what are your favorite healthy meals and snacks?

[SnowyShiloh]

Hi everyone! We're trying to eat healthier at our house and I'd like ideas for your favorite healthy foods and snacks.

Having Rory here has helped us in that we have salad almost every night with dinner since he can't eat a whole head of romaine before it wilts, and we've been eating it with chopped carrots, baby pear tomatoes (from my own plants, for some reason they didn't ripen in time this summer even though they got sun 24 hours a day so I brought the plants into the living room to ripen. Rory is banned from the living room until the plants are done in a week) and light salad dressing. I really like the Kraft Toasted Sesame dressing and BF likes Newman's Own Light Italian.

For healthy snacks, I love any type of fruit and green pepper or carrot slices are good, too. I like these little brown rice crackers that are really crunchy and saltine crackers.

What do you like? Any ideas?

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

I would say go to a site about weight lifting. They eat the best!

Like only whole grain breads, fresh fruits, and not many carbs. Almost no sugar at all. No sodium content that's high in products either. Chicken breast, boneless/skinless is always a plus, if you're not vegetarian.

There used to be a bunch of sites (I always like Kiana Tom, she has a site and so does/did Cory Everson), I haven't ventured them lately though, so see what's out there.

Oh, a good snack is tuna on crackers!

 

[missyscove]

I love string cheese as a snack. Also yogurt.

 

[tonyshuman]

fresh raw snow peas!

 

[Bassetluv]

Add some cherry tomatoes to your salads if you like tomatoes, with warm, soft unripened goat's cheese on top (yum!).

I also like to eat tomatoes with avocado. Chop both up into chunks and put both together in a bowl, along with a bit of red onion and garlic. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and some dill and it's ready to eat. You can serve it alongside your salad if you want.

 

[XxMontanaxX]

Those quaker mini rice cakes that are apple cinnamon flavored.

I think...60 calories for8 of them.

 

[slavetoabunny]

Edamame - tasty, high in protien, low-fat and calories!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edamame

 

[Leaf]

I eat a lot of pomegranate fruit. Its incredibly healthy for you, and it take a while to eat... Since you occupy yourself with one you are less likely to eat other things along with it that may not be as good for you.

 

[tundrakatiebean]

I just found these things at costco that are freeze dried fruit with nothing else added. I love them (and so does Wash) they're called Crisps and in the box I got there was fuji apple and strawberry banana.

 

[MsBinky]

I love love love making fish with a side of bean salad. The salad is just a mixture of beans (lima, chick peas, kidney beans), cherry tomatoes, different color bell peppers, pickles, some onion, baby corn cobs, capers, etc etc... For the dressing I just make it from scratch using olive oil, wine vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic salt, oregano, parsley, thyme... I love it! In fact, I often eat the salad as a meal. It's great in the summer.

Another thing I love is vanilla yogurt with fresh (or thawed) berries. :biggrin2:

Don't even get me started on coucous or rice...

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Those freese dried fruits sound really yummy, as do the little salads! One of my favorite things ever is black bean salad. You rinse a can or two of black beans, then mix them in a bowl with a chopped up avocado, maybe 2 cups of thawed frozen corn, a bunch of cherry tomatoes and cilantro if you want. Then you squirt lime juice all over it and sprinkle it with a bunch of ground cumin. Stir and scarf down! Quite healthy and so delicious, providing you like lime juice. The BF hates it but I love it. Great with tortillas or rice too. Droool.

I'm going to have to pick up black bean salad ingredients (I can use my pear tomatoes in it!) and some of those Quaker rice cakes this weekend!

 

[maherwoman]

I like to eat cubed cucumbers in bowl with cubed tomatoes, with some Italian dressing. I let them sit for just a bit first so they soak up some of the flavour.

Also, you can try crumbling in some goat cheese or blue cheese.

:biggrin2:

 

[undergunfire]

Ice cream :weee:!

 

[SOOOSKA]

I'm with you Amy. Ice Cream Yes, how much healthier can you get.

Susan:runningrabbit:

 

[katt]

i love food. . . some of my favs are:

*first i have switched entirely to organic milk. . .the taste alone is worth the extra money, it is so fresh and 'clean' tasting, i cannot even try to drink a glass of regular milk anymore. i am also slowly switching to organic, free range eggs. right now i eat the organic ones, but cook with regular

*i eat no beef, pork, or any other red meat. i stay with fish, chicken, turkey, and other forms of protien (tofu, beans, ect), i avoide food that is over processed, packed with sodium and chemicles. . . stick with the good stuff!

*great idea if you have a george forman grill: get a bunch of dill (i can by huge bunches of cooking dill around here) divide in to large handfulls. place one handfull on the bottom of the preheated georgie, drizzle with some olive oil, place a fillet of talipia (or another fish) on, cover with lemon slices, then add the other handfull of dill on top. close up george and let em' cook! the fish doesn't really get grilled at all because it is surrounded by dill, but instead, as the dill 'grills' it gives off moisture and steam, and basically steams the fish. when finished, i serve the fish on the cooked dill, the dill tastes awesome cooked this way, and can be eaten like any other green.

* cottage cheese and fresh fruit are always a fav around here. . . we go thru mass amounts of it! i will eat it for breakfast, or if i am feeling like a snack, i will go for that

*the individual servings of natural applesauce make great on the go snacks! we keep a stock of them in the fridge/cupboard

*another snacker is grapes. i don't know how many times i have had a snack/small mealof a bunch of grapes, a slice of fresh bread (i am lucky to have a roommate that enjoys baking bread weekly so i never get the store stuff), and a slice or 2 of some cheese. . . maybe a small handfull of nuts in there too!

*we also always keep tomatoes in the house, i love to eat tomatoes like other people eat apples. . . just grab and bite!

*instead of salad dressings i have switched to just olive oil and vinegar. . . i have a growing collection of olive oil and vinegar. . . i was surprised at how different olive oils have different tastes, and how many kinds of vinegars there are out there!

*i drink ice tea if i need a pick-me-up during the day instead of soda, i add lemon slices to my water so i don't get board with the taste of just water, hot tea normally in the morning (green usually), and hot tea at night (i am sipping my chamomile tea right now) before bed.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Katt, I like iced tea, too. I make my own no sugar added tea! All you do is boil 6 cups water, steep 5 tea bags in it for 15 minutes, then pour it into a 2 quart pitcher on top of one of those frozen condensed 100% fruit juice "logs". The hot tea melts the frozen juice so you can drink it faster. I like using the 100% White Grape juice, but Apple Cranberry or Apple Raspberry are good, too. Stay away from juices that aren't crystal clear, for some reason ones like Pineapple just taste really bad and look horrifying.

I really like the apple sauce, too, especially cinnamon. We buy the gigantor pack at Sam's Club. Cottage cheese is good and it has an insane amount of protein. I puree it with a bit of milk, salt and garlic powder in my food processor to use in place of sour cream in recipes. I always have to add salt to cottage cheese to eat and it has to be really cold or else I can't stand it. Adding things like rosemary or basil make it extra yummy! Good on toast, too. I also like to cook a potato in the microwave, then top it with salted cottage cheese and low fat turkey pepperoni. Tastes great and is quite good for you!

 

[katt]

i have simply found that eating fresh, unprocessed stuff makes me feel better.

it was a revelation when i switched to the organic milk, and homemade bread, i must say, i think that is what did it in for me

i have way more energy, and i find that i don't miss the old stuff (i will induldge myself once in a while, but honestly, i prefer eating fresh fruit to a cookie).

another great trick is that i am an ice cream freak. . . i love the stuff and could eat it all the time. . . and that doesn't help me lose any weight, so i have switched to natural sorbets. . . yummy! i love strawberry sorbet. . . and mango!

also soymilk! i can't get enough chocolate and very vanilla silk!

and the idea about blending cottage cheese is brilliant! i am really going to have to try that soon!

 

[MsBinky]

Ok y'all have insanely appetite-opening stuff here :shock:

I'm so hungry now and I want to try all these things. Omg the dill fish sounds amazing but I have no grill :grumpy:That cheese spread is something MrBinky would probably love and will have to try it now

 

[SnowyShiloh]

I made vegetable soup for dinner tonight and it was delicious, not to mention very healthy if you aren't on a low salt diet! My boyfriend doesn't like soup and especially doesn't like vegetable soup (whereas I've loved it since I was little), but he surprised me by liking this. Also, all the noodles suck up the liquid especially after it sits in the fridge, so using 2 cups would be good too.

Shiloh's Veggie Soup

46 ounce bottle Spicy V8 (the spicy part is important!)
6 cups water
2 bouillion cubes (my cubes are big and one cube makes 2 cups broth)
1 can great northern beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 brick of frozen chopped spinach
2 cups frozen mixed veggies
1 medium potato, peeled and diced into 1/2 inch cubes
3 cups small seashell pasta
2 teaspoons garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste

Pour V8, water, boullion cubes and beans into a great big pot. Bring it to a boil. I recommend peeling and dicing the potato while waiting. Stir spinach, mixed veggies and garlic powder into soup and let it simmer until the spinach has thawed. Stir in the potato and pasta. Let simmer about 12 minutes or until the noodles and potatoes are done. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Enjoy! And be prepared for lots of leftovers!

 

[JadeIcing]

I like Rice Milk