Give me your snack ideas!

May 22, 2023 12:48 PM

I need snack ideas as I'm bored with my current options and find myself buying chips and cookies and stuff more than I want. I'd like low-sodium/low-lactose (so yogurt probably out) and vegetarian options that are relatively healthy and aren't super carb heavy. Right now I rotate unsalted cashews, fruit, homemade popcorn, and string cheese but I'm tapped out on other idea. Savory better than sweet. Thanks!
posted by rhymedirective to Food & Drink (24 answers total)

Check out Bunny James boxes for inspiration.
posted by wicked_sassy at 12:57 PM on May 22, 2023

Best answer: Dry-roasted almonds are a good addition to the nut repertoire. Smoked almonds too, if you can find good ones.

Wasabi peas will slow your snacking down a bit until you acclimatize :-)
posted by flabdablet at 1:07 PM on May 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

I solved a lunch emergency today by mixing gram / chickpea flour = besan (Cicer arietinum) and water to make a pancake batter. Added a dash of salt, spices [me: cumin, black pepper, gr coriander YMMV] and a lot of chopped dill, cilantro, mint [again YMMV: onion, chives, chard do nicely] - paused 10 mins - then fried tbs of the batter in _hot_ oil. Almost instant gratification. They're a bit wubba-wubba when cold but still mmmmm good with pickles or chutney.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:09 PM on May 22, 2023 [3 favorites]

Best answer: Baby carrots and hummus (or other dip of choice).
Tomatoes drizzled with olive oil, balsalmic, and fresh-ground pepper.
If you can find fresh-ground peanut butter, it can be low-sodium and you could eat on apples, toast, etc.
posted by amaire at 1:10 PM on May 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Hummus with bell peppers/cucumbers/carrots
Apples and peanut better
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 1:10 PM on May 22, 2023

Best answer: - Crudité like baby carrots / carrot chips, bell pepper or sugar snap peas with hummus, ranch or guacamole.
- Fruit or dried fruit with chili-lime seasoning can be a nice way to mix up the fruit side of things. If you can't find a Tajín or other seasoning sans salt, it's pretty easy to mix your own.
- Different popcorn seasonings! We've tried nutritional yeast, chili-lime again, or black pepper and olive oil. Furikake also works on popcorn if you can find a low-salt blend.
- Rice cakes or tortillas with some kind of spread, like peanut butter or Nutella.
- Breakfast cereal.

If lactose is your only dealbreaker with yogurt, my run-of-the-mill grocery store now stocks lactose-free dairy yogurts in addition to all sorts of non-dairy options like coconut and almond.
posted by fifthpocket at 1:13 PM on May 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: A couple of cookbooks to peruse -

Snacks for Dinner first. This is a whole cookbook devoted to recipes for a variety of snacks so healthy that you can throw a bunch of them together and make meals out of them. I discovered this through the Rancho Gordo bean club; one of the recipes in the book used white beans, and it got a shout-out during one of our bean club shipments and caused a god-damn craze. (The deets: combine cooked white beans in a baking dish with smoked paprika, olives, some garlic, and a whole lotta olive oil, and bake it; use it as a dip-type thing. INSANELY good.)

That Cheeseplate Will Change Your Life. I have become a cheese plate convert; it has ideas for a variety of assemblages of different foodstuffs into different "themed" cheese plates, but there's such a variety that you very quickly catch on to the fact that you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want so long as you follow a pretty basic formula (i.e., you just need cheese, crackers or nuts, and produce of some kind, maybe some meat, and maybe some dippy stuff). She has recommendations for specific cheese pairings, and also gives recommendations for plant-based cheeses; the meats are optional, but in one case she uses dried figs in place of the meat.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:14 PM on May 22, 2023 [5 favorites]

I am very fond of roasted vegetables as a snack. Cut them in small pieces, brush with olive oil and cook at around 400F depending on the vegetable. Make sure you get them pretty tender. Hummus or lentil dip topped with roasted vegetables and a little cheese is excellent.

Edamame is good too, although if you buy it prepared, check the sodium content.
posted by BibiRose at 1:39 PM on May 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you can get fresh or frozen peas in the pod/snap peas, those are delicious and I'm jealous. Eat plain or top with spices/soy sauce/whatever.

Boiled eggs.

Some varieties of cucumber are delicious to eat plain, no cutting necessary. (The incredibly long ones generally are not.)

There are lots of good nuts besides cashews. You can make your own mix, maybe with some dried fruit. Seeds can also be good, and if you get the kind you need to crack that can prolong the snacking.

Shiritaki/konjac noodles are an acquired taste, I think, but maybe you've acquired it.

Microwaved spring potato, possibly after refrigeration.
posted by trig at 1:56 PM on May 22, 2023

Best answer: Pickles, dude. All kinds of pickles.
posted by kevinbelt at 2:07 PM on May 22, 2023 [6 favorites]

Apple slices with peanut/almond/whatever butter or goat cheese.
Half avocado with the seed hole filled with salsa, eat with a sharp spoon getting a bit of salsa with some avocado.
Avocado toast with cooked white beans and/or micro greens and a sprinkle of everything seasoning.
Endive leaves (Trader Joes has them) with a scoop of sardine salad. A can of smoked sardines in olive oil, 1/2 small tomato, 1/2 lemon juice & zest, chives or minced onion, spoon into endive or romaine leaves. The olive oil is important, if your sardines are in something else, drain and add olive oil
posted by BoscosMom at 2:37 PM on May 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

Oops... Smash the sardines first.
posted by BoscosMom at 2:44 PM on May 22, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Cheese is not exactly low-sodium but there’s a world of single-serving snackable cheeses beyond string cheese. Babybel, BelGioso, Tillamook. Target and Trader Joe’s store brands have options as well.
posted by staggernation at 3:08 PM on May 22, 2023

Best answer: Right now, I agree the tiny little new potatoes, steamed in their skin, are the most delicious snacks. cook them the night before you need them, and they will develop resistent starches and be even better for you.
New carrots are also very good, sweet and juicy, and I just discovered Saturday: very good alongside olives, so you can take a sweet bite of carrot and a salty bite of olive, you decide the balance.
Pickled wild cucumbers, if there is a Middle Eastern store near you. I think they are from Lebanon.
posted by mumimor at 3:22 PM on May 22, 2023 [4 favorites]

Celery sticks stored in water in the fridge are very crisp. Drain and sprinkle with accent / msg.
posted by RoadScholar at 4:47 PM on May 22, 2023

Best answer: Rice cakes spread with hummus and topped with arugula
Leftover roasted veg., or any small portion of leftovers
Apple slices/ peanut butter
Chips, salsa, guacamole. fresh grocery store guac is quite good these days, also fresh salsa. Jarred salsa is not bad, esp. w/ a little cilantro.
Canned baked beans with a splash of vinegar, or beans on toast.
posted by theora55 at 4:56 PM on May 22, 2023

Best answer: One thing dietitians have told me that I sometimes act on is that it's good to combine a fruit or veg with protein so you're getting a mix of carb and protein.

I've been snacking on:
- dry-roasted chickpeas (homemade when I can, store-bought when I'm lazy -- they're lower fat than nuts),
- peanuts or mixed nuts and fruit,
- hummus and veggies,
- apple and almonds.

I'm also doing one snack that is just a scoop of protein powder dissolved in water (sometimes with a splash of juice). I used to take plain soy yogurt with a few chunks of frozen mango to work (the mango would melt by snack time).
posted by ldthomps at 5:59 PM on May 22, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Avocados in all kinds of forms. The healthy fat keeps you full for awhile. I'll just drizzle with lime juice and seasoning (either everything-but-the-bagel or chili-lime). When I want crunch, I smush avocado onto a rye crisp cracker. Sometimes I top with sliced olives, capers, or pickled red onions.
posted by writermcwriterson at 7:45 AM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Marinated eggs, like these. That recipe says they keep for a month! I've kept some of a batch nearly that long. I usually prefer them reheated a little (microwave 10 seconds, flip it over, microwave another 10 seconds).
posted by daisyace at 9:26 AM on May 23, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Pretzel sticks dipped in almond butter. My local grocer now sells chocolate, honey, and other flavors of almond butter, so I can switch things up.
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:37 AM on May 23, 2023

Best answer: I am a big fan of both pickles and olives. Lots of times when I want just a little nosh of something I pull three black olives out of the fridge and that's perfect.
posted by kristi at 6:11 PM on May 23, 2023 [2 favorites]

OH GOOD NEWS -

Upthread I mentioned the book Snacks for Dinner, and mentioned that one recipe in particular totally blew up the Rancho Gordo bean club and caused a small obsession.

You can read that one recipe on Rancho Gordo's web site now. I forgot the olives when I gave the thumbnail ingredient list above, but otherwise it is as advertised. Note that the recipe on RG's site mentions specific beans as a suggestion; you can totally get away with just using a drained can of cannellini beans if you are not able to get your hands on Rancho Gordo's stuff. Your standard 15-ounce can of beans contains about 1-3/4 cups of bean and 1/4 cup of liquid, so that's exactly right for the recipe as written.

And while I'm at it - the "snacks and appetizers" section of Rancho Gordo's recipe database is another good source for recipes. Some of the "snacks" are actually more like "salads" (I packed this in my bento for my work lunch today, in fact), but there are also several dips and spreads and canape type things. Most recipes call for already-cooked beans, so if you don't want to shell out for RG's own beans you can get away with a can of Goya beans if you'd rather.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:47 AM on May 25, 2023

I am a savory fan and here are the snacks which make me forget my salt cravings:

1. Avocados drizzled with lime or lemon juice.

2. Tomatoes from the garden + basil from the garden + a dash of olive oil

3. Apples with peanut butter. Celery with peanut butter and raisins (ants on a log).

4. Banana-strawberry-mango fruit salad (only fresh sliced fruit, never frozen - check your local Indian/Pakistani store to get the best mangoes (in season April through June-ish).

5. Watermelon with seeds removed, thrown in a blender with a dash of lime or lemon, and then chilled

6. Sweet potato sliced into wedges and drizzled with olive oil + red chili flakes, roasted in the oven or air fryer to get it as close to crispy on the outside as possible. Served with a squeeze of lime or lemon. No salt needed.

7. Carrot sliced into sticks, drizzled with olive oil, and roasted till golden brown with a sprinkle of white pepper - no salt needed

8. A scoop of plain raw peanuts in a large bowl of water, stick it in a microwave for 20-30 minutes. Rinse and cool. Mix in freshly chopped pico de gallo (no salt necessary). Squeeze of lime. YUM.

9. Crunchy almond butter by the spoonful. Or on a slice of fresh bread.

10. Hummus? Needs salt but perhaps not a lot! It's very easy to whip up a batch of hummus - in a food processor, blitz together can of chickpeans (drained), 1/3 cup tahini, 1/3 cup lemon juice, some salt, and any other flavorings you may want such as a clove of garlic or red chili flakes. Scoop into a bowl and drizzle with a bit of olive oil. Dip sweet peppers, cucumber, carrots, celery, etc.
posted by MiraK at 10:43 AM on May 26, 2023

Oh, the mention of both avocados and hummus above reminded me of a genius idea I've been meaning to try: You halve an avocado, take the pit out, and then scoop some hummus into the hole where the pit was and sprinkle paprika over it. It's supposed to look like devilled eggs.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:18 AM on May 26, 2023