Great and Healthy Afternoon Snacks are Here!
When it comes to healthy snack ideas, we have absolutely got you covered. Lisa is big into healthy recipes and trying out new ideas for healthy dinners, healthy breakfast options, and especially healthy snacks!
Her healthy snack list is pretty long – so we wanted to focus on a few of our favorite snacks to make. Most of these are easy to make for on the go people, and while some of these are healthy snacks that you can buy, we’d recommend making them at home if you can! That way you can bring your healthy afternoon snacks for the office and save some money!
We can’t guarantee (can anyone?) that these are healthy afternoon snacks for weight loss, but we can guarantee that they are more full of whole foods and nutritional factors than the sugary and processed items you can buy at the grocery stores or out to eat!
Sliced Fruit and Peanut Butter
Lisa really enjoys eating some sliced up fruit as an afternoon snack. Her go-to fruit are apples since you can keep them for a long time without them going bad. That’s why we usually have some red or green apples at home. For some reason, Bruce just really likes green apples.
There’s just something about sliced up fruit that makes it easier to eat than the whole fruit. We don’t know why but maybe you can relate. A good alternative to apples are pears or cut-up bananas, but you should keep in mind that bananas are very concentrated in fruit sugar compared to other fruits so it’s wise to rotate your fruit choice frequently.
Sometimes eating the fruit on its own can get a bit boring so we like to eat them with a little bit of peanut butter, almond butter, or another form of nut butter. When we buy peanut butter etc. we make it a point to read the ingredients label and avoid any brand that has added sugar, palm oil, or other bad ingredients.
We try to always buy an all-natural peanut butter where the only ingredients are crushed peanuts and maybe some salt. If you can, we would recommend you do the same since nut butters with lots of bad ingredients can really decrease the overall health factor of your snack.
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Buckwheat Banana Pancakes
Lisa is trying to eat less wheat flour and is constantly experimenting with healthier alternatives. That’s why we have been making quite a few dishes using buckwheat flour instead of normal white flour. It does have a slightly different taste but we really enjoy it and use it the same way we used wheat flour in the past.
One of our go-to snacks as of late have been healthy banana pancakes. The photo is not the best reflection of that since it includes a big chunk of butter which we don’t use but we wanted to give you a general idea and haven’t thought of taking a photo of our pancakes… yet!
We actually just published the recipe for our buckwheat banana pancakes – it’s pretty easy to make. We basically just mix buckwheat flour, two ripe bananas (or one big one), some almond milk, and sometimes some xylitol (as a sugar substitute).
Read Next – Our Delicious Vegan Buckwheat Banana Pancake Recipe
If you want your pancakes to rise, you can also add some baking soda. Then just pan fry it and enjoy the pancakes with some fruit or pure maple syrup as toppings. Try to avoid maple syrup with added sugar!
Yogurt Bowl
Recently, Lisa has been getting more into eating yogurt again. Sometimes it is coconut yogurt but other times it is normal cow milk yogurt. We just make sure we get whole fat yogurt that is all natural without any added coloring or sugar.
We like to make this healthy afternoon snack when we don’t have a lot of time since it is super quick to make. We usually just put a few spoonfuls of yogurt into a bowl, cut up half an apple per bowl and then add some additional items depending on what we feel like.
Lisa’s go-to ingredients are pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, a dash of cinnamon and sometimes a little bit of muesli if she’s feeling extra hungry. Bruce usually goes for granola, chia seeds, cinnamon, and honey. Just make sure you get a (somewhat) healthy granola since some brands contain lots of processed sugar!
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A Smoothie
You can never go wrong with a smoothie as a healthy afternoon snack. There are just so many variations of a classic smoothie. One thing we would recommend though is to include a good amount of greens into your smoothie and avoid using only very sweet fruits or else otherwise your smoothie would include a lot of sugar. It’s fruit sugar yes, but it is still sugar – and without the fiber of the fruit.
We like to use kale or spinach as our base and then add a banana, an apple, or some berries to give it a bit of sweetness and/or color. Usually, we also add some almond or coconut milk, or some yogurt if we are looking for a thicker consistency.
You can also add some mint or spices if you want a slightly different taste. There are just so many different smoothie recipes out there that we really like so we’ll write a blog post about some of our favorites soon!
Avocado on Rye Toast
Can we get more millennial? Probably not. But that’s okay – we were both born in the 1990s after all. And there is no denying that avocado on rye bread is a delicious and healthy afternoon snack. Of course, this is only an option if you actually have ripe avocados at home.
We have tried to make it with avocados that were nowhere close to being ripe before and it just doesn’t taste that good. However, we usually have a few avocados at home since we like to use them for our lunch salads anyway.
We like to toast our bread, add the smashed avocado on top, and then add some garlic powder and pepper to give it a little more flavor. You don’t have to use rye bread but we would recommend that you don’t use white bread since that is usually the least nutritious choice and won’t keep you full for that long.
Carrot Sticks, Pita, and Hummus
This is one of Bruce’s favorite afternoon snacks – probably because it is super easy to prepare. You just have to wash the carrots and cut them into smalls strips. Often times we don’t even peel them since there is a lot of nutritious value right underneath the skin.
If you want to eat pita with the carrot and hummus snack then don’t forget to put them into the oven for a few minutes so they can get crunchy. Depending on the brand of pita bread you bought, you could also just toast them.
We usually add pita to this afternoon snack if we are feeling extra hungry, but don’t opt for it every time. Sometimes we also like to add cucumber or celery sticks to the carrots or substitute them for the carrots completely.
For this snack we often use store-bought hummus but we do know that it is actually quite easy to make hummus yourself as well. We just haven’t tried it yet. If you know of a good recipe for making hummus from scratch, please let us know! If you’re also using store-bought hummus for this snack just make sure to check the ingredient list at the store and choose a (somewhat) healthy option.
Read Next – How To Eat Healthy When You Have No Time
Trail Mix
This one is a classic afternoon snack that we don’t eat that often at home but frequently take with us if we are going to be out in the afternoon. It can also be a great snack that you can take work since nothing can spill and you don’t need to prepare anything extra once you have created your trail mix. It’s also great for hiking!
Of course, you can buy trail mix at the store but we usually try to make our own. Store-bought trail mix usually includes a lot of raisins which we don’t like that much and Lisa then spends a lot of time picking them out. So better make our own.
We like to use almonds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, granola and dried cranberries. If you like it a little sweeter, you can always add a few semi-sweet chocolate chips (in moderation!). We do that sometimes but don’t recommend it for the middle of the summer since the chocolate chips can actually melt and make a big mess.
And there you have it – 7 of our absolute favorite snacks to make in pinch when we are hungry in the afternoon! There are so many different snacks that you can make, you really get to choose which ones work perfectly for you, your schedule, and your tastes.
What do you think of our list? Anything you love that we missed? Please get in touch and let us know. We want more awesome snack ideas!
As always, Stay Curious,
-B&L
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