Healthy And Inexpensive Vegetarian Snack Ideas

Imagine you’re sitting at your desk, in the office, with your stomach gurgling. But, it’s not quite time for lunch and breakfast was a few hours ago. Worst of all, your snack choices are limited to either a sugary snack or a salty snack from the breakroom vending machine. So, what do you do? Do you eat something now or go hungry until the end of your shift?

Given our busy schedules, it’s particularly hard to eat something healthy when we’re crunched for time. Oftentimes, we are forced to choose between eating something nourishing or nothing at all. In many cases, we choose to eat the first thing that we can get our hands on and often we grab unhealthy snacks that are fatty, and full of sugar or salt.

To help you snack healthier at work, we’ve put together a few snack ideas that you can buy at the grocery store and put in your refrigerator or pantry for quick retrieval in the morning. Most importantly, these nutritious vegetarian snacks are low in sodium, calories and fats and high in fiber from fruit and vegetables.

Yogurt

Yogurt is a superfood that can easily be combined with fruits and vegetables and turned into a tasty snack at anytime of the day.

• An 8 ounce serving of yogurt (16 tablespoons) provides you with 450 mg of calcium and 10-14 mg of protein
• Lactobacteria (live cultured bacteria) found in yogurt aid the absorption of calcium and B vitamins
• Yogurt helps promote intestinal health by increasing the amount of good bacteria in the colon

How does this snack idea compare to 100 calorie diet snacks sold in supermarkets?

Yogurt is simply delicious, cost effective, and you can eat a cup of it with an assortment of fruits, nuts and vegetable toppings for less than 200 calories. Best of all, you’ll feel full far longer than you would have had you eaten a bag full of the high sodium and high carbohydrate,100 calorie snacks.

Greek Yogurt www.costco.com	Strawberry store.honeyvillegrain.com	Almonds www.nutsonline.com
$6.50 for 4 lbs	$9.49 for 1.235 ounces	$6.99 for 1 lb

Sugar Snap Peas

You can’t get a more wholesome, fresh, and sweet tasting snack than sugar snap peas. Sugar snap peas are less fibrous than their snow pea cousins but are packed with vitamins and minerals such as vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin K, thiamin, folate, and iron. These sweet and crunchy peas are also the perfect snack for diabetics and low carb dieters since they have a glycemic index of 3. Best of all, one cup of sugar snap  peas has just 41 calories.

I like to use a yogurt dip made of finely chopped chives, fennel, and mint. This dip gives the sugar snap peas a cold and refreshing flavor that accentuates their taste. Try it and let us know what you think!

Sugar Snap Peas	Fennel	Mint
$3.15 per pound	$2.75 per bunch	$1.75 per bunch

Mediterranean Style Appetizer

At most Assyrian events, we serve an appetizer made up of a plate of cubed feta cheese, assorted vegetables including Italian parsley, mint, basil, and chives, and squares of lavash (flat bread) perfect for making a delicious and simple wrap that can be enjoyed both as an appetizer and as a light meal. Add a slice of tomato and you’ve got a heavenly snack. Try this wrap sometime in the summer with a small slice of watermelon or a side of red grapes.

I always keep low salt and fat reduced feta cheese in my refrigerator. That’s the key to keeping this snack idea healthy as traditional feta cheese is often stored in salt water and that can seriously increase your sodium intake.

Feta Cheese	Italian Parsley	Tomato
$6.00 for 2 pounds	$2.00 per bunch	$2.00 per pound

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