Feeling snacky?

You just don't know what to have. You want something salty and you don't want to reach for a bag of chips or something that will take away all the hard work you have done so far. What do you reach for? Here are a couple of my favorites.

First, there are these munchable carrots. I just got this pretty cheap mandolin for Christmas. I picked it out, told my Mom thats what I want and she got it for me. Thanks Mom. They retail for about 20 bucks. Not too bad for a mandolin. Anyway it makes incredibly thin slices. Not so great in the matchstick department (but doable). I eat them just like that or I roast them in the microwave. They get nice and crispy and are way better than potato chips. Lots of flavor, lots of body.

Here's how you do it. Lay one piece of papertoweling down on a microwave safe dish. Lay the carrots all around the dish. Its okay to overlap since they shrink quite a bit anyhow. Lay another piece of paper toweling over top. Microwave for about 3 minutes. Keep checking every minute or so because they burn quickly. Once they are done, let them cool and there you have one healthy snack.

The next favorite is really a surprise favorite. It's no surprise that I like popcorn. I eat a lot of popcorn. I make it air popped and oil popped. I do like microwave but I dont like how incredibly salty it is. And it doesnt really have a lot of corny flavor. Now, I have seen a number of blogs that you can make your own microwave popcorn - eh, I didnt quite buy it. I thought I just know this will end in disaster in my kitchen. It will burn, the smoke alarm will go off and it will smell for days in our house of burnt popcorn. But the other day I felt a little brave and decided to give it a try. Surprise, it worked. Here's what I did.

I mixed 1/4 cup popcorn with 1/2 teaspoon of oil in a little bowl. I dumped that into a lunch bag. I opened another lunch bag and enclosed the first bag with the second. So there is no open end. Slide it back and forth a little just to disperse the popcorn around in the bag instead of a little pile in the bag. Microwave until there are about three seconds between pops. Open the bag and salt the popcorn. Whoa, I have to tell you, I think I like the taste of it better than oil popped. Yup! And for a fraction of the oil! Yowzaa. I feel like I struck gold. It's a big deal for me when you find a lower calorie solution that has more flavor. AND it is WAY cheaper.

Okay so those are my favorites. Anyone else have a favorite healthy snack idea?

One more thing, I found these snack ideas from Ellie Krieger on the Food Network. Click here.