The Healthy List – Healthy Snacks

29th December 2017

It’s December – the month of mince pies, chocolate, and general overindulgence. So I figured it made absolute total sense to do another Healthy List!

I’ve really not been very healthy recently, even before Christmas, and whilst I have fully embraced Christmas and all the food that brings with it, I do want to get a bit healthier and for 2018 to be the year I feel good about myself again, and especially get back into the habit of exercising regularly.

So I’m sharing some things I’ve been loving in the world of healthy this month, with a particular focus on some healthier snacks that I think are great. I think it can be easy to grab a not particularly healthy snack when you’re hungry but it’s not time for a meal yet and you just need something quick. I hate it when I don’t actually want a packet of crisps, but they’re just easy to grab when there’s nothing else in the house. I’m trying to keep some slightly healthier snacks in the house so I grab something that’s good for me but I still really enjoy, and is more likely to satisfy me at the same time.

I don’t really rule anything out even when I’m making more of an effort to be healthy, but I do like to choose the best options that are available – so better quality foods, with better and cleaner ingredients, and these products really fit that ethos.

Here are some things I’ve been enjoying lately, including some brand new, as well as new to me, healthy snacks.

Ember Biltong – I was sent some packs of this new range of biltong from Ember.  It is made with grass-fed British and Irish beef, has zero sugar, and is a great natural source of protein and only has 92 calories a pack.

I loved this – particularly the chilli one, and I really want to get some more. It’s a great, easy snack to grab and I really enjoy eating it.

The Ember Biltong was created by the Ember brothers who wanted to create a snack that was tasty and healthy as part of their ironman training. I love that the welfare of the cows that the beef comes from is really important to the producers – they source it from a small number of independent suppliers that have the highest possible animal welfare. The cows are antibiotic free, pasture centred and have an enriched environment. It’s great for a mid-afternoon snack and I’ll definitely be getting more of this.

Sauerkraut – I talked about this in another post recently and I’m just really loving it. I love eating Sauerkraut just on it’s own as a healthy snack. Sauerkraut is a fermented cabbage – during fermentation beneficial probiotics are produced, and these probiotics are what give sauerkraut most of its health benefits.

It’s brilliant for your gut (which I’m learning is so important to our overall health), is low-calorie and anti-inflammatory, and contains vitamins C and K, potassium, calcium and phosphorus.

I recently bought Liz Earle’s ‘The Good Gut Guide‘, which is interesting and useful and I’ve been enjoying learning all about how important good gut health is and what we can do to improve it. I really want to start making my own Kefir Milk and eventually Kombucha too, which are both great for us and I love.

Doisy & Dam Chocolate – I love chocolate and eat it pretty regularly, but I do try to eat better quality chocolate most of the time. I do like dark chocolate but I feel like that is a different craving to milk chocolate, which is my favourite. But if I’m really trying to be good I’ll have dark chocolate because it’s much better for us (less sugar) and I know I’ll eat a lot less of it, making it even healthier I guess!

I was sent some cute little bars of Doisy & Dam chocolate in different flavours. They contain really high quality ingredients with superfoods in every bar, never contain more than eight ingredients, and use a high cocoa content so they’re as healthy as possible. They are great brand who really care about their products and the chocolate is lovely too! My mum also gave it her seal of approval when she came round and stole some too!

They have a new flavour chocolate – crunchy almond butter (which is a limited edition unfortunately) – and it was actually my favourite out of all the flavours (7!) I tried. It’s a milk chocolate and had such a lovely crunch to it. I also particularly loved the dark chocolate, maca, vanilla and cacao nibs. It mostly just tastes like a really nice dark chocolate with a slight crunch from the cacao nibs.

I love finding new chocolate brands that I love where the chocolate is higher quality and therefore better for you. Doisy & Dam make loads of really interesting sounding flavours and I’ll definitely try more.

Pip & Nut – I’d heard of Pip & Nut nut butters dozens of times, but I’d never actually tried any of them until recently. I love nut butters, especially almond butter so I was really excited to be sent a variety of these to try. They have a new flavour out – Chocolate Coconut Hazelnut, and their Crunchy Maple Peanut Butter has just been made a permanent fixture due to popular demand.

All of their nut butters are made just from nuts and a sprinkling of sea salt, which I love. It’s especially important to me that I buy good quality nut butters as Ava has almond butter (or occasionally peanut) on her toast and crumpets regularly. There’s no way she would eat a nut right now, so this means that she gets the health benefits still and she actually enjoys it.

I love to have a spoonful of almond butter sometimes as a snack, (I had no idea until quite recently how good it tastes on its own!), and I’ll also make healthy pancakes with just almond or peanut butter, an egg, and a banana, and Ava’s loves them too (especially if I add a sprinkling of raw cacao powder to make chocolate pancakes!!). I really like the Pip & Nut almond butters – the new Honey Almond Butter tastes so lovely and has a slight sweetness which is so nice.

As soon as Ava saw the chocolate nut butter she requested it on toast for breakfast, and as they only have good ingredients in them I was happy for her to have it as a treat. They don’t contain any additives, e-numbers or preservatives and are full of good fats. There is a suggestion to spoon their chocolate butter into natural yoghurt for a tasty dessert – I’m definitely going to try that!

The Limited Edition Chocolate Coconut Hazelnut Butter (RRP £3.95), Crunchy Peanut Butter (RRP £2.30) and Crunchy Almond Butter (RRP. £3.95) are available at Sainsbury’s, Whole Foods and Ocado.com. The Honey Almond Butter (RRP £3.95) is available at Whole Foods and Ocado.com.

Benefit drinks – I was sent a range of these new vegan juices to try and I really like them. Benefit Drinks are made in the UK by a family business and the whole range is enriched with vitamins A, C and E.

There are three varieties – Prune, Carrot and Beetroot and they all have loads of flavour. My favourite is the Beetroot one – VITALITY. I’ve had beetroot juice before and it’s tasted too ‘dirty’ to me (if you know what I mean – that kind of, soil-y taste) but this one is really nice.

I love getting extra nutrition easily through a drink – it’s such an easy and quick way to get more vitamins and minerals into our bodies.

All of the Benefit drinks are available at Waitrose.

Hippeas – I have had these organic chickpea puffs before, and now they have a new flavour – Salt and Vinegar Vibes. Hippeas are packed with protein, fibre and only have 90 calories a pack. They’re a really tasty snack and I love that they’re not full of rubbish. They are gluten-free, low in fat, vegan-friendly and contain no additives or preservatives. Ava likes them too and I’m happy for her to have them sometimes. I feel so much better about eating these then a regular pack of unhealthy crisps.

Are there any snacks that you really enjoy that are on the healthier side? I’d love to hear them in the comments!

I was sent some of these products to try, but all words and opinions are my own. See my full disclosure policy here.

3 responses to “The Healthy List – Healthy Snacks”

  1. Iris Tilley says:

    I’ve yet to try Doisy n Dam Chocolate Maybe I should make that my new years resolution lol

  2. M. Roberts says:

    Reading Louise’s blogs can make you quite hungry Lol. Louise has an analytical approach and demonstrates a zeal for each topic she writes about. Her informative style makes birdsandlillies.com a site worth bookmarking for your next coffee break! Good work. Next blog pls! 🙂

  3. Great to see some healthy snack list, do they also help in keeping the teeth healthy.

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