Friday, January 16, 2009

Healthy snacks

When invited to someone's house here in Chile, guests are often offered something to drink and something to snack on. In some cases, these foods are pretty okay. But often a person is invited to snack on the most unhealthy potpourri of snacks known to man. These include: chips, cheez-balls, flavored mayo sandwiches on white bread, store-bought cookies and to wash it all down your choice of coke or fanta, which some Chileans refer to as "water". Dude, this menu screams obesity/diabetes risk. It's hard not to eat these things when they are all that are offered and you're at the persons house for hours on end. It makes me cringe. And sometimes my stomach hurts afterward, especially if I was hungry and ate a lot of that crap. Ugh. Dude, people need healthy-food education. Really.

Anyway, so as to perhaps not suffer that situation many more times, I'm brainstorming some easy-ish to make, healthy snacks to bring to these peoples' houses when I go.

Easy-ish, quick-ish snacks
  • nuts: walnuts, cashews, peanuts, etc.
  • fruit
  • one personal fave: galletas de agua o galletas de trigo con quesillo. (Crackers with quesillo) Then I sprinkle spices on top of that and drizzle with olive oil. Ñami. Some tasty spice possibilities include: garam masala, curry powder, oregano and merken (or cayenne). I usually get the low-fat quesillo since I like to poor the olive oil on it. Other tasty oils probably work well, but I've never tried them because I don't have any other oils.
  • a 2.5 liter bottle of homemade fruit juice: orange-banana, chirimoya-banana, strawberry banana -- no sugar added, perhaps with honey. They can add their own sugar if the want
  • sliced vegetables and home-made dressing
more time-consuming snacks
  • hummus and sliced vegetables or hummus and whole grain bread
  • small potatoes boiled and then fried with a bit of oil and salt, accompanied with homemade chipotle ketchup
  • sort-of-healthy oatmeal cookies -- these are definitely better for you than the storebought cookies
  • mote con huesillo - but easy on the chancaca
  • more to come as I think of them...
  • sandwiches on whole grain bread