The Veggie Snack Box

Trucker and I are both prone to rampant snacking. Generally this is when we are either bored or hungry but too lazy to cook anything. During those times, it is all too easy to grab chips, candy or cookies. And we all know how easy it is to snarf down a while tin of Pringles in one sitting (just me?).

Daikon and watermelon radishes,
celery, purple/orange carrots

As a preventative measure I've started prepping vegetables for easy snacking. This takes the effort out of prep during those lazy moments. Simply cut everything into an acceptable snack-sizes pieces. I like to do this while doing meal prep since I already have all the tools out and am in a groove. It takes an extra minute to wash a few extra stalks of celery or chop a couple extra carrots into coins.

Tiny French Breakfast radishes can be kept whole after trimming

I use whatever I grow or whatever I find cheap. At farmer's markets and farm stands, the best bet is to get whatever is in peak season. If everyone has it, the price will be lower than if it is an early harvest. Aldi often has great bargains on produce (I often find $.25 cukes). A "foodie" grocery in my area is kind of pricey, but they have outrageous produce bargains to get you in the door (things like $.50 bunches of radishes). Sales at the regular grocery store can yield good results. If your store has a manager's special produce rack, definitely check it out; just make sure the items aren't too far past their prime. Also check the prepped produce section. I often find fantastic prices this way and the work is already done! Buy items however they are cheapest. Sometimes I find that baby carrots are half the price per pound compared to full carrots; other times it is the opposite. Sometimes the cleaned, topped and bagged radishes are cheaper than the bunches with tops; other times I buy the bunches and use the tops in my cooking greens. The important thing is flexibility. Use whatever is cheapest that you like and get a good variety so you get a broad spectrum of nutrients.

Hakurei turnips, purple carrots
white radishes

We use a wide variety and the mix is always changing: radishes, celery, cherry/grape tomatoes, carrots, sweet peppers, hakurei turnips, cucumbers, certain summer squashes, sweet peas, young green beans (this was my favorite snack as a kid on the farm. My parents always planted the green beans next to the corn. My friend and I would hide in the cornrows and sneak the beans as soon as they were a few inches long. My parents never knew why all their beans did well except that one row, every year), broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, fennel, mushrooms, baby corn, scallions, kohlrabi, winter squash (I still don't know why more people don't snack on this raw. It has great texture and incredible taste), parsnips, or even chioggia or touchstone beets (don't use the traditional red beets as they stain everything, including your fingers).

Cherry tomatoes, vine ripened, are the ultimate snack food.

I keep most items mixed together in a container in the refrigerator. The exception to this is tomatoes. I refuse to use tomatoes larger than a large cherry since those require refrigeration after cutting and refrigerated tomatoes are an abomination. Tomatoes are washed and then kept in a cute shallow bowl on the counter.

It is more convenient to grab one of these containers and head back to the desk rather than to get a bag of chips (which I conveniently keep at the very top shelf near the ceiling so it can barely be reached without fetching a step stool). If we are going to take a road trip, we grab a large container and will easily hit our 3-5 servings by the time we arrive at our destination. Sometimes we will pile a bunch of items on a plate and watch a movie, while munching on crunchy snacks that aren't loaded with salt and fat. It also helps if I am making dinner in a hurry. The veggies are all chopped to roughly the same size, so it is nothing to toss into a skillet to saute and  serve over rice or pasta, toss into stock for an easy soup, or toss with olive oil and seasoning for a quick side of roast veg.

Our epic date night snack while playing board games:
 lunchbox peppers, Hakurei turnips, purple carrots,
 pickled Jimmy Nardello peppers, watermelon radishes,
cheddar cheese,  some caviar we found for a whopping $1.99
at the salvage grocer and  some store brand crackers.

This has helped us get a lot more produce into our diet, while at the same time reducing the unhealthy snacks that are too easy to indulge in. I've also found that since we use items we grow or find cheaply, it is much cheaper than any other snack food. We love the convenience and knowing that we are actively creating a healthier future with lower medical bills.

Healthy Snacks: Pumpkin Pie Pudding

I discovered a fantastic recipe recently. It is a frugal, easy and healthy recipe that provides a good portion of beta-carotene. I found the recipe in an old cookbook called Homemade Snacks by Nell B. Nichols from Farm Journal. I was excited to try it because last year I got a dozen or so large cans of pumpkin puree on manager's special for $.25 and they are getting a little too far past sell-by date.

Pumpkin puree is a fantastic thing to put into pudding. It doesn't detract from the flavor or sweetness of the butterscotch pudding, but only has 80 calories per cup (compared to 260/cup for pudding). It contains no fat (compared to 5.6 grams in pudding), no cholesterol (1 cup of pudding contains 85% of the cholesterol you should eat in a whole day!), 10 grams of sodium (versus 436 grams in pudding) and very little sugar (8 grams vs. 41 grams). It also adds a whopping 10 grams of fiber, which is something Americans are desperately short on (and honestly, given the horrific health issues that can result from a low-fiber diet, we'd all do better to add as much as we reasonably can) and a moderate amount of protein. Due to the beta-carotene and other antioxidants, they may help the eyes, reduce cancer risk, and protect the skin. It also contains a good amount of Vitamins C and E, potassium and iron. In short, it is a fantastic thing to include in the diet, especially when it helps you cut back on something less healthy.

This recipe uses boxed pudding mix, although you could certainly use from-scratch pudding as well. I used the boxes pudding for a couple reasons. One: I got the boxed mix on a really, really good sale and have a lot in the stockpile. Two: I know that nutrition and cost have to be balanced with time constraints. The way I see it, while this uses a processed food, it is a reasonably nutritious snack and, being so simple to make, it is just as easy as buying pudding packs. This makes it realistic for working moms to make for kids lunches, or for anyone who wants a yummy dessert but who is short on time. It's one of the simplest desserts I've made.

Basically, you make a package of butterscotch pudding according the package instructions. Then you mix in 16 oz of plain pumpkin puree, 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice (or to taste) and mix it together. Allow to set up in the refrigerator. It won't set up as solid as straight pudding, but has a good texture.

To serve as Pumpkin Pie pudding, simply top with some crumbled graham crackers and a bit of lightly sweetened whipped cream. I also love to top it with vanilla ice cream. With or without crumbled graham crackers. With candied pecans. With a sprinkling of cinnamon. With a drizzle of caramel sauce. You could also use dried and crumbled leftover sweets like snickerdoodle cookies. Or add a pie crust cookie.

Sometime soon I want to try making this into a frozen pie. I think I'll bake a graham cracker crust, then fill with the pudding mixture and freeze. To serve, I'd add a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It might be something fun to try.

Don't stop at pumpkin and butterscotch pudding. There are lots of fun ideas to try. Replace the pumpkin puree with cooked and mashed carrots or butternut/acorn squash. Maybe use applesauce and a caramel pudding. Use vanilla instead of butterscotch. Maybe even try chocolate. Add leftover mashed sweet potatoes. There are lots of ways to sneak veggies into dessert.

Most of us aren't going to give up having dessert just to be healthy. However, looking for ways to limit fat and sugar while adding nutrients will help us be healthier without feeling deprived.

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Mango Banana Fruit Leathers

 Earlier this year I bought a brand-spankin-new Nesco American Harvest Snackmaster Express all-in kit. So pretty. It included fruit leather trays, but I'd never been much into fruit roll-ups. Even as a kid, the neon colors, extreme sweetness and off-flavors bothered me. Last night though, I found myself with 6 mangoes that were just about to go from wonderfully ripe to compost. Around here, that's sacrilege. I had to find something to do with them all, immediately. I also had a bunch of bananas at the nice, mottled brown stage, not quite overripe, but sweet and delicious.

I chopped up all six mangoes, using a spoon to scrape the pits and peels to get every last lovely bit of the pulp. I blended them with 4 bananas in two batches. Each batch filled two leather trays. I added enough to completely cover the trays, but not so much that it was seeping over the edges. I used a spoon to try to level it out, but as you can see from the second photo, I didn't do the best job. That being said, they are still delicious, so it wasn't a complete failure.

I dehydrated them overnight at 115 degrees, which in hindsight was a little low. They were still tacky and still wet in some areas when I checked 9 hours later. I kicked the dehydrator up to 135 degrees and let them go for another 3 hours. When I checked on them, they were quite dry, not very tacky, but not crisp. I peeled them easily off of the dehydrator trays in one smooth motion. I laid them directly on the trays and dehydrated them for another half hour just to ensure they were fully dry.

They were quite tasty. Unlike the store-bought kind, they weren't sickly sweet, just lots of tropical flavor with a hint of sweetness. I'll admit that the color leaves something to be desired. Next batch may have some lemon juice or citric acid added to prevent browning.

I can't wait to try new flavors. Apple strawberry. Strawberry lemonade. Pineapple Mango. Blackberry Pear. 

These will be a great snack for road trips and hiking. For those with kids, this would be a great addition to lunch boxes. It is a quick, easy and cheap way to use up a lot of fruit that would otherwise go to waste.

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