Under 200 Calorie ‘snacks’.
So, I really like snacking. A lot. My boyfriend tells me that my ‘snacks’ are really more like meals (like, pfft, what do you mean a bowl of potatoes is a meal?!). This has become something that really pulls my eating off track. I am constantly hungry, like, always. But telling myself I can’t have food – restricting myself – becomes a really dangerous cycle for me that makes me miserable and threatens to become really unhealthy. So I try super hard not to deny myself food when I’m hungry and instead feed myself healthy things that keeps me within my daily targets! (See: not limits)
So, here’s a list of snacks that I find fill me up but don’t put my day off track at all. They’re also really good at helping meet protein targets or my 5 a day!
My thought process for these snacks revolve around the calories we consume in a packet of crisps – around 200 for a 40g bag of Kettle crisps. I can work my 
way through one of these bags in seconds and not feel any fuller than I did before. So, if I can demolish these without thinking twice, 200 calories must be a good goal for a snack.
I’ve yet to try these out, but they look like an absolute god send! Less than 100 calories for these little egg cup, muffin type things. They’ve 
got veg, eggs and cheese in them. A great mix of excellently healthy things and can be easily adjusted for anyone’s taste! Plus they look super cute and keep well in the fridge. I think I’m gonna start making these up on a Sunday to have when I’m in need of something to munch on (or as a really easy breakfast!)
Tuna & potatoes. This one of those ‘snacks’ that Mat deems to actually be a meal. Ahh well. It tastes great and keeps me really full. I suppose if you were that way inclined, this would make a really light lunch. But that just seems silly when you could have lunch AND this snack.
It’s super easy – boil some baby potatoes (76 calories per 100g) and pop into a bowl. Add 1/2 of tuna (80 calories /99 per 100g) add a squirt of low fat salad cream/low cal salad dressing (30cal for 15g of the salad cream) and any salad leaves you might have popping about (this is usually spinach for me, 23calories for 80g and I probably wouldn’t use quite that much). Mix it all together and you’ve got yourself a little potato-tuna-spinach snack all for 209 calories! You can add or subtract the amount of potato or tuna depending on what you’re looking for (I love carbs for instance, so I’ve got for about a 50:50 split, but you could add more tuna and have less potato if you were a bit more like Mat, and therefore utterly ridiculous!)
Soup! Again, for some people this might be a meal. Like lunch. Or even dinner (*shivers*). But, really, when you’re making a soup that’s less than 200 calories it is, at best, a starter. Using a base of onions, veg and low-salt stock you’d have difficultly getting it over the 200 calorie mark. Adding 0% yoghurt before serving is a great way to add some protein without adding too many calories. Plus it tastes great and lasts ages in the fridge.
So, here’s my simple pea and chilli soup recipe!
Fry off one large red onion (60 calories), with some of your favourite spices. For this soup I use Moroccan spice and chilli flakes to give it heat! I add a splash of balsamic vinegar to add some depth/sweetness (15 calories), continue to fry these together for about 10 minutes or until the onions are soft. Then I add peas. Depending on how many servings I want, I’ll use anywhere between 200g and 400g. 200g makes about 3 servings. This adds 120 calories. Then break a stock cube into about 400ml of boiling water (30 calories) and add to the pea and onion mixture.
Leave this to simmer together for 15-30 minutes. Then blitz with a hand blender or food processor. I then add a spoonful of yoghurt once served into bowls. In total, one bowl of this soup is about 100 calories! You can add more veg, mint or any other spices. It’s a great mid-afternoon snack when you start to get peckish.
I’ll keep adding to this post as I find more little ‘snack’ dishes that actually fill me up and keep me on target!
The Unedited Ramblings of a Student 