Since moving to San Francisco last year I’ve been working from home which is a blessing and a curse in equal amounts. Working in pajamas gets major bonus points but having constant access to my kitchen can be a real pain in the you know what. Actually it’s more of a pain in the zipping up my jeans department.
That being said it’s not like I’m not fully aware of what types of foods trigger “snack attack” moments in me. I don’t keep sweetened breakfast cereals in the house, ice cream, or candy. My issues with Wheat Thins alone might have enough angst to fill an entire novel so those are out too. When I make cookies and other high calorie baked goods for my blog I try one and then ship the rest off to my boyfriend’s office because keeping them around the house for extra sampling is how I got here in the first place. I also live next door to a Panera and it quite cruelly smells like cinnamon rolls 50% of the time. Jerks. But in the end my one true nemesis and downfall is cheese.
How do you quit cheese?! I simply can’t do it. But I have managed to curb my love a bit via individually packaged means. For instance, I’m a huge fan of Precious Pepper Jack Cheese Sticks and the reduced-fat Colby-Jack Sargento snacks. They even make Brie Bites these days which are absolutely fantastic. These all offer just enough of a cheese fix that I can eat one and stop dreaming about gigantic bowls of macaroni and cheese and the like.
Of course a girl can’t live on cheese snacks alone so I’ve also been trying to make or have on hand a lot of the following items to keep me honest in the all things edible department.
Avocado Toast
Every time I eat an avocado I feel a little sad about the fact that I didn’t even try an avocado until I was something like 20 years old. RIDICULOUS. I feel sad about all of the amazing avocado opportunities I missed in my “I’m a picky twit” phase. My favorite way to eat them is mashed and spread on whole wheat toast or an english muffin sprinkled with sea salt, freshly ground pepper, and a lot of spicy red pepper flakes. I sometimes also drizzle a tiny bit of extra-virgin olive oil but honestly that’s sort of overkill. Sometimes I also just eat all of the above in a bowl and skip the extra carbs too.
Banana “Ice Cream”
So ridiculously simple and so delicious. No heavy whipping cream, eggs, or sugar touch this dish but it tastes creamy and rich. Get the whole scoop (so to speak) on how to make this dead simple dish at The Kitchn.
Hard or Soft Boiled Eggs
When I tried to do the Paleo, Primal, and Four-Hour Body diets at various times I ended up hating eggs. I couldn’t stand eating them for breakfast and I wasn’t a big fan of having potato-less beef stew at 6:00 AM every morning so eggs always seemed like the only option. I’m way over that aversion now and will happily pop a couple of eggs into boiling water for a protein packed snack. PS: adding 1/2 a teaspoon of salt to the pot really does seem to help get those finicky organic egg shells off in less than 100 tiny slivers.
Quinoa
I’m in love with quinoa. I can’t cook it properly on the stove top though so if you have a similar problem with your quinoa coming out in a mushy mess I urge you to try cooking it in your rice cooker. I make great big batches and then just let it cook and steam until it is fluffy and lovely. Then I pack it away in the fridge and have a cup with roasted red peppers or edamame (really you can throw anything on there). This has been a go-to lunch for me recently and I can’t rave enough about the versatile nature of this grain. There’s also a great cookbook out now that has a ton of quinoa recipes to get your started on your own quinoa kick from morning to night.
Those are a few of my favorite snacks right now. I’d love to hear about any tips or tricks you have for keeping the cookie monster at bay!