My Top 10 Clean & Delicious Snacks

If your body is familiar with eating more sugary or processed foods, these snacks may not sound like your cup of tea right now, but just try them! You may fall in love with them. These snacks may also spark some new snack ideas you can create yourself.

(Yes, I eat full-fat cheese in moderation. It is delicious.)

–          ½ Cup Celery, Carrots & Bell Peppers with 2 tbs. Hummus

–          5 Medium Strawberries with ½ oz. Sharp Cheddar Cheese

–          20 Pistachios with 10 Green Grapes

–          ½ Cup Organic Greek or Goat Yogurt with ¼ Cup Chopped Fruit and 2 tsp. Pure Clover Honey

–          ½ Grapefruit with 1 tsp. Stevia

–          15 Almonds with ½ Cup Mellon

–          ½ Cup Oatmeal with 1 tsp. Honey and 15 Blueberries + a few Sliced Almonds

–          ½ oz. Double Cream Brie with ½ Apple

–          Smoothie with ½ Cup Greek Yogurt, ¼ Cup Skim Milk, ¼ Cup Blueberries, 1 cup Kale, ½ of a Medium Banana.

–          2 tbs. Homemade Guacamole on 2 Celery Stalks

Pre-cutting your vegetables and fruits so they are super easy to grab and pack up for the day is a great way to stay on track. Also, pre-weigh your cheeses on a scale and portion them out into Ziploc bags or Tupperware. Prep work is crucial! This is true in all aspects of cooking and eating!

If you are feeling a little overly “clean” when you read these snack ideas, there are a few things you can do to spice these up!

1)      If you are not used to eating raw veggies and you don’t like the taste of them, stir-fry your veggies in some olive oil with some seasonings like chili powder and fresh garlic.

2)      Make sure the fruit you are eating is ripe. If fruit isn’t ready to be eaten, it won’t taste great! Also, buy seasonal fruit!

3)      Try different types of nuts and find your favorite. Alternatives to plain nuts are flavored varieties, like sea salt and even cocoa. Just make sure what you are buying is all natural!

4)      Can’t get used to the thickness of goat yogurt? I think you eventually will come to love it, but until then, mix the yogurt with a little bit of skim milk to thin it out.

5)      If you don’t enjoy the tartness of citrus fruit, try cutting the fruit in half and broiling it for a few minutes in the oven. Instantly delicious and more sweet.

A Middle Ground

Polenta & Plum is a blog with a purpose. This is a blog which I hope aids in improving lives through healthy, home cooking.

I am a writer who has loved to write since a young age. I’ve been keeping journals since I was in elementary school, moving into advanced writing classes and then studying communications in college. I wrote for several publications and more recently moved into freelance writing and copy-editing. Career boredom gradually set in. I am now refocusing my writing goals on something I absolutely love; food.

While I love food, my relationship with it has not always been the healthiest. Over the past two years, I have revamped the way I view and cook food. After college and packing on an abundance of pounds by putting everything before my health, I decided it was time to get healthy. Step by step I improved myself physically, mentally and emotionally. Through massive amounts of meditation, journaling, reading and relearning everything I had ever known about food, I am in a healthy place, working towards becoming healthier each day. The most important aspect of my healthful transformation was learning that food was not the enemy, and that food and I could actually be really good friends.

I can assure you this blog will be full of helpful tips and deliciously healthy recipes. I attempt to practice clean eating, but I allow homemade indulgences as well; life is for living after all. There is a middle-ground I feel many food bloggers overlook; a place between flax seed and green smoothies & clown cupcakes and Velveeta. A healthy place, where food is still enjoyable and cooking is still fun.