Hi. How are you? Welcome to Friday Five. I’ve been listening to a lot of Podcasts lately so I thought that would be a good way to intro this post. If it was really a podcast I’d talk for like, 20 minutes about some bullshit before I start actually talking about the thing you want to hear.

Anyway, this is Friday Five. It’s new. I wanted to have a place where I could shout-out random stuff I’ve been into lately so this is it. Sometimes it’ll be food, sometimes TV, sometimes cosmetics, maybe sometimes it’ll be something you don’t expect like my five favorite cannibals or five of the best public restrooms in Chicago, who knows?

Today it’s food. Specifically, healthy snacks. Tony and I have been on a fitness kick since about April, and ever since we started using MyFitnessPal to track what we were eating we realized we were eating like two dumpster rats. So I’ve been on the look out for snacks that fit my super unscientific criteria of:

  • not a lot of sugar (<10g)
  • not too many carbs (I don’t really know what this means)
  • not too much fat (again, no idea what that means)
  • protein
  • not popcorn, because popcorn makes me fart

So here are five snacks I’ve been digging lately:

1. Munk Pack Vegan Protein Cookies

If you’re portion controlling be aware that one cookie = two servings, but on run days all 360 calories are exactly what I need. These are a little harder to find than Len and Larry’s vegan protein cookies, but I prefer them if for no other reason than the ingredient deck is short and simple. They’re also a little lower in sugar and carbs than Len & Larry cookies. I’ve tried all of them and the Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip is my fave. Your best bet is to grab a 6-pack on Amazon, hopefully they offer a variety pack soon.

2. Candy Bar Smoothie 

Yeah, that’s right. My own friggin’ recipe and you know what? It’s goooood. Whip one up when you’re craving a bowl of ice cream and you’ll be surprisingly satisfied. Add a scoop of your favorite vegan protein powder to this and it’s a complete breakfast.

3. Teff & Almond Butter Cookies 

Dude I’m so spoiled to live so close to Oromo Cafe! Their pastry case is filled with all these nutritious, vegan and gluten-free treats – and don’t get me started about the house-made pistachio milk. But my favorite nom is the Teff & Almond Butter Cookie. It’s just sweet enough to hit the spot, with a soft, crumbly texture that just begs to be eaten slow and savored. I couldn’t find an exact match online, but these Peanut Butter Maca Cookies sound pretty dope, too.

4. Ziyad Dark Chocolate Dates

These are also delicious, but I forgot about them until I wrote all this other stuff. Oops.

Hey – yeah, I could make these myself. Easily. I can also walk next door to the international market and buy a bag for $6 so don’t vegan-shame me. It’s an almond, wrapped in a date, wrapped in vegan dark chocolate – basically a vegan turducken. Throw some coconut oil in there and it’s what vegans are made of. These little gems are only 45 calories each, and under 3g sugar. They’re a little bigger than a bite size candy bar, and to these vegan tastebuds, they taste just like a Snickers bar.

5. Nachos, Kinda 

Guess what I found out? My Nacho Chee-Zee Sauce recipe is healthy AF! It makes about three cups, which is about 12 servings, each of which is only 106 calories and 1g fat – but 7g protein! Yeah bitch, you can eat nachos alllllll day. Ok so tortilla chips maybe aren’t the best, but you could swap in some gluten-free bean chips or shoot, just dump it over your favorite nacho toppings and eat it with a fork, who needs chips? I’ve been using this recipe as salad dressing because nacho cheese > salad dressing forever and I keep some in the fridge whenever I feel like having a savory snack – it’s pretty rad with baby carrots!

OK dudes, that concludes my first Friday Five, I hope you liked it! I think next week I might talk about TV shows I’ve been binging on lately, but feel free to request topics in the comments!

Please note: This is NOT a sponsored post, I purchased and used these products and this is my honest opinion of them. Some of these links are affiliate links, which means if you click and purchase I might earn the smallest amount of money imaginable.