Healthy-snacks you probably already have at home

Sometimes I just don’t have the motivation I need to get me to exercise, but today, talking at work, I was inspired by another’s enthusiasm! Yes, I’ve said it before – it is much easier to keep exercising if you have a community, friend or another person who gets into it as well.

So, this evening, I came home after work, took Chewie for a walk and went for a run myself. Just a small run, but I didn’t stop the whole 1-1/2 miles, which is fine by me, since I don’t run as much these days (maybe once a week now).

But this post is more about my POST-run. Yes, I did have a pre-run energy supplement, but after getting back I spotted an apple I had in my fruit bowl. Here’s a tip you probably already know, but always helps to be reminded…keep healthy snacks, like fruit and veggies, in plain eyesight. That makes it easier to grab, so you don’t make a poor choice instead.

What a “decadent” snack! 😉

I saw the red apple and remembered seeing an “apple-sandwich” on some healthy recipe site. The thing I never tried was cutting the apple in perfectly round slices instead of wedging and coring it. I never did that before because I always thought the core was hard and nasty and filled with apple seeds. But strangely enough, when I sliced it in the round, I took the knife, flicked out maybe 4 halves of seeds and it was all apple. Then, I simply layered natural peanut butter (or almond butter if you have it), and to make it look more appealing, placed a cherry on top!

Minus the cherry for show, that’s only 2 ingredients: an apple and about 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, both of which I already had at home.

And I’m telling you… this was not only delish, but fun to eat in this new way. [Again…simple things make me happy.]  

My usual go-to after exercise, is a banana or apple. They are so easy to transport and come in their own package, so even if you don’t have time to prep, these are great.

Do you like my masculine cutting board?!

Then, I realized I only used one cherry out of an entire bag and didn’t want them to go bad. So, I pulled out this new gizmo (which I thought was one of those stupid as-seen-on-TV gadgets that would sit in my cabinet, unused for the rest of my life. But I was wrong!).

This thing takes only 6 cherries at a time and pits them for you. (Or would that be de-pits them?). Anyway, it seems like a lot of work for a little bit, but in under 10 minutes I washed the cherries, pulled off the stems, pitted them with this crazy contraption and had that machine washed. And I had 3+ snack bags full of cherries that I don’t have to spit those nasty pits into the garbage can. If you ask me, THAT is the hassle with cherries.

So, it does pay off taking a few minutes to prep healthy food so that you have a few snacks or meals at once, instead of just one.

Yum!