Category: Recipes

Most people think of their daily food intake as breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but what about those snacks in between? No matter how healthy your meals are, your whole day’s nutritional intake can be thrown off by reaching for the potato chips and candy for a mid-afternoon or midnight snack. Your body works best when supplied food at least once every two to three hours, and nutritious snacks throughout your day should be just as important as what you eat at the family dinner table.

Here are five of the best nutritional snacks you can find…

Apple with String Cheese

This one’s the easiest. Put it in your child’s lunch bag or make it for yourself late in the afternoon. Recommended are baby gala apples, which are smaller and work best for quick snacks.

One Cup of Cottage Cheese with One Half Cup of Grapes

Cottage cheese is a great choice for a snack because it’s filling, plus it’s packed full of protein. Really any fruit, or yogurt, can accompany the cottage cheese, but the tastiest fruit has to be a handful of red seedless grapes. The sweetness of the grapes goes really well with the flavor of the cottage cheese.

Banana with Tablespoon of Peanut Butter

This one’s a classic staple, and sometimes this mix can be more appetizing than any other snack. The key here is not go overboard with the peanut butter. A generous tablespoon is the perfect amount, allowing for a great nutritional intake of protein and unsaturated fats. But peanut butter is definitely fattening, so don’t eat half the carton.

Yogurt with a Handful of Strawberries

Any yogurt will do here, but watch out for the more fruit-based yogurts. Some of those tiny yogurts can have as much as thirty grams of sugar! Try to buy the less sugary alternatives and enjoy your yogurt with a handful of yummy strawberries.

Single Serving of Healthy Pancakes

See the recipe here. This is about the closest to a nutritional dessert you’ll ever get. It tastes just as good as a pancake, if not better, but it’s loaded with oats, cottage cheese, and egg whites, offering lots of protein and zero guilt. A single serving of this pancake alternative will make you look forward to your next snack break!

One More Tip: Buy Organic.

It should be noted that many of the foods listed above will come with a bigger nutritional punch if you buy organic. The fruits especially might have icky pesticides on their surfaces. So buy organic, save money, and eat your best!

Follow this recipe and you will have your whole family in tears of happiness over this delicious banana bread

Nothing beats a really delicious banana bread. While many recipes only call for one or two bananas, this one calls for five or six. The extra banana flavor makes for a truly outstanding bread that is rich enough for a dessert but light enough for breakfast or an afternoon snack.

The best banana bread in the world is located in Maui, HI, in the tiny village of Kahakuloa, at a small green stand called Julia’s Best Banana Bread. If you are unable to make it to Hawaii, however, what follows is the next best scrumptious treat.

Ingredients

· 2 cups all-purpose flour

· 1 teaspoon baking soda

· ½ teaspoon salt

· 2 eggs

· ½ cup butter

· ¾ cup brown sugar

· 1 teaspoon vanilla

· 2 ½ cups mashed extremely ripe bananas (5–6)

· ½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 Degrees F and grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

In a small bowl, mash the bananas until chunky, but not smooth. Make sure that the bananas are extremely ripe, or the end result may turn out bland. If the bananas are starting to collect flies, that means they’re ready.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. You can optionally add some spices, including ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and ½ teaspoon of nutmeg. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the butter with the brown sugar. Then add the eggs and vanilla. Beat thoroughly.

Next add the mashed bananas to the ingredients in the large bowl. Make sure not to over mix the bananas. They should still be a little chunky, not completely smooth.

Next add the flour mixture. Don’t add it all on once. Add a third of the mixture at a time and slowly mix. Once all the flour is mixed in, you are almost done.

The final ingredient is the semi-sweet chocolate chips. You don’t want to add too many or the bread will be too sweet. You should add just enough to add a bit of extra sweetness to the banana flavor. Mix the chocolate chips in slowly with a spoon.

Spoon the mixture into the greased loaf pan and bake until the bread is lightly browned, about 55–60 minutes. To know the bread is done, stick a knife through the center. If the knife comes up clean, the bread has finished baking.

Cool the bread for at least ten minutes before serving.

The bread should serve 6 to 8.

Enjoy!