My family and I love snacks! I have low blood sugar, so I need to eat every 2 hours anyway. Thankfully, snacking isn’t “bad” if you do it in moderation and make healthy choices. Healthy, good-for-you snacks can be part of a heart healthy diet. To snack the sensible way, choose nutrient-rich snacks.
Some crunchy examples of healthy snacks are apples and breadsticks, carrot and celery sticks, green pepper sticks, zucchini circles, radishes, broccoli spears, cauliflower and unsalted rice cakes.
Some munchy snacks are unsalted sunflower seeds, whole-grain breads or toast, cherry or grape tomatoes, low-fat or fat-free cheese, plain, low-fat or fat-free yogurt, bagels, unsalted almonds, walnuts and other nuts.
Examples of sweet snacks are unsweetened canned fruit, a thin slice of angel food cake, baked apple, raisins, dried fruit gelatin gems, frozen bananas, frozen grapes, fresh fruit, and low-fat or fat-free unsweetened fruit yogurt.
Some thirst-quenchers are fat-free milk, unsweetened juices, low-sodium tomato or mixed vegetable juice, water, and smoothies (I’m going to share a smoothie recipe with you next week).
One of our favorite afternoon snacks is hummus. I have about 3 or 4 hummus recipes that I like, so I decided to share the Roasted-Pepper Hummus Recipe with you. I found it in the New American Heart Association Cookbook, 8th Edition, which you can find on Amazon.
This recipe only needs 7 ingredients and is really fast to make. The ingredients are salt, black pepper, garbanzo beans, garlic, roasted peppers, lime juice, and water. I hadn’t bought roasted peppers before I started using this recipe, so I wasn’t sure what aisle to find them in. I ended up finding them in the aisle with the olives, dressings, and condiments.
All you have to do is process all the ingredients in a food processor until smooth. I love my food processor! I use it at least once a week, and sometimes more than once in a day! It really makes it easier to blend things together, and chop and slice.
I like to make the hummus on Sunday after church, and put it in the refrigerator. Then it’s chilled when we have it for our afternoon snack.
We usually eat the hummus with wheat pita bread pockets, but into triangles. We’ve also had it with pita chips. You can also serve it with heart-healthy crackers or vegetables. It makes plenty of hummus. My 3 kids and I had it for 2 snacks and my son took it with him twice for an afternoon snack in between his college classes.
- 1 15.5 ounce can no-salt added chickpeas, rinsed and drained
- ½ cup diced roasted red bell pepper, drained if bottled
- ¼ cup water
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- 1 medium garlic clove, minced
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- In a food processor, add all the ingredients.
- Process until smooth.
- Serve at room temperature or refrigerate in an airtight container to serve chilled.
Thanks for the recipe,I cant wait to try this.