We eat 3-6 times per day and each time is a chance to better our health and our day. With our being busy there’s the popular desire for healthy foods and snacks we can quickly prepare and take with us. Here’s a couple thoughts on this common dilemma.
There do exist some foods perfect in their original state without much preparation required.
Apples, nuts, and grapes are great examples. Grab and go. And there are other foods quickly purchased or prepared that make healthy snacks as well, like yogurt, brown rice crackers, boiled eggs, sliced avocado, and peeled carrots.
But expecting all our food to act this way is a bit short-sighted. In the end, some planning, even minimal, can be required to set yourself up for a week’s worth of quick bites.
First, think “Batch Cooking.” If you’re able to take the time to prepare a dinner or a lunch for you and your family simply double the recipe, pack it up and take it with you. Soups, meatballs, sweet potatoes, porridges, and most any recipe can be packaged and quickly grabbed with utensils and off you go. Spend some extra time on the weekend, make a large batch, pack it all up, then the rest of the week it will be a quick grab.
The other detail is multitasking.
Please don’t eat while driving. And eating with a screen in front of you or while stressed will certainly interrupt your brain’s ability to recognize when you are full. The ideal time to stop eating is even before you reach that feeling of fullness. Focus on the food, and maybe some company and conversation and not much else. Your food is to give you the fuel you need to do all other things in your life. To treat eating as an unimportant distraction will only make your metabolism and energy suffer as a result. This may not happen immediately but almost every day in my practice I help people look differently at eating habits that have been in place for many years.
And then there are recipes.
When people hear the word “recipe” it can connote all kinds of wonderful memories, or quite the opposite in some, sounding like an impossibility of instructions and skill just not meant for them. There are many easy recipes that can pack a large nutritional bang. You may even find you prefer doing this yourself rather than buying store-bought brands.
Nut butters
Nut butters pack healthy fats and protein, which will keep the blood sugar and energy from dropping over that 2-4 hour period until your next snack or meal. Most homemade versions are a combo of nuts, oil, salt, and blending. The easiest I’ve found is sunflower seed butter. Grab a food processor, pour in the seeds, turn it on, when it starts to cake than very slowly drizzle in sunflower oil until the desired consistency is reached. Towards the end of the blend, simply salt to taste. Bottle and enjoy.
Another easy one is beans and bean dips.
I don’t recommend canned beans simply because that don’t have as much nutritional benefit after sitting around. Fresh cooked beans do take time but most of it is while your sleeping or working. Soak beans in water overnight. In the morning, pour out the soak water and rinse off the beans a couple times. Put the beans in a slow cooker and set it to Low. Add enough liquid (water or broth) to cover the beans another 1/2 to 1 inch. Here’s where you could add other diced vegetables (tomatoes, carrots, onions, etc.) or spices (garlic, pepper, etc.). Beans mean gas to many and there’s a quick trick that will take care of most, if not all, your gas problems. And it’s by adding seaweed to your bean cook. After the beans have been cooking all day, put in enough seaweed (any seaweed: kombu, wakame, alaria, dulse, etc) that would cover the surface of one hand. Let it cook for at least 15 minutes before straining and eating the beans.
For leftover beans, make a dip by blending in a food processor some lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper. Make sure to keep all the beans and dips refrigerated and eat them within 4 days or freeze for longer.
I hope this has sparked some interest to make your own snacks. Like anything it takes practice. Do simple recipes a couple times and it’s yours forever.