Snacks…I love them.  How can you not love little bites of yummy food that give you energy and endurance to get through the hours before you get to have big food!  Hoooray!

There are definitely good and bad ways to snack, you want to try to be healthy, but you also want to have something that tastes good.  You need to include some protein and also some carbs so that you give your body fuel to get over the hump.  I try to stay away from prepackaged “100 calorie” snacks because, while convenient, they are full of crap ingredients and in the end are empty calories.  I’m all for snacking on cookies, but I’d rather just have one or two actual cookies that cookie chips that taste pretty much like cardboard.

So, most people in our family are a little “fluffy”.  Every now and then when one of us gets a little scared at the number on the scale or when we start to have to pour ourselves into our pants, we have planned some fun family weight loss competitions.  The last one we did was called the “Winter Wellness Challenge” and my cousins husband did the best job EVER on running it.  He really focused on health rather than weight and sent motivational emails and compiled recipes we all sent in into this really amazing cookbook for all of us.  He missed his calling as far as I’m convinced, he should be doing this for a living!  Everyone did pretty well and it was a great way to be a little more conscious of what we ate.

Below are some of the great snack ideas from our “Winter Wellness Cookbook”.  They are quick, yummy, and healthy so you can feel good about eating them too!  Enjoy!

100 calorie snacks

1 cup blueberries and 2 Tbps whipped topping

1 cup frozen grapes

2 small dried figs, stuffed with 1 Tbsp of reduced fat ricotta and sprinkled with cinnamon

3 squares dark chocolate

vanilla banana smoothie – 1/2 banana, 1/4 cup non fat vanilla yogurt, handful of ice – blend until smooth

Fruit Dip

1 8oz block of cream cheese
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Blend ingredients together until sugar is dissolved.  Portion out into snack size cups and throw in your lunch bag to have with apple slices, graham crackers, or whatever else you can think of!

Baked Kale Chips

1 bunch of kale
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp seasoned salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Line a cookie sheet with parchment.  Remove the stems from the kale and tear the leaves into bite sized pieces.  Wash and dry the kale in a salad spinner.  Toss the oil and salt with the kale leaves, spread onto the cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or until the edges are just turning brown.

Healthy Spinach Dip

1 wedge laughing cow cheese (any flavor)
1/2 cup cooked spinach

Mix the cheese and spinach together and spread on pita chips or veggies.

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