Healthy Do it Yourself Finger Foods

They are great at parties and family get-togethers. They are a wonderful alternative to a filling meal at important functions of just about any type. For those who don’t know, I’m talking about finger foods. Easy to prepare and even easier to eat, make some healthy finger foods for yourself and see how versatile they can be.

Finger foods make great snacks on the go. Take cheese for instance. It provides calcium and protein which we need each day. At about ten in the morning, it’s not quite time for lunch, but it is a good time for cheese snack. Cut a slice off of a block and enjoy. Buying a block of cheese is more economical than a bag of cheese sticks if you plan on using it as a snack quite often. Saving money is just one more reason to turn to cheese as a healthy snack.

When it comes to finger foods, think about how you can recreate some of your own favorites at home. There are two benefits to making your own. One, you save money. Two, your foods are fresher. If you’ve eaten a lot of processed food, it might take a bit of getting used to when it comes to eating fresh fare. The taste is like no other. Even beans have a sweet taste when they are fresh. Fresh foods are not only better for you, but they taste better, are crunchier and taste clean.

Chicken is the most all around food you can find. You can bake, broil, roast, sauté, and fry (but because we are aiming for healthy, we won’t do that) it. It can be cubed, sliced, julienne, and diced. Cut it into strips and bread them to make chicken fries. These are great for those days when you should eat lunch but you don’t really feel like it. A few chicken strips and a piece of cheese will replenish your protein.

Crackers are also a perfect snack food. They are good on their own, but taste even better with some type of topping. For instance, a piece of cheese between two crackers with a little slice of ham is a handy and tasteful snack. You can also spread some cream cheese or peanut butter on your crackers. Kids may enjoy strawberry jam or grape jelly between two crackers. This is definitely a healthy alternative to cake or a piece of candy. Make up a few of your favorite cracker snacks the night before and chill them for the next morning.

If all else fails, go for some snacks that you can pick up in the store. Be careful though. Read food labels to check fat, cholesterol, and sodium content per serving. Some excellent choices are baked chips, granola bars, and roasted nuts. Low fat luncheon meats can be wrapped around cheese or fruit slices for a healthy little snack.

Don’t forget fresh fruits and veggies. For a vegetable treat, cut up some broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, carrots, or other favorites and serve with ranch dip. Mix it up by cutting up some fresh fruit such as apples, pears, strawberries, and watermelon and serving with a bit of cream cheese for dipping.

These are great finger foods to keep around for those days when you’re busy and don’t have time to prepare something. Keep fresh fruits in a bowl on the counter to grab as you’re going out the door or for the kids when they get home from school. Keep containers of vegetables and your favorite dip or dressing in the refrigerator to do the same.

Finger foods aren’t reserved just for parties. Choose quick and healthy finger foods and eat them anytime you get the urge for a snack.

Cookies You CAN Eat

Have you ever met a person who didn’t like cookies? I haven’t. But, I often feel guilty about the calories I’ve consumed while eating those scrumptious treats. We all know that cookies can be fattening. I try to eat just one but that works about as well as it does with the potato chips. So, this just means that we need to get creative with our cookie baking in order to make them healthier. Here are some ideas to make your next batch of cookies, ones you can get away with eating without feeling guilty.

First, let’s start with the ingredients. Avoid using prepared cookie dough in the store. It is loaded with preservatives even if the cookies are sugar free. Making homemade cookies gives us an advantage in this aspect because we don’t need to preserve our dough or the finished cookie. They will probably be eaten long before they pass their freshness date so only fresh ingredients should be used.

When making cookies, the basic dough is usually the same for most recipes. You need flour, eggs, and sugar. Cholesterol watchers can mix in egg substitute instead of regular eggs. Splenda is now formulated for use in baking even though it is a sugar substitute and can be used in our homemade healthy cookies. Be prepared though, the cookies may taste differently and require more or less baking time when using these substitutions so be sure to keep this in mind when using them.

Now, it’s time for some fun. You get to add the special ingredients to the cookies. You know, the yummy ingredients that make the cookies taste oh so good. For chocolate chip cookies, instead of using regular chocolate chips, add a few of the mini chocolate chips. You use less chocolate even though it looks like more. There will be just enough sweetness in every bite to keep you satisfied, but not enough to expand your hips and waist.

Fiber is a nutrient that helps us to stay regular. Certain fibers latch on to fats in the digestive system and flush them right out of the body. The more fiber you eat the more fat it can potentially flush out of your system. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

Fiber comes in many forms. Whole grains provide fiber so to add this healthy ingredient to your cookies, include some wheat germ, quinoa, oat bran, or whole oats to your cookie mixture. You can also add a bit of nutmeg or cinnamon to bring a somewhat spicy flavor to cookies.

Another tasty ingredient that goes well in cookies is dried fruit. Dried fruit not only gives you the goodness of fruit to your cookies, but it also can add color to them. We traditionally see raisins in cookies, but it’s time to shake things up. How about dried dates, apricot pieces, or cranberries? Give it your best shot. Experiment and see what inventive cookies you and your family members can come up with.

Remember, you don’t have to put all of these ingredients in one cookie. You can make several batches of tasty, healthy cookies, so try a new taste every day and see how many you can come up with.

Snacks – How Many and How Often are Good for You

There are many schools of thought about how many snacks are ok to eat and how often to eat them. Snacking has long been thought to be a bad thing. If, like me, you disagree and feel that snacking is the best way to avoid overeating keep reading. Whether one is trying to maintain their current weight, trying to lose weight, or eat healthier overall here are some tips and suggestions for snacking the healthy way.

When most think of snacking, things like French fries, candy bars, ice cream cones, or potato chips, come to mind. It’s no wonder the majority of people associate snacking with something negative. All of these “bad snacks” can add just as many, if not more, calories than a regular meal. Don’t despair, however. It is possible to snack without adding all the fat and calories.

Think of the examples named above. Instead of giving up their favorites, snack lovers need only change their snack choices to a better for you substitute. For instance, a bag of fast food fries can easily become a baked sweet or russet potato fries with fresh herbs or cinnamon sprinkled on top. Now, that sounds like a tasty snack and it’s healthier.

As for that candy bar, it’s really the chocolate most are after when they grab their favorite one. The nougat, peanut butter and caramel are good but don’t be fooled, it’s the chocolate craving that gets candy bar lovers. In place of those pound adding candy bars, make some granola bars. Use rolled oats, bran, crunchy clusters, and chocolate chips. Dark chocolate is supposed to be better for us, so try some dark chocolate pieces inside or drizzle a bit of dark chocolate on top. Anytime you need a snack, grab a granola bar instead of a candy bar.

For many die hard snack addicts, ice cream is a big one to overcome. If this sounds like you, have confidence in yourself and try something just as cool and sweet, but even better for you. Whip up some smoothie mix and freeze it in a container for at least twenty-four hours. When that ice cream craving hits, scoop some smoothie into a bowl and top it with nuts and a dab of whipped cream. Before you know it, you’ll be craving yummy fruit or veggie smoothies instead of that fattening ice cream.

Next, let’s talk about how often to snack. The more times you eat, the more revved up your metabolism will be. However, it’s necessary to eat the right foods in order for this not to backfire. Unfortunately, this is where many people go wrong. If you keep only the freshest and healthiest foods in your home, all of your choices will be good. So, as hard as it may be, curb that urge to load up on sweet, junk food on your next trip to the grocery store.

Ideally you should have 3 snacks a day; one during the middle of the morning, another mid-afternoon, and lastly, one after dinner. That’s three snacks to complement three meals. Also, remember that quantity matters when it comes to snacks, just like it does meal portions. Snacks are not meant to be entire meals but they are supposed to be delicious or you won’t eat them. By not snacking at all you actually make yourself too hungry. This leads to overeating at meal times. Beyond that, you will opt for dining out more often if you feel starved because you haven’t munched on a few healthy snacks throughout the day.

Contrary to popular belief, snacking is good for you, but only if you make your treat choices healthy ones. Keeping good for you snacks on hand will make snacking healthy even easier. So, snack away, but make them good snacks in order to reap the most benefits.

Healthy Valentine’s Meal Ideas

Everyone used to look forward to Valentine’s Day. They got to eat sweets from their sweetie. We are trying to be a bit more health conscious these days so that holidays won’t show in our bodies. If you want to indulge in a sweet treat on Valentine’s Day, make room for it with a healthier meal.

It is not too hard to sneak in a few healthy additions to the meal that your loved ones won’t mind at all. Whether it is a romantic dinner for two, family dinner, or a couples’ dinner party, employ some savvy to come up with a leaner meal.

Start off with a healthy snack that everyone can eat while dinner is baking. Instead of cookies and candies, put out a tray of veggies and fruit. The vegetables can be jazzed up with a vegetable cream cheese or Ranch dressing. For the fruit, use flavored fruit dip. Yogurt flavors like strawberry, peach, or blueberry work well also as a dip.

Get rid of the hot wings for appetizers and opt instead for chicken chunks breaded with Shake-n-Bake or regular breadcrumbs. Cubing boneless, skinless chicken breasts and rolling them in batter saves a lot of calories. Serve them with hot pepper sauce or regular hot sauce and your metabolism will rev up from the heat.

Toss a salad to go with dinner. Instead of store bought croutons on the top, use cubed pieces of wheat bread. Wash them with a little butter or reduced fat margarine and pop them into the oven to bake. They still add crunch to the salad with less fat than regular croutons. Even better would be to sprinkle the salad with shelled sunflower seeds to add crunch.

Soups are a great way to hide lots of vegetables for those who don’t take a shine to them. for Valentine’s Day, serve a simple soup like potato, vegetable, chicken noodle, or tomato. What soup you serve will depend on the meal. The point is that soup helps to fill you up without eating a lot of it.

Now for the meal. It is hard to eat healthy sometimes, especially if there is a holiday celebration going on. Well, Valentine’s Day is no different. Stick with recipes that use lean cuts of beef, pork, or chicken. Seafood can also be used.

Opt for lower fat ingredients in your recipes. If the main course recipe calls for heavy cream, substitute with half and half or light cream. Substitute margarine with butter. Avoid using too much salt. Use salt less seasonings to add flavor to the meal.

Let your healthy meals extend to Valentine’s Day. After all, we are supposed to show love to those who mean the world to us. Keep their heart healthy.