Last week, I wrote a post about meal planning with a downloadable PDF Meal Planner. That’s a great way to keep your nutrition on point by planning simple, balanced meals for your family. But meal planning isn’t my real downfall when it comes to good nutrition. Snacking is my biggest problem. I enjoy investing time to plan healthy meals, but I don’t take the time to grab healthy snacks. This week, I met with a nutritionist to discuss healthy snacking ideas… online! Through Amwell, I was able to log in, select a service, and within minutes, I had a consultation with a dietitian. I expressed my concerns regarding my diet, and she made a great suggestion: plan snacks that include a protein and a healthy carbohydrate. I took her idea a step further by preparing snacks in advance. That way, just as easily as I can grab a handful of chips or a cookie from the cabinet, I can grab a healthy, well-balanced snack that will help me to meet my nutrition goals. Here are ideas to make healthy snacking easy!
Step 1: Begin by creating a designated snack bin for your refrigerator. When you are at home and hungry or packing a lunch on the go, you’ll be able to just grab a snack and eat it immediately. You will need to start by purchasing a variety of healthy products like Healthxcel Green Charge, dips, yogurt, nut butters, salsa, and cottage cheese. I portioned them out in small plastic containers and placed them in a small bin.
Step 2: Next, I portioned out baby carrots, celery sticks, cheese cubes, diced pineapple, whole grain tortilla chips, almonds, granola, pretzel sticks, and grapes. These can act as the dippers or toppers with the portioned dips, yogurt, etc.
Step 3: Place all of your pre-portioned snacks in a plastic bin and place the bin inside your refrigerator. Here’s a list of delicious combinations, but feel free to create your own:
- Sugar snap peas + hummus
- Grapes + cheddar cheese
- Apples + cashew butter
- Greek vanilla yogurt + granola
- Almonds + dried cranberries + dark chocolate
- Cucumbers + turkey slices
- Pineapple + cottage cheese
- Strawberries + string cheese
- Baby carrots + tzatziki
- Celery sticks + peanut butter
- Whole grain chips + salsa
- Pretzels + guacamole
Step 4: Is it snack time in your home? Grab your favorite combination of items like I listed above. Now, it’s just as quick and easy to grab a healthy snack as it is to grab something you may regret eating later.
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What healthy snacks do you prepare for yourself and your family?
This post is sponsored by FitFluential on behalf of Amwell.
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