Healthy number, but homemade
Hundred-calorie snacks are showing up these days faster than cellulite after a doughnut binge.
There are 100-calorie packs of cookies, crackers, candy, chips, cakes and pudding. Hundred-calorie packs of nuts and beef jerky and cereal bars and Swedish fish. And even 100-calorie packs for canine companions, although we’re not going to take that side track.
The one thing they have in common — besides the obvious — is that they tend to be pretty pricey compared to most snacks, and with the exception of the nuts (and maybe the dog treats), they’re not exactly healthful.
But here’s something to keep in mind if you’re watching your health as well as your waistline: You can still stock up on 100-calorie snacks, but you can save money and bump your nutritional intake by making them yourself. And it isn’t even difficult, requiring only a little creativity and, sometimes, a little math. Some examples:
“String cheese only runs you 80 calories,” said Mary Wilson, a registered dietitian and extension nutrition specialist with the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. “You could have a 6-ounce carton of Yoplait yogurt, or any other yogurt that’s artificially sweetened. A hard-boiled egg and a couple of crackers. Two cups of raspberries, 28 grapes, 1 cup of blueberries, half of a medium cantaloupe.”
Or 40 Rold Gold Classic pretzel sticks, five Nabisco Nilla vanilla wafers, nine Tootsie Roll Midgets.
“A large apple is around 100 calories,” Wilson said. “A piece of fruit tends to run between 60 and 100 calories, depending on the size, so grabbing a piece of fruit is a great way to go.”
Healthy choices, all — we’ll throw in the vanilla wafers and the Tootsie Rolls as small indulgences — and a far cry from the high-salt, chemical-laden stuff Sally Sampson noticed in increasing numbers each time she went to the supermarket.
“It seemed like everything was all of a sudden in 100-calorie snack packs, and for the most part it’s all junk,” Sampson said. “Not only is the content junky, they’re in so much packaging, everything about it seemed awful to me.”
That awfulness motivated Sampson to write her 12th cookbook, “100-Calorie Snack Cookbook.”
“I think that anything you can make is better than anything you can buy, for the most part,” said Sampson, a resident of Massachusetts. “And that really all that people were doing was eating smaller amounts of junk.”
Her favorite recipe from the book? The watermelon sandwich, triangles of watermelon layered with goat cheese.
“I took pretzel sticks and dipped them in melted chocolate so it’s just the very tip, so they sort of look like safety matches,” she said. “I just love those.”
She created recipes for soups and salads and cookies — even chocolate-chip — and brownies.
“I tried to address all of the different cravings,” she said. “For example, some people tend to crave creamy. Some people tend to crave salt.”
Nuts were a challenge, she said, because even though they’re good for us, they tend to be high in calories. Ditto for beans. But all of the recipes, she said, emphasize natural flavors, while their packaged counterparts frequently don’t.
“I think that a lot of the time, things like 100-calorie snacks are really low in flavor, so you have to eat more,” she said.
One thing that the pre-wrapped commercial snacks provide is some semblance of portion control, while the homemade snacks generally don’t. One way to combat that, she said, is to do things like forming the chocolate-chip cookie dough into a log and baking only one or two cookies at a time (and trying hard not to gorge on the raw dough).
But Sampson said she doesn’t really buy the portion-control argument for the wrapped snacks, anyway, and Wilson said there’s no research to back the theory, as there is for meal replacements such as Slim-Fast.
“The truth is, all those snack packs have 10 or 20” in the boxes, Sampson said. “No matter what, you have to exert control.
“There were certain things that I made that were really incredible; I didn’t stop at one. But if you can’t stop at one portion of watermelon sandwich and you have two, you have 200 calories; it’s not like you have 2,000.” And you’re getting fruit, calcium and protein, to boot.
Wilson also noted that it’s important to remember food safety when planning your snacks.
“It depends how you’re going to transport them,” she said. “If you have no way to refrigerate them or keep them cool, you can still make your own 100-calorie packs with zip-top bags.
“Buy little boxes of raisins. That’s what I keep in my house.”
CHEESE QUESADILLA
3/4 ounce 25 percent-lower-sodium, 25 percent-lower-fat American cheese, thinly sliced
4 leaves basil
1/2 tomato, thinly sliced
1 96 percent-fat-free tortilla (6-inch)
Place cheese, basil and tomato on one half of the tortilla. Add salt and pepper, if desired. Fold the tortilla in half. Spray grill or skillet with cooking spray and grill tortilla on both sides over medium-high heat until golden brown. Cut into 4 wedges.
Serves 2 (serving size 2 wedges)
— Recipe from Boar’s Head Provisions
GRILLED ZUCCHINI
ROLL-UPS WITH
HERBS AND CHEESE
3 small zucchini (about 1/2 pound each), cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/8 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
Pinch of freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
11/2 ounces fresh goat cheese, preferably reduced-fat
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
2 ounces baby spinach leaves (about 2 cups lightly packed)
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves
Preheat a grill or grill pan over medium heat.
Discard the outermost slices of zucchini and brush the rest with the oil on both sides. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Grill until tender, about 4 minutes per side. (You can make the grilled zucchini a day ahead and store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.)
In a small bowl, combine the goat cheese, parsley and lemon juice, mashing them together with a fork.
Put 1/2 teaspoon of the cheese mixture about 1/2 inch from the end of a zucchini slice. Top with a few spinach leaves and one small or half of a large basil leaf. Roll up and place seam side down on a platter. Repeat with the rest of the zucchini slices. (Can be made as much as a day ahead; store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.)
Serves 4 (serving size 4 rolls).
— Recipe from Quick & Fresh magazine, from the publishers of Fine Cooking
DEVILISH EGGS
1 dozen large eggs
2/3 cup silken tofu, drained
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon hot-pepper sauce, plus more to taste
2 teaspoons prepared horseradish
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives, plus more for garnish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon paprika
Place the eggs in a large saucepan and cover with water. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 9 minutes. Remove the eggs from the water and run under cold water for about 1 minute, until cool enough to touch. Peel the eggs under cold running water. Pat them dry.
Slice the eggs in half lengthwise. Scoop out the yolks and discard 6 of them. Set aside the whites. Place the remaining yolks in a medium bowl and mash with the tofu, mayonnaise, mustard, hot sauce, horseradish and chives. Season with salt and pepper. (You can prepare the filling and store it separately from the egg whites in the refrigerator in airtight containers for as long as 2 days.)
Spoon the yolk mixture into the corner of a plastic bag and snip off the end. Pipe the yolk mixture into the egg whites. Arrange on a platter and sprinkle with paprika and chives. You can hold the stuffed eggs in the refrigerator for up to a few hours before serving.
Serves 8 (serving size 3 deviled eggs).
— Recipe from Quick & Fresh magazine, from the publishers of Fine Cooking
JACK CHEESE
BREADSTICKS
1/4 cup (1 ounce) finely shredded Monterey Jack cheese with jalapeno peppers
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1 11-ounce can refrigerated breadstick dough
Cooking spray
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Combine cheese and cumin. Cut dough along perforations to form 12 breadsticks; sprinkle cheese mixture over dough, gently pressing into the dough. Twist each breadstick and place on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
Bake for 13 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Serves 12 (serving size 1 breadstick)
— Recipe from Cooking Light magazine
RASPBERRY FROZEN YOGURT
2 cups vanilla low-fat yogurt
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 10-ounce package frozen raspberries in light syrup, thawed
Fresh raspberries (optional)
Combine first three ingredients in a large bowl; stir until sugar dissolves.
Place thawed raspberries in a blender; process until smooth. Strain puree through a fine sieve over a bowl. Discard seeds. Add puree to yogurt mixture.
Pour raspberry mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions. Spoon into a freezer-safe container; cover and freeze 1 hour or until firm. Garnish with fresh raspberries, if desired.
Serves 8 (serving size 1/2 cup)
— Recipe from Cooking Light magazine
Contact reporter Heidi Knapp Rinella at hrinella@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0474.
