Healthy Snacking

Another topic I'm going to talk about on my blog is Heart Healthy Changes. I've talked about this a little bit before, and I wanted to make it a regular topic, but realized I hadn't written about it since my Grocery Shopping for Vegetables post in January! I'm sorry! So, I'm going to try and make it a regular monthly post from now on.

My family and I love snacks! I have low blood sugar, so I need to eat every 2 hours anyway. Thankfully, snacking isn’t “bad” if you do it in moderation and make healthy choices. Healthy, good-for-you snacks can be part of a heart healthy diet. To snack the sensible way, choose nutrient-rich snacks.

Some crunchy examples of healthy snacks are apples and breadsticks, carrot and celery sticks, green pepper sticks, zucchini circles, radishes, broccoli spears, cauliflower and unsalted rice cakes.

Some munchy snacks are unsalted sunflower seeds, whole-grain breads or toast, cherry or grape tomatoes, low-fat or fat-free cheese, plain, low-fat or fat-free yogurt, bagels, unsalted almonds, walnuts and other nuts.

Examples of sweet snacks are unsweetened canned fruit, a thin slice of angel food cake, baked apple, raisins, dried fruit gelatin gems, frozen bananas, frozen grapes, fresh fruit, and low-fat or fat-free unsweetened fruit yogurt.

Some thirst-quenchers are fat-free milk, unsweetened juices, low-sodium tomato or mixed vegetable juice, water, and smoothies. Here's a link to a post I wrote before with a recipe for Peach Berry Shakes.

One of our favorite afternoon snacks is hummus. I have about 3 or 4 hummus recipes that I like. Here's a link to a post with a recipe for Lemon Garlic Hummus. We usually eat the hummus with wheat pita bread pockets, cut into triangles. We’ve also had it with pita chips. You can also serve it with heart-healthy crackers or vegetables.

What heart healthy snacks do you like to eat?