One of the hardest things to manage when you are on a diet is the hunger pangs that strike between meals. It’s all to easy to grab the nearest candy bar, donut or bag of chips, but that would thwart your hard earned progress. If you are out of the house plan ahead and pack healthy snacks for the day ahead. Always include a lean protein and good fats with each snack. A few good options I’ve tried over this past few weeks is half a medium apple with a tablespoon of smooth Jiff peanut butter or celery sticks with peanut butter and Frigo String Cheese and carrots. Using full fat regular peanut butter in moderation is always better than going for non-fat or reduced fat versions that will leave you unsatisfied. Same is true for cheeses. I read recently that women who ate one ounce of full fat cheese daily were more likely to be slimmer and keep the weight off than their counterparts who ate only the non-fat or reduced fat versions. The science cited in the snippet stated that it was a matter of satiety. The fat kept them satisfied longer. Sounds good to me and tastes better too.
Today I was struggling to think of some snack around 150 calories so I went to eatingwell.com and started searching for high protein and low calorie snacks. One recipe that came up was a Mediterranean Picnic Snack. A piece of crusty whole grain bread, 10 cherry tomatoes, 6 pitted, oil cured olives and a 1/4 ounce of aged cheese were the components. Seems easy enough to pack and go for 201 calories. I didn’t have any crusty bread or cherry tomatoes or oil cured olives but what I did have fit the bill just fine and came in at 157 calories. Here is what I did put together:
5 grape tomatoes (Baja Best), approx. 1/4 cup
5 pitted Greek kalamata olives (Lindsay Adventures)
3 midget dill pickles (Millwaukee’s)
1 Wasa Multi-Grain crispbread cracker
1 slice of provolone cheese (Meijer brand)
According to the Food Journal on EveryDayHealth.com the sum total of the calories for this snack is 157 which was plenty close enough to what I was looking for. I love cheese so I really appreciate being able to incorporate all kinds into my diet even though I’m watching what I eat. Don’t forget to add a glass or two of water with your snack.
Firstly, I’m a mom and wife. Professionally, IT consulting is my job and blogging is the outlet for my passions. I write about things that affect the everyday life of a stay-at-home parent or any parent for that matter such as parenting, relationships, discipline, the media, product reviews, giveaways, social media, food, cooking, gardening and anything else that might come my way.
