Ideas for Healthy Snacks

• Apples with low fat (or non fat) string cheese

• Carrot sticks and celery sticks (refrigerate in a container with water and they'll stay crisp)

• Celery with a peanut butter and raisins

• Nonfat plain or vanilla yogurt sprinkled with low fat granola or crunchy cereal

• Grapes - try freezing them - like little popsicle bites

• Raw unsalted almonds (you'll get used to them raw -- they're so good and for some reason you won't eat as many as you would if they were salted)

• Bananas (yep, the perfect snack)

• 1/2 whole wheat bagel with almond butter and sliced bananas

• Non-fat cottage cheese with blueberries or strawberries

• Chilled orange wedges

• Rice cake topped with peanut butter and a no-added-sugar, all-fruit spread

• Top 1/2 of a whole wheat English muffin with thinly sliced tomatoes. Spray the top of the tomatoes with a little olive oil non-stick cooking spray, sprinkle with low-fat Parmesan cheese, fresh or powdered garlic, and basil, pop in the toaster oven for a few minutes and voila -- you've got a great bruschetta snack

• Broccoli stalks! Don't throw away the stalks after you've sliced off the heads. Peel the outer layer from the stalks with a small sharp knife and you'll get to the heart of the stalk. You'll realize what you've been missing at first bite!

• Be sure your bread products (English muffins, bagels, sliced bread, etc) are made from whole grains, not just "whole wheat"

By Laura from Long Beach, CA