I love popcorn, but I never really make it or buy it as a snack because I eat too much of it! (Yes, it’s low in calories for a single serving, but one of those microwave bag has three servings, and I usually eat the whole thing…) That’s why I was glad to hear that SmartFood started coming out with single-serving Popcorn Clusters, in three different flavors.

I tried all three flavors: Honey Multigrain, Cranberry Almond, and Chocolate Cookie Caramel Pecan. (I was surprised they don’t have a cheese flavor like the original SmartFood!)

Pros:

• You get a really good amount of popcorn in the bag for so few calories (110 or 120 calories depending on the flavor).
• One bag was surprisingly satisfying, which surprised me. (It takes a lot for me to feel full!). Maybe they were filling due to the fiber; they are made with chicory root fiber. There are 5 grams of fiber in every serving.
• They’re fortified with calcium (around 20% of your daily value in a bag).
• They don’t contain preservatives, artificial colors, or flavors.

Cons:

• All three flavors tasted a little too similar, and they were all were a little too sweet. It made sense for the chocolate one to be sweet, but the other flavors didn’t seem like they needed to be so sugary-tasting (although they weren’t that high in actual grams of sugar; 10 grams per bag). The honey multigrain flavor consisted of popcorn with whole brown rice that I think would have tasted better drier and plain like Kashi puffed cereal. Similarly, I prefer plain popcorn mixed with my own cranberries/almonds to the too-sweet cranberry almond flavor. (But maybe that’s just me; I honestly prefer, simpler, unadulterated (bland?) healthy food sometimes!) The chocolate flavor was definitely my favorite; because it made sense to me to have that one taste so sweet (and I love chocolate…). The popcorn clusters had chocolate cookie pieces, caramel, and pecans, flavors which go together really well. And there aren’t too many ingredients, just brown rice syrup, chicory root fiber, popcorn, sugar, chocolate cookie, pecans, soy lecithin, calcium carbonate, natural flavors, and salt.

Overall: I’d definitely buy the chocolate one again. I loved the chunks of chocolate and nuts on the popcorn! I’ll eat these as an afternoon snack or as a light, guilt-free dessert when my sweet tooth acts up after dinner.

–Lauren

In my post on the health benefit of nuts, I mentioned how the snack-sized bags of nuts you get at a deli always contain around three portions, more than you need. So sometimes I’d by big bags of nuts and divvy them out into single servings in ziplok bags.

Well, I don’t have to waste my time doing that anymore now that I’ve discovered the company Peeled. They make exactly what I’d been looking for—single-serving, one-ounce bags of nuts.

The dry-roasted cashews, cleverly called Cashew Later, have 180 calories, 14 grams of fat (good fat), 4 grams of protein, 120 mg of sodium, and 8 percent of your daily iron. The natural almonds, called Almond-daze, have 170 calories, 16 grams of fat, 6 grams of protein, 230 mg of sodium, 6 percent of your daily iron, and 8 percent of your daily calcium. I love the almonds. The cashews are a bit too salty for my taste, but I do like the dry-roasted flavor. The portion sizes are just right.

Peeled also has single-serving dried fruits. I particularly like the dried bananas (Banan-a-peel), because they’re chewy dried bananas rather than the banana chips you usually find in trail mixes. I don’t like the crunchy, fake taste of banana chips; the Peeled chewy dried bananas taste more like real bananas to me, and are great in a bowl of granola with soy milk or by themselves on the go. (My husband’s first thought was, “Why wouldn’t you just buy real bananas?” Yes, I usually do prefer real bananas, but they get smashed and brown pretty easily and take up a lot of room in your bag; these dried ones are sometimes more convenient to take on-the-go, especially if you’re going hiking, etc.)

I also like Peeled’s dried cherries (Cherry-go-round) and dried apples (Apple-2-the-core). They also make single-serving bags of dried mango and pineapple, which I don’t like as much; they’re a little too chewy. But I’ve never liked those two fruits dried for some reason, only fresh.

To find Peeled snacks near you, check out their store locator.

Enjoy!
Lauren

My husband used to laugh at me for buying healthy cookies. “The whole point of eating cookies is to indulge,” he’d say. “They’re supposed to be rich and buttery.”

Then he tried a Nana’s chocolate chip cookie.

I shouldn’t say he tried one. He ate the whole cookie—my cookie, the one that I was just about to put in my mouth. I wasn’t very pleased.

“I thought you don’t like healthy cookies,” I said.

“These are good!” he replied. “Wow, I can’t believe how healthy these are for you,” he said over and over, reading the back panel.

Yes, they are good for you. The Original Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies (the flavor he was enjoying) have very healthy ingredients, including whole wheat flour, rolled oats, fruit juice, rice dextrin, non-gmo expeller pressed canola oil, chocolate chips, walnuts, non-aluminum baking powder, natural flavoring, and sea salt. And they have a great, chewy, sweet, crumbly, natural flavor and texture. They don’t taste too dry, fake, grainy, or overly sweet, as some healthy cookies do. The one downside is that they’re very caloric (the chocolate-chip ones have 210 calories and 9 grams fat for only half of a cookie), so eat 1/2 a cookie for a light snack, or eat the whole thing when you need a more substantial snack. They do satisfy your hunger, and they come in great flavors besides chocolate chip, such as oatmeal raisin, sunflower (another one of my favorites), peanut butter, cranberry orange, coconut chip, ginger, and double chocolate. They also have wheat-free and gluten-free cookie varieties.

If you’re looking for a lighter snack, Nana’s does make smaller treats—cookie bars and cookie bites that come individually wrapped five in a box (the Chocolate Chippy Bar has 130 calories for whole thing; the Chocolate Chip Bites have 120 calories). These are good for a little dessert but aren’t as filling if you need a substantial snack.

Nana’s also makes special omega-fiber cookie bars; I sometimes eat the apple harvest ones when I need a quick breakfast; they’re surprisingly filling for only 120 calories and 4 grams of fat. And they have a great apple and oat taste. They’re made with a very nutritious fiber mix that includes whole wheat flour, oats, wheat bran, psyllium, flax seed, millet, chicory root, fruit juice, and real dried fruit, no unhealthy oils or artificial flavors.

I do like fattening cookies once in a while, but it’s good to know that I can indulge my cookie craving more often without guilt thanks to Nana’s!

–Lauren

What to Eat to Help You Sleep Better

Bedtime snacks can help you sleep better? Conventional wisdom says you’re not supposed to eat right before you go to bed. That’s supposed to be the worst time to eat, the time it all goes to your waistline.

But lately I’ve been hearing that it can be good to snack before bed, especially if you have insomnia. My cousin tells me that Cream of Wheat before bed helps her child fall asleep. And a Tylenol PM commercial claims that adults should have a bowl of cereal before bed to improve their sleep.

I decided to look into this a bit more, and I found two good articles on the topic. One is a WebMD article that explains why bedtime snacks can indeed help you sleep. It has to do with your metabolic hormones. If you don’t have enough leptin, the hormone that signals satiety, your body could wake you up. However, the article says that you can’t snack on just anything; you have to choose your snacks wisely. Light dairy and carbohydrate-rich snacks are the way to go. The second article I found, from MedicineNet, also talks about the benefits of snacking before bed, but this one gets into more detail about what to eat and what to avoid.

Here’s a brief summary of the best and worst bedtime snacks, based on the two articles.

The Best Bedtime Snacks:

• Carbohydrates, like a bowl of cold cereal, oatmeal with honey, a banana, a granola bar, some whole wheat crackers or pretzels, or a piece of bread or English muffin. If you need something sweeter, try a few low-fat cookies or a small muffin. These carbs produce tryptophan, which helps you sleep. Oats, honey, and bananas were mentioned as being particularly good carbohydrate sources of tryptophan.
• Dairy. Dairy is also a good source of tryptophan, especially with combined with some carbs. Try a small bowl of cereal with skim milk, or small pieces of cheese with crackers. I like eating a little hot cereal, or a few cookies, and/or a small mug of warm skim milk—I steam it, so it’s like the foam of a cappuccino, without the espresso. And I sprinkle a little cinnamon on top.

Avoid These Bedtime Snacks:

• Protein-rich snacks, such as protein bars, protein-enhanced drinks, and meat jerky. Foods high in protein are harder for your body to break down and digest, and they can interfere with your sleep. So I guess that although eating turkey makes you tired (as everyone jokes on Thanksgiving…), it might not be as good for your sleep as non-protein-rich sources of tryptophan, like oats and honey.
• Big portions/full meals. These can cause heartburn, acid reflux, or choking, or just make you feel uncomfortable.
• High fat snacks. Same as above!
• Spicy snacks. Same as above!
• Anything with caffeine, including food and beverages that have small or hidden amounts of it, like decaf coffee and chocolate.
• Anything too sugary, like candy or sugary cereal or cake. The sugar high and low can interfere with your sleep.

Unfortunately, many people are having more trouble sleeping than usual these days, with financial stresses and all. If this is the case for you, don’t force yourself to go to bed hungry just because you think you’re not supposed to eat late. Have a small bedtime snack, and maybe you’ll sleep better! It won’t be that many additional calories, and besides, you can always cut down at a different meal if you want. Just take good care of yourself!

–Lauren

Kellogg’s health-focused Special K brand has been expanding beyond breakfast foods lately. First, they came out with meal bars and protein water. Now, they’re moving into the savory snacks category with the launch of their new crackers, in two varieties, Multi-Grain and Italian Tomato & Herb. I like Special K products (I often eat the plain cereal or the bars), so I was excited to give these crackers a try.

What I Liked About Them

• They’re flavorful. I tried both kinds, the Multi-Grain ones and the Italian Tomato & Herb ones, and I was happy with each of them.
  • The best way to describe the Multi-Grain ones is that they look and taste sort of like Wheat Thins. (My husband tried one and thought the same thing.) They have a wheaty, almost salty flavor; they don’t taste bland and cardboard-like, as some grainy, healthy crackers or flatbreads do.
  • The Italian Tomato & Herb ones have a strong tomato-y flavor, almost in the way Combos pizza bites do, but without all that fat. In other words, they taste like they should be bad for you, but they’re not! (For another opinion, I gave my mom a packet of the Tomato ones, and she agreed that they were flavorful—in fact, she thought the taste was almost too overwhelming, though she liked them. My husband also said they were a tad intense.)

I should mention that the crackers don’t taste anything like Special K cereal, if that’s what you were expecting. They don’t have that rice base the cereal does; they are made with whole wheat flour.

• They come in satisfying 90-calorie packs. Both flavors come in regular 8-oz boxes or 90-calorie packs. I like the packs because you get 17 crackers for 90 calories (and only 2 grams of fat), which is a really decent amount of crackers for such few calories and low fat! My hunger was actually satisfied after I ate one pack. Other brands of portion-controlled or healthy crackers are more caloric. For example, Wheat Thins have100 calories per pack—okay, not that many more calories, but every bit adds up if you’re watching your weight. Kashi’s TLC Fire Roasted Vegetable Crackers are also more caloric, at 15 crackers for 130 calories (though I’m not sure of the cracker size difference). The Special K ones make me happy because I like being able to munch on a larger number of items for fewer calories. Isn’t it disappointing when you buy crackers or chips and you can only eat three or four of them before reaching 100 or 200 calories? I’d usually rather buy food that I can eat more of for fewer calories. Makes munching more fun! Sometimes you want to pop a lot of food into your mouth and keep eating without having to think so hard.

(By the way, this food volume issue is why I also like snacking on natural popcorn, plain Special K cereal, and carrots. You get to eat more of it for fewer calories. If you’re watching your weight, you should consider eating more foods like carrots that are low in calorie density, because you can eat a lot of them and feel satisfied without having to worry as much about portion control.)

What I Didn’t Like About Them

• They do have a fair number of ingredients, so even though they’re low in calories, they’re probably not as good for your body as all-natural or organic crackers like Barbara’s or Annie’s.
• The crackers are small, so they’re good for munching on by the handful, but they’re not really a cheese-and-crackers kind of cracker (cheese wouldn’t fit on them very well, and the taste might not go). This is not a criticism, more of a warning, so you don’t buy them for that purpose. They’re meant to be more of a personal snacking cracker, not an entertaining cracker like Carr’s. But if you really don’t want to eat them plain, they would work well with dipping—the Multi-Grain ones would work nicely in hummus or babaganoush, and the Italian Tomato & Herb ones would probably go with a cheese dip, like Boursin Light Garlic & Herbs.

Overall

I would definitely eat these again. I like them as a late-afternoon snack to tide me over until dinner.

Where to Find Them

Special K crackers are sold in major grocery stores such as Food Emporium and Pathmark. To find where they’re sold near you, go to their store locator and type in your zip code.

Happy munching,

Lauren

Healthy snacks, especially organic ones, are often more expensive than processed snacks and junk food. And I know everyone is trying to save money these days. But hopefully these coupons will be helpful, and you won’t have to give up some of your favorite good-for-you treats.

(Thanks to DailyCandy, the e-mail newsletter I subscribe to, for tipping me off about Coupon Cabin!)

–Lauren

It may not feel like it yet, but this Friday, March 20th is technically the first day of spring. Rita’s Ices is celebrating with an Italian Ice giveaway! Stop by one of their stores from noon until 10 p.m. on Friday and receive a free 10-oz ice. Yum! (Note to all you healthy snackers: Rita’s has seven sugar-free flavors of ice. And the store has other guilt-free treats like Slenderita, fat-free frozen custard.) To find a store near you, go to their Web site and enter your zip code.

-Lauren

PS My favorite flavor of ice is chocolate (big surprise). What’s yours? Vote below! If you pick "other," write a comment and tell me what it is.

Since my craving for brownies strikes pretty regularly, I can’t always satisfy it with a real, delicious, fattening brownie, or I’d surely pack on the pounds. I try to stick with healthier brownies during the week, and then have a more indulgent kind on weekends (and sometimes Thursdays end up counting as part of the weekend!) and special occasions.

Here’s a roundup of four of the healthiest chocolate brownies I’ve tried—a ready-to-eat one, two frozen varieties, and an easy baking mix.

Glenny’s 100-Calorie Brownies

Type: Ready-to-eat 100-calorie brownies.

Quick Facts: One brownie has 100 calories, 4 grams fat, 7 grams of fiber, 4 grams of protein.

Ingredients: Contains mostly organic, recognizable, and natural-sounding ingredients, such as organic cocoa, organic soy flour, organic butter, organic whole eggs, organic milk chocolate chips, and organic evaporated cane juice.

Tastes Like: Slightly drier version of those thin Entenmann’s single fudge brownies.

What I Liked: These are easy to eat on the go. And since one brownie has only 100 calories, you can have one anytime without feeling guilty.

What I Wasn’t Crazy About: They’re kind of thin. I generally like thicker, gooey-er, chunkier brownies. I finished it really quickly and wasn’t fully satisfied. They do taste pretty chocolately, though.

Weight Watchers Smart Ones Brownie à la Mode

Type: Frozen treats.

Quick Facts: One brownie with vanilla ice cream and fudge topping has 200 calories, 4 grams of fat, 3 grams of dietary fiber, and 5 grams of protein.

Ingredients: These contain the longest ingredients list of any brownie on my list. The ingredients include artificial flavor and color. There’s not much real cocoa listed other than some cocoa powder. Then again, it’s not really a fair comparison since these have the ice cream and fudgey sauce that the others don’t. On the plus side, the flour is enriched with minerals, so you get some health benefits.

Tastes Like: Chocolate cake with frozen creamy white stuff on top (good but not really an ice cream taste). The chocolate part tastes more like cake than a brownie to me.

What I Liked: I like that you can microwave these and make them warm (don’t put them on for too long—you don’t want the ice cream to melt too much). But they don’t really taste like brownies, so they don’t really satisfy the brownie craving; they satisfy the cake craving, which is different! And if we’re going in that cake direction, I prefer the Smart Ones Double Fudge Cake.

What I Wasn’t Crazy About: There are two single-serve brownies in the box, and sometimes I’m tempted to eat both! If you have a box of 10 goodies, you know you can’t eat them all, but when there are only two, you’re more tempted…

Vitalicious Deep & Velvety Chocolate VitaBrownie

Type: Frozen treats.

Quick Facts: One brownie has 100 calories, 2 grams of fat, 6 grams of dietary fiber, and 4 grams of protein.

Ingredients: These include a lot of real ingredients such as whole wheat flour, egg whites, cocoa, organic evaporated cane juice, real chocolate chips, and walnuts. Bonus: there are lots of added vitamins and minerals. But note that these include maltitol, which has a laxatative effect on some people.

Tastes Like:  These remind me of the Smart Ones in that they are a bit more cake-like than brownie-like (not very fudgey or gooey). My friend thinks they taste a little cornbready.

What I Liked: These make a pretty satisfying snack–one fills me up more than a Glenny’s. And it has tons of vitamins!

What I Wasn’t Crazy About: These are a little grainy tasting and not super-chocolately. They might satisfy your hunger but not your chocolate craving.

No Pudge Fudge Brownies

Type: Baking mix.

Quick Facts: One brownie has 120 calories, 0 grams of fat, 1 gram of dietary fiber, and 2 grams of protein.

Ingredients: These are made with all-natural ingredients such as unbleached wheat flour, pure cane sugar, Dutch cocoas, and egg whites. The only thing you have to add to the baking mix is vanilla yogurt (or plain yogurt and vanilla flavor). SO easy!

Tastes Like: These taste like real brownies! Hooray! They’re gooey and have a similar taste to Betty Crocker or Duncan Hines homemade brownies.

What I Liked: I love that the box includes a recipe for how you can make just a single serving. Not everyone wants a whole tray of brownies to his/herself, and not everyone has chocoholics in the family who’ll want some. If you do want to make these for the family, throw out the box and trick your family into believing they’re Duncan Hines. These are so good that your family might not be able to tell they’re fat free.

What I Wasn’t Crazy About: These do take a bit more work than the frozen or ready-to-eat ones. (But they’re still easy!) Also, even though they’re not bad for you, they don’t have the added vitamins/health benefits that the VitaBrownies do.

The Verdict: I’m not sure I have an absolute favorite; it depends on the situation. When I’m at work and I need an afternoon snack, I reach for the Glenny’s. When I have been eating crappily and I want to be good to my body, I eat the VitaBrownies. When I want something fun and pretty to eat, I dig into a Smart Ones. And when I want something that tastes the most like an actual brownie, I make the No Pudge ones!

–Lauren

I sprinkle these nuts in my cereal, oatmeal, and granola, I use them in homemade trail mixes, and I eat them plain by the handful!

Why I like them:

• The flavor. Most flavored nuts are either too salty (e.g., smokehouse almonds) or too sweet (e.g., honey roasted peanuts). And plain, raw or natural almonds are too bland for some people. But Blue Diamond’s Oven Roasted Almonds with Sea Salt are the perfect happy medium—just the right amount of flavor without all the unhealthy gunk. I love the roasted flavor, the crunch, and the delicious addition of sea salt. (The Oven-Roasted line also comes in No Salt, Vanilla Bean, and Cinnamon Brown Sugar. The No Salt ones are great, too—you still get the roasted flavor, so you don’t really miss the salt. I’ve never tried the vanilla or cinnamon ones.)

• The handy container. The Oven-Roasted varieties all come in special, easy-to-open containers (you twist off the top, which is great—I hate nuts where you pull back the sharp aluminum lid; I’ve cut myself twice that way!). The container also has a cool scale on the side so you can measure 1-oz portions. (Speaking of portion control, Blue Diamond does make whole natural almonds in 100-calorie packs, but the Oven-Roasted flavors only come in the large containers for now.)
• Their versatility. As I mentioned in my intro, I eat these several different ways! I usually eat them with breakfast food or by themselves as a late-morning or afternoon snack. Nuts are a great option for a morning snack because they help give you energy.
• The health benefits. Almonds are a good source of the antioxidant Vitamin E, as well as calcium, magnesium, protein, fiber, and heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.

–Lauren

PS Next up on the blog—a roundup of healthy chocolate brownies, and a review of Special K’s new crackers.

Recipe: Chocolate, Almond, and Sea Salt Crostini

1. Make chocolate crostini according to Amanda Hesser’s recipe (she calls them chocolate sea salt toasts). Here are Hesser’s instructions:
   • Preheat your oven to 350 F.
   • Cut a thin baguette diagonally into ¼ inch wedge slices.
   • Place the slices on a baking sheet and top each one with a thin square of bittersweet chocolate (not more than a mouthful of chocolate on each slice).
   • Place them in the oven, and take them out when the chocolate is melted but still holding its shape.
   • Put them on a platter, and sprinkle them with extra virgin olive oil and fleur de sel or coarse sea salt. (And as Hesser says, don’t add too much oil or salt–do it to taste. The salt is not supposed to make these taste salty; its purpose it to bring out  the taste of the chocolate.)
2. Then, my add-on: top each one off with a small sprinkling of slivered, toasted almonds. I like Blue Diamond slivered almonds. I toast them separately in the toaster oven and then add them on when the chocolate crostini come out of the oven. (If you cook the almonds with the chocolate, they won’t be done when the chocolate is done.).
3. Pass them around and enjoy!

By the way, Oprah’s Magazine has a variation on these crostini, with chocolate, dried cherries, and pistachios. These are also a healthy treat. The pistachios and dried cherries have plenty of nutrients. Use dark chocolate, which is better for you than milk. I also love how colorful these ones are; they make a great presentation.

For more of a splurge…

Try Vosges’s Barcelona Bar and Lake Champlain’s Organic Milk Sea Salt and Almonds Chocolate Bar. These are amazing (and no kitchen work required), but they use “dark milk chocolate” (around 40% cacao), which isn’t as healthy as a dark chocolate (which has a higher percentage of cacao content, usually around 70%). I’m normally not a milk chocolate fan, but the milkier chocolate does work great with the salt and nuts. (Note that there are lots of other chocolate bars out there with almonds in them, but I’m talking specifically about ones with sea salt. These are the only two brands I’ve found with chocolate, almonds, and sea salt–sweet and salty perfection.)

-Lauren