Healthy Snacking with Nuts.com

When it comes to snacking, we always try to opt for healthy options that will keep our families full and satisfied.  A lot of the time we will make snacks with some type of nut because the protein keep everyone full and nuts are often a big crowd pleaser.  Dried fruit is also popular because it can help crave a sweet tooth with natural sugars.  Today we are sharing some awesome snack options from nuts.com and we know you are going to love what we have picked out! Whether you are looking for school snacks for the kids, something to keep in your desk at work, or snacks to nibble on during the football game, you are sure to find lots of winners here!

What are your favorite healthy snacks?! 

Homemade Granola Bars

Having healthy snacks in the house is so important in maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle.  We love snack recipes that make big batches, and that we can throw in our purse, gym bag, lunch box, or briefcase.  These homemade simple 5 ingreient granola bars fit the bill and we make them all the time!  We love taking them with us on nature walks, and they are a great way to help your body stay fueled during the day.

Ingredients

• 1 cup packed dates, pitted (deglet nour or medjool)
• 1/4 cup honey (or sub maple syrup or agave for vegan option)
• 1/4 cup creamy salted natural peanut butter or almond butter
• 1 cup roasted unsalted almonds, loosely chopped
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats (gluten free for GF eaters)
• optional additions: chocolate chips, dried fruit, nuts, banana chips, vanilla, etc.

Instructions

1. Process dates in a food processor until small bits remain (about 1 minute). It should form a "dough" like consistency. (mine rolled into a ball)
2. Optional step: Toast your oats in a 350 degree oven for 15-ish minutes or until slightly golden brown. Otherwise, leave them raw - I just prefer the toasted flavor.
3. Place oats, almonds and dates in a bowl - set aside.
4. Warm honey and peanut butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir and pour over oat mixture and then mix, breaking up the dates to disperse throughout.
5. Once thoroughly mixed, transfer to an 8x8 dish or other small pan lined with plastic wrap or parchment paper so they lift out easily. (A loaf pan might work, but will yield thicker bars.)
6. Press down until uniformly flattened. Cover with parchment or plastic wrap, and let set in fridge or freezer for 15-20 minutes to harden.
7. Remove bars from pan and chop into 10 even bars. Store in an airtight container for up to a few days. I kept mine in the freezer to keep them extra fresh, but it isn't necessary.

{recipe and image via}

Make It Monday: Butterfly Snacks

It's a rainy, muddy day here in CT, bringing flooded basements and washed out roads, but it's also washing away the mountains of dirty, sand-covered snow that we've been staring at for months so many of us are breathing a sigh of relief. Spring is on its way, finally!

To celebrate this, we're making butterfly snacks today.  These are a variation of "ants on a log" - that traditional kid snack of celery stuffed with peanut butter and topped with raisins. This is an easy way to get kids, as young as pre-school age in the kitchen "cooking".

Butterfly Snacks
✿ 3 to 4 inch long pieces of celery
   (how to select, clean & destring your celery)
✿ hummus
   (Sarah's Cucina Bella shared one of her hummus recipes with us)
✿ mini pretzels
✿ slivered almonds
  (toast them on a cookie sheet for added flavor & crunch)

Stuff the celery with the hummus.
Arrange the pretzels as wings
Use the slivered almonds as antennae

• The original version of this used a plastic bag to pipe the hummus onto the celery. If you have a reusable piping bag, that might be fun, but it seemed easy enough to simply stuff them using a spoon and butter knife. 
• Mini loop pretzels would be a great idea for wings, but we only had snaps in the house so we improvised. 
• The other change I made to the original version was eliminating the raisin eyes. I don't know about you, but raisins & hummus just don't taste good together to me. Do you have an idea for butterfly eyes that compliments the celery and hummus?

Packing this snack for school, we popped a handful of pretzels and slivered almonds into a snackTAXI and put our prefilled celery stalks into a LunchBot.