Need Snickers Alternative

[beth_leonard]

Tonight was a two-Snickers bar night.

I hate doing taxes, and the sales taxes for my business were particularly tricky this year.

I think I need to find a healthier alternative to Snickers bars that is just as convienient for my late-night snacks however. Of the things I looked at this evening, Snickers had 4 g protein for 14 g fat. Compared to icecream's 2 g protein for 12 g fat. Getting enough protein while pregnant is always a challenge for me, although I usually do ok on the other requirements/suggestions**.

My late-night snacks must be:

* Instant -- If I can't just pop it in my mouth, possibly stopping to unwrap and/or serve, it doesn't count. The snickers bar ends up playing interference and saying "I'm here, I'm easy, you can just eat me" If I didn't want instant, I'd probably make a hot chocolate (8 g protein, or a cup of Ramen)

* Mess-free -- I'm eating by my computer and granola and associated dry foods are frequently too messy and jam up my keyboard/attract ants.

* Yummy. My mother tried to feed me a choco-protein bar last summer and I nearly puked.

* Of equal or greater nutritional value to a snickers bar.

* Non-spoiling -- fresh fruits tend to go bad unless refrigerated, and if they go straight from the refrigerator to my mouth, they frequently fail the "yummy" criteria. My teeth don't like the cold unless it's ice cream.

* Non-constipating -- Bananas fail this criteria, sadly.

Despite drinking more than the recommended amount of fluid, and frequently at or above the recommend amount of fiber/fruit, constipation remains a problem for me, particularly in late pregnancy. [sigh]

Maybe this is just my way of trying to justify to myself eating Snickers even though it's technically "candy". Or maybe I'm stuck in a food rut and my friends have good ideas for other things I can eat. We're nearly out of dried apricots, those are good too, but I don't think they have much protein.

--Beth

Comments

[geofizzgirl.livejournal.com]

Chocolate or yogurt covered almonds?

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

We picked up some chocolate covered peanuts a few days back - those might fit the yummy, non-messy and proteinacious requirements, while having less fat than snickers.

The way I understand late-pregnancy constipation, it's a physiological issue. Liquids and fiber don't hurt, but the central problem is that the baby is squishing your intestines.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

You like yogurt? Yogurt was the one protein source I could eat for a while there. (And if you hit up a Whole Foods or something, you can find a million kinds of yummy gourmet stuff, from cows and sheep and goats and water buffaloes, in lots of flavors. I really like Liberte Mediterranee, Brown Cow, and that water buffalo cappuccino flavor...mmm.) You can also throw some high-fiber cereal into yogurt, make it crunchy and yummy and reduce constipation (without really hurting the "instant" criterion).

Apricots have iron, I think, which is good even if what you need is protein...

Maybe you can do other things involving nuts. Like, oh, handfuls of nuts. Or spreads...from yogurt I was able to branch out into bagels with cream cheese, and then bagels with peanut butter, and of course there's other nut butters you could try too. Again, still basically instant, even if you do have to spread stuff. And you can meet other nutritional needs by having, eg, a multi-grain bagel, or making it more sandwichy (by keeping easy sandwich fixings on hand!).

I'm pretty sure Trader Joe's sells little microwaveable mini-quiches...if you like eggs, those would give you some protein. I think you can also make your own quiche and freeze, reducing it to the microwaving problem. Of course microwaved quiche is not nearly as good as the real stuff, but hey, it's protein (and, again, can contain veggies, or meat protein, for more nutritional needs).

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Oh, and you would have to modify this because bananas don't work for you, but I was getting a lot of mileage for a while out of milk + peanut butter + a banana in a blender. I'm also strongly averse to prep time when I just want a snack, but I found this was easy enough (ie, no cooking, plus blending is fun) that I would do it. And I really liked the way it had pretty much everything I needed -- calcium, protein, fruity goodness -- all in one tasty package. You could use all kinds of non-banana fruit that you think would taste good (even keep some frozen fruit on hand -- it won't be that cold once you've blended it, and it doesn't need to be as tasty as fresh fruit since you're mixing it with other tasty things).

[kimdons.livejournal.com]

-If you like cold hard boiled eggs, you could do a bunch up and keep them in the fridge

- Nuts come in many different types of roasting and flavorings, maybe trader joes or whole foods or something like that would have tamari cashews or lime almonds or stuff like that. David and I also adore the mixture of nuts and dried fruit, especially walnuts (good omega-3's) and raisins. Date nut rolls are also yummy -- chopped dates, shredded coconut, and slivered almonds -- you can buy them pre-made

- If you're eating dairy, I second the yogurt-plus-yummystuff idea from ukelele. I used to make huge batches of pumpkin bread with added whey protein powder (makes it super easy to get some pregnancy protein) then when I got hungry I'd microwave a some bread and dollop yogurt on top

- If you're not eating dairy, you can still make protein shakes with fruit, coconut milk, and powdered egg whites (+ I add some ginger, gelatin, vanilla, and stevia). If you make up some "base" ahead of time, all you have to do is add some fruit in a blender

- I agree with the no cold fruit sentiment. We keep some of the fruit in the fridge so it doesn't go bad, but then keep a handful out (enough for a day or so) in the cupboard to warm up for eating.

- if you dry your own meat it can be pretty much salt-free and taste however you want it, and it's an easy super-protein snack

- One of my current favorite snacks is a spicy winter squash with apples and carrots. You have to make it yourself, though you could make a lot and then each portion would be no-work.

- Note that 2g or 4g of protein is not that much, especially given the yuckies you get with processed sugars and junk they put in candy. For example, one cup of butternut squash gives you 2g of protein, 1g fat, 18g carb and squash isn't known for its protein, whereas one snickers bar has 3.6g protein, 12g fat, 22.8g carb. (Got my numbers from websites, so I don't know if they're exactly right.) And in a pregnancy, you're probably aiming for around 100g protein, right? I guess my point is that "equal or greater nutritional value than a snickers bar" should be fairly easy

- I hear trader joes has lots of pre-made healthy snacks and looking around can help with snack ideas. I try to avoid places like Albertsons or Safeway because most of their snacks aren't very healthy and it's just depressing. I'm sure there are other good stores too, maybe something local (like Berkeley Bowl was for us for a while.)

- We're currently using a personal chef while I try to finish my thesis and raise Aria :-) A personal chef might not be for you, but the model might be interesting. He makes a bunch of food all at once and then puts it in the fridge in pyrex. Then getting a healthy snack or meal is very fast in the microwave or pretty fast in the oven.

Good luck! When I was pregnant (and pretty much barfed up every vegetable I ate) I took heart in knowing that a lot of my baby's nutrition was coming from my healthy nutrient stores that I had built up before pregnancy.

[geofizzgirl.livejournal.com]

More on actual protein content:

If you eat whole grains, you might be suprised at how much you actually get. Keep track in a diet tracker for a few days to see: fitday.com and sparkpeople.com are two that I've found. (I think sparkpeople has babyfit or something like that now?). Anyways, I eat granola with milk for breakfast, and it turns out to be 20g of protein right there.

The other thing about aiming for 100g of protein per day comes from various studies that looked at women's diets after the fact. Those with lower blood pressure tended to consume 100g + protein per day. However, it appears that the source was often dairy, which mean that the women were also getting more Ca/Mg/K per day. I've now seen a few studies that tried to separate out those effects, and indeed the Ca/Mg/K seem to be a more dominant factor in getting to 40-42 weeks healthy. Let me see if I can dig up the reference. It's been a few years...

I tried both high protein and high Ca/Mg/K (nuts!) to hedge my bets. I still only made it to 38w/2d.

[beth_leonard]

This is good to know. I drink 1/3 to 1/2 gallon of nonfat milk daily. Except for the days when we're out of milk because I drank it all again. Our fridge is small and only fits 2 gal if we want anything else in there.

I'll have to give the diet trackers a try. I do try to eat fresh fruits/veggies during the day, but they don't have "nutrition information" on the outside of the skins. Generally I count fruits/veggies as 0 g protein, but they probably have some.

--Beth

[beth_leonard]

I'll check out Trader Joes, there's one right down the block. The last time I went in was years ago. At the time I wanted to buy OJ with vitamin D and Calcium and one other item that I would consider "normal" for a food store. Not only could I not find what I was looking for, I couldn't find anything I wanted to buy there. Lots of people like it though, so I should give it another try.

The nuts are a very good idea as long as I limit the servings. When we do buy a thing of peanuts it tends to get eaten entirely within a day or two which is not good -- fat wise or allergy wise. I'm not allergic to anything, but Jon was/is and one of the coorelated ways of reducing childhood allergies is for the mother to reduce/avoid common allergens during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

I eat peanut butter sandwiches because the PB does add to my protein, but I try to limit it to no more than 1 a day plus 1 snickers bar. (Some days I fail, as noted :-)

Almonds aren't implicated nearly as often in allergy problems though, so I should give them a try. I also like them.

We haven't started Peter on nuts yet, we're waiting until he's 3 if possible, but I also don't freak out if I use the same knife for my sandwich as for his. He hasn't shown any reactions so far to that level of exposure, so we're hoping he's fine. We're just being extra cautious.

--Beth

[kimdons.livejournal.com]

Peanuts aren't actually nuts, they're legumes, and people are usually less allergic to non-peanuts, like you said. There are lots of kinds of nuts and even people with allergies are usually not allergic to all nuts. Maybe you could try lots of different kinds and then you wouldn't be overdoing any particular potential allergen. BTW, David's allergic to almonds. We eat lots of walnuts. Other suggestions we like are pecans, pistachios, and macadamias (though watch out for the salt on the pistachios and macadamias). Also seeds are in a different allergy category than nuts too -- sunflower and pumpkin are often readily available, but again watch out for the salt. Oh, and if you're watching out for peanuts, careful of mixed nuts even without peanuts -- I hear they are often contaminated with peanuts or processed on the same equipment. Bulk isles in alternative grocery stores are sometimes good for finding unusual nuts.

On TJs, I've been there about as often as you :-), but people keep suggesting it for healthy, interesting premade foods. Maybe you could go with somebody who usually shops there to show you the good stuff. :-)

[kimdons.livejournal.com]

oh yeah, David just reminded me that early post-partum, I pretty much lived on a mixture of cereal, yogurt, and fruit mixed together. Lots of calories, protein, and nutrients, and pretty easy. Though chopping the fruit isn't that fast -- we often used grapes or berries because they don't need chopping. :-)

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

Gosh. That sounds really good.

Conveniently we have filled the freezer with All Kinds of Stuff, but...gosh that sounds good.

(Of course I was just not allowed to eat for the better part of a day, and then only allowed clear liquids for much of another day, so it's entirely possible that essentially everything sounds good right now...)

[kimdons.livejournal.com]

Aaaargh! Not eating for part of the days after giving birth! Woah, that sounds super hard. One of the things I remember most about that period was David shoveling food into me... Plus the cute baby... Congrats sooo much!

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

I think ukelele is referring to the days she spent in the hospital, in labor. I imagine that it would take a few days of recovery and food-shoveling to get over that. I certainly *hope* that they let the food shoveling recovery process commence immediately.

[kimdons.livejournal.com]

oh, yeah, duh. :-) I guess it didn't register with me that way because I was encouraged to eat during labor, and after deciding to go to the hospital I had given up on eating.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

I ended up with a Caesarian -- they wouldn't let me have anything other than ice chips once the epidural was in because anesthesiologists are like that, which means from ~1pm (lunch on Friday) until 4 in the morning on Saturday (c-section) no food, and then post-C-section you only get clear liquids (post-surgery + morphine = badly functioning digestive system). And the morphine pretty much made me throw up everything anyway. Mind you I was hardly awake long enough to eat yesterday, either...

Let me tell you, being given toast around 2am this morning when I said I was hungry (and after the morphine withdrawal), and successfully eating it, was like a Hallelujah chorus.

C section, ouch!

[beth_leonard]

It sounds like things could have been better :-( I hope that you are all doing well now and will recover quickly. I do have an IM account, but I've only got the software enabled on my PC which I use rarely. I'll turn the PC on tonight and leave it on. Right now Peter just (finally) went down for his nap and I need mine.

Are you home from the hospital already? I thought C-section was 4 days, but it may be that you have a great hospital with internet access.

--Beth

[kimdons.livejournal.com]

I rejoice with you on being able to eat! And I wish you a speedy recovery.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

OK, beth_leonard just pointed to this thread elsewhere, and yup, that still sounds tasty, and I am not starving right now ;). Actually I have been eating granola + yogurt + raisins pretty frequently for breakfast these days.

[patrissimo.livejournal.com]

cliff bars?

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

The same company that makes Clif bars (which I can't stand) makes Luna bars, which are smaller and less dense (and consequently more edible), and also happen to contain an entire serving of calcium.

[eilonwey.livejournal.com]

I've been liking pita chips and babaganush or hummus lately. Really, you could substitute any dip that you find appealing. Our farmer's market sells a delicious smoked salmon spread if you aren't turned off by fish.

[(Anonymous)]

Meat cubes!

We made ground meat (nice steak) with olive oil and butter cubes for Tovar. One adult meal worth of steak makes several cubes, so you can just defrost one or two cubes at a time for a quick and yummy high protein snack. Tovar's not a fan of them, but Patri and I have been enjoying the ice-cube sized cubes a lot, which is great given that they only took a few minutes to make about thirty of them from steak we already had, which we've been enjoying over the course of the past month :)