Healthy Snacking/Eating on the go

Lands Leaving

I'm out of the house A LOT and so I eat as healthily as possible but I find its never good enough to fit with my usual diet, ie I go for snack a jacks, cereal/granola bars or popcorn.

Any ideas for snack foods I can get easily enough in a shop that are also healthy and nutritious? Or is this the best I can do? Bringing food isn't really an option as I don't know how long I will be out for

mack1

I wouldnt really count snack a jacks or popcorn as healthy, sure they are better than a pack of crisps or something but they are lacking in any nutritional value.
Most granola bars are also loaded with sugar, many are not much different than eating a mars bar.

Instead I would have something like
Unsalted, unroasted nuts.
Cans/pouches of tuna/salmon/sardines etc
Deli Chicken/Turkey breast etc

I'm sure there are loads more.

c - 13

Tin of tuna
Boiled eggs (most deli counters do them whole)
Deli counter chicken (the plain sandwich kind, not breaded. Not the best I suppose but better than most choices)
Salad (Most delis, minimum/no dressing, add chicken egg above as required)

cozmik

oatcakes,guacomole or hummus, yogurt, nuts, fruit.

Piste

Granola bars actually aren't so bad, each wrapper contains two which are only 90 cals each, so if you had to snack twice a day and snacked on a granola bar that's 180 cals which isn't so much.

But yeah there's sugar in them, bt they're still fewere cals than a lot of flapjacks/cereal bars.

numorouno

id highly recommend cashew nuts for a quick snack on the go. keep em in a small container in the car and munch away throughout the day. v tasty and suprisinly filling. very good offers in lidl/aldi sometimes so stock up then and it could work out cheap too

shortie_chik

Quick cheap & easy snack foods available in any convenience store: bananas & oranges - as long as you can wash your hands soon after! Bananas are about 1 WW point, and oranges only 0.5 points (if you're counting!)

In supermarkets you can buy multi-packs of popcorn, and the single serving packs are really small. There's enough to stop you being hungry, but you won't go overboard on salt. Snack-a-jacks (2pts) are a bit salty & processed, but they keep me away from stuff like McCoys Velvet crunch (1pt) are quite yummy & now widely available too.

If you are in a car, I'd say leave a bag of washed apples there; they'll be fine for a week (0.5 pts each).

Nuts are good too, but you really need to be careful with your portion sizes; e.g. you can have about 10 raw cashews for a point, but could you stop at 10? You only get 3 brazil nuts for a point! Tis much the same with dried fruit & seeds. Fresh & raw is the best way to have nuts & fruit.

Granola bars tend to be very high in sugar (and have squillions of points for the size of them!). You could try single serving cereal boxes & skimmed milk. Many no-sugar, no-fruit/nut/honey cereals are about 2 points a serving incl semi-skimmed milk. Try cornflakes, special k, weetabix, weetaflakes (only 1.5!)... You can buy some of these in small plastic bowl-type containers, all you need is to add milk. Or carry a small plastic bowl with lid of your own - really light & easy to carry.

Unfortunately, the optimal solution to healthy snacking is to bring the food with you, even if it only lasts half the day! :rolleyes:

I'd be interested to hear other convenience-store snack suggestions too, I usually carry a whole day's food into work with me, but when I'm travelling I run out & head straight for the Moros :eek:

tattykitty

Hi, if you carry a bag with you during the day I'd definitely recommend buying some small tupperware pots and filling them with little portions of snacks to keep you going through the day. You can get them from places like Tesco for a couple of quid each and they last ages - the clip-lock ones are great because they seal in the freshness and are pretty sturdy so you don't end up with a bag full of spilled food debris.


Suggestions for filling snacks (I usually take these kinds of things to work to snack on rather than raiding the vending machine):

- dates
- raisins or sultanas
- dried apricots or any dried fruit (though banana chips, delicious as they are, usually contain something sugary, making them less healthy)
- unsalted, unroasted nuts (almonds, cashews, red skinned peanuts, shelled pistachios)
- seeds (sunflower or pumpkin)
- oatcakes (they usually come in packs of six when you buy a box so they can be popped in your bag)

You could also pick up a small insulated lunch bag (M&S do a good one) and pack -
- cherry tomatoes
- homemade cold pasta salad
- cold sticky rice with chopped peppers and onions
- individual cheese portions
- boiled eggs
- portions of quiche

Some of these things require some preparation, but for most of the other stuff, the great thing about doing this is you can buy great big bags of the nuts, seeds and dried fruit for a few quid and just empty some each day into your tupperware pots. It's a good way of limiting your portions too (if I buy a whole bag of something, I eat it in one go, regardless of the size - I'm like a goldfish left alone with a week's worth of feed - no portion control! :rolleyes:)