Snacks Gallore + WIAW

June 12, 2013 by lilmissfitnessfreak 4 Comments

Hey Friends 😀

So I totally realized that last week I failed to notice the theme switch-up for our lil link up party….oops. Sorry Jen, I promise I will do better this time. 😀 Since I didn’t have any cool-e-o snackies for you last week head on over to Peas and Crayons for some munchie inspiration! In fact, Jen posted up some really cute lil muffins recently so you should definitely check’em out!

So Sensible Snacking eh? Hmmmm….tricky one. Yes I do snack but those snacks tend to be very repetitive (ie. the ones you have seen on every other WIAW post) and thus boring. They work for me because they are fast and they supply me with the particular “fuel mixture” that I want. On average, I tend to look for lil to no carbs, high protein and some fats (more or less depending on which snack it is). Here’s my typical breakdown:

TRAINING DAY AM=Post-Workout: Carbs + Protein + Very little to no Fat (slows the digestion down and therefore also slows the ability for the carbs and protein to get to where it needs to go in a timely fashion). Enter my lil protein muffins

REST DAY AM: Protein+Fats. Enter my mini egg bake thingy…quiche maybe? (picture displayed later in this post)

EVERYDAY PM SNACK: Protein + Fish Oils + Tiny bit of Carbs. Enter my protein mugcake….and on my days off of work, a piece of frozen nanner (hey where did those unscheduled carbs come from? ;-))

EVERYDAY NIGHT SNACK: Protein + Fats. Enter in my second favourite indulgence of the day (1st is oatmeal) which is 1 scoop Optimum Nutrition Chocolate casein + 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk + 1/2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter all mixed together with a lil bit of water to make a pudding consistency. Add another 1/2 tbsp of my peanut butta to the top…make crazy design…and throw in the fridge for an hour or so. YUM!

So yeah…my snacking= repetitive but it gets the job done. So instead of boring you further with my lack of interesting snackage, I’m going to share some snack options for those on a less restricted meal plan (ones that I would eat given I didn’t have caps on my macros)

Great Pre-workout Snacks:

Quest Bars. These are the only protein bar that I would ever recommend, excluding homemade of course. Great source of protein and fiber PLUS as I have mentioned before, they taste incredible! Filling and tasty 😀

Homemade Protein Bars. These Coconut Cranberry Protein Bars are all thanks to Miss Heather over at Kiss My Broccoli. Like I mentioned, the only other protein bars that I would recommend eating are those you make yourself. These have a good amount of carbohydrates, proteins and fat for any individual looking for some good workout fuel. The great thing about making your own bars is that you can customize the flavour combos, sweetness and overall macro nutrient ratio to your liking.

Protein Shakes. Although I personally don’t like to drink shakes or smoothies (I find them really heavy), for those who do enjoy them, shakes can provide quite the nutritional punch. This particular recipe I really liked because it contains a number of superfoods (chia seeds, maca, lucuma, etc) which all individually supply a multitude of benefits to the body.  It is not actually a ‘protein’ shake recipe, but that’s nothing a lil added whey or other alternative protein source can’t fix.

Great Anytime Snacks

Looking for protein on-the-go?

1. Cottage Cheese with Fruit. Simple, quick, filling and yummy…if you like cottage cheese. I can’t eat it due to being lactose intolerant, but it’s a great complete protein source. Just be weary of brands with loads of extra sugar and sodium.

2. Protein Pancakes. This is a pretty good pancake recipe from SkinnyBite that provides 2 dozen yummy and nutritious pancakes that you can freeze and thaw as you need them. Yes, eating a pancake out of a bag is not the most glamorous, but it does the job and hey it has chocolate in it. 😉 If you do have a bit of time to eat them you can pack something to dip’em in to add to their excitement (try mixing peanut flour with some almond milk for even more protein + peanutty goodness!)

3. Greek Yogurt with Fruit and/or Granola. Similar to the cottage cheese, this is quick, filling and yummy. The best choice would be to grab a plain yogurt (no added sugar!) and add your own toppings.

Sweet Tooth Screaming atcha?

…..Or you just want something a lil bit more treat-like? Give Protein Truffles/Bites a try!

1. Amazeballs. Recipe from the lovely Alice over at Live Fit Love Chocolate. These cookie-dough like bites would make a great lil treat when you need that quick sweet fix, just don’t overdo it with these as they are a wee bit high in sugar (all from natural sources though)

2.Carob Protein Bites. Paleo friendly and raw, these treats are from Heather at Sweetly Raw. Each bite gives you a good dose of protein and healthy fats that will keep you satisfied, while the carob will tame that sweet tooth.

3. Oatmeal Cookie Protein Bites. These cute lil cookie bites are thanks to Giselle over at My Healthy Happy Home. Healthy fats, carbs and protein all rolled into a lil cookie dough ball.

4. Low Carb Berry Protein Bites. For those who are a lil carb conscious, Candy over at Candy Fit has come up with a lil something special for you too. Berry-licious!

Okay, so I hope I have redeemed myself from last week’s lack of snackage….So now for the main event. What Did I Eat On Wednesday Tuesday?! I hope you’re still interested after seeing all those yummy snackies because I have some yummy noms to share! 😀

Tuesday was a rest day and that means I was low-carbin’ it. Many people hate these days, but I don’t mind them. Perhaps it’s because I don’t do ‘true’ low carbing. Many people in the fitness industry have low carb days where their carbs come soley from veggies. This typically means that their total carbohydrate intake for the day will be lower than 100g. While they (and myself as well) compensate the calorie loss with fats I still don’t really buy the statement: “fat is just as efficient as a fuel source for the brain as carbs” so when you start dippin below the 100 mark (which is the minimum amount of carbs that are recommended for the brain to work efficiently) I get a lil concerned. My brain is important mmmkay? I need to do more research on that one, but for now I will remain a low carb day rebel (insert mischievous face here).

Breakfast: 6AM

Exhibit One: I eat oatmeal on my rest days. Gasp! :-O Do I care? Nope. I enjoy them way too much to give them up and besides, I would rather eat my carbs upon waking than later in the day anyways. This morning I wanted to keep it clean and simple with my favourite bowl of rest day oats. Mmmm banana (yup another blasphemy!) 😉

These are my typical banana eggy proats EXCEPT I made them chocolate with my new Swiss Chocolate New Zealand Probiotic Whey. 😀 I have also been adding a tsp of chia seeds to my oats lately. I remember when I used to get greedy and just want all the peanut butta I could get so these lil seeds got the boot. More recently though, I have been interested in my micronutrient intake and superfoods (more on those in another post) so I sacrificed a lil bit of peanut butter for the chia seeds to return and I’m okay with it as these lil guys are nutrient powerhouses!

Speaking of whey, I broke my rule and bought a new jug of whey…In my defense it is being put to good use let me tell you!

It’s the same brand as my all time favourite whey, just instead of vanilla, it tis chocolate. Although I still proclaim that I’m not the biggest choco-holic around, I have been using it like crazy lately. It even made it’s way into this weeks batch of protein banana muffins

Best decision EVER! OMG so good! They were also more moist than normal…perhaps my use of a frozen nanner did that? I dunno, but anyways, this whey is by far the best I have ever used for baking! It keeps all of my baked goodies more moist than any other powder in the past has and that makes Lil Miss Fitness Freak happy! 😀 See super happy. Other benefits of this particular brand:

• It contains 5 Billion probiotic cultures per scoop to aid with digestibility and and immune functioning
• The milk protein comes from grassfed cattle that were raised free of antibiotics and hormones
• It contains no sugar, lactose or artificial sweeteners
• Sweetened with Stevia
• Only 0.5g of fat and 1g of carbohydrates per scoop
• 25g of protein per serving
• Available in Vanilla, Chocolate and Natural flavours

I would totally recommend this protein powder to anyone as it’s clean, contains no weird ingredients and has the added bonus of the probiotics that help those, like me, who have slight tummy issues or a hard time digesting dairy products. On top of all that, it mixes into oatmeal and other mixtures well, bakes beautifully (not like a tire!) and its super yummy.

Anyhow, I digress…

AM Snack: 8:45am

This is my go-to am snack lately for rest days. Protein + fats and it’s quick and easy to make. Last week I was using spinach for my lil quiche thingy, but I have found that I really like steaming up the steams of broccoli and throwing those into the mix….Does anyone else eat the stems? Take a look at those chili flake specks….mmm spicy

Lunch: 12pm

I quickly whipped up my turkey burgers on my Foreman Grill so that I could have one for lunch and so Andre and I would have a few in the fridge for the next few days to much on. Unfortunately I had no onions 😦 but I did add fresh basil to this batch to liven them up a lil bit.

Dat mustard though…

Yeah, you see I like my toppings. A smear of homemade basil pesto, a steamed portabello mushroom cap, sundried tomatoes, 1 tbsp of light goat cheese, wilted spinach, tabasco and a the whole bottle healthy drizzle of Frenches mustard all find their way onto my bun-less burger. Love that tang, spice and goat cheese creaminess. 😀 I served it up with a side salad that had roasted kabucha, broccoli stems and brussels in with a romaine, spinach and iceberg mix, carrots and red pepper. Then the whole thing was drizzled with ACV and a lil balsamic vinegar.

PM Snack: 3:30ish pm

My lil fish oil mug cake even got chocolate-ified! but do you see how moist it is?!? :-O Yum!

Dinnaaaa: 6:30ish pm

I got around to picking up some swordfish kabobs the other day at Fortino’s as they went on sale…SCORE…and decided to grill those up on my George Foreman.

The fish was a lil bit more oily than I remember but hey, it’s a rest day so fattier fish is okay! 😀 I marinaded it in some of my basil pesto before throwing it on the grill to cook up. I had it along side some sauteed swiss chard leaves and stems (love that red colour!) with garlic and beets + roasted rosemary kabocha. That pumpkin is freakin amazing and addicting. My gettin my faux tannin on with all the beta carotene I eat!

Nightly Snack: 9:30-10pm

Of course I always cap off my night with my peanut buttery casein puddin. I just love it and so do my lil growin muscles 😀

Repeated pictorial

Before I conclude this post, I wanted to share a few noteworthy noms of the week

Pretty…not so pretty…and droolworthy

Remember that Quest protein bread from a couple of posts back, well just before my boyfriend inhaled the whole loaf I managed to snag one piece and threw it into my banana eggy proats for my pre-workout oatmeal on Sunday morning. SO SO SO good! The first picture was just for photo purposes…although it still looks a wee bit strange. The 2nd picture has the peanut butta removed and everything all mixed together so that the protein bread is all spread out and the banana slices get all broken up and chunky (OMG I love banana..). The peanut butter is placed in a glob in the corner so that I can add a lil bit to a scoop of oatmeal while making sure I have a huge glob still left for the ultimate last bite. 😉 Technical I know! Does anyone else save most of the pb to the last bite?

My Quest cookie dough banana eggy proats (wow that was a mouthful) also made another appearance as expected. These are my favourite questy oats for pre-workout! Again they only look like this for the picture then smooshing occurs…

aaaannnd last but not least, I will leave you with my amazing cheat sundae I had this Sunday…for dinner. Yes you heard me, I had ice-cream for dinna! 😀

I’m drooling all over again looking at this…

Remember that cookie dough coconut ice-cream I snatched off the Whole Food’s shelves….Yeah well it was taunting staring at me in my freezer for a whole week and Sunday was the day I finally got to get nomin on this most amazing creature! Topped with my usual toppings (Quest craving that was frozen along with the ice cream and post freezer peanut butta samples), this rocked my sox off! Must have again in the near future for sure! The cookie dough pieces (although I have no idea how they made them) were out of this world…Yeah I think I’m fantasizing again here. Must… move… on… So the question was why did I have it for dinner and how did I feel afterwards? For the first question, I wanted to push it up to dinner so that I wouldn’t be as full the next morning as I usually am after my cheats. Yes, having it for dinner is not really ideal and so I tried to compromise by having chicken and broccoli for my snackie instead of my mugcake so that I would be a lil more full and I would get some greens into me before I consumed this beast. Second question, well, I wasn’t as full BUT I still had some post-tummy issues, not pain, just out of sorts tis all. So cheat meals are still a work in progress BUT I’m still gunna eat’em. 😉 How can I not when this is what I get! Droooooolllll.

Best thing you ate this week?

Favourite go-to snack?

Are you a fan of cookie dough ice-cream?

Keep on nommin’

-Chelsea

Snack Smart!