21 February 2013 - Snack Attack!

The free dictionary perfectly describes what a snack is to me - "A hurried or light meal." Especially the hurried part. I love to snack and usually have something between my "meals" at least 2 or 3 times a day. It's choosing what to have as a snack that is the tricky part - there are so many truly horrible unhealthy options out there.

The ideal snack food should be quick and easy to eat, tasty, keep well if carried around for a large portion of the day and most importantly satisfy the snackers hunger until they can consume a bigger meal (read my recent post on 'hanger' here which explains this importance!).

This snack ticks all of those boxes and more.

Homemade "Cherry Pie" Natural snack bar

1/4 cup of dried cranberries (craisins)
1/4 cup of seedless, pitted date, diced into small pieces
1/3 cup of unsalted almonds
2 tsp of cinnamon

1. Blend the cranberries, dates and cinnamon together until they form a thick paste. Transfer this mixture into a bowl.
2. Put the nuts into the blender and pulse until they are fairly small pieces.
3. Add the nuts to the bowl with the fruit paste and mix together by hand.
4. Mould the mixture into bar shapes (this should make about 4 bars) and put into the fridge to store until snack time.

There are endless possibilities for variation on this recipe (for example if you substitute peanuts for almonds and add a teaspoon of natural peanut butter in place of cinnamon and you have a classic PB&J bar) so if you give it a go I urge you to experiment with different flavours and come up with a creation of your own.