THE ROAD TO WELLNESS: Tasty, nutritious treats for spring
By Dr. Brenda Gill
Soon, some of us will have young children home for summer holidays, others will be planning trips to enjoy those wonderful times outside and others just getting out more in the summer. I often find it difficult to keep enough protein in snacks, since many are mostly carbohydrates. So, here are some nutritious and quick foods for snacks, lunches and travelling for young and old!
· Carrot and celery sticks, cucumber, jicama, or red bell pepper slices on their own or I often will put some almond/sesame seed(tahini) or sunflower seed butter on them for added protein
· Ants on a log (Fill celery with a nut butter such as almond butter and sprinkle raisins/dried cranberries or other cut up dried fruit on top).
· Any fresh fruits, apple/pear sauce or any other fruit you’ve frozen & if you want to increase the protein, I’ll often spread almond or any other nut butter on the slices.
· Whole grain crackers with almond/hazelnut/cashew butters
· Rice crackers with baba ganash (an eggplant dip)
· Corn thins (these look like rice cakes, but, are thinner and taste like popcorn-yes they actually have some flavour, and are easier to travel with, since they tend not to crumble) with salmon/tuna on top- For those that don’t like mayonnaise- I use salad dressing to moisten the salmon or tuna and make it spreadable and put in grated carrot/chopped red pepper/zucchini or celery and olives
· Smoothies- blended fruit-usually a banana and another fresh or frozen fruit (like blueberries, peaches/apricots/raspberries or any other fruit you’ve frozen) with water. If you want to increase the protein content I often add rice protein powder. It is the least allergenic of the protein powders.
· Sprouted Essene bread(a very moist sweet bread) and apple slices
· Oatios, almonds and raisins
· Popcorn sprinkled with nutritional yeast/sea salt
· Popsicles made with fruit juices/fruit frozen in popsicle makers
· Muffins/cookies using ½ c of ground almond or sunflower seed flour to increase the protein content or adding seeds to the recipe
· Frozen bananas or blueberries and yogurt- If you take blueberries out of the freezer and immediately add yogurt, it will be just like frozen yogurt
· “Jello”- Use 1 tbsp. Agar/gelatin and add 31/2 cups fruit juice. Simmer 15 min. and pour into moulds
· “Fudgesicle”- Take carob/cocoa powder and add sweetened soy milk (Vitasoy works well) and heat till well mixed. Add unrefined cane sugar if needed and freeze. Enjoy on a hot day!
· Dried fruit and nuts, pitted dates with nut butter
· Fruit leathers/dried fruit/veggie bars. (Sun-Ripe makes some good ones and some organic too)
· Snack bars- Be very careful that they aren’t full of sugar/chocolate/grains. It’s best to buy the 40/40/30 designed ones. This means they are 40%protein/40%carbs/30%fat. Typically they use nuts/seeds as their base and use dried fruit, such as dates/figs as the sweetener. An example are Perfect 10 bars(10 different nuts/seeds). You really have to read those labels!
TO DRINK:
· Diluted fruit juices with mineral water. There should be ¼ juice to water content, so, the blood sugar isn’t negatively affected.
· Diluted vegetable juices, especially carrot/beet/celery and any other veggie you have.
· Warmed soy/rice/oat/almond milk with cinnamon if tolerated.
· Teas like cranberry razz or Cinnamon apple spice added to apple cider, again ¼ pure apple cider to ¾ herbal tea
· Herbal teas like Tension Tamer, Sleepytime, Bedtime and Licorice are calming and are great for adults and children that tend to get overly excited/nervous or anxious.
· Any herbal tea can be made and put in the fridge- Some that are very flavourful are: Licorice/ Blueberry/Cinnamon Apple Spice/Tangerine Orange Zinger/Raspberry are great, or if you like full-bodied teas- Bengal Spice/Vanilla Hazelnut/English Toffee are yummy too!
