Healthy Snack Wednesday: Strategic Snacking

Happy Healthy Snack Wednesday! When things get busy, I tend to rely on some of my favorite snacks to fuel me through the day. Today's post will feature a few of my favorite snacks and my newest go-to healthy breakfast. I hope you enjoy!

Before we get to the snacking, first is the winner of last week's delicious giveaway from Jody Maroni's Sausage Kingdom. Congratulations to MaryBeth, who said "I'd love to try the smoked chicken mole... sounds intriguing :-)!" I hope you and Timmy enjoy the 5lbs of sausage! I'll contact you with details on how to pick out your flavors.

Now on to the snacks. I'm a snacker at work, I tend to eat smaller breakfasts and lunches and supplement them with a snack around 10 am and 4 pm. I try to follow the guideline for 1-2-3 snacking that I learned from Boston University's Nutrition and Fitness Center. They are a great resource on campus for students, faculty, and staff. I took advantage of their nutritional counseling service for staff to help fine tune my meal planning and eating. What I like best about their nutritional advice is that it's easy to follow and leaves you with a lot of room to customize your own plan. Their 1-2-3 snack plan calls for foods that give you:

1. Energy You Need Right Now (whole grain crackers, bread, chips, cereal, etc.)
2. Filling Power (non-starchy vegetables or fruit like carrots, celery, apples, or grapes)
3. Protein to Make it Last (dairy/lean meat or plant protein like nut butter, yogurt, hummus, and nuts)

I took this information from a handout from Boston University Nutrition and Fitness Center. 


For example, yesterday I knew I had a meeting that was going to run past my normal lunch time. I made a snack of whole grain crackers, a medium apple, and a Laughing Cow mini-babybel cheese. It helped me make it to lunchtime without passing out from hunger.

With those guidelines in mind, here are some of my favorite snacks!

I love to mix crunchy cereal like grape-nuts or granola into my yogurt. Earlier this year I found a fantastic lactose-free yogurt and haven't stopped buying it! This is great afternoon snack to fuel my train commute home. If you don't have yogurt, you can also mix grape-nuts into a cup of applesauce.

I don't eat these snacks together, but wanted to show a picture of some of my favorites. I will often make my own trail mix with dried cherries, dried cranberries, pepitas, and nuts. This way you can add exactly what you like.

One of my all-time favorite snacks is olives. Yes, they are high in fat (if you eat the whole can like my hubby). But I like to have olives and carrots mixed together along with some crackers or cheese.

And LARABARS are great! They are all fruit and nuts and they taste great! I always go for the apple pie and cherry pie flavors. This week I decided to give the cinnamon roll flavor a try. Some of my other favorites include Clif Z bars (the kid bars) and Kashi Pumpkin Spice Flax crunchy granola bars.

When I'm snacking at home, I love to pop up a fresh bowl of popcorn. My popcorn maker requires minimal oil, which keeps the popcorn light and healthy. Since I was a little girl, I've always paired my popcorn with a large, ice cold glass of orange juice. What's your drink of choice with popcorn?

And last for this week's post, my newest go-to breakfast! I usually eat in the car on the way to getting dropped off at the train station. Keeping the 1-2-3 principles in mind, I put together a healthy breakfast that is ready in less than 3 minutes! Spinach, egg and cheese wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla.

I tried to get an interior picture on the way to work, but the roads were pretty bumpy and they all came out blurry. This breakfast is a great start to the day! But you can see that it isn't enough to make from 7:30 a.m. all the way until 12:00 or 12:30 pm. That's where the snacks come in.

3 Minute Breakfast Wrap
1-2 eggs (I usually do 1)
Handful of fresh spinach, stems removed
1 inch block of cheddar, cut into small pieces
1 8-inch whole wheat tortilla

Spray the bottom of a small microwaveable bowl with cooking spray
Crack the egg into the bowl and break up the yolk a little bit
Cover the egg completely with the spinach leaves
Microwave for 1 minute on Power-level 8 (this may vary by microwave)
The egg will be just set and the spinach will have wilted
Place the egg & spinach onto the tortilla and top with the cheese pieces
Wrap like a burrito and then wrap in a paper towel
Microwave for 15 additional seconds to warm the tortilla and melt cheese
Enjoy!

The Return of Healthy Snack Wednesday (and a giveaway)

Healthy Snack Wednesday is back! I had class on Wednesday nights this semester and that made it difficult to post a new healthy snack idea each week. I still had plenty of snacks, just no time to share them with you! Now that class is done for the semester, I’m excited to bring back Healthy Snack Wednesday (HSW)! For the return to HSW, I have a delicious new treat to share (plus a giveaway!). Take a look at past HSW entries here.

Back in March I was contacted by the marketing manager at Jody Maroni’s Sausage Kingdom. She asked if I was interested in trying out their new low-sodium sausage minis. They sounded like the perfect match for HSW – 75% less sodium than their full-size counterparts and just 40 calories per serving. Here's a look at the nutrition information.

First, have you heard of Jody Maroni’s Sausage Kingdom? I had never heard of them so I headed over to their website to find out. It turns out that Jody Maroni’s Sausage Kingdom has been serving up gourmet sausages and hot dogs on Venice Beach since 1979. Now they have multiple franchise locations and sell their products online on their website. And last week I saw them featured in one of those fun Cooking Channel shows featuring great eats (I can't remember which one)! According to their website, their “gourmet sausage is made the old-fashioned way coarsely-ground with love, care and only the finest, freshest ingredients; and it is made the new-fangled way reflecting contemporary cuisine, new health concerns and a desire and demand for more flavor and value in every bite.”

Logo from jodymaroni.com

I could definitely see that in the sausage minis that I sampled. I received three flavors to try – chicken mango, chicken apple, and turkey maple. Here’s a close-up look at the chicken apple. You can see the chunks of apple and the spices. All of the sausage minis are made with a natural lamb casing. It had a good snap and kept in the the juiciness of the ingredients.

Time for a confession – I don’t know how to cook sausage! We never buy it, since we don’t eat pork in the house and haven’t fallen in love with any turkey or chicken sausage from the grocery store. I turned to my favorite sources (Joy of Cooking and other books in my collection) with no luck. Why would anyone just write “put it in a hot pan and cook until done”? So I heated up my skillet to medium, added a few sausage minis and kept turning until they seemed completely cooked. I also may have used my instant-read meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the sausage mini. Hey, I’ve never cooked it before and just wanted to be sure!

We tried the turkey maple first for breakfast. I served it on the side of scrambled eggs and whole wheat cheese quesadilla. Yes, that would make for a great breakfast burrito but I love lots of components to my meal.

The turkey maple was my favorite – I loved the maple flavor and I especially loved that it wasn’t terrible for me! The chicken apple was filled with juicy chunks of apple. All of the flavors were juicy and full of flavor. These are great to add extra protein to breakfast (or really any meal). This weekend I plan to turn the chicken sausages into 'pigs' in a blanket for a get together. I think they will be delicious! Thanks to Jody Maroni’s for letting me sample their new products!

Giveaway!
Jody Maroni’s Sausage Kingdom has generously offered to give one lucky winner a t-shirt and 5 lbs of  sausages (your choice of any flavors, including the minis)! You can enter up to four times – be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. Winner will be selected by Random.org and announced next Wednesday, May 11. All entries must be received by 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 10. Winner must be in the continental U.S. The prize will be shipped directly from Jody Maroni’s Sausage Kingdom.

How to Enter:
Leave a comment below letting me know your all-time favorite sausage flavor or what sausage flavor you'd try if you win (check out https://www.jodymaroni.com/catalog/ for all their flavors). (1 entry)

Like Jody Maroni's Sausage Kingdom on Facebook. (1 entry)

Follow Jody Maroni's Sausage Kingdom on Twitter and tweet, “I just entered to win from @GoodCookDoris & @JodyMaronis - you can too at http://goo.gl/06Jm8” (1 entry)

Subscribe to Good Cook Doris by email or become a follower via the Google Friend Connect widget on the right sidebar.

Full disclosure: I was contacted by Jody Maroni’s and provided with complementary samples of sausage minis. I was not compensated monetarily or obligated to review the products. All opinions are completely my own!

Great for Passover, or Year Round!

For our second night Passover dinner, we enjoyed dinner with the hubby's sister, her husband, and our three nephews. I cooked up a mix of old and new recipes for us to enjoy. Everything we had for dinner is great for Passover, but would be wonderful any time of the year!

I love to make roasted turkey breast. It is easy and it lends itself well to being creative with flavorings. Using some of the herbs leftover from the lamb recipe and my favorite ingredient for flavoring turkey (oranges) I roasted a flavorful main dish! I used a boneless turkey breast, because it was on sale at the grocery store. My preference is a bone-in breast as it stays more moist, but with a little extra juicing liquid the boneless breast comes out just as well. I followed the cooking instructions in my trusty Joy of Cooking book, so I won't repeat them here. Here's a link to a past turkey breast recipe that I've made - and my best advice is to use an instant read thermometer to check for the appropriate internal temperature.

Roasted Turkey with Sage and Orange

1 orange, sliced into rounds
1 orange, rind removed and juiced
4-6 fresh sage leaves
1-2 sprigs of fresh thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil

In a shallow roasting pan, spread a thin layer of olive oil on the bottom
Arrange the orange slices in a row and place the turkey breast directly on top
Pour the juice from the second orange on top of the turkey breast
Place the orange rind, sage, and thyme on top of the turkey
Season with salt and pepper
Roast until done
Let turkey sit for 15 minutes before slicing

I served the turkey with leftover roasted potatoes from the night before and a delicious mix of roasted white and green asparagus.

For dessert, I found a delicious recipe for Passover Almond Macaroons in Joan Nathan's Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous. I have a few issues with Passover desserts. They can be heavy - and chocolate! We're not huge chocolate lovers here in the Good Cook Doris kitchen which means the standard flourless chocolate cakes won't do it for us. Canned macaroons and boxed Passover cakes aren't bad, but they aren't great either. This recipe was simple and delicious. I consulted my KitchenAid Mixer book for assistance on whipping the egg whites to the correct almost-stiff temperature and channeled my inner pastry chef to try to fold in the almond flour without totally ruining the perfectly whipped egg whites. I'm happy to say that these were a success! With only 4 ingredients these macaroons are the perfect light treat to whip up anytime!

Passover Almond Macaroons
Adapted from Joan Nathan in Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous

4 large egg whites
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups almond flour
1/4 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (I had 2 baking sheets)
In a small bowl, mix sugar and almond flour together well
Add egg whites to the bowl of an electric mixer
Whip until almost-stiff peaks (stands up straight when whisk is lifted, but not too stiff)
Fold sugar and almond flour mixture into the egg whites in three batches
Drop teaspoons of batter onto the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, or until just dry (mine took closer to 20 minutes)

A look at the golden brown bottom of the macaroon: