I know quite a few people who can calmly eat their way through a wheel of bree cheese and a packet of crackers most afternoons and then complain because their jeans are getting too big. However I know even more people who only need to catch a whiff of a salt and vinegar chip and they instantly gain 2 kilos. I sit firmly in the second camp and have had to develop a few safe alternative snacks for when I get a little munchy. Which, let’s face it, is every day, but I can’t be chowing down bricks of cheese and chocolate milkshakes every afternoon (and niether should anyone for that matter) so here are a few vegetable based alternatives to keep your naughty snacking under control. 

When you feel like crackers and dip reach for…

Vegetable Sticks and Tzatziki Dip 

Slice up some carrots, capsicum (yellow, green and red), cucumber and celery and dip into low fat cottage cheese or tzatziki dip. The perfect substitute to salty crackers and fatty dips. 

When you feel like potato chips reach for…

Kale Chips

They are dead easy to make. Grab a bunch of kale and tear the leaves away from the stalk. Lay them out in a single layer on a baking paper lined tray. Spray lightly with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Bake in a 150C oven for about ten minutes until it goes shrivelled and cripsy. An AMAZING alternative to fatty and calorie laden potato chips and virtually guilt free! 

When you feel like something sweet reach for…

A Chocolate Kale Shake

Okay I know this is a really weird one but trust me, it’s awesome. I travel a lot and sometimes I get so desperate for greens that I do really weird things. I invented the Chocolate Kale Shake in New York last year when we were stuck inside during the hurricane and I was desperate to eat something fresh and eating a plain bunch of kale wasn’t terribly appealing. All you need to do is just grab a handful of kale, a cup of cold milk, a handful of ice and a few teaspoons of sugar free drinking chocolate (the one pictured above is available in most supermarkets) or low carb protein powder and blend that baby. Seriously. Blend it really hard. If you blend it well, you won’t even notice the kale and if you don’t… it will be a little more of a Chunky Chewy Kale Shake. Also I don’t recommend having too many ‘sugar free’ products but some times you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

When you feel like cheese and crackers reach for…

Cucumber and Cheese ‘Crackers’

These are an absolute lifesaver. I work in a creative industry where a lot of meetings are done over cheese and wine. Solution? Take a few cucumbers, slice them up into ‘crackers’ and top them with low fat swiss cheese and cottage cheese. These are also awesome for girly drinking nights – they have way less calories compared to full fat crackers and cheese. Calories that can be better spent on wine. Obviously.

When you feel like a juice bar smoothie reach for…

Vegetable Juice

I have a juicer so if I’m craving a juice bar smoothie I’ll make an ice cold carrot, ginger, beetroot, apple and lime juice. Delish! But if you don’t have a juicer lots of juice bars will make a custom blend for you. Just avoid too much fruit (a good ratio is 70% vegetable juice to 30% fruit juice) and all that junky stuff like sorbet and ice cream. At a pinch you can buy pre-packaged juice but just read the labels for added nasty things like preservatives.

Oh and if you love food inspiration make sure you like Smaggle on Facebook and follow on Instagram (smaggle). I’m a bit of a salad and vegetable queen so there’s always a bit of food porn happening over there. 

Oh and one more thing…

It’s not the greatest idea to store your kale chips in plastic zip lock bags. For fairly obvious reasons.