Reader Request - Healthy Snacks
Hi friends, so glad its Friday! It feels like its been a long week. Started the day off with my gym workout – 20 minutes of cardio intervals followed by my upper body weights routine from my new training plan. I really enjoyed doing my weights and I can really see some definition in my arms – great motivation for when I start feeling the burn!
Breakfast was some fromage frais mixed with some cookie dough whey powder, strawberries, blueberries, jumbo oats, brown rice puffs, grape nuts, hazelnuts, desiccated coconut and cacao nibs.
This was fab, I loved the cookie dough flavoured yoghurt for a change!
I had a bit of an exciting morning as I had a live interview on BBC Radio Tees for work. I had to talk about my organisation and volunteering, I think I did an ok job, I didn’t seem to mess it up thank goodness!
Lunch was a big salad with little gem lettuce, spinach, carrot, cucumber, spring onion, cottage cheese and some roasted soya nuts.
This was tasty but I wish I’d remembered to add some nutritional yeast for a bit of extra flavour! I also had two little peaches and a little nectarine.
Mid afternoon I had some hummus and green pepper for dipping.
As I have another long run scheduled for the morning I thought my dinner should contain some carbs. Great excuse to eat some pasta! I made a small portion of spelt pasta with some spiralised courgette and mixed it with some tomato pasta sauce which had been cooked up with some red pepper and extra garlic. I served it all on a bed of spinach and lettuce.
For desert I made up a fabulous smoothie in a bowl which turned out more like a beautiful sorbet with fresh pineapple, frozen blueberries, a dash of soy milk and a little grated ginger inspired by a recipe from the Innocent Smoothie Recipe Book. I also added extra pineapple on the top as its just so gorgeous and sweet.
I’ve also just snacked on an apple!
Readers Request – Healthy Snack Ideas
A couple of days ago lovely blog reader Parisa requested a post on healthy mid morning and mid afternoon snacks. I am such a believer in healthy snacking, there’s no way I could just eat just three meals a day!
I do have a method to my snacking which seems to work for me. This is simply considering the carbohydrate, protein and fat content of the snack.
If I’m after a snack to keep me feeling full and to hold me over then I try and go for something with a lot of protein or a mix of all three macro nutrients such as hummus and veggie sticks (fat, protein and carbs from the hummus plus a little carbs from the veggies) or greek yoghurt with nuts (lots of protein). If I’m snacking to make sure that I have fuel for a workout then I will go for a snack with fast / medium release sugars such as some raisins (the sugars in the dried fruit will convert to energy fairly quickly to fuel my body).
If I get really desperate for a snack I try to go for an apple as they are full of fibre which slows the release of sugar into the blood to help avoid the carb sugar high / low problem plus they are low in calories.
Laura’s top 10 healthy snacks
Hope that’s been a little helpful! What’s your favourite mid morning / afternoon snack? So what do you all have planned for the weekend? I have another long run planned for the morning then my Mam is hosting a little tea party for my Birthday. My friends are coming round and were going to have some lunch followed by cake! I called in to Marks and Spencer Food (love!) earlier to get a couple of things including some little salad pots, nice bread, strawberries and some yummy cupcakes! So excited! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend whatever your up to :-)
Breakfast was some fromage frais mixed with some cookie dough whey powder, strawberries, blueberries, jumbo oats, brown rice puffs, grape nuts, hazelnuts, desiccated coconut and cacao nibs.
This was fab, I loved the cookie dough flavoured yoghurt for a change!
I had a bit of an exciting morning as I had a live interview on BBC Radio Tees for work. I had to talk about my organisation and volunteering, I think I did an ok job, I didn’t seem to mess it up thank goodness!
Lunch was a big salad with little gem lettuce, spinach, carrot, cucumber, spring onion, cottage cheese and some roasted soya nuts.
This was tasty but I wish I’d remembered to add some nutritional yeast for a bit of extra flavour! I also had two little peaches and a little nectarine.
Mid afternoon I had some hummus and green pepper for dipping.
As I have another long run scheduled for the morning I thought my dinner should contain some carbs. Great excuse to eat some pasta! I made a small portion of spelt pasta with some spiralised courgette and mixed it with some tomato pasta sauce which had been cooked up with some red pepper and extra garlic. I served it all on a bed of spinach and lettuce.
For desert I made up a fabulous smoothie in a bowl which turned out more like a beautiful sorbet with fresh pineapple, frozen blueberries, a dash of soy milk and a little grated ginger inspired by a recipe from the Innocent Smoothie Recipe Book. I also added extra pineapple on the top as its just so gorgeous and sweet.
I’ve also just snacked on an apple!
Readers Request – Healthy Snack Ideas
A couple of days ago lovely blog reader Parisa requested a post on healthy mid morning and mid afternoon snacks. I am such a believer in healthy snacking, there’s no way I could just eat just three meals a day!
I do have a method to my snacking which seems to work for me. This is simply considering the carbohydrate, protein and fat content of the snack.
If I’m after a snack to keep me feeling full and to hold me over then I try and go for something with a lot of protein or a mix of all three macro nutrients such as hummus and veggie sticks (fat, protein and carbs from the hummus plus a little carbs from the veggies) or greek yoghurt with nuts (lots of protein). If I’m snacking to make sure that I have fuel for a workout then I will go for a snack with fast / medium release sugars such as some raisins (the sugars in the dried fruit will convert to energy fairly quickly to fuel my body).
If I get really desperate for a snack I try to go for an apple as they are full of fibre which slows the release of sugar into the blood to help avoid the carb sugar high / low problem plus they are low in calories.
Laura’s top 10 healthy snacks
- Hummus (or another dip) and veggie sticks
- Yoghurt (0% fat Greek for preference as it contains lots of protein) and fruit / nuts
- Natural snack / energy bar such as Nakd or 9 Bar
- Apple (especially nice sliced and sprinkled with cinnamon which has been shown to help balance blood sugar or with nut butter for dipping)
- Protein shake made with water or milk
- Babybel light cheese and fruit
- Whole grain rice cakes with cottage cheese, hummus or nut butter
- Cottage cheese with dried fruit and nuts
- Home made fuel bar or balls / home made protein muffin
Hope that’s been a little helpful! What’s your favourite mid morning / afternoon snack? So what do you all have planned for the weekend? I have another long run planned for the morning then my Mam is hosting a little tea party for my Birthday. My friends are coming round and were going to have some lunch followed by cake! I called in to Marks and Spencer Food (love!) earlier to get a couple of things including some little salad pots, nice bread, strawberries and some yummy cupcakes! So excited! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend whatever your up to :-)
Categories:
0 comments:
Post a Comment