I was traveling for work last week and really trying not to use energy bars as a crutch in place of real food. The seemingly best shelf-stable option was trail mix but for some reason it comes in gigantic bags with anywhere from 3 to 8 servings. At 130 – 170 calories per serving that’s a half-day’s worth of calories!! Rather than be at the mercy of the airport news-stand I took a cue from the new Whole Foods trail mix bar and decided to make my own. I added the following into a single-serve tupperware container:
- One single-serve packs of almonds I had lying around
- Half a (single-serve) box of organic raisins
- 10 g of organic dried cranberries
(I looked everywhere for dried cranberries that didn’t have added sugar but haven’t found any yet so I had to settle for a small amount of the sugared ones.)
The whole thing works out to 5 points which seems a bit high, but it’s the same as an energy bar, has the same sweet/crunch combo, and is made from real food instead of the typical “soy protein isolate” (whatever the heck that is!).
I’m going to throw one of these DIY trail mix packs into my bag on my next business trip and see how well it tides me over. If it works I’ll invest in some reuseable single-serve baggies and make this a regular part of my travel ritual.
What’s your favorite on-the-go snack made from real food?
My friends and I went to the beach today to kick off the unofficial start of summer. It was the perfect day! But it’s a bit of a food challenge, too. I knew we’d be there all day – 8:30 am until about 4 pm – so I needed enough food to keep me satisfied without resorting to food from the snack bar. The challenge was finding food that was shelf-stable enough to withstand the heat. I had a cooler, but don’t like to chance sandwich meat on a 90 degree day. Here’s what I packed:
- 100 calorie packs of natural almonds (3 PTS+ per bag)
- Baggies of pre-washed grapes and cherries (0 PTS+!)
- 1 container prepared quinoa salad (5 PTS+ for the whole thing)
- 1 can prepared lemon pepper tuna salad (3 PTS+ per serving, 2 servings per can)
- 1 baggie baby carrots (0 PTS+)
- 1 box Kashi’s new pita crackers (3 PTS+ per 11 crisps)
- 2 Odwala Berries GoMega bars (6 PTS+)
- 1 canister SunSweet Ones single-serve prunes (2 PTS+ per 4 prunes)
Obviously I was NOT planning to eat all of this food! But I was there with 3 friends and wanted to have enough to share if they wanted any. I ended up only eating the grapes, cherries, 4 prunes, and the quinoa salad for a total of 7 PTS+. That’s good because I had a little more for breakfast than I should have. And we went for a Dairy Queen Blizzard at the end of the day to make it really summer. Luckily I had enough PTS+ for it, and had walked for more than 90 minutes on the beach as well so I was able to enjoy it without worry.
I’m going to save the crackers for a future pot luck party, put the bars in my stash for snacks when I travel, and put the tuna in my desk as an emergency lunch or snack for days when I don’t have time to pack but still want something nutritious.
So that was the start of my summer. What do you bring to the beach when you picnic?
The theme of this week’s WW meeting was variety – how changing up what you eat can help keep you on program. It was perfect timing because I was just thinking that I needed to add some new things to my own menu. One thing I was particularly struggling with, though, on the new PTS+ plan was what to pair with a sandwich and veggies/fruit for lunch. Don’t ask me why, but for me that kind of meal has to have 3 parts and I was having a hard time finding a side that was low in PTS+. I asked at my meeting, and members suggested I try Popchips.
Now, this is the kind of junk food that I try to stay away from on general principle, but lately I’ve been having trouble finding anything that appeals to me so if these help me feel better about eating a regular lunch I’ll go with it for now.
I bought two varieties at Stop & Shop last night (they’re in the natural foods section) – cheddar and sour cream & onion. One ounce is a serving, and will cost you 3 PTS+. It’s actually a rather large serving and when I tried some as a snack last night they were quite good. Reminiscent of Glenny’s soy crisps but without the strange texture those have.
There are 3 servings per bag, and to save myself from the temptation of having them in the house throughout the week I have already pre-packaged them into single serving ziploc baggies.
So if you’re looking for something salty and crunchy without very many PTS+, I say give these a try. Not something you want to make a staple but good for an occasional snack.
I did not end up packing any snacks or lunch today – not good – so when my blood sugar started to drop at 3 pm I was at the mercy of the vending machine. I was debating between what would have been my choice in the past – a Balance Bar Gold – and the No Salt, No Cholesterol Energizer Mix. I thought the Balance Bar was 7 PTS and had no idea what the trail mix was (it used to be 6 vs. the Balance Bar’s 5).
In the spirit of this new program and the push toward “real food” I chose the Energizer Mix even though I didn’t know how many PTS+ it was. I felt somewhat OK doing so because it’s the second-to-last day of my week and I still have 36 weekly PTS+ in my arsenal. That’s a very, very new occurence for me, but I’m trying to embrace it.
The trail mix filled me up, and after my meeting I went online to find the nutrition information and assess the damage. I used my PTS+ hand calculator to find the PTS+ for 1 serving. It was 4. But then I used the cool “Multiply” feature** that I learned about in my meeting last night to tell it I actually ate 2 servings and it spit back a “7″. Sweet! I love when WW math works out that way.
Now, the Energizer Trail Mix ended up being 2 more PTS+ than Balance Bar, much to my surprise. The bar has stayed at 5 PTS+. But the Trail Mix is real food, so I still feel I made the better choice. I’m going to try not to be at the mercy of the vending machine again, but I know it’s bound to happen at least one more time and I feel better knowing what the tradeoffs are.
** After calculating the PTS+ for a single serving, when the screen says “Use?” above the PTS+ value, hit the “x” key. It will say “Multiply?” and you just enter the number of servings you had. I had been doing the math in my head (double each variable) but this stops me from having to do that. Nice touch, WW!
I just returned from a business trip to Minneapolis, and in the airport I came across a new type of snack bar I’d never heard of – Gnu Bars.** These bars are good sized, tasty, look and feel like real food, and are surprisingly good on the old traditional PTS scale. I bought two flavors – Banana Walnut (140/4/12) and Orange Cranberry Walnut (130/3/12) – and both were only two PTS.
I’m trying very hard to break my reliance on bars, especially when I travel, but the reality is that they are an easy to carry, shelf stable snack option. To mitigate the fact that these aren’t Filling Foods I’m trying to at least choose ones that are made from real food, not soy protein crumbles or things of that ilk. I think these fit the bill, so I plan to pick up some more. They seem to be available at many Whole Foods in this area as well as Vitamin World and The Vitamin Shoppe. They have a nice store locator on the site you can use to find a location near you.
Note: Both flavor of bars are 5 PTS on the new PointsPlus system, but I’m not sure what that means yet since I get more of those new PTS per day. I can’t tell if it’s a good “price” or not, but I suspect it’s not the bargain it once was. Each bar went from 10% of my PTS allowance per day to 17%.)
** Side note – the otptions for healthy snacks and foods in the Minneapolis airport were surprisingly good. Kudos to the folks at MSP!
This week I went shopping at Whole Foods, looking for quick but healthy and natural/clean eating options. I came across a pre-packaged Quinoa Salad by Good Neighbors Foods that has only 20 calories, 1 gram of fat, and 2 grams of fiber per serving. A serving size is 2 Tbsp (really?!) and the entire container contains 8 servings, so the total is 160/8/16. That’s just 3 PTS, and I can tell you the portion is HUGE if you eat the whole thing. I just had it as a ready-made side dish for dinner and it was both delicious and filling. And the best part is that the ingredient list does not contain a single word I don’t recognize! Quinoa, red pepper, green pepper, dried cranberries, lemon juice, canola/extra virgin oil blend, parsley, garlic, mint, spice, sea salt – that’s it.
I had tried this company’s Chickpea Salad once before and it was equally delicious, but turned out to be much higher in PTS. I am trying to work quinoa into my regular rotation and this is a great start. I might even try to replicate the recipe on my own to start using up that box of it I bought back on Passover!
My mom and I tried a new-to-us recipe from the Passover section of my grandmother’s 1972 temple sisterhood cookbook. The goal was to use up some potato starch my grandfather bought, so we found a recipe for Passover date & nut bars. They were AMAZING! Light and fluffy – like blondies but with dried fruit and nuts instead of chocolate chips. And I was happy to learn they were only 2 PTS per bar! I took a few home from Mom’s to use as snacks for the week, and will definitely add them to next year’s menu.
Passover Date and Nut Bars
1 cup powdered sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup potato starch
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
3 eggs, separated
½ cup matzoh cake meal
1 cup dried dates, cut up
½ cup orange juice and rind (we interpreted rind to mean a little zest)
1 cup raisins (we actually did have raisins, half dried cranberries)
Beat yolks and sugar well.
Add salt, cake flour, potato starch,dates, nuts raisins and orange juice and rind.
In a separate bowl, beat egg whites to a stiff peak. Fold into the rest of the mixture.
Spread in greased shallow pan (about 8 x 11) . Bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes . Let cool, cut into 24 squares.
PTS per bar: 2
Thanks to Mrs Abraham Altman of the Temple Beth El sisterhood for contributing her recipe way back in ’72! It’s a winner!
I have been eating way too many sweets lately, but luckily when a craving hits I’m usually pretty good about finding a low PTS solution that will still hit the spot. During the amazing weather we had in Boston last weekend I was craving ice cream to make it feel more like summer. I opted to skip both Friendly’s and Cold Stone Creamery, where serving sizes can be pretty large. I went to the grocery store all set to buy an Edy’s single serve vanilla cup when I discovered that Skinny Cow has now gotten into the single-serve game!
http://www.skinnycow.com/myproducts/cups.php
Most flavors are 2 PTS, although I chose the Carmel Cone for 3 PTS. All I can say is YUMMY!!! It was delicious. I have since also tried the Chocolate Fudge Brownie for 2 PTS and it was very good. Somehow I suspect I’ll be eating a few of these during the warm months this year. 
I was in the grocery store looking for something new to try for breakfast for a while, and decided to look at AllBran. I ate it every day in London back in November and at the hotel in NYC earlier this week and it was pretty filling. I was surprised to see that 1/2 cup is only 80 calories and 10 grams of fiber. A full cup, my likely serving for breakfast, is just 2.5 PTS.
A little further down the aisle I spotted Fiber One, which is similar but slightly different. That had just 60 calories per 1/2 cup and 14 g fiber! A full cup is just 2 PTS.
And next to the Fiber One was the Stop & Shop generic version of Fiber One, with just 50 calories and 14 g Fiber per 1/2 cup. A full cup comes out to just 1 PT! I couldn’t believe it.
I bought the Stop & Shop generic and had some for a light dinner after my WW meeting with 1 cup skim milk. Not bad for just 3 PTS! I’m going to have it for breakfast for the next few mornings and see how long it holds me. I’ll post later to let you know how it goes.
(A friend also carries a baggie of FiberOne around as an emergency snack. Not a bad idea b/c 1 cup is just 2 PTS, it’s shelf stable, and has far less sugar than energy bars. I’m trying to avoid those from now on so this is a great alternative).
I’m blessed to have some great friends who entertain often, so I’m always looking for healthy new appetizers to bring. My mom got me an appetizer cookbook for the holidays and tonight I tried the first recipe from it. The results turned out well so I though I’d share. It’s a stupidly simple recipe, too, which is nice.
Chick Pea Patties
Makes 18 patties, 1 per serving
1 can chick peas, rinsed and drained
1 cup shredded carrots
1/3 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs
1/4 cup Hidden Valley Light ranch dressing
1 egg
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mash the chickpeas in a bowl with a potato masher or fork.
3. Add the carrots and mix together.
4. Add the breadcrumbs, dressing, and egg. Stir to combine.
5. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray, or cover with parchment paper.
6. Form the mixture into patties using about 1 Tbsp of mixture per patty. Arrange on the cookie sheet.
7. Bake for about 28 minutes (or until golden brown on both sides) flipping halfway through.
Let cool and serve with extra light ranch dressing for dipping. These little gems are only 1 PT apiece, and made almost entirely of filling foods! My only issue is that they were a teensy bit bland so I may try adding some additional herbs and spices to the next batch. But even without any additional doctoring they’re still tasty.
