You can make 100-calorie snacks better than they can – Fresh Foodie

Join Debbie as she raves about whole foods, rants about chemicals and generally celebrates cooking and eating with fresh, local, nutritious foods. And sometimes she might get a little feisty….

Maybe you didn’t quite make a New Year’s resolution out of it like Jeff did, but it’s there, in the back of your mind: “I’m going to start eating healthier and consume less calories.” One way to reach that goal would be to eat healthier snacks.

I feel compelled to confess to you that I as type this, I’m eating chocolate chips and pretzels. That’s because I had a freakishly healthy dinner of salmon, buttercup squash and broccoli. I’m convinced that my body — anyone’s body — needs a certain amount of calories to subsist happily (and that’s more than programs like Lose It! tell you to eat), and so I suggest eating healthy snacks often. Because if you don’t, you may very well binge on chocolate chips and pretzels.

Did you ever think about buying the pre-packaged 100-calorie snacks? Honestly, I’ve been tempted and I’m actually glad that wheat makes me feel crummy, or I would have fallen for the ease of a handy little snack with little to no nutritional value. They may be low-calorie and even low-fat, but that’s about it and that’s just not me.

I decided to measure out the calories of some of my favorite snacks, and I was surprised at how easy it is to make your own 100-calorie snacks.

The 100-Calorie Healthy Snacks

• 7 baby carrots (five calories each)
• 2 tsp. all-natural almond butter or peanut butter (about 66 calories)

• 1/2 c. strawberries (25 calories)
• 1/2 c. plain whole milk yogurt (75 calories)

• small fruit salad
• 1 TB slivered almonds (33 calories)

• 2 TB hummus (50 calories)
• 5 baby carrots
• as many cucumber and celery sticks as you’d like

• 1 medium apple (75 calories)
• 1 TB cheese chunks or slices (25 calories)

• 1/2 medium banana (55 calories)
• 1-2 TB shredded coconut (for dipping!) (30 calories)

• 1 TB grain-sweetened chocolate chips (35 calories)
• 10 spelt pretzels (60 calories)

Hey, how’d that snack get in there? Well, I guess it’s semi-healthy.

• 1 rice cake (35 calories)
• 2 tsp. almond butter

• nearly unlimited veggies sticks if they are green (cucumbers, peppers, celery)
• 1 TB Goddess dressing for dipping (basically Italian dressing with lemon and tahini)

I used Calorie Count to get the approximate amount of calories for these foods when I didn’t have a package label to check. Don’t forget to package these snacks in reusable containers instead of disposable plastic bags. You’ve now saved some money, saved the environment, and saved yourself a larger waistline. Now that’s worth not buying those nutritionless pre-packaged jobs, wouldn’t you say?

If you share your 100-calorie snacks with us, we’ll have more snacks to create ourselves, so add your faves to the comments.

Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jan 27, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT