super easy healthy snacks on the move

The thing about sitting at a market for a week is that you’re surrounded by junk food! Quick, easy junk food! And even though I can easily resist the call of burgers and hot dogs, being vegetarian an’ all, there are some things that become tempting by way of proximity! Things like cupcakes, caramelized nuts, pancakes! Snack attack stuff.

So this time I decided prevention is better than cure and I made sure that we would be kitted out with all manner of snack that fits my happy health criteria. I’m off sugar in all it’s wonderful forms from fruit to potatoes but my husband’s not so this is what’s in our combined lunch box of goodies:

Dates slices (coz who has time to roll date balls?)

Ingredients:

1 date slab

Packet fine desiccated coconut

Sunflower seeds

Goji berries

Currents

Sesame seeds

Cut the date slab into thin slices and soak in boiled water till it cools, pouring enough to just cover the dates. The more water you add, the more coconut you’ll have to add later to stiffen the mix. Once it’s soft it’s time to get your hands dirty and squelch the dates up so that the mix becomes smooth and even, then add the desiccated coconut until most of the moisture is soaked up and it starts to bind together and then add the seeds, berries and currents. It’s best to do all this with your hands, keep adding coconut until the mix stops sticking and rolls nicely into a ball, then press into a tray, scattering a little coconut in the tray first and then again after so that the slices will be coated on both sides. Cut into squares, or get your kids involved in ball rolling. If you are going to make balls, roll them into shape first and then coat in coconut or sesame seeds. You can luxe this recipe with essential oil (no more than one drop for a whole batch), chia seed, minced dry fruit. Or you can do what I love doing, you can add cocoa powder and cayenne pepper and then roll in Cocoa powder, they look like chocolate truffles! Too yum! Can’t keep my kids away from these as you can see! 

Best kept in the fridge.

Savoury snack pack

sunflower seed

sesame seed

 linseed/flax seed

sun dried tomatoes

soya sauce

dried mushrooms

Nori sheets

Dry roast seeds in a pan on high heat. Stirring often. Once the seeds have finished popping (I recommend doing it with a lid on!) take the pan off the heat and add a splash of soya sauce, stirring the seeds around quickly so that it coats everything before it sticks to the pan. If you add too much soya, it will stay sticky. If you do add too much, just return it to the heat and continue stirring it around until you see the seeds aren’t sticking together anymore. Once cooled, add chopped up sun dried tomato, shredded Nori sheets, dried mushrooms.

Masala peanuts

Raw peanuts

Masala

Salt

Along the same line as the snack pack but spicy!

Mix water, masala and salt into a paste. I usually use a quarter cup for about 200g of peanuts. Play around with how salty or spicy you like it. Again, dry roast raw peanuts in a pan over medium heat till they turn brown, take the pan off the heat and add the paste, stirring as you pour. Leave a while to dry and cool.

Homemade chocolate!!!!

Raw cocoa butter

Coconut oil/butter

Honey

Stevia

Vanilla

Additional: finely chopped dried fruit, essential oil

I found the recipe on the back of the Souring Superfoods packaging works perfectly for me. I don’t make it with raw cocoa all the time as it can make you hyper and anxious and it get a bit dear.

Add equal parts cocoa butter and coconut oil in a bowl placed on top of another bowl filled with freshly boiled water (opposed to a double boiler on the stove), once that’s melted, add honey and vanilla or essential oil, Rose Geranium is a winner, but again, only one drop for a batch of 150g or more. Mix until the honey is properly melted. Then add cocoa powder until it reaches a ‘melted chocolate’ consistency. It should be thick without going fudgy. At this stage you can add goodies to it like desiccated coconut, raisins, cranberries, cherries, dry figs or just keep it plain.  Then place in the freezer for a couple of minutes. It’s really easy. And once you’ve had your own chocolate you’ll never turn back. I add stevia instead of honey but I know it’s an acquired taste!     

All of these snacks should last at least a week but generally they don’t last a day in my house! If I come up with any other quick snack survival tactics this week I’ll let you know!