Are snacks an all day affair at your house, like they are ours?

We love a good snack in our homes and often a giant healthy snack plate or charcuterie board is the way we eat lunch on the weekends.

Snacks often get a bad rap, because traditionally premade snacks don’t offer a ton nutritionally and fair enough – they’re still delicious though.

But snacks don’t have to be all bad; in fact they can be a great way to add nutrition, give you a boost in energy and if you’re an adult help control cravings and keep you from overeating at meal times.

The key is building a balanced healthy snack. That bag of chips we’re all guilty of grabbing helps in the short term, but in the long term usually makes you feel worse and maybe even more hungry or less depending on who you are.

How to build healthy snacks

We have the perfect snack system to help you build a delicious, nutritious, filling, balanced snack every time.

Beyond being good for you, it’s also a simple, quick, way to eat that allows you to use up what you have on hand.

PROTEIN + HEALTHY FAT + FIBRE + CARBS

It’s that easy!

Check the infographic below for tons of different options to build a healthy snack.

What makes these components part of a healthy snack

Our 5 favourite healthy snack combos

The combinations are honestly endless, but here are our 5 favourites to get you going:

1) cheddar cheese + hummus + pretzels + grapes & apple slices
The cheese and hummus are providing both protein and healthy fats the pretzels are carbs, our joy and an avenue to get that hummus in our moths and the apples and grapes provide more carbs (fibre filled ones), fibre, colour, and crunch.

2) turkey & cheddar sandwich on sourdough + cukes, carrots and peppers + dill ranch dip 
The turkey, cheddar and dill ranch are giving us protein and healthy fats. We made our dip with greek yogurt – yum! The veggies are giving us fibre filled carbs as well as colour and texture and the sourdough is giving us carbs and can also help increase prebiotics and probiotics in our gut. 

3) apples & celery + dried fruit + fruit & nutcrackers + cashews and tahini caramel
We’ve got protein and healthy fats in our cashews, our crackers and our tahini caramel, we’ve got carbs and fibre in our dried fruit, apples and celery and we have a ton of different textures to make this a truly enjoyable snack.

4) pepperoni sticks and cheddar + popcorn + broccoli, grapes & apples + cottage cheese dip
We have a TON of protein here in our pepperoni, our cheese, and our cottage cheese dip, we have fibre in our apples, grapes, broccoli and popcorn and carbs in our fruit and popcorn too. This plate definitely has it all, nutritious and delicious making it an awesome snack plate. 

5) Last but not least hardboiled egg + cheese string + cukes + dried fruit
We’re using our eggs and cheese string for both healthy fats and protein, we got our fibre filled carbs in our dried fruit and then we have cukes for colour, crunch and hydration too. 

More quick, simple & filling snack ideas

– greek yogurt with granola and fresh fruit

– apple and celery with peanut butter and hemp hearts

– cottage cheese, edamame beans, and fresh fruit

– apple slices + cheddar cheese

– trail mix with nuts, dried fruit and dark chocolate

– carrots & broccoli with guacamole

– bananas drizzled with tahini, hemp hearts, coconut and dark chocolate chips

– oatmeal with almond butter, greek yogurt and fresh fruit

– rice cakes with guacamole, feta cheese and tomato slices

– beef jerky, cheese string and apple slices

– turkey or ham, cream cheese, and cucumber rollup

– hardboiled egg, snap peas, apples and hummus

– smoothie with fruit and soy milk or greek yogurt with popcorn

– whole wheat toast with peanut butter, a dollop of greek yogurt, banana slices and a drizzle of honey

– hummus, pretzels, cheesestrings and cucumbers

– cottage cheese with everything bagel seasoning, veggies and grapes

Tips for making a healthy snack plate

Try not to stress too much about it. The more you do this, the more it comes together and the less you have to think about exactly what goes on the plate.

Believe me, as busy moms – there’s a lot of just throwing shit together to get someone fed. Between school, daycare, work, activities, birthday parties, playdates, etc…full on meals aren’t always an option.

So don’t worry about what the internet says, snacks can ABSOLUTELY be a part of a healthy lifestyle and routine. We are proof.

Use what you have on hand – some days that might mean a lot and other days not so much.  If you have kids things like cucumbers, celery, apples, cheese strings, and some kind of dip are always helpful.

Make use of store bought items – they can make your life SO much easier. If you want to make hummus or ranch dip from scratch do it, but don’t feel bad about buying what’s in store.

Don’t worry if you don’t have all components – try and choose at least two categories. You’d be surprised at how much overlap there is. 

Use your cravings as the base and build out from there – if you are craving chips, grab a handful and throw them on your plate, then add some grapes, a cheese string, a handful of nuts and some carrot sticks. Voilà – your cravings can be balanced. 

Make snacks you will ACTUALLY enjoy – because if you don’t like it you won’t eat it. If you hate celery, don’t use it. If you don’t like it – there’s really no point.

If you try out some of our snack combos, We’d love to hear all about it.  Please comment below, post it on Instagram and tag us @mysweetmess and/or @foodfamilyunfiltered and hashtag #mysweetmess and/or #foodfamilyunfiltered.  And if you really love it, please share the link with friends and family.

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Till the next recipe,

Kristen & Lindsay