1. Greek full fat organic natural yoghurt… straight from the tub. Well my husband doesn’t eat dairy, or like the flavour, so I get it all to myself!! It is a completely different taste to flavoured yoghurts (because it has no added sugar) but brand to brand, the flavour is also really different. So I recommend trying multiple brands and finding the taste you like best… and by the time you’ve been through a few brands you will have forgotten what that sweet stuff tastes like anyway! (Hint: it tastes sweet… too sweet! If anything tastes very sweet you know it is full of fructose).
2. Rice crackers and cheese… I am partial to the seaweed variety of rice crackers but some other good choices are plain, brown rice crackers with salt, lime and pepper. Flavoured rice crackers tend to be dusted in this powdery ‘stuff’ that tastes good (because its made with sugar)… so always read the label and look for as few ingredients and as little sugar as possible. Brown rice crackers are preferable to white. As for the cheese… I like a brie or camembert. Or a blue. Also a swiss cheese with a nice nutty flavour… I don’t think swiss cheese and seaweed are a classic flavour pairing but it goes down well with me!
3. Nuts… Roasted, salted, spicy, in dark chocolate, in butter form, on carrot sticks… oops did I say chocolate? Yep! A row of dark chocolate with almonds makes a nice afternoon snack with my cup of tea. The nuttier the chocolate, the less sugar per mouthful… right?! And of course brands differ greatly so the higher % cocoa the better and the less sugar per 100g the better too. Remember that as soon as added sugar is involved you have to go in to the deal having already decided on the portion size! Don’t let that sneaky sugar trick you into thinking you want more! And definitely don’t be fooled by ‘yoghurt-covered’ nuts. Ain’t no such thing unless you throw some nuts in your bowl of yoghurt.
4. Hard boiled egg… Loads of good things in it, fat and protein that make it seem like a whole meal in a small package.
5. Veg… I was going to write chia pudding but in all honesty I don’t make them that often as I use chia in lots of other things. I do however, always have a fridge full of vegetables so when I open the fridge thinking what can I eat, I can’t help but see a whole heap of healthy stuff. Then I try to use whatever needs to be used up. I might cook up some broccoli with feta and pine nuts… or cut up sweet potato into wedges with rosemary and salt… grate up zucchini and other veg and make a fritter with egg… Even if these all sound like foreign ideas and veg is just a part of dinner for you, having a fridge full of different and colourful kinds of vegetables will inspire you to get creative and eat veg more than once per day. And if you’re not sure about how to make a vegetable based snack – just google it… “how to use fennel”… you’ll get a zillion ideas and a lot of them you can whip up in less than 15 minutes. Happy eating!
Image: Baby brussels sprouts sautéed with spinach, butter, sliced kalamata olives and pine nuts.