figuring out how to snack my way through life in a healthy way became a huge challenge for me.  One I have, mostly, conquered! 

BUT it wasn't until I began to learn how to Eat Clean, and more specifically, eat Raw, that I found the key to overcoming my sugar intake issues.  The first Raw Foods party I attended was a cookie event (big shocker there!).  When Haley (Living Raw by Grace) talked about how she was a grazer and ate all day long, and COULD eat all day long because of eating Raw, I thought "this is the perfect way for me to eat!".  And I've not been able to get her words out of my head since.  I literally CAN snack my life away when I'm snacking Raw, and if not Raw, then Clean.

So...what ARE my favorite snacks?  Oh!  I'm so excited to tell you...and in some cases, show you!

Typically on a Sunday or Monday I'm low on snacks so I make out my list for the week of what I want to be eating.  And then I make a few both days to last me through the week.  The very first recipe I found that I loved was from Skinny "Fatkids".  It was called No-Bake Banana Berry Oat Bars.  Click HERE for photos and recipe.  These were so filling and so yummy that I decided snacking clean was going to be awesome!  And I went in search of more recipes.

I fell in love with The Gracious Pantry and Chocolate Covered Katie.  (click on either name to visit their sites - but don't forget to come back!)  I found a huge variety of raw, gluten-free cookie recipes on both sites.  I've made most of them and just love them!  In fact, here's one I made for this week:

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Balls

The recipe for those came from Chocolate Covered Katie but I make them with my own little twist.  She also has a fabulous sugar-free, dairy-free ice cream recipe that is so fast to make, I've now developed a new daily addiction!

When I need a salty, crunchy treat I go for Kale Crisps.

I love fruit in smoothies but I really don't like just eating whole fruit.  It's not a viable snack to me.  So I found a wonderful recipe in The Clean-Eating Magazine a few months ago that I just loved.  It was originally a filler for French Toast but I thought it was amazing enough to use as a fruit dip.  So that's what I do!  Apples and Fruit Dip. (but unfortunately I don't have a photo...yet)

I don't know about you but my all-time favorite desserts ever are cupcakes.  I could eat a whole plate of cupcakes by myself...and I'm really not exaggerating here.  So I had to come up with a substitute for that.  I found an awesome recipe for pumpkin muffins (can substitute zucchini too).  They're great served with dinner and then I freeze the extra for snacking.  So one day I decided to try the fruit dip on top of the muffin and woilla! I had a cupcake!  And it was healthy!!

Back to the photos...  These Candied Pecans are easy to pack up and take on-the-go.  And they're so popular I just filled 3 orders for them from friends!

Crunchies have become a mainstay in my house.  I pour Kefir over and add berries, eat as cereal with milk, eat on top of Greek Yogurt...or just eat by themselves!  My kids find them packed in school lunches at least 2 days a week.

Then there are Breakfast Cookies, which are actually good any time of the day:

Hummus...which I love with raw crackers, sliced bell peppers, whole-wheat pita bread, etc...

Guacamole (with chopped cilantro and tomatoes) is an awesome snack with chopped veggies, raw chips, whole wheat pita bread, etc...

Homemade Lara Bars....

Well, I hope you're getting the picture that there are so many snacks to be enjoyed while eating Clean/Raw.  And all of these are 100% sugar-free and made with whole, natural ingredients.  I (almost) never leave the house without having something in my bag.  Most of these snacks are easy to pack-up and take on-the-go.  Over the next few months I'll post recipes for some of these snacks so that you can enjoy them too!

Pre-packaged Snacks

Whether I like it or not, there are just days/weeks where I don't have the time or energy to cook and/or pack up homemade snacks.  So I've chosen some pre-packaged snacks that I keep at-the-ready in the cupboard.  I usually have one of these hidden in my bag for emergency situations.

• Lara Bars (I prefer the chocolate ones!)
• Mojo Cliff Bars (or just about any Cliff Bar!)
• Raw-Revolution bars

You can also see my Resources page for links to places that will make amazing snacks and ship them directly to your home.  Shops like Twin-Cakes Bakery (what I wouldn't do to get my hands on some of their recipes!) and Brad's Raw Foods (great raw crackers).

Share: What is your favorite healthy snack?

Muffin Cookies (for Breakfast or ANY time of day!)

I have a brand-new recipe to share that I had originally called "Muffin Top" Cookies because these look a lot like tops of muffins (which we can all agree are the favorite part!).  However, when I mentioned it on FB someone thought they were cookies that would give you a "muffin top" belly!  So the name had to get changed.  These will definitely NOT give you a muffin top (belly) unless you eat the whole batch at once, which is a temptation.  Check out the super-foods in the ingredient line-up to see what I'm talking about!  No sugar or butter to be found!

So the history of these cookies...  A few weeks back a friend sent me a healthy recipe for breakfast cookies.  I was really excited until I looked over the recipe, and then I knew it wasn't clean at all.  "Healthy"...sort of.  But it had sugar and butter and sugar...and you get the picture.  (click here to view the original recipe)  I knew it could be altered to become clean, I just wasn't too sure how to do it so I called on a new friend/mentor, Tiffany, at The Gracious Pantry for help.  She sent me back her suggestions and then I made more changes and finally tried it out.  I LOVED the results!  In fact I loved them SO much I decided to share the recipe here!  I can (sort-of) call it my own :-)

                                                            Amy's Clean Muffin Cookies

Ingredients

1-1/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon sea salt (+ an extra shake if you like things saltier)
1 tbsp ground flax seed
2 tbsp. unsweetened apple sauce
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tbsp. molasses
1/3 cup agave or honey
1 egg
1/4 cup  cooked pumpkin puree (or carrots as original recipe calls for)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup bran cereal flakes – (I finally found clean high-fiber flakes at Sprouts but they weren’t bran)
1/3 cup craisins
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans (I chop in a mini food processor/grinder)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, flax and salt in a medium-sized bowl.

3. Combine oil, molasses, applesauce and honey/agave in a separate bowl.  Microwave 15 sec and continue whisking until completely combined (may need to do an additional 15 sec in microwave).  Add egg, pumpkin puree and vanilla and beat an additional 30 seconds or until well combined.

4. Add flour mixture and beat until combined. Add oats, flakes, craisins and pecans and mix just until incorporated.  Dough will be sticky, more like a cake batter than cookie dough.

5. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place tablespoon sized scoops of batter on cookie sheet. Bake for 12-13 minutes, until cookies are fragrant but still soft. Let cookies cool slightly and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.   They aren’t like traditional cookies…more like muffin tops!  Super moist yet solid and easy to eat on-the-go!

Enjoy!

*Note: they freeze very well and make for a great grab-and-go breakfast for on the way to school or for in kids' backpacks for lunch or snack.  Flavors intensify by day 2.  Try switching out the Craisins with dark chocolate chips or dried cherries for a variation!  (Craisins do contain sugar...as do most dried cranberries.)