Every time I make a banana shake, I never fail to remember the time I tried to impress my science teacher by telling her about my incredibly healthy afterschool snack.
“It’s a banana shake,” I explained, proudly. “Only I add half a bag of walnuts to it for extra protein!”
Her response confounded me.
“That’s healthy. But that’s a lot of calories and fat,” she observed.
She rattled off some factoids about walnut nutrition. Wmeanwhile my 7th grade brain wondered if she was hinting that my brilliant snack might be what was contributing to my walnut-shaped belly. Whatever the case, she certainly saved me from adding multiple pounds from my 2000 genius snack.)
Nowadays, I still throw in a few deglect noor dates and walnuts along with kale into my shakes. But whenever I make a shake I think about the hassle of washing the blender. And of course as a Californian the guilt of using the water.
As someone who is always trying to think of new ideas for how to solve problems with helping busy people, kids, and elderly people living alone eat healthily, I am looking forward to seeing what the 2017 Fancy Food Show reveals in terms of innovations for solving the continual problem of easy snacking and eating without too much salt or processing.
While meal kits are good for people who have time to chop and wash, and meal delivery works in urban areas, there’s still a gap.
Just a few new healthy snack food pitches I’ve heard:
- fruit gels that flow from a pouch, making them the perfect on-the-go snack
- Pulse chips and other artisan tortilla chips and crackers
- Ice cream that is “so nutritious you can eat it for breakfast!”
- Asian flavors cup of soups
- Waffles made with vegetables (so they’re snackable …right?!)
- Meat bars mixed with plant foods like almond butter, dried tart cherries, sweet potatoes
- Another bar that’s guided by science and driven by balance full of purposeful ingredients. How about them apples? (No pitches received for apples)
P.S. I reduce my guilt over using a blender by drinking out of the blender instead of using a glass. Luckily our recent storms may diminish my obsessiveness. ?
