Healthy Snacking Kit to Stay Fit

As is generally said, “have breakfast like a king, lunch like a common man, and dinner like a pauper”. We understand the importance of having a heavy breakfast, medium lunch and light dinner. And then when we crave for something to munch between meals, very often we grab food which may be high in fat, cholesterol and carbohydrates, as such snacks are easily available over the counters. While it is essential to snack 3 to 4 times a day, albeit in small quantities, one must try to eat snacks as healthy as possible to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and also if one is trying to manage weight.

Try these quick snacking ideas and satiate your mid-meal hunger without any guilt.

10 Healthy Snacking Tips:

1.       Sweet corn/ Popcorn - Boil sweet corn pellets for 3-4 minutes, drain off the water and prepare your own spicy sweet corn snack. You can use butter-salt-pepper, lime juice-salt-chaat masala or any other creative spice combination you feel like…the result is always a healthy bowl of sweet corn.

Popcorn is a guiltless snack, which is tasty as well as filling, needless to say healthy as well. Popcorn packets available in stores or instant popcorn prepared in the microwave/pressure cooker are all good to satiate your mid-meal craving.

2.       Fruits/ Fruit Yoghurt – Whole fruits or fruit salads give instant energy, lots of fibre and loads of vitamins and minerals to keep you active and alert through the day. A gap of at least 1 hour must be given when having 2 servings of fruit snacks consecutively.

For fruit yoghurt, use hung curd (made by wrapping curd in a muslin cloth and keeping it hung for some time, by which the water from the curd drains off and the curd comes off the cloth as a thick lump), mix it with cut fruits of the season to make a healthy snack. You can add some spice to it by adding chaat masala, with salt/sugar to taste.

3.       Sprouts – Whole green lentils (moong dal) sprouts can be made by soaking the whole dal/lentils overnight, draining the water and leaving the wet lentils covered for half a day. You can make a healthy sprout salad by tossing in chopped onion, tomatoes, cucumber, coriander (dhania) leaves, boiled sweet corns and pomegranate seeds (optional) to add yellow and bright red colours. For the dressing, you can use either olive oil base or lime juice base, with salt, pepper, chopped green chillies and chaat masala.

4.       Nuts – Almond, pistachios, walnut, peanuts/groundnuts in small portions (2-3 of each when eating a mix of nuts, or 8-10 if you are eating just 1 type of nut)

5.       Brown/whole wheat bread sandwich – with fillings like paneer/cottage cheese, vegetables (tomato, cucumber, spinach, lettuce, bell peppers/capsicum, grated cabbage), boiled spinach and corn pellets, or a simple scrambled egg (with hung curd instead of mayonnaise if you like).  

6.       Vegetable tikkis/cutlets – Boil vegetables (diced carrots, green pea pellets, sweet corn pellets, diced potatoes) with a pinch of salt. When boiled, mash them completely and mix chopped green chillies and salt to taste. Divide the boiled vegetable mix into small round balls, and flatten them by pressing each ball between your palms. Shallow fry in a flat bottomed pan with a little oil. Turn the sides and cook well. Serve with onion slices and chopped coriander leaves…yummy and healthy snacks ready in no time!

7.       Milk shake – Make healthy and delicious milk shakes, and satisfy your mid-meal hunger. In a blender, mix milk, fruit slices (banana, strawberry, mango, kiwi, melon, papaya, pomegranate – but use only 1 fruit type for the shake, do not mix different fruits), sugar and blend for 2 minutes. Your lip-smacking milk shake is ready…enjoy J

8.      Multi grain biscuits/crackers - with a dash of honey (or a small spoonful of chocolate syrup)….quick, healthy and filling!

9.       Puffed rice (Bhel) – Make fat-free snack with puffed rice (bhel), roasted (or lightly fried) peanuts, chopped onion-green chillies-coriander leaves and a few drops of Indian pickle gravy (optional). Yummy magic in a jiffy!

10.   Dried Green Peas Chaat – Soak dried greenpeas (readily available in stores in the dal/lentils section) overnight. Boil the soaked peas (which would now look swollen) with a pinch of salt. Drain off excess water and let it cool. In a pan, crackle a pinch of cumin seeds (jeera) and grated ginger in a dash of oil. Add in the boiled peas and salt (to taste). The chaat base is ready. Serve in plates with chopped onion, tomatoes, coriander leaves, curd/yoghurt, a tsp of sweet/tamarind chutney (optional) and sprinkle some sev/bhujiya (optional) on top. Try it and you will know how tasty yet healthy it is!

A Splash of Colour

Sometime back when I visited my younger brother, a bachelor working and living in another city, I did not expect him to cook fancy meals for me. He is after all my kid brother, I am supposed to take care of him, and I take pride in the fact that I being the elder one keep giving him advice on practically all matters in the world as part of that responsibility. I just refuse to let go, to accept that he too is as mature as me – he will remain the little one till I am 90 and he is 88!

But I was taken by surprise (and particularly touched) when I woke up the first morning - the aroma of warm grilled sandwiches wafting through the kitchen! My brother had cooked up sumptuous mashed potato and egg sandwiches. The breakfast was a treat, but it also left me wondering about the kind of food my brother eats – mostly carbohydrates and fats, high in calories, and very less vegetables. And as usual, I decided to shower him with my advice on the importance of vegetables of various colours, and how easy it is to incorporate them in his daily diet without too much effort.

I use some very simple ways of adding a splash of colour to my regular dishes, as each colour stands for a particular energy (the basis of colour therapy) and nutrient. Let me share some here:

• Coriander – Sprinkle finely chopped coriander leaves on salads, curries, raita, sprouts. Use in paratha fillings, cutlets, omelettes, sandwiches for a refreshing green.
• Capsicum (bell pepper) – Instead of using green capsicum in pasta, noodles, curries, sprouts or salads, combine yellow and red capsicum also. While they add vibrant colours to your food, red and yellow peppers also add a bit of sweetness to the dish.
• Pomegranate seeds – Sprinkle a few of these bright red seeds on fruit salads, curd rice, kheer, custard, pudding, sooji(rava)/carrot halwa.
• Corn – This yellow vegetable can be boiled and sprinkled into raitas, mashed potato, spinach curries (or any mixed veg curry), chaats, pasta, noodles, cutlets.  

Here is my quick recipe for multi coloured potato and vegetable sandwich:

• Finely cut and boil vegetables, like carrots, green peas, corns and beans for bright red, green and yellow colours. Shallow fry and add to boiled and mashed potatoes. Add salt and green chillies to taste.  Fill between 2 slices of bread and cook in a sandwich maker (or directly on a tawa/flat pan)

Go on....add colour to the lives of your loved ones...it is not that difficult, yet worth it after all!