I am a seasonal eater. Winter means soups and chilis to me, summer means salads and banana soft serve. And cherries, and melons, and bananas year round, but in the summer, those bananas are often being turned into banana soft serve.
So here are some of my stock summer snacks for today’s Friday Five from Cynthia from You Signed Up for What?, Courtney from Eat Pray Run DC, and Mar from Mar on the Run.
It’s supposed to be favorites today, food is the first of the month, but my time has been kind of limited lately, but hey, these are favorites so I guess we’re good!
Greek yogurt + nut butter
Healthy chocolate mousse, anyone?
I like to mix greek yogurt with a tablespoon of Barney Butter Almond Butter Cocoa + Coconut (affiliate link). You’ve got some carbs, some protein, some healthy fat.
Banana soft serve + PB2
Another favorite, especially after a run. In this case you get the carbs and protein minus the fat — but you can totally do this with real nut butter too.
Freeze a ripe banana in chunks. Add Chocolate PB2 (affiliate link) — if you’re me, of course, feel free to use regular PB2 or any other brand of powdered nut butter or the real thing. Add a couple of tablespoons of your favorite milk (I like almond or cashew — cashew milk is a bit creamier; coconut milk is even better, but high in fat, although I think they’re healthy fats).
Use a magic bullet, ninja, or blender to make it into a creamy dessert.
Chia Pudding
I don’t often eat this as a snack; usually I eat it for breakfast topped with a banana and a little nut butter, like I did this morning. It makes a great dessert, too. And the chia seeds help to keep you full.
I’m still loving this recipe from the Summer Sweat Series.
You can find lots more chia pudding recipes on my Chia Pudding Pinterest board. You follow me, right? Love Pinterest.
Chocolate rice cake + nut butter
I have never been a huge fan of rice cakes, although there was a time I ate a lot of them. That is, of course, until I discovered chocolate topped rice cakes (affiliate link). And added a little nut butter.
I love these as a snack pre/post run!
Turkey stick + Hummus chips
I’m really not into Weight Watchers products, but I do love their hummus chips. I haven’t tried another brand yet, but they actually taste like potato chips to me, and I need that salt after summer runs sometimes. They’re good on their own after a short run.
I like to pair them with Vermont Honey Mustard Turkey Sticks (affiliate link) for a little more protein after longer runs. I’ve only tried the Honey Mustard and Pepperoni flavors so far, since I like a little spice, but not a lot.
Talk to me. Leave a comment or answer a question:
What’s your favorite summer snack?
What’s your favorite winter snack?
What post run treats get you through long runs?
That Chai pudding sounds delicious. That’d be perfect to make in my vitamix.
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Actually, you don’t need a mixer for the chia pudding. You just whisk it by hand. And then let it sit in the fridge to thicken up.
It’s really, really good!
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I never thought about mixing greek yogurt with peanut butter hmmm
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I highly recommend it. I do also mix it with protein powder, or PB2. Sometimes I mix together PB2 & protein powder (chocolate, of course) and drizzle that over it. Greek yogurt is so versatile. 🙂
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I’ve been eating ALL THE CHERRIES right now. It seems like a serving size equates a 1-lb bag for me right now. I’m totally okay with that, ha!
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Cherries are definitely one of my favorite fruits, and I don’t care that they’re so damn expensive!
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I’m the same way, and I love light dishes in the summer. I tend to drink more white wine in the summer since the dishes aren’t as heavy in the winter. I even have my recipe binder separated into summer recipes and winter recipes.
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Recipe binder? Too organized for me!
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I need to make this banana soft serve everybody’s talking about.
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Oh yes, you really do! It ain’t ice cream, but it’s still damn good.
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I still don’t have Pinterest, I can’t believe it! I’ve been meaning to, but then as soon as that thought enters my head, it leaves. Go figure! But I am going to have to try the Chia pudding. I’ve recently been adding Chia seeds to my oatmeal, along with flax seeds, so loving them! 😀
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I have made the chia pudding a few times already. It’s good as breakfast, snack, or dessert!
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I usually cut up fruit and add a yogurt to it. I like banana soft serve too !
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Who doesn’t like banana soft serve?
Somehow I like my fruit and yogurt separately. Although sometimes I do put blueberries in it.
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I like PB with ice cream… I bet with the greek yogurt it is a good as well. Lately I’ve been loving berries, topped with vanilla yogurt and some almonds.
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The berries have been really good this summer! I have a few strawberries with a lot of my breakfasts.
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I’ll have to try the chia pudding sometime. Is it anything like tapioca pudding?
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It’s somewhat similar to tapioca, although oddly enough, I don’t like tapioca pudding.
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So I’m new to this- how does one make banana soft serve? I’ve had it at a party, but no clue how to make it!
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All you do is freeze take a ripe banana out of its peel, break it into chunks, and then put it in a blender or food processor — I like to add a little milk, I use almond milk — and process it until it’s smooth like ice cream.
It will be a little soft, and you can either eat it that way or refreeze it to let it harden a bit.
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Some good suggestions there, thanks Judy. Things that I can have as a ‘sweet treat’ despite being low carb- I’m thinking of your yoghurt/ nut butter/ cocoa combinations! And I can feed them to the rest of the family and they won’t know that they are sugar free!
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I actually think the hummus chips/turkey stick would be lower carb than yogurt — most yogurts are relatively high in carbs because of the natural sugars. Although the one I use might be about the same as the hummus chips.
But I recommend both! I did the hummus chips/turkey stick after my run yesterday — I needed that salt!
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I’ve never seen hummus chips! I sometimes have celery sticks with hummus as a dip which is good, but I eat a lot of plain Greek yoghurt which has 5 g natural sugars per 100g. As it isn’t added sugar I’m ok with that. I’m achieving a slow steady weightloss and slipped under 10st this week for the first time in years! I’m a happy bunny😊
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Congrats! I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any around here quite that low, I think mine has about 7 gm sugar? I’m not really sure but it’s definitely one of the lowest ones around here. I am careful with that!
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Lol yes I’m the one standing around in the suoermarket reading all the labels!!
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Me too. 🙂
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I came so close to snacking on Greek yogurt + nut butter today! Instead I had cooked apples and cinnamon in my yogurt.
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That sounds pretty darn good, too. 🙂 But more fall like to me, and our weather is decidedly not fall like!
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