Yes there are the whole food options like fruit and popcorn and droewors and biltong (Southern Africa’s version of jerky) These are our staples and they’re fine. But if you look further, which we often attempt to do for parties or baking, all you find on-the-shelf is packaged treats with way too much added sugar while the chips and baked stuff contains pro-inflammatory trans-fats. Talk about a party pooper (the additives, not me).
The demand for non-harmful snacks is immense but the supply is low. I got you. Here is the start of a list that I will keep adding to. Send me stuff you find and I’ll grow and maintain this list for all of us. I have a good recipe for nutritional yeast popcorn (that’s it, that’s the “recipe”, nutritional yeast on popcorn but you blend the nutritional yeast to make it more powdery). More soon! My kids are asking for snacks, BRB.
Banana Sunflower Cookies
These are from The Green Spoon on Substack, they’re easy and taste a bit like a banana bread cookie with a hint of nutmeg. Bonus benefits of protein and iron thanks to the hemp and sunflower seeds.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup hulled hemp seeds
3/4 cup quick oats
1/2 cup ground sunflower seeds (pulse in a blender until sandy but not yet oily in texture)
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons of olive oil or melted coconut oil
1/4 raisins
1 very ripe banana, thoroughly mashed
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of fine sea salt
1/2 cup of untested shredded coconut
Method
Preheat oven to 350F
Peel and mash the banana with a potato masher or fork until uniformly smooth.
Process the sunflower seeds in a processor until sandy in texture
Thoroughly combine all ingredients - except for the coconut - in a medium sized bowl.
The dough will be thick and tacky. Form balls about 1 inch diameter (a small golf / pingpong ball)
Roll in shredded coconut to coat and place on a baking sheet, evenly spaced, pressing down ever so lightly on each one to slightly flatten.
Bake for 15 minutes, until lightly golden.
2. Chocolate Chickpea Muffins
These are by Jane Houston (@nutritionbyjane) and I have not tried them yet but they seem really good (and simple enough to make, which adds brownie points in my books)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup peanut butter
5 tbsp spelt flour (or cassava for gluten free)
400g tinned chickpeas
1/2 cup hazelnuts - ground
2 eggs
4 tbsp cacao
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup honey
Method:
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius and take out a blender or food processor.
Blitz the whole hazelnuts until they are well ground. Add in the peanut butter, chickpeas, flour, cacao, eggs, baking powder, vanilla extract and honey. Blend until smooth.
Spoon into muffin papers. Bake in the oven for roughly 25 minutes, until slightly gooey within. These taste best once they have cooled in the fridge.