5 Low-Calorie Snack Ideas for Lockdown
With over 50 days in lockdown, you find yourself getting used to a new set of habits: a work from home set-up, a grocery shopping routine turned into a walking exercise and the pleasure of preparing your own meals. In fact, you probably cooked more meals yourself the last 50 days compared to the last 5 years.
And with time needed for commuting to work, socializing with friends, shopping in malls significantly reduced – lockdown presents quite a hefty amount of time, a luxury that most of us never had so much of before.
More Time for Snacking
While Spidey believes that greater power comes with greater responsibility, the COVID19 situation shows that more time on your hands means more time to snack.
Snacking is one way of coping with stress. Having the chance to track my own Stress Scores every day, credits to the Healthzilla fingertip stress scan (download here in case you haven’t) – I do find myself in situations where my data shows my body is hurting and therefore I’m proactively able to prevent things from worsening by getting more rest.
Snacking is also a popular lockdown habit, as seen with the waves of banana breads, cookies, and baked goods we see prepared and shared over Social Media leaving us wanting to whip our own versions. Why not? We’ve got the time!
And to a vast majority, the lockdown situation has clearly reshaped Netflix & Chill to Netflix & Refill. Yes – you cannot Not Have snacks and treats as you binge on all these new series that everyone seems to be raving about.
Habit of Responsible Snacking
There is no problem with snacking – except the type of snacks we’ve gotten used to in the past may be more indulgent and higher in calories yet quicker to burn given the ability to shred ‘em over public transit commutes or gyms.
Not to mention, the frequency of snacking. In a pre-lockdown situation in bustling countries in Asia like Thailand or Indonesia – societies snack at least 7 times a day, on top of the standard breakfast, lunch, and dinner meals. Now if we’re stuck home with grocery and food delivery services at our fingertips, it won’t be a surprise if these have significantly gone up.
If we then start to imagine a post-lockdown society, we might find ourselves amongst the millions of people rushing back to fitness facilities playing catch-up.
Low Calorie Snacking: One Bite at a Time
Good news – it’s not too late! In fact, lockdown or not – these Low Calorie Snack Ideas could be something you can sustain as part of new snacking habits.
As it would be impossible to stop your snacking habits entirely and even tougher to change the current lockdown realities of increased time for bingeing, what we can start with is understanding and assessing what type of snacks get into these snacking occasions.
Don’t get it wrong: it’s not necessarily a 1:1 replacement, as they may not be at par with your indulgent expectations. But if you’re able to replace at least a third of your current snack repertoire inspired by these ideas, then the job is complete.
In fact, the real win begins when you start being conscious of the choices you make and you start getting creative with what Low Cal options get into your snacking menu!
So what’s on the Snack Menu?
1. Blueberry Jam on Silken Tofu
Calories: 290 kcal
Indulgence Rating: 3 Spoons
What You Need:
200g Blueberries (fresh or frozen)
1 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 300g pack of Silken Tofu
3 Easy Steps:
1- Cook the blueberries in a pan over gentle heat until they soften for 10-15 minutes
2- Add 1tbsp of lemon juice
3- Cool and serve on top of chilled Silken Tofu
2. Fresh Fruit Agar Jelly
Calories: 184 kcal
Indulgence Rating: 4 Spoons
What You Need:
300g fresh pineapple
1 litre of Water
1 10g pack of Agar Jelly Powder
3 Easy Steps:
1- Cut the pineapples into cubes and cook half of them (150g) in a pan over gentle heat until the juice starts to caramelize for 15 minutes. No additional sugar needed!
2- Add 1 lire of water and the jelly powder, mix in until crystals dissolve. Bring to a boil.
3- In a container with the rest of freshly cut pineapples, pour the mixture and cool in the refrigerator for about 2 hours, until firmly formed.
3. Spiced Roasted Pumpkins
Calories: 198 kcal
Indulgence Rating: 4 Spoons
What You Need:
500g pumpkin
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp brown sugar
3 Easy Steps:
1- Preheat oven at 200C (400F) as you prepare the pumpkin and slice them to 1-inch wedges.
2- Place the pumpkin on baking sheet, and season with cinnamon and sugar. No oil needed as we want to save on calories. Alternates to cinnamon would be clove or nutmeg, or level up to a savoury version with rosemary or thyme.
3- Roast for 15-20 minutes, which varies on the thickness of the pumpkin. Serve hot. Surprisingly good also when chilled in the fridge.
4. Baked Sweet Potato Crisps
Calories: 377 kcal
Indulgence Rating: 4 Spoons
What You Need:
300g Sweet Potato
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
3 Easy Steps:
1- Preheat oven at 180C (350F) as you slice the sweet potatoes thinly.
2- In a bowl, toss the slices in olive oil and salt, and line them on a baking tray with greaseproof paper, arranged so they are not layered on top of one another. Feel free to pepper with black or cayenne, as you desire.
3- Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until they’re crispy. Baking time varies on thickness and type of oven so keep a close eye on these goodies. Serve hot!
5. Low Calorie Fruitcake
Calories: 430kcal a slice, 2151 kcal for whole loaf
Indulgence Rating: 5 Spoons
What You Need:
1 tea bag
300ml water
100g mixed fruit/ raisins
50g walnut
100g brown sugar
2 medium eggs
225 flour
1tsp baking powder
2 tsp mixed spice
4 Easy Steps:
1- Prepare the ingredients by placing the tea bag in 300ml water for 5 mins, then add the fruits in and soak for 3 hours.
2- Preheat the oven at 180C (350F) and cut the baking paper to fit your baking tray.
3- In a bowl, add sugar and eggs, then pour in the soaked fruit mixture. Add in the flour, baking powder, chopped walnuts and mixed spice. Mix em well!
4- Spoon into the tray and bake for 45-50 minutes or until firm. Serve warm or chilled!
Live, Laugh and Snack Wisely!
While they all sound so delightfully satisfying, try not to get overly excited snacking on them all in one day. As the wise Healthzilla would always encourage, it be smart and clever to take things in moderation. It’s all about balance!
Personally, given the lockdown uncertainties at the moment – my wellness goal is just to maintain staying fit and healthy. Like I’d be happy not to gain a pound and be extremely grateful not to be down with flu! And with an average weekly snooze score of 7 hours a day, getting the sufficient amount of calories to function and achieve my 10k daily steps- and still get the chance to snack on these Low Cal favourites, it’s a new lifestyle I could comfortably get used to!
Which of these Low Cal Snack Ideas would you dig in first?