Thursday, May 04, 2006

A Quick Healthy Snack Idea

Lately, I've come to admire the versatility of dates as both a binder and a sweetener in recipes. Here's the nutritional info on them if anyone is curious. Obviously they are high in sugar, hence their ability to be used as a solo sweetener in a recipe. However, they are high in fiber and potassium. They also provide a little calcium as well.

I had used dates before in baking and in granola but my new respect for them really started with the Date Nut Pop'ems from Disease Proof Your Child by Joel Furhman. My kids really loved this recipe, both to eat and to make.

This morning I discovered we didn't really have any appealing snacks for my youngest to take to school. Actually we had no snacks, appealing or otherwise. Sometimes its rough being the last one to leave for school.

Hidden in the back of the fridge was about 1/2 a cup of the Crunchy Buckwheat Cereal that I thought was already finished. Using the same concept as the Date Nut Pop'ems, I added 1 coconut rolled date to the cereal and mashed the two together with my hands. I pinched off small pieces and rolled them into bite size balls. Kyle was out the door in a flash with a fun, healthy snack.

I'm looking forward to finding other fun snack ideas using dates.

2 comments:

Justin said...

I love nut-based "cookies" with dates - there's plenty of good date recipes in raw food cookbooks. Where I buy dates, they come in pieces coated in a little oat flour.

I tried this recipe recently. I'll have to try your granola idea - maybe granola bars?

Katie said...

Hi Justin,
I hadn't even thought about raw cookbooks for recipes. What a great idea!

Up until recently I had always bought the dates you described but lately I've been buying the coconut rolled dates. The pieces are much bigger.