When people mention the word snacks, we instantly think about crisps and chocolates.
But snacks can be anything small, such as nuts, grapes, or mini pies. You might find you don’t feel like eating much because of the heat on some summer days and your appetite in general is lower.
This blog will hopefully inspire you with some snack ideas that will keep you energised throughout the day and won’t leave you feel sluggish in the evening.
There is some guilt around the word ‘snacking’, but it is only an issue when we don’t prepare and plan our snacks and end up grabbing the first thing we see when we can’t hold the hunger any longer. And let me tell you, it is unlikely that you will go for that apple! Prepare a couple of light summery meals or snacks that you can grab when you feel like it with no guilt.
Graze boards
Graze boards seem to be popular this year. If you never heard of them, a graze board is like a sharing platter (though could just be for one person) filled with picnic-style finger foods. Food can be eaten with fingers, toothpicks or wooden skewers. The serving board could be a chopping board, slate, tray, or for large groups a grazing table can be created, perfect when hosting friends.
The food can be anything you like from BBQ items such as burgers, to salads, vegan cheese or crudités with dips. Accompany with chutneys, apple slices, grapes, figs, apricots, celery, caramelised nuts, flatbreads, crackers, or anything you can put cheese on or dip.
You could have a separate sweets board, or a large board to fit both sweet and savoury. Sweet graze board ideas include cakes, small cups of chocolate mousse, fresh berries, and fruit. You could make a tray of homemade ice cream served in paper cups, just like if you bought the ice cream from the ice cream parlour.
Here are some recipes you could include on your graze board:
Bruschetta with a Trio of Toppings
Banana, Apricot and Walnut Muffins
Chocolate Pots with Piped Biscuits
The easiest healthy ice cream
Method
If you are fan of ice cream on the stick rather than the cup, slice a peeled banana in half and stab each half with a chopstick halfway through or use forks. Dip each half in vegan chocolate, roll in hazelnuts and freeze. The longer you freeze it the harder it will get. Enjoy straight from the freezer or defrost slightly for a couple of minutes on a plate.
Mini refreshments
Small fruit skewers make a refreshing snack. Make them in the morning or in the evening and pop them in an airtight container in the fridge. It’s a good way of having a mixture of fruit throughout a day, a little like a fruit salad. If you are using apples or bananas squeeze a little bit of lemon juice on the top to slow down the browning of the fruit.
If you a fan of eating off wooden skewers or toothpicks, you could make mini sandwiches or even clubs. Cut a slice of bread into 6 to make 2 mini clubs or 3 sandwiches. Make your club by adding bread, cheese, bread, vegan chicken slices, bread and top it up with a grape then stab the skewer through. It could be a nice treat if you have a friend over for a sunny day with iced tea in the garden.
Salads
A lot of people say that they don’t like salads because it’s rabbit food. Yes, it is if your salad is just lettuce and cucumber!
Step out of your comfort zone and make your salad more interesting to power you up for the day while still being a light meal.
Here are some light meal ideas for when you don’t feel like putting the oven on:
Here is my favourite salad dressing recipe. It is all about the ratios, so it doesn’t need to be precise.
Use a food processor or a stick blender to process all the ingredients. If you don’t have one, use garlic powder instead of the fresh garlic and add all ingredients to a jar and shake. Great with chickpeas or lentils in your salad.
I do encourage you to try at least one of these recipes this summer. Keep hydrated and carry on snacking!
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Recipes