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

[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. :-)