Before you reach for the bags of sweets or chips to satisfy your hunger between meals, think of making something quick and easy with our healthy snacks recipes. We have #healthysnacks suitable for kids, late nights out, and even low fat snacks for diet loss.
Food is nature's medicine. I was reading the other day that studies have shown that the longevity of the Japanese in Okinawa is possibly due to their high consumption of purple yams. Mind you, they eat half a kilo of these yams every day! Not sure I would want to do that!
However, purple foods such as purple yams, purple potatoes, red cabbage, eggplants, grapes and blueberries all contain the antioxidant anthocyanin said to help protect the body from cardiovascular health problems, cancer and dementia. Therefore, if you are looking for a quick healthy snack grabbing a handful of blueberries is far healthier for you than sugary donuts.
Our healthy snacks recipes are quick to make. After all, when you have hunger pangs you want to eat something now, not later, especially if you have been out late at night and you are raiding the fridge looking for something to eat, or the kids are bawling because it has been a long time since breakfast time.
No-Cook Healthy Snacks
Healthy snacks don't have to involve cooking either. Something that is really filling and versatile is homemade hummus made from chickpeas. You can have it with pita bread, raw vegetables, or on biscuits.
Make a bowl of fruit salad and have it with Greek yogurt
Eat a bunch of grapes that have been placed in the freezer for a deliciously cool summer snack
Make your own trail mix to stave off the hunger. A handful of Brazil nuts, almonds, walnuts, raisins, dried cranberries, sunflower and roasted pumpkin seeds will make a good trail mix
Cut up carrots into sticks and dip into either peanut butter or hummus
Cut up red and yellow bell peppers into strips and dip into a bowl of hummus
Dry your Own Apple Rings
I like eating dried apple rings and make these every year. If you are lucky enough to have apple trees growing your property like I do, harvest the apples and core them. Then slice them thinly, about 1/8 inch, and place them in some lemon water to prevent them from browning while you slice the rest. As the temperatures are cooling during the fall the fireplace comes to life and I place the apple rings on a bamboo stick across the fireplace.
The indirect heat from the fire dries out the apples over the next few days and soon they are ready to be placed in glass bottles. If you don't have an open fire but have a wood stove instead, the residual heat from the wood stove will still work. Make sure your apple rings are totally dry before bottling because if not, they will spoil.