Hey gorgeous! So you’ve taken our ‘What’s in your pantry?’ quiz and learned a little bit on how to clear the clutter in your cupboards, and now you are here wondering why you just threw out a bunch of food (well, we’re not too sure we would actually call it food per se). You might be looking around thinking to yourself, what the heck can I snack on? Precisely why this two-part post is here, so we can let you know how to purge, and how to restock for healthier eating habits.

Here is our list of must-haves for ultimate Healthy Snacking:

Stock These Snacks

Trail Mix: Which we highly recommend making it yourself. Store bought trail mix is high in sodium and preservatives. In addition, sugar and oil are often added to the dried fruit. You can avoid that by making your own which is beyond simple. You will need:

• A bag of raw mixed nuts
• Dark Chocolate Chips
• Unsweetened or toasted coconut
• Dried cranberries, raisins, goji berries (if sweetened make sure its sweetened with apple juice instead of sugar)

Make sure there is mostly nuts and then the add in’s are in a smaller ratio to the nuts. You don’t want this snack turning into a dessert, you want something that is tasty, sweet and salty but within the right combination. A handful of this mix is the perfect snack for your afternoon slump.

Hummus and Crackers: With store bought, you’re inviting preservatives and spices that contain MSG, so if you choose store bought make sure all the ingredients are clean. Fountain Sante is one of the best hummus brands you can buy, with the least amount of additives. The ingredients should be simple: chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, lemon and garlic. If you can’t find this hummus specifically, then try to find something that’s similar. It’s also super easy to make your own. Chickpeas are high in fiber (which helps with weight loss), protein and iron which makes them a wonderful snack for satisfying hunger and maintaining energy. Pair this with gluten free or whole grain crackers or top it on a cucumber or tomatoes to add some lovely veggies to your snack.

Home Made Granola: Oh-my-gosh the snacking possibilities are endless with this one. We love snacking on granola! We love it so much that we could probably fill our website with so many different granola recipes from granola bars to granola bites. You will be seeing a few of them very soon. If you can avoid buying store bought granola, that’s great. Why? Because even the best granola brands pack a serious amount of sugar in their products. Home made granola is honestly one of the most underrated healthy snacks. You get to decide what you put in it from mineral rich pumpkin seeds, to antioxidant potent goji berries, you can jam pack your granola with so many different things to suit your needs. Toasted coconut, cinnamon, whole grains, nuts and seeds, and then not to mention how high in fiber an oat base is; Drizzle some maple syrup and coconut oil on and bake…and that’s all it takes! Put your granola in a bowl with almond milk, on top of full fat Greek yogurt and some fresh fruit. We really can’t contain our excitement for granola. Really.

Fair trade, organic dark chocolate bar: This one is simple, you can definitely buy this from a store. Make sure you are buying organic and fair trade with at least 70% cacao. Good quality chocolate will never have sugar as the first ingredient so make sure to check. We love Camino Dark Chocolate Peppermint or Zazubean Raspberry. Dark chocolate is jam packed with minerals and contains reservatrol which is a powerful antioxidant that helps with heart health, not to mention it is so yummy!

Full Fat, Plain Greek Yogurt: This is pretty simple, you don’t need a recipe for full fat yogurt; all you need to know is what you are looking for. It’s important to avoid yogurts that have added sugars (a.k.a. fruit), or zero calories (because they tend to be made with neurotoxic artificial sweeteners). If you are sitting there like ‘gross, you want me to eat plain full fat yogurt?’. Not exactly. How about adding your own sweetener like some raw honey? Your own fruit? And oh my, maybe even your own granola? A parfait you say? Why yes, we love a good parfait. Just watch how much sugar you are adding.

Apple and Nut Butter: One of our favourite snacks for satisfying hunger. Nuts are an amazing snack for adding protein, balancing blood sugars and keeping your hunger satisfied in between meals. Over here we love a good organic peanut butter (on most things). Some may tell you to stay away from peanut butter, but here in the Naughty Kitchen we find it much cheaper and tastier then other nut butters. But really, just go ahead and use your nut butter of choice (almond, hazelnut, cashew…etc.); just make sure the ingredients are 100% nuts – no oils or added sugar…. just nuts. You can even make your own. So grab some nut butter, an apple and a butter knife. This is a super portable, on-the-go snack that you can literally eat anywhere. Apples are an amazing high fiber, low sugar fruit that help with weight loss and curbing appetite. You have your sweet and salty all in one go and you don’t even need to reach for processed or refined sugars.

These wonderful snack ideas will get you started on a healthier path. We hope we didn’t really take the fun out of snacking. For more inspiration, you can check out our yummy recipes here.

What other must-have pantry essentials are stocked in your cupboards?