Do you remember the days when snacks meant a piece of sugary cake, a sweet biscuit, or a bag of potato chips? I do, and in fact, I was addicted to jelly beans. Our end of the office was Jelly Bean Central. One of my staff installed a jelly bean machine in a place where it was highly visible and accessible. You could also hear the sound of a new packet of beans tumbling into the canister as someone was filling it up. It was great for instant energy, but it fueled my addiction to sugar.

To top this off another staff member became the office queen of cakes, which meant that cakes became the thing to have at morning tea, and then everyone got into making them and bringing them into work.

The picture here was sugar, sugar, and more sugar which fueled our hyperactivity, intense workloads, and addictions.

I am a great believer in healthy snacks. Some of us don’t need snacks and pull up just fine with three square meals, and others like myself like to have three meals, plus three snacks during the day.

I split my snacks between sweet ones and savoury ones.  I usually opt for the easy ones to prepare and ones that you can bake and then store.

Here are a few ideas for you to add this week after enjoying the Easter chocolate.

Savoury Snacks

• One of my favorites is chopped carrots and celery with hummus or straight tahini. You can take this to work and store in the fridge for at least two days worth of snacks.
• An avocado, or guacamole with Organic Brown Rice Crackers

• Kale or seaweed chips

• A handful of nuts with a few dried raisins added

• Some olives and pickled vegetables

• A boiled egg with salt and pepper

• Really yummy Paleo Pumpkin Bread by Theresa Cutter: https://www.thehealthychef.com/category/recipes/. I sometimes vary this recipe to include two-thirds pumpkin and one-third apple. I also add Cacao nibs to give it a different flavour. You can freeze this and have it on hand.

• Chicken bone broth cooked with some vegetables such Daikon, sliced carrots, zucchini, spring onions, broccoli and fresh ginger.   If I am feeling a bit bloated from eating too much, I make a big batch of this and have it for the whole day. It is extremely nourishing and cleans up the digestive system.

Sweet snacks

• A bowl of frozen organic berries with some coconut cream and coconut flakes
• A Granny Smith apple. This is low in sugar and crisp and fresh to eat

• Stewed fruit with a tablespoon of Coconut butter mixed through

• A berry smoothie made from berries, coconut water, half a banana, ground flaxseed or chia seeds, some super green powder, a drop of a pure vanilla essence, and a few liquid stevia drops if you like it sweet

• Fresh squeezed juice from low sugar fruits and vegetables. Whatever you have in the fridge, greens, beets, apple, cucumber, carrots

•  85% dark chocolate (my favourite)

• A few fresh dates

• Protein balls – made with dates, nuts, and coconut products. There are lots of versions on google.

 Healthy warm drinks

• Quality  green leaf tea:  its loaded with antioxidants

• Quality  herbal leaf teas:  for example lemongrass and ginger, Dandelion root – its good for detoxing, Pau d’arco tea – its good for helping to eliminate candida

• Bone Broth:  a great source of minerals and good for detoxing

• Hot milk with Cacao and some liquid stevia

You don’t have to give up snacks, you just need to make them healthy and not go overboard in eating too many of them.  Some you can prepare and take to the office, others you can whiz up in the kitchen if you have a blender or juicer.

Crowd sugar out and try to add organic where possible. Your body will love you for it.