Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with snack

Healthy chips and dip?

XMLicious — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 03:24:31 -0800

Healthy chips and dip? Lo, long have I quested thro' the dales and deep, like Bilbo for the One Ring, seeking chips that art not crap for my diet. (That would be “crisps” for you heathen Brits. And yes, I know Tolkien was British.)

Recently I happened upon Snyder's of Hanover sunflower and corn chips. They have a very nice texture but the flavor is meh.

In dip news, I like Middle Eastern food in general. I like حُمُّص بالطحين but besides putting it in falafel I've never found much else to use it with, much less dip in it.

But… Whoso putteth these chips in this dip, shall be the King of the Britons! There's a snacktacular gestalt between these two things, creating a Nietzschean Über-Snack, that I find delicious. And looking at the nutrition facts the combination doesn't look too bad health-wise: no trans fat, not too much fat overall, average carbs and below average sodium for a snack food. Definitely better than potato chips and onion dip, in any case.

So I ask you, me droogy droogs, what sort of healthy chips / crisps do you know of that I could put in my hummus, or healthy dip that I could dip my Hanoverian sunflower chips in, or other healthy combination of chips and dip?

Processed food, only I'll process it myself, thank you.

libraryhead — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:12:38 -0800

My family loves fruit-filled breakfast/snack bars. How can I make my own? My husband is a big fan of Kelloggs NutriGrain bars -- unfortunately they're largely made of high fructose corn syrup. Our 2-year-old daughter gets the similar Earth's Best Snack Bars (now, with more Grover!), which are healthier but, like, a dollar a piece. I'd like a recipe to make similar bars at home. They should be: soft, fruity, not as sweet as a cookie, not too time consuming, work with a variety of fruit (ideally with options for fresh or jam/preserves), and keep well for up to a week and/or freeze well. My regular recipe sources are coming up empty.

What are some low fat snacks I can keep in my suitcase while travelling?

shelleycat — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 22:31:16 -0800

What are some low fat snacks I can take with me travelling and keep in my suitcase to eat when dinner or other meals weren't suitable? Little to no preparation at time of eating is preferred but I can make or buy stuff before I go. I have Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Gastric Reflux (with high stomach acid and fairly often gastritis). I manage both really well by diet alone these days and don't take medication but still live mostly symptom free. However, when I'm staying with people I often lose some control over my diet and there are certain places I go where the food just isn't suitable and I end up either sick or hungry (or both) pretty much all the time. This is totally my problem, I'm thrilled that these people put me up for free and feed me and look after me, I don't want to change their whole life around because I'm fussy. I'm genuinely grateful for the effort they put into cooking for me and all that they do to make me welcome. But I still need to eat correctly, particularly as being hungry is physically painful, so this involves taking along my own food.

I have one of these trips coming up very soon (i.e. over Christmas). I already take my own breakfast cereal, take muesli bars to snack on during the afternoon, and happily have sandwiches for lunch, but eating all that again for dinner isn't much fun. There must be something else I'm not thinking of! So I'm looking for food I can sneak when I'm hungry, generally after a fat-filled dinner of which I could only eat a few bites, that will fill me up and make me happy.

A few things to keep in mind: fat makes me ill, particularly animal fat, so no fried snacks or instant noodles (ramen) or the like. Nuts also make me sick, probably because of the fat. Overly salty food gives me high blood pressure and tastes bad. I need to avoid acidic food like tomatoes and oranges. While fresh fruit is plentiful at this time of year (note: is summer here) and is great, eating too much of it will make me ill and it's not very satisfying anyway. That's all though, everything else is fair game (I think).

Whatever I take needs to be stored in my room, so no refrigeration, and needs to last up to a week. While I can use the kitchen where I am to some extent I'm trying to be discrete as family politics are generally involved. However, I do have my own fully stocked and set up kitchen here at home so something I prepare and cook before I go is fine. I can make a supermarket run for ingredients but exotic stuff is probably too much hassle at this time of year.

Lastly, I'm really only looking for food suggestions here, I've got the people side covered as well as I can and am not looking for relationship or how-to-be-a-guest advice. Thanks!

Homemade crunchy snacks

bigmusic — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 23:56:49 -0800

I would like to make crunchy snacks from scratch. Please give me recipes. (Slicing up a vegetable or a fruit is not a recipe)

Help me identify what fruit snack I was addicted to as a child.

misled — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 07:31:45 -0800

What is the name of this fruit snack? When I was younger, roughly around the ages of 7 to 12 years old (I am 24 now), I used to love these fruit snacks sold at the Von's grocery store in Southern California. I completely forgot about these great little snacks until I was recently reminded about them when a woman I know brought up how much she loved them as well. The problem I am having is with trying to identify exactly what fruit snack we are talking about here.

This is what I remember about them:

- The snacks themselves were shaped like small beans
- They came in at least grape and strawberry flavors (or is it cherry? they were red - I know that much)
- They wouldn't really be considered 'gummy' like most of today's fruit snacks
- The snacks came in a rectangular shaped (maybe 2 inches x 4.5 inches?), thick paper wrapping inside the box
- The outside of the wrapping was white with writing printed diagonally across the paper in the color of the snack you chose (for example, I believe that grape had the writing in purple)
- The inside of the wrapping was silver like tin foil

I am sorry that I am unable to give any more information as to what snacks these are. I was super little and I remember having to beg for them in the grocery store. I remember that they were located in the produce section of the Von's grocery store in Southern California - although they were obviously sold elsewhere since the woman I was speaking to grew up in Reno, NV where there are no Von's grocery stores.

Hopefully this small tidbit of information is enough for one of you metafilterer's out there to give me a name for this product. It would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Anyone know about obscure Portuguese snacks?

imperium — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 07:28:40 -0800

When in Portugal recently, we ate a snack food which looked like a bean, tasted like a bean, and which we were told, to our surprise, was some kind of sea produce. Any ideas? It began with a "b", I think, and had to have a very thin clear hull removed. Roughly square, rounded corners, with a small circular hole in the hull at one corner, and yellow-brown. Delicious, but possibly not vegetarian?! And purchased in the town of Tomar. The internet has not answered this for me.

I want paprika potato chips!

edjusted — Thu, 17 May 2007 11:03:42 -0800

Paprika chips: are these available in the U.S.? I was in Europe last year and it seemed like every country had paprika potato chips from different brands (even Pringles). I can't seem to find any store/brand in the U.S. that has these. They're so good! Yeah there...I just used my ask mefi question on potato chips.

Mmmmm...monthly potato chips

plinth — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 13:58:53 -0800

Comestible of the month club? On a lark, I had our company signed up for Anchor O'Reilly's Chip of the Month, which turned out to be very popular here. We really did enjoy the novelty of a half dozen bags of unique potato chips showing up each month. CotM is going out of business and I'm looking for a nice way to fill that snacking void at a reasonable price.

I'm NOT looking for the results of "of the month club" search on Google.

I am looking for specific first-hand recommendations for or against similar services. I think we'd also be happier with savory over sweet.

Where can I buy this evil snack treat?

A frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter. — Sun, 21 May 2006 17:29:20 -0800

Where can I buy a Taiwanese snack over the net? In particular, I'm looking for Suan Mei. They're extremely sour, and look a bit like the pocket lint that exists after you wash a load of jeans.

This might (or might not) be the correct name for it:

Extra super bonus points if the source delivers to Europe as well as the United States.

Milk and... pretzels?

grapefruitmoon — Sun, 21 May 2006 14:58:03 -0800

SnackFilter: Milk with pretzels and orange juice with cookies. Why? At my preschool, there are certain dietary guidelines that govern what we serve for snack. Basically, our beverage choices are broken down to milk, apple juice, and orange juice. For some reason, we are to serve milk with pretzels. No other snack gets milk. Why pretzels? Any nutrition experts have any idea?

It also boggles my mind that chocolate chip cookies are served with orange juice, but I sense some food-group distribution going on there. The milk with pretzels is way more mysterious.

a great cookie, in an unexpected place.

winterdrm — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 10:05:37 -0800

Last December I had a jumbo chocolate chip cookie on the Amtrak from St. Louis to Kansas City. Help me find the manufacturer. It was one of the best packaged cookies I've ever had. This cookie was enormous. 4.5-5" diameter. The plastic wrapper was brightly colored, either red or blue. I think I remember a little smiley face. I also think the name of the manufacturer was a man's name. (Harry's, Bob's, George's)

This cookie saved me from the worst hangover of my life.

Homemade Roasted Peas?

ThePinkSuperhero — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 16:29:21 -0800

I love Kasugai Roasted Green Peas, and I would like to try making my own. Has anyone ever tried this, and if so, would you mind sharing the recipe? The limited googling I've tried doesn't seem to be bringing up the sort of recipes I'm looking for.

tasty popcorn toppings

croutonsupafreak — Mon, 26 Sep 2005 21:59:56 -0800

What are some tasty toppings I can put on air-popped popcorn that contain no cholesterol, no salt, few calories and are vegetarian?

Question number 8964

callmejay — Mon, 26 Jul 2004 13:44:51 -0800

What snack food meets the following requirements: 200-300 calories, filling, approximately half protein and half unrefined complex carbs, low to moderate fat, low sodium, no artificial crap, can go anywhere, and does not require refrigeration?

Question number 8216

mecran01 — Thu, 24 Jun 2004 11:00:03 -0800

The Übersnack: I'm trying to find something small and dense, like a powerbar, but cheaper and tastier. It shouldn't be super-sweet, and as an added bonus it would be cool if it had some sort of buzz-factor, like ginseng or the like. This is for use in marathon writing sessions in the library, so I don't have to take breaks to eat. So it can't be messy. I could just load up on jerky and fig newtons, but was hoping the collective cleverness of the mefisphere might have better suggestions.