Snack ideas

We all want to snack on something through out the day.  It is even recommended for woman who are pregnant to eat portioned meals and snack through the the day.  The problem is there are more ready available unhealthy choices out there than there are healthy.  I have some ideas here that could help solve that problem, especially for those on the go and or traveling. 

Road trip, flying somewhere, these ideas could be possible for that too!

Take your favorite yogurt, preferably yogurt without fruit on the bottom (shockingly not as good for you as you would think. Higher in fat and sugar.  Instead just get plain yogurt and add your own fruit, but back to the snack idea).  Put a spoon droplet of yogurt on a sheet of wax paper, put enough droplets as you wish, but space them out.  Put in the freezer until frozen solid.  Bag them up and take them where you wish! 

In some sort of storage container, chop of sticks of celery.  But first, put at the bottom of a container peanut butter.  Then stick the celery in! WOOHOO, good healthy snack on the go.  You can even do this with other fruits and veggies with other things to use for dip. 

Use as many or as few bananas as you would like: I used about three.
1 or 2 lemons
Preheat oven (or toaster oven for small batches) to 175 - 200º F
-Slice bananas in thin slices no larger than 1/4 in.
-Place banana slices on a parchment lined baking sheet as close as possible without touching each other
-Squeeze or brush lemon juice on banana slices and place your baking sheet in the oven
-Bake the bananas for an 1hr - 1hr 45min, depending on your desired consistency
-After removing the bananas from the oven, let the chips cool on the baking sheet- they may be slightly gooey, but as they cool they will harden
For a more standard "banana chip" texture, you can coat the bananas in a sugar syrup (boiled sugar and water) or you can deep fry banana slices, which is another standard method of making banana chips.
*At this temperature the oven will act more as dehydrator than an oven, hence the long baking time. Depending on how thick you slice the bananas and how crispy you want

Baked Zucchini Chips

• 1 zucchini 
• canola cooking spray
• seasoned salt, or other seasoning(s) of your choice

Preheat oven to 225 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or nonstick foil, and spray with canola oil.  Set aside.
Slice zucchini into thin medallions, about the thickness of a quarter.  (You can either use a knife & a very steady hand, or a mandoline slicer.)
Lay out slices on prepared baking sheet, and spray tops lightly with additional cooking spray.  Sprinkle with seasonings of your choice. (A note on seasoning, however - use LESS than what seems appropriate.  These shrink considerably in the oven, and if you use too much it gets very concentrated.  It's better to end up underseasoning and add more later.)
Place in preheated oven and bake 45 minutes.  Rotate baking sheet, and bake an additional 30-50 minutes, until chips are browned and crisped to your liking.  These are best eaten within a couple hours of removing from the oven, as they start to get chewy if left out.  One zucchini makes one serving (1/4 C. - 1/3 C. of chips depending on the size of your squash).