People who are active need to refuel their energy throughout the day, but the need to pay attention to what you stuff into your mouth in between meals should be considered. Depending on what and how much you eat, snacking can boost or hurt your diet. It takes some planning on how to go about healthy snacking.
Northern Marianas College-Cooperative Research, Extension and Education Services through its Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program offers these healthy quick snack ideas:
• Fresh fruits. CNMI’s grocery stores and local farms carry an abundance of fresh fruits such as bananas, papaya, oranges, tangerines and other seasonal fruit.
• Nutty rice cakes. You can sprinkle bananas, raisins, or fruit on top to get more nutrients.
• Pudding cups and rice crackers.
• Applesauce cups. You can serve this with a sprinkle of cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins or other dried fruit. You can even add a mini-muffin on the side.
• Sticks with dip. You can try carrot and other vegetable sticks and dip in light salad dressing.
• Stick with bread and cheese.
• Yogurt crisps. You can also try low-fat flavored yogurt cups with oatmeal cookies or graham crackers.
• Cheesy bagels. You can sprinkle cinnamon and raisins and top with light cream cheese.
• Home-made trail mix. Put some cereal in a bag and throw in raisins, dried fruit, pretzels and granola.
• Pyramid wrap. Try serving tortilla spread with peanut butter and sprinkle with raisins and sliced bananas.
We all know that picking up a bag of junk food from the grocery stores is more convenient than preparing these suggested healthy snacks, but do you want to boost or hurt your diet? The choice is yours.
If you want to get more information on the basics of food and money management, how to keep food safe, how to spend less and eat better and to try out new tasty recipes, attend the free classes at NMC-CREES. Call 234-5498 ext. 1707 for details.
