Attack of the Snacks

March 14th, 2012 | Posted by Alison Spath in Short or Sweet

Once upon a time I ate one snack a day, usually between lunch and dinner. But now at nearly 7 months pregnant, I’ve stopped counting how many snacks I eat everyday. I need more fingers if I want to keep track.

Today I’m in the mood to hand out some awards to a few of my most favorite snacks in recent weeks. Snickity snacks that are awesome if you eat 1 or 11 snacks a day. Snacks that please the palate whether you’re gestating or not. I think this paragraph needs the word “snack” in it one more time, don’t you? Snack. OK, that’s two more times. Snack.

SNACK AWARD #1

The Snack That Tastes Most Like a Rich Dessert But We Get to Call it a Snack: Homemade Strawberry Jam on Greek Yogurt!

Greek Yogurt with Strawberry Jam

(“Homemade” by my grandmother in her home, not mine.)  

Sweet Granny warned me that this batch was kind of runny and probably wouldn’t be great for PB&J sandwiches.  She suggested I find another way to use it, at which point I started daydreaming about drizzling it upon a big scoop of plain 2% greek yogurt.

As soon as I discovered how truly incredible this combo was, the jar of strawberry jam disappeared faster than you can say “Sweet mother of baby Jesus it’s like I’m eating strawberry cheesecake for my third/fourth/twelfth snack of the day!”

(Store bought jelly or jam could easily work here as well, P.S.)

Award Number #2 goes to everybody’s favorite mushed bean snack, HUMMUS!  But not just any hummus, let’s chat about Wildwood Red Pepper Hummus, shall we?

Wildwood Red Pepper Hummus

This Wildwood hummus just so happens to be the new favorite hummus in town. (And no, Wildwood did not pay me to say that.  Wildwood doesn’t have the slightest clue who I am, but they are surely delighted that their sales have likely skyrocketed in the upstate New York area.)

I can only find this brand of hummus in health food stores (also in Nature’s Market at Wegmans) but it’s well worth the hunt if you are a hummus lover. This hummus is also perfect for smearing into a tortilla, loading up with your favorite leafy green and then shouting “That’s a wrap!” as you lift and aim the whole enchilada toward your hummus hole.

Let’s call our third award the Kinda Boring Yet Still Awesomely Awesome Snack Award!

This one goes to fresh strawberries.

Strawberries

It is not yet strawberry season ’round these parts, but you wouldn’t know it if you looked into my refrigerator on any given day of the week lately. Organic strawberries have been on sale and I have not let that strawberry sale go unappreciated. Although they are from California, the fetus and I are overlooking the fact that they had to travel across the country to get to us.

Best way to eat fresh strawberries? Standing at your kitchen counter in your bare feet and performing the following operation on your red berry:

First, pull your strawberry’s hair back into a ponytail.

Strawberry Stem Ponytail

Next, give your strawberry a lobotomy.

Scalp Strawberry

Step three: cut strawberry in half depending on the size of the strawberry and/or your mouth.

Cut Strawberry in Half

Finally, devour, roll your eyes back into your head as you begin to weep at their sunshiney sweetness.

It is at this juncture that I’d like to note that strawberries (as well as most other berries) are one of the fruits that I try very hard to always buy organic.  Strawberries top The Dirty Dozen list when it comes to the fruits and vegetables that you should go organic with, especially if you [ahem] eat a lot of them.  I’m sad to say there is no washing the pesticides and chemicals off of these little red sponges.

Moving on now to our final snack award of the day, The Snack That’s Not the Best Snack Ever But You Know What?  Sometimes That’s OK:

Peanut Butter Pretzels.

Peanut Butter Pretzels

A handful of these little guys totally takes care of a nagging candy craving I’ve been trying hard to ignore.  (Except that they are candy, but I’m going to ignore that too.)

And now for the gratuitous belly shot to show that all this snacking seems to be working when it comes to growing the wee babe in my belly:

26 weeks pregnant

26 weeks down, 14 weeks (give or take) to go. 20 pounds so far, 1 very kicky baby.

Alrighty, that’s it! A big congrats to today’s award winners! Time go celebrate with a snack.


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14 Responses

  • sarah says:

    hummus hole. sweet mother of baby jesus, you said hummus hole.

    hi! nice to see you!

  • Cindy says:

    ohhhhhhhhhhhh should not have read this post whilst hungry.

    jam and yogurt, I like orange marmalade myself. NICE.

    I EAT the green top of the straweberry because I read that they are good for you. Just sayin’!

    It’s like a fruit salad.
    um
    kinda.

    And I eat exactly 4 circus cookies in a small ramekin once or twice a week so when you need a small sweet fix a small ramekin fixes it pretty well.

    LOOK AT YOUR BELL-AY!!!

    gosh it’s going fast!

    happy snacking!

    • gasp! orange marmalade! what a good idea!

      I’ve heard of leaving the greens on your strawberries when throwing them into a smoothie… I’ve yet to crunchy on a green top though. Hmmm…

  • Heidi says:

    I’m a crazy snacker too, and I’m not even pregnant. Your snacks all look scrumptious!

  • B. Gomicchio says:

    Check on the yogurt, strawberries, and hummus and now I need to go get some PB covered pretzels :) There’s some protein in there somewhere, right? And you’re missing my favorite preggo snack these days – chocolate :) Lovely, lovely very dark chocolate. Ooohh . . . chocolate covered strawberries . . . Sorry! Not trying to contribute to the candy craving!

    By the way, what’s the deal with greek yogurt? Vs. Non-greek yogurt, that is?

    • Greek yogurt is thicker, creamier and is much higher in protein than regular yogurt because it’s been strained of most of it’s whey. (The watery stuff you usually have to stir in when you open a container of regular yogurt.) It’s also lower in carbs and sugar unless it’s been sweetened… like ummmm, with strawberry jam.

      It makes a great sour cream substitute, the kids love it on quesadillas. I’ve had good luck baking with it too.

      And the chocolate! How could I forget?!

    • Sarah says:

      I can answer that! Greek is strained, which removes the liquid whey and results in a thicker product with twice the protein of regular yogurt. It takes something like four times the milk to make Greek yogurt – which is why it costs more.

  • I haven’t been able to turn down the organic strawberries on sale, either. I’ll make up for their non-localness this summer, but for now I’ll enjoy the CA beauties!

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