February Pin It/Do It - Pin #9: 100 Calorie Snacks

Healthy eating has become routine at our house in the last year.  Now I have been asked to create and run a fitness program at work, so I'm searching for ideas to encourage healthy eating among my co-workers.  That search led me to a Pin of an article called Make Your Own 100-Calorie Snacks on Budget101.com.  

Here are the top 5 reasons to package your own snacks:

#5. It saves money.  Pre-packaged snacks are expensive.  By packing your own, you can take advantage of savings on economy sizes without the risk of products becoming stale because the package didn't get re-closed tightly after each use. Which ties into #4 - 

#4. It cuts down on waste.  If a bag of pretzels is evenly portioned into ten single-serve bags, you never end up with a few left in the bottom that aren't enough for a portion so they just sit there till they're stale and get thrown out. (Which takes us back to #5 - saves money)

#3. You can customize the portion size to your diet or your family.  If you need/want more than 100 calories in each portion - just package it that way.

#2. Convenience - Individual packs are easy for kids to grab after school or, for me, to pack in my lunch.

And the #1 benefit is:  Individual snack packs reduce the chances of over-indulging.  If I'm having a craving for chips and try to eat a "serving" straight from the bag, chances are I'm going to go beyond what I should have.  Even if I put the chips into a bowl, I'm likely to grab a larger portion than I really need to fill the craving.  And it ends "grazing" - standing in front of the refrigerator, snacking on a half a slice of cheese, a couple grapes, a bite of leftover turkey . . . while trying to decide what I really want.  If the snacks are stacked and waiting in pre-approved sizes, it's easy to choose and get no more than I need.

To teach this frugal, healthy habit to my co-workers, I prepackaged 100 snacks (ranging form 80-125 calories) and stocked the break rooms.  The were a hit!  Some people just appreciated free food, but many asked questions and expressed surprise at some of the serving sizes.  I packaged mostly low-fat, low-calorie options, but threw in a few - like Pepperidge Farms S'mores Goldfish - that illustrated an option for curbing a sweet/chocolate craving without blowing the daily calorie bank.  

Some of my 100-calorie Snack Packs:  Pretzels, Honey Wheat Pretzel Twists, Goldfish crackers, sugar-free angel food cake, turkey lunch meat and string cheese, beef jerky, mandarin oranges, apples and peanut butter, chocolate parfaits  . . . get more ideas on Budget101.com

I will admit it was time consuming to count out serving sizes.   When I do it for my own use I will probably count out the first serving of 40 goldfish into a measuring cup, then approximate the rest.  Since I was doing this for work, I wanted them to be exact, so I counted every fish.

I think the benefits of packaging my own snacks make it worth the effort, but a word of warning:  Eating all the broken crackers, chipped vanilla wafers, and crumbs of beef jerky while packaging is counter-productive.

Happy Trails . . .

Dave and I recently visited Indian Cave State Park.  Located less than 20 miles from our house, we drove by the sign for a year-and-a-half and repeatedly said "We should go there."   After looking it up on-line and seeing the beautiful hiking trails, we finally took the plunge a couple weeks ago.  Since this is as close as we're getting to a vacation this summer, here is the obligatory slide show.  I've kept the pics relatively small to keep this as short as possible, but click to enlarge anything you would like to see more clearly. (Preferrably NOT the pic of me dripping sweat.)

Start of the trail.  After a mile or so of this view I began to have Hunger Games visions.  I swear I heard a Mockingjay.

Ran across this about a half-mile in.  Sad that it ever existed.

Sadder still - this is the only headstone we could find.  Wonder how many graves were never marked.

Our first glimpse of the Missouri River.  

The talking tree from Disney's Pocahontas?

The Missouri River Valley from the top of the trail.

Here we are at the log cabin at the end of the trail - sweaty and red-faced, but proud we made it all the way.  And yes, we're aware it looks like there's a ghost standing behind me.  "Mysterious and spooky...all together ooky."

Tip for future hikes:  Some husbands find it annoying if you sing old Girl Scout songs as you go . . . "Val-da-ri, Val-da-ra.  My knapsack on my back."  Or maybe it was just my singing that he found annoying.

We parked near here so decided to explore a little before leaving.

There are only two buildings left in St. Deroin - this one, now used for candle-making demonstrations . . .

. . . and the schoolhouse.

"Lassie, run tell Mom I've fallen down the well."

One-lane road that leads to/from hiking trails we visited.

Now that's what I call determination!

The Indian Cave for which the park is named - awesome!

One of the hieroglyphs discovered at the cave - related to Lewis and Clark's boat that traveled this area and traded with local Native Americans in 1804?

Dave, wondering about the height of the hieroglyph carver . . . ?

One of Dave's biggest pet-peeves:  littering.   This spot is too beautiful to be marred by  thoughtless people and their food-wrappers, so he climbed over the fence to fill his pockets with scattered trash . . .

. . . and deposited it in it's rightful place.

The Missouri River from ground level.
 A year ago,  this area was under 20 ft. of flood waters

While I have spent many of my adult years in Nebraska, my heart still belongs to Kansas, so I had to catch a shot of the sunflowers along the banks of the Missouri.

Our plan is to hike all eleven trails within Indian Cave State Park - ranging in length from 1/2 mile to 6 miles. Two down, nine to go.  There's even talk of hiking in and camping overnight - but no one believes I'll actually do it.  Ahh... a challenge!