Healthy Snack Ideas

Take a little time out of your day to prepare healthy snacks for the week. Here are a few ideas to get you feeling better prepared and more organised to eat heathier.

I have been in a healthy eating food funk over the last couple of weeks. I get in these cycles of feeling rubbish, eating rubbish then feeling even more rubbish. It can be really hard to break out of but eventually the effort it takes to get out of a funk is a lot less painful than the feeling of being stuck in it.

Plan, Prepare, Organise

Planning, preparation and organisation really are so important to becoming successful in most things. This is something I seem to be learning over and over again recently. Life is busy, but my head seems busier. Because of that I am finding myself caught out when it comes to accomplishing the things I want to achieve each day. Eating healthy is SO MUCH EASIER when you have planned, prepared and organised yourself and your meals in advance.

I am going to be working on planning, preparing and getting myself more organised this month. Consequently, I hope that this will mean I can manage my time better, feel happier, healthier and more accomplished. The thought of meal prep can be a bit overwhelming, but if you are organised then it doesn’t have to take up much time at all. It took just under and hour to prepare these healthy snacks this week and it has made a huge difference already.

How to prepare healthy snacks

I started out by writing a list of healthy snack ideas that I wanted to make. I had most of the ingredients I needed already and popped to the shop to grab what I didn’t already have. My plan was to make;

Clean Eating Spiced Apple Bread (with my old red apples and other kitchen cupboard ingredients)
Clean Eating Golden Banana Bread (with my old ripe bananas and other kitchen cupboard ingredients)
Cut up fruit
Boiled eggs
Cut up veggie sticks
Pesto/houmous dip

Next, I made sure my kitchen was clean and organised because that really helps when preparing food. I preheated the oven whilst I got all of my ingredients, kitchen tools and appliances ready then I made the breads and popped them into the oven. After that I prepped everything else whilst the breads were cooking.

It took me just under an hour to get everything done. That’s not bad for 3 days worth of snacks. We have also been enjoying the breads for breakfasts and lunches too so it has saved a lot of time throughout the week.

Wholemeal Breads

Wholewheat breads like these don’t last quite as long as white flour/sugar breads. I store mine in an airtight container and we enjoy it for about 3 days or so. You can revive older bread by toasting it and topping with raspberry jam!

Fresh Fruit

Fresh fruit is so handy to have cut up in the fridge, especially when you are craving something sweet. I’m always after something sweet after dinner but don’t often think to pick up an apple and eat it. However, picking fruit that you really like and having it prepared already feels like more of a treat. I love the combination of green apples, melon and strawberries. Pineapple and watermelon are another favourite combination of mine.

Top Tip: If you squeeze a little bit of lemon juice over your sliced apples, it stops them from going brown.

Boiled Eggs

Boiled eggs are a great healthy snack idea. They are so handy to have in the fridge ready to add to salads or to snack on in-between meals. They are a great inexpensive source of protein and keep you feeling full. My boys absolutely love eating boiled eggs, especially if they get to peel them open too! I love them sliced on top of rice cakes topped with houmous or pesto…. or both. Yum!

Fresh Vegetables

You can’t get a much healthier snack than fresh vegetables. There aren’t many veggies that I don’t like, but when I cut up vegetables to put in the fridge I only pick the ones I love to snack on. Raw broccoli, cauliflower, peppers or mangetout just wouldn’t get eaten in this house but carrots, celery, radishes and tomatoes do! It doesn’t matter what the veggies are, it just matters that they will get eaten. I made a little nut free pesto/houmous dip for the veggies but you could also use regular houmous or make your own pesto, my Kale, Basil and Walnut Pesto is my favourite. (I like to double or even quadruple the recipe when I make it, and freeze it in ice cube trays).

Once I was done and had tidied the kitchen back up it felt really good to see all of these containers with healthy wholesome snacks in them ready for when we needed them. 1 hours work for 3 days feeling healthier and happier during the day is well worth it. Did it stop me craving Liquorice Allsorts and Kettle Chips? No. BUT what it did do was give me a healthier option available which is half of the battle sometimes. I will restock this throughout the week and replace what has been eaten, or maybe change it up a little bit.