Being hangry (a.k.a hungry + angry) sucks, especially when it’s mid-afternoon at work.

Unless you straight up just don’t think about food in the afternoon like the rest of us, then you may be one of two types of snackers:

1. You find yourself spending money at the café, convenience store, or vending machine buying a snack just to satisfy your hunger pangs, low-energy, and cravings.

2. You wait until you get home from work and boom! You head straight to the kitchen cupboard to munch on those crackers and snack chips, while you make dinner. Oh wait, now the box is finished and it’s not dinner time yet.

What’s the problem with these two types of snacking styles?

Well, apart from paying a higher premium in hard-earned cash (or card) to the vending machine or café instead of buying it from the grocery store and packing it in your lunch bag (can you tell I like to be money efficient?!), the snacks we end up eating may not be the most nutritious option, high in sugar /salt / trans fats, imbalanced in macronutrients (we’ll explain in a sec), and only provide short-term satisfaction but still leave us feeling hungry and low in energy.

It’s understandable. Packing a plain old apple for a snack lacks appeal and excitement, especially if you have kids that keep bringing the same apple home every day after school.

You may have found exciting snack recipes on Pinterest, like chocolate energy balls and protein bars but they require too much time, effort, ingredients, and dishes during your weekend. Although it’s easier to buy from the café or pack granola bars in your children’s lunch bags, they’re still not the best snack option.

Rewind back to where we mentioned that your snack might not be balanced in macronutrients. Our bodies require three macronutrients, which are protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Combining all three macronutrients at each meal can help to provide our body with the proper nutrients and minerals, fuel us with energy, and make us fuller for a longer period of time.

Most of the ready-made snacks that we purchase from vending machines or grocery stores are very high in carbohydrates but lack healthy fat or protein. They also contain some unrecognizable ingredients that are problematic for maintaining a healthy weight, since our body doesn’t recognize them and can’t break them down for energy, thus storing it as fat cells.

Carbohydrates convert to sugar in the blood so these types of snacks can cause our blood sugar levels to increase very quickly but due to the lack of fibre, fat, and protein, our energy levels also decrease just as quick, leaving us to feel lethargic and hungry again shortly thereafter.

For example, let’s look at the ingredients in a store-bought fruit and nut granola bar:

Whole Grain Oats, Corn Syrup, Semisweet Chocolate Chunks (sugar, chocolate liquor, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural flavor), Roasted Peanuts, Raisins, Rice Flour, Sugar, Vegetable Glycerin, Canola Oil, Fructose, Corn Starch, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Barley Malt Extract, Baking Soda, Natural Flavor, Mixed Tocopherols Added to Retain Freshness.

These are not high-quality ingredients, nor do they contain the most nutrients for our bodies like healthy fats or protein. There are seven types of sugar highlighted just to make one granola bar! That’s in addition to the carbohydrates from the first ingredient, which is oats.

How can you pack healthy snacks that are quick AND still taste good?

It will take an additional 10 minutes of your day to make healthier, more nutritious (and cost-efficient) snacks at home but that's the beauty of it! It will literally take less than 10 minutes of time, plus five seconds to put it into your lunch bag! There’s no exaggeration here. It’ll take even less time if you batch prep your snacks at one time for the next several days!

Whether it’s first thing in the morning or in the evening while making dinner, plan ahead and create your snack. The objective is to create a balanced snack made from real, whole foods that contains fibrous carbohydrates, healthy fat, and protein.

If this sounds complicated or overwhelming and you don’t know where to start or what to make, then I completely understand.

Most of us feel challenged with time management or putting others needs above our own (and neglecting ourselves) but ask yourself, who’s going to take care of you and your health if you don't prioritize it? It’s uncomfortable for us to change and improve our current routine but in order to grow as stronger and healthier individuals, we must challenge ourselves, put ourselves first, and create positive habits.

So how do I help you get there? With our free recipe book of healthier and happier snack ideas!

Download our 12 Healthy (and Happier) Snack Recipes in Under 10 Minutes. Below is a free recipe book for you, available as an instant PDF download,

no sign-up required. Click HERE to download.

Better yet, these recipes are also kid-friendly so you can double, triple, or quadruple for the whole family.

The recipes are simple in ingredients and made from natural foods. Bonus points because they take less than 10 minutes to make and taste good. Raise your hand if you love sugar, just like me. The afternoon snacks that I have typically include some type of fresh fruit as a natural source of sweetness.

Instead of reaching for a granola bar or candy during snack time, try one of these snack recipes, which combines fruits or vegetables with healthy fat and protein sources (like hemp seeds, chia seeds, nuts, or plain Greek yogurt).

Happy snacking!