We are learning so much more about what is healthy and what is not, and most people are realizing that processed foods are adding inches to our waistline and encouraging diseases in our body. Making food at home is the best way to enjoy healthy snacks for the whole family, and many snacks only require some ingredients and a blender.

Smoothies Are Not Always Healthy

If you want a snack to satisfy your sweet tooth, you may be tempted to grab a smoothie. There are huge smoothie chains that promote their smoothies as healthy, but even though smoothies are a great snack, making them at home is the best idea. Smoothies you buy from the big chain restaurants could be doing you more harm than good.

For instance, a Jugo Juice’s large Mango Magic Smoothie has about 65g of sugar in it. Sugar is very unhealthy, and this is way too much sugar for anyone at one sitting, young or old. Moreover, these types of fruit smoothies will not curb your appetite and you will end up consuming a ton of calories only to be hungry shortly after.

“Fruit juices and smoothies represent a new risk to our health because of the amount of sugar the apparently healthy drinks contain.” – The Guardian

Making smoothies at home is a great way to get a good snack with a ton of nutrition. For a quick 1-serving recipe base, use 1/2 cup of fruit, such as raspberry, add 1 cup of almond milk, 1 tbsp of chia seeds, a scoop of protein powder, 1 tbsp of almond butter, and add a handful of spinach to your smoothie (you won’t taste this!). Blend it together and enjoy! Change the amounts to suit your taste.

Enjoy Some Real Sweets

Instead of buying a chocolate bar or sweets from the convenience store, make a batch of healthy raw sweets for the week ahead. Raw desserts are often more delicious than their cooked counterparts, and they are healthier.

For instance, if you like fudgesicles, following is a recipe that uses no sugar and adds spinach and avocados (which are often used as the creamy base in raw desserts.)

The following recipe makes 8 fudgescicles.

• 4 Avocados
• 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/3 cup natural almond butter
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup spinach
• 1 banana
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 6 packets of stevia
• 3 tbsp honey
• Dash of salt

Blend all ingredients together and place into fudgesicle or popsicle molds. Freeze overnight and enjoy for the rest of the week.

Satisfy Your Salty Craving

Chips and dip are the most popular snack in America, but they are also one of the unhealthiest snacks. Processed chips and dip are full of fat, salt, and preservatives that add no nutrition to your diet. But, there is a dip that the whole family will like, and you can easily make a huge batch at home to have on hand for whenever a salty craving comes up.

Hummus is made with lentils or chickpeas, and its creamy taste is satisfying to even the pickiest eater. To make a quick chickpea hummus, use a 15-ounce can of chickpeas, 1/4 cup of lemon juice, 1/4 cup of tahini, 1 clove of garlic, 2 tbsp olive oil, dash of salt, and 2 tbsp of water. Blend all ingredients together and enjoy with cut up vegetables. It will keep in the fridge for at least a week.

Hummus can be altered to suit your taste. Add some feta cheese. Put more garlic in. Add some jalapenos to spice it up. Roast some garlic first and add that instead of raw garlic. Let your taste buds and creativity guide you, and you will have a different tasting salty snack every week.