Sunday snack time

Sundays. They're great. Great for being lazy. I do have a list of things to do today, but it is nice to know that I can do most of them from the comfort of my couch! It was supposed to be a snowy and blustery day anyhow (Wait, it's April right?!), so the plan was to work on my group project all day and turn it in for the team… Two problems so far… one, there isn't a WHOLE lot of snow happening out there… and two. ONE person has turned in their part on this team assignment so far. Never mind the fact that we all agreed to have the parts in two days ago. Sigh. Tis the life of a *responsible* team member. I know I was quite a slacker at my first college go, back when I got my Associates, but I'm pretty sure if it involved other people, I put the slacking on hold. But I digress.

I suppose, though, that waiting on them gives me some blog time, so there's always a pro to the con!

So, let's discuss snacks… Another con to school, and the fact that it involves sitting in front of the computer, is that my FAVE thing to do while working is SNACK… I can easily make a one-hour assignment last four hours, by getting up every five minutes to wander around, check on the girls, stare into the pantry for snacks, sit down, pee, stare into the fridge, refill my water bottle, sit down, stare into the pantry again, sit down, mysteriously end up on Facebook for the tenth time, you get the idea… but anyways, about the snacks. Within the first week, I was thinking, I better make sure I don't even give myself terrible options to choose from, otherwise I'm going to gain 30 pounds. Part of not getting those terrible options? Don't shop in the middle aisles. I know you've heard it before. It's true. I rarely shop in the aisles, unless it is for a few of the canned goods I get. Shop the outer perimeter, and you've got your deli, meat, dairy, eggs, and produce. If the majority of your purchases come from the outskirts, you're doing good in my book.

So for snacks, you've got the basics, like carrots, apples, and other crunchy things that require a lot of chewing. I feel like the longer it takes to eat something, the better.

But I also try and get creative with snacks. A good variety keeps me from getting bored with them, and a good mix can keep you full longer, instead of those empty-calorie crackers, cookies, etc.

Here was today's mid-day snack…

The girls were upstairs playing but they are like puppies, and would sense my snack in a heartbeat, so I went ahead and made them up a little bowl. One of my favorite new snacks is a rice cake with cottage cheese on it. Today I went savory with a Sweet Chili rice cake, although I also have some caramel rice cakes that I like to put peanut butter, cottage cheese, a sprinkle of truvia and cinnamon on, and call it dessert. It is *usually* enough to fix my sweet tooth…. Usually… ANYways… These are organic brown rice rice cakes and I typically only buy them if they are on sale at the store, or if I can find them cheap on Amazon Prime. (P.s. I think Amazon Prime is TOTALLY worth it!)

So I've also got some Genoa salami, thanks to a friend that brought some over and didn't take it with her (Thanks friend!). If you like salami and deli meats, and all that, try and find things that don't have a lot of added sugar or nitrates in them. And since I went with the spicy rice cake, I grabbed some raisins to get my sweet fix. For the girls, I gave them two crackers, some of the raisins, and some of Annie's Boom Chicka Pop white cheddar popcorn… I pretty much only buy this when it is on sale too! And it's  delicious. But so is a bag of kernels that you pop yourself and that is WAY cheaper too! Just toss the kernels in a brown bag and pop them in the microwave like you would with any store-bought bags of popcorn. You can give the popcorn a little spray of oil and some sea salt and you're good to go!

So, the point is, pick snacks that have a good variety, lots of protein, a few carbs, and for me, a little sweet is always good. And P.s., post-this-photo, we all decided we should have some baby carrots too! I love (and am lucky enough to have a) Costco, and they have giant bags of organic baby carrots, and they stay good forever, so we have time to eat them all. Same goes for that giant bag of raisins up there… I love Costco and don't know what I ever did without it!

So, what are your favorite snacks? What are some of your go-tos? Share them with me, for my days when I get bored with all my go-tos!

And oh, there's the snow….

Happy Snacking!