Sensible satisfying snacks

I love to snack. I need to snack. I'm not a carrots or apple kind of snacker either, so now that I am trying to be all low-fat, low-carb its making it pretty hard to find satisfying snacks. 

These two have really hit the spot though. The first one is fat free cottage cheese mixed up with my spicy seed mix, scooped up with crunchy veggie sticks. Totally addictive and you don't feel like your compromising at all. 

The second is for my sweet tooth moments; which is fat-free yogurt with vanilla and almond essence, ground almonds and my artificial sweetening of choice. I sometimes even grate in some candarel chocolate to give it a chocolaty boost, but try not to do this too often.

Both are perfect to have pre-made in the fridge, so that when the snack attack comes around, it's an easy fix rather than chips or biscuits. 

One doesn't really need a recipe for these since they are so nice to mix and match and improvise with; and can be made to suit your needs best. But if you need a guide line to get started, or a plan to get your housekeeper to make them and leave them in the fridge for you, here goes:

Cottage cheese dips with veggie sticks

½ cup of mixed seeds

½ tsp of sesame oil

¼ tsp of salt (or to taste)

¼ tsp of cumin

¼ tsp of garam marsala

¼ tsp of turmeric

A pinch of smoked paprika

A pinch of chilli powder

250g tub of fat free chunky cottage cheese 

Extra salt to taste

Cucumber, carrots and peppers

In small pan on medium heat start to fry the seeds with sesame oil and spices until the seeds start to roast and make popping sounds.

Once the seeds have cooled combine them in a larger tupperware with the cottage cheese and extra salt to taste.

Cut up the veggies into sticks about 5 – 8 cm long and about 2 cm wide. Keeping them wide makes it easier to scoop up the crumbly cottage cheese. Store in a tupperware in the fridge.

Vanilla almond yogurt

2 cups of fat free plain yogurt

½ cup of ground almonds

½ tsp of vanilla essence

¼ tsp of almond essence (or less if you’re not crazy about the taste of marzipan)

Sweetener of choice (I like to use my home made xylitol stevia blend)

Combine all of the above. Add as much sweetness as you like. Store in a sealed Tupperware in the fridge.

I sometimes add grated candarel chocolate which adds that extra bit of almost guilt free decadence.