Healthy Food Snacks

Snacks can destroy good eating habits if you don't plan ahead for snacks like you do for dinner. All the work you put into providing a healthy,nutritious and balanced meal will be easily undone by taking highly salted and sugared snacks. Snacks should be a small amount of food you take in between meals. Snacks are an important way, especially for children, to refuel during the day and to make up the nutrients they are missing in their meals. It's best when you offer snacks, to try to compose them from at least two of the food groups - apple and cheese, yogurt and dried fruit, peanut butter and crackers.

The USANA Fibergy Bars contain multiple sources of soluble fibre to provide specific benefits and act in different ways in the body.
The USANA Nutrition bars are a convenient source of nutrition and provides sustained energy.
They are a quality source of carbohydrates, protein and fat in the right ratios with a low GI, to provide a healthy, well nourished snack.

SPICY APPLE MUFFINS.
A delicious recipe for homemade apple muffins.
Apple sauce replaces some of the fat and fresh apples and oats add nutritious fibre to these muffins. But these are still as delicious as any homemade muffin you can remember.

Apple muffins Ingredients.
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Makes 12
- 1 3/4 cups (245g) wholemeal flour
- 1 cup (155g) soft brown sugar
- 2 sachets (about 40 g each) apple flavoured instant porridge.
- 1 tbst salt-reduced polyunsaturated spread
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 tsp mixed spice
- 1 jar (about 250g) unsweetened apple sauce
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 2 medium eggs
- 1 large green apple, cored and chopped.

How to cook apple muffins.
1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celcius. Lightly coat a 12-hole American-style muffin tray with cooking spray. Combine 1/3 cup (50g) of the flour, 1/3 cup (50g) of the brown sugar, 1 sachet of the porridge and the spread in a small bowl. Rub in with your fingertips until the mixture is crumbly. Set aside until needed.

2. Mix the remaining flour and porridge mix with the bicarbonate of soda and mixed spice in a medium bowl and make a well in the centre.

3. Stir together the apple sauce, oil, remaining brown sugar and the eggs in another bowl untill the brown sugar has dissolved. Pour into the well in the dry ingredients and stir until just combined (don't overmix; the mixure should be lumpy). Stir in the apple.

4. Spoon the mixture into the muffin tray. Sprinkle with the crumble topping. Bake for about 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre of the muffin comes out clean. Cool the muffins on a wire rack.

Some more ideas...
Use a pear instead of the apple and add 1/2 cup (80g) raisins to the mixture.

TOASTS WITH SPIRIT
You need:
100 g cottage cheese
2 tbsp chopped onion
10 g low-salt butter
1 tsp curry-powder
ca. 20 small toasts
1 tbsp finely chopped chives.

Method:
Put the cottage cheese in a bowl. Fry the chopped onions in the butter and add the curry-powder. Let this mixture cool down and mix it through the cottage cheese. Put on the toast and garnish with the finely chopped chives.

CHEESE PASTRIES.
You need:
125 g wholemeal flour
5 or 6 tbsp olive oil
1/2 dl cold water
salt
100 g grated young Edam cheese
40 g Parmesan cheese
20 g wholemeal flour
2 dl milk
1 1/2 dl yogurt
2 egg whites
pepper
paprika
nutmeg
small pastry tins.

Method:
Mix the oil, water and some salt with the flour with a spoon untill it forms a ball. Put the mixture in the fridge for 20 minutes. Roll the pastry out and line lightly greased tins. Make with a fork holes in the paste. Make the filling for the cheese. Mix in a bowl the cheese, flour, milk, yogurt, some pepper and paprika. Beat the egg-white and add to the mixture. Fill the tins 3/4 with the mixture. Bake the cheese pastries on the bottom of a pre-heated oven ( 180 deg. C.) for ca. 20 mins.untill done and golden brown.

HOME MADE MEAT PIE.
You need:
1 kg beef,very coarsely minced or very finely diced
2 onions, finely chopped
30 g dried porcinis or Cepes rehydrated
1 parsnip, diced
1 large potato, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 tbs tomato paste
1/2 ltr rich beef stock
salt & pepper
'Gravox' or cornflour

Puff Pastry
250 g plain flour
120 g butter
1 egg yolk
2-3 tbs iced water

Method:
Make the short pastry by blending the flour and butter in the food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the water and egg york and process again until it forms a ball. Turn out of the machine, work breefly on the bench, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least twenty minutes. Make the pie filling by browning the meat thoroughly in a little oil, adding the tomato paste and vegetables and then enough stock to moisten the mixture. Allow this to simmer for about half an hour, adding more stock from time to time as necessary. Thicken with the gravox or cornflour, making it very, very thick. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Roll the short pastry out and line lightly greased pie tins, leaving about 5 mm overhang. Fill with the cooled mixture, fold up the overhang and brush the edges of this with a little eggwash. Lay a disc of puff pastry on top of this, eggwash this, cut a little hole for steam to escape and put into a preheated 200 degrees C. oven for about twenty minutes or until golden brown. Serve immediately.

CHEESE STALKS
For the basic recipe of the cottage cheese paste you need:
125 g flour
1/4 tbsp salt
100 g butter
100 g cottage cheese

Method:
Mix the salt through the flour in a bowl. Add the butter and the cottage cheese with spoons at a time and mix through the flour till you get a homogeneous mixture. Refrigerate for several hours before use. You can keep this pastry for 2 -3 months in the freezer.

Method for making the cheese stalks:
Mix the pastry with 50 to 100 g Parmesan cheese.
Roll the pastry out fairly thin, fold it in three layers, turn a quarter, roll out again and fold it again in three layers. Refrigerate for 15 minutes and roll and fold it again. Finally roll it out till 1/2 cm thickness and cut it into stalks, 1 cm thick and 6 cm long. Wet a baking plate with water and put them on the plate. Wait for 15 minutes and bake them in the oven ( at 200 deg. C.) in about 10 minutes light brown.