Quick Healthy Snacks Which Will Provide You With All The Essential Nutrients

Snacks or mini meals are a very essential part of a healthy diet as it is not right to keep the body hungry for a very long time. If the body is kept hungry, blood-sugar levels fall. As blood-sugar levels go down, a person becomes even more hungry. This results in the person eating at wrong hours and eating whatever he can lay his hands on. This could lead to weight gain and prove detrimental to the health. So having three large meals with two mini meals or snacks is very essential to keep the body healthy. Here are some items that make for quick healthy snacks consumed directly or their recipes take only a few minutes to prepare.

Easy and Quick Healthy Snacks

Delectable Veg Snacks
Vegetables are full of minerals and vitamins and have very less calories. Vegetable salads make delicious low carb snacks. Here are a few easy healthy snacks recipes made out of vegetables.

• Recipe 1: Take one cup low-fat cottage cheese and add half a teaspoon of lemon pepper to it to make a low calorie dip. Now select any crunchy vegetable like carrots or radish and have it with the dip.
• Recipe 2: Take raw vegetables and add chunks of hard-boiled eggs and tuna to it. Add a low fat salad dressing. Now rap these ingredients in a large leaf of lettuce and one of your quick healthy snacks is ready to serve.
• Recipe 3: Sandwiches can be prepared at home very easily. Take two slices of whole wheat bread and apply butter or low fat cheese on them. Cut vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumber and carrots and place them in between the two slices. Add salt and pepper according to your taste and one of the healthy snacks for weight loss is ready. You may have the sandwich with any sauce.

Other quick healthy snacks may include salads made of vegetables such as mushrooms, green beans, bell peppers, tomatoes,celery, carrots and broccoli with salad dressings like olive oil and rice vinegar. Wraps such as chicken salad wraps, or turkey wraps with healthy portions of veg stuffing make for quick healthy snacks.

Fruitful Delights
Fruits such as raspberries, cranberries, blackberries, strawberries, watermelons, apples, apricots, grapefruit and kiwis are not only high fiber snacks but they have very less calories, too. You can even make easy, quick healthy snacks using these different fruits. Simply thread small chunks of fruits, berries along with cottage cheese onto a wooden skewer and you have a yummy snack to serve. Alternately, you can even make smoothies with fresh fruits or garnish milk and yogurt with sliced bananas or strawberries.

Dry Fruits and Nutties
Dried fruits such as raisins or plums and nuts such as almonds, cashews, walnuts, Brazils and peanuts make for extremely nutritious snacks. They are a rich source of fiber, proteins, mono-unsaturated fats, antioxidants and can be added to any low calorie snacks and meals to lend some extra taste. As they can be eaten raw they naturally fit into the quick healthy snacks list.

Chunky Yogurts
Of all the healthy snacks for kids, frozen yogurts are their favorite. Frozen yogurt contains live yogurt cultures which make them extremely rich in calcium and protein. Plain yogurt made from skimmed milk is a very good option for quick and healthy snacks. Add chunks of fresh fruits or a bit of granola on top and you will have a healthy diet snack ready.

Boiled Egg Quickies
Boiled eggs make a very healthy, high in protein and calcium snack. Here is a boiled egg recipe. Take two hard-boiled eggs and chop them into little pieces. Now add low fat mayonnaise and dill pickle relish to it. Take one whole wheat bread cracker and spread this mixture on it and your high protein snack is ready.

Quick Healthy Snacks to Munch On
Sometimes you may not be hungry but just want to munch on something while watching a movie or while traveling. In such a scenario, always choose dry healthy snacks. Popcorn is a good option. Although, buy only those varieties of popcorn which are butter less and low in sodium. Another option is low carb meal replacement bars. You may also carry baked potato chips or pepperoni chips with you.

These are a few quick healthy snacks for adults as well as children which provide the body with all the essential nutrients and at the same time do not add many calories. A few things should be kept in mind while snacking though. Firstly, keep the portion size small. Secondly, keep the snack ingredients handy so that when you are hungry, you don't have to cook or look for food. Thirdly, if possible, have snacks which have at least one of the essential nutrients, i.e. proteins, carbohydrates or fiber. Also have snacks at least an hour before the meal time so that your food intake does not get hampered. A healthy diet and a positive attitude is after all the recipe for a fit body.