Healthy Holiday Snacking

I'm certain we all have different thoughts on what we do and don't like for snacking habits, but one thing we can probably all agree on is that it gets just a little more difficult when we have unpredictable schedules, like during the holiday season.  Probably just the word "holiday" is enough to increase your anxiety level, much less toss in there the idea of eating those holiday favorites and not impacting any work you did all year to achieve or maintain a healthy weight.  Not to mention any hopes you have for starting the new year off without any weight gain during the season.  One way to stay on track is by including healthy snacks.  I know, sounds like it could be counterproductive, but not if done with some forethought and planning.

First off, snacking can always be part of a healthy diet, but only if those snacks are carefully selected, and packed with nutrients.  Sounds easy enough, but I know many are still hesitant to give snacking a chance.  Any of the basic principles you can think of that make a healthy meal are also the basics that help with creating healthy snacks.  So my big tip here is to focus on more than 1 food group.  I always recommend aiming for at least 2 food groups, which can help increase the different vitamins and minerals you can get from those snacks.

Second, don't over do it.  Snacks should complement your meals without exceeding your calorie needs.  If you aren't snacking now but plan to add in snacks, remember that you need to cut back on your meals.  Snacking is a pick me up between meals but doesn't work if those meals are really large and high in calories.

Third, prepackaged is great, but be wary of sodium.  It's ok to love convenience.  Having a snack that you can toss in your purse, bag, brief case, or glovebox, means easy access, but it also means an increased chance of too much sodium and even added sugar and fat.  This doesn't mean avoid prepackaged snacks altogether, but it does mean you should choose wisely.  Read labels and compare products.  Even better would be to prepackage those snacks yourself.  I personally like buying in bulk and dividing snack items up into my own reusable snack containers or baggies (those can be reusable too).  Not only can this save on cost, but it can increase variety because you can mix up the ingredients, like dried fruit and nuts.

Let's get back to the holiday season snacking theme since we are in that week between Christmas and New Years.  I know not everyone works from home like I do, but I can guess your schedules aren't 100% normal right now either.  You might be on the go, stuck back at your desk after a more active week during Christmas (anyone else spend time walking all over a shopping mall?), or still stuck in a hyper-social state where you seem to be dining out 24/7 with friends and family.  Whatever it may be, you may still find that snacks are a healthy way to keep you from overeating at meal times and help boost your intake of nutrients.

So what are my favorite healthy snack ideas?  Easy!  I have my regular go-to's like non-fat plain Greek yogurt with dried fruit (I usually add dried cranberries or chopped dried apricots), pretzel flats with almond butter or hummus, and roasted nuts mixed with dried fruit.  Since it is holiday time there are a few others that become easy based on leftovers from holiday parties:

veggie sticks with hummus or guacamole, 

fruit and cheese: there almost always seems to be a little left over from the holiday party fruit platter and the cheese and  cracker platter,

and "left over" soup: yes, soup makes a great mid-day snack and bonus points if you can make this on your own with a low sodium broth, leftover veggies and proteins.

Whatever it is you choose, don't forget that snacks make an easy way to boost your fruit, veggie, fiber, and dairy intake (or some calcium alternative if you prefer), especially if you found those lacking in your holiday meals over the last few weeks.  These are just some of my favorite holiday snacks.  There's no reason to have to give up healthy eating and nutritious foods over the holiday break and this will help you start off 2016 on the right foot.

For more on great snacking ideas, check out these healthy snack ideas from Nuts.com.  And for all of my military spouse friends and readers, if you aren't already a fan of Nuts.com, consider checking them out (this is my own personal endorsement as I have been a long time fan and shopper on this website).  I have always found this company to be very military friendly and accommodating of those of us living overseas (you know how it can be when you try to ship to an APO address!).

Happy Holidays everyone!

More Food in Tokyo (including fresh mochi!)

Totally forgot to get this posted before, but I have a bunch more pictures of random food from around Tokyo during our Christmas trip down there.  I guess it's a little but of Christmas in July!

Have you ever tried Siphon coffee?  I know it's been popping up in the US but I am not sure how popular it is.  The coffee is made in what resembles a high school chemistry lab.

One of the days in Tokyo we headed to Odaiba.  I tried out this Korean seafood pancake at the food court in DiverCity, one of the malls out on Odaiba.  It was pretty tasty!

While we were out at Odaiba we happened to catch a view of the Rainbow Bridge lit up.  This was actually a bigger deal than it seems because it isn't always lit up and we've never been here at night and able to get a view.  A lot of my friends have had the same experience.  It's very pretty when the lights are on!

The skyline itself was also an amazing view.

One night we had dinner at Spyro's, which is a Greek restaurant in Roppongi.  We love Greek food and it isn't easy to find in Japan.  I managed to locate a few options in Tokyo and we decided on this place.

Cute little place settings!  Similar to having a chopstick rest, I guess.

I love Saganaki so I couldn't resist the urge!

Some mushrooms

Hummus

Olives

Obviously we went with the Greek salad!

I had shrimp with feta cheese, which was really good.

I guess I skipped on taking a picture of Ryan's entree, but we did both get some dessert.

Of course we didn't just eat the entire time.  We also walked around...a lot!

We managed to find a Le Pain Quotidien, which is a restaurant we have been to in New York City before.  This happened to be Sunday brunch and the place was really busy.

I had these cute little toasts.

And this shrimp and avocado tartine. Yum!  

The next stop was a real treat.  I almost didn't stop because I thought the guy handing out flyers wanted us to go eat somewhere or go buy something.  They were actually inviting us into a temple for freshly pounded mochi as part of the New Year celebration (it was just before Dec 31).  This turned out to be really neat!

Here they are placing the mochi into some toppings.  This way it isn't just eaten plain.  You can see red beans on the left, black sesame in the middle, and then there is something else on the right (which I can't recall).

Green tea also.

Here is where the guys were pounding the mochi.

Here's a view of the temple where this was taking place.

So glad we ended up stopping in to check it out!

That wraps it up for our Christmas trip to Tokyo.

More posts from Japan coming up soon.  I promise!  I need to get a few more posted and plan to do this in the coming weeks since during that time we will also be moving!  So sad but it is time to say good bye to Japan and embark on another adventure.  Details coming soon!

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever tried mochi?  Have you ever tried siphon coffee?

Fancy Valentine's Dinner and Fox Village

Valentine's Day ended up being a nice weekend getaway because it coincided with the long weekend for President's Day.  We decided to head down to Sendai with a side trip to Zao to see Fox Village.  Since we were already going to be in Sendai on Valentine's Day, I decided to make a reservation at one of the restaurants in the Westin.  One reason I picked this restaurant was the view.

Not a bad place to sit and enjoy a glass of wine!

The menu was a pre-set holiday menu but since I made the reservation in advance I was able to tailor the menu with the manager in advance to better meet our food preferences (I don't eat meat).

The first course was a nice piece of salmon with a cream dip and what we believe was mustard.

It was delicious!

Next was a seared fish dish served with anchovy ice cream.  I tried it, and while it was interesting, it was just too salty to eat all of it.  I believe the fish served here was Spanish mackerel.

Nice, fresh bread.

With some butter and olive oil.

The next dish was probably the best course of the evening.  This is a salt-crusted fish cooked inside the salt covering.  If you look closely you can make out the shape of the fish.  The waitress explained this was a Japanese cooking technique.  She used a knife and carved the fish out table side.

Then she sliced it and served it, showing us the beautiful layers stuffed inside.  She even added the veggies and sauce right there at the table.  There's spinach, saffron rice, and egg inside.

More bread, which we didn't need, but we tried it anyway.

Then came Ryan's steak.

And for me it was a piece of lobster. and a scallop.

Then came dessert.  It was a citrus fruit, chocolate mousse, ginger ice cream, and some cotton candy garnish.

Well, you would think that was it, which of course was our assumption.  We finished up our wine and as I started putting on my sweater the server came over and whispered to us that "the chocolate fondue will be coming out shortly".  The WHAT???  A second dessert?  Yes, Valentine's Day is so special that you get to have dessert twice.  

Yum!

What a wonderful meal, great view, awesome service, and best off all, I got to enjoy this special night with my husband.

The next day Ryan and I headed to Zao to visit Fox Village.  Ryan first spotted this on an article he came across on StumbleUpon.  The pictures of the foxes were just too cute to resist, so we started planning this trip.  Of course we ended up here in February so it was covered in snow.  The good news was that it wasn't too cold and it wasn't snowing at the time.

No clue what this guy was doing here, but it was a little funny so I decided to take a picture.  

Here is the entrance.  Since you get to actually go into the area with the foxes there is some area that separates the outside world from the zoo area.

In the very front area after passing through the store there are some foxes attached with a collar to a leash on a porch.

Food is obviously more interesting than people.  Glad to know people weren't being considered as food!

After a quick look at the foxes right out front, Ryan and I entered the main area.  It is a fenced in area where both people and foxes roam free.  Very, very free!  And lots and lots of foxes!  I really liked that we had the chance to view the foxes out in the snow.

In case you were wondering, we did discover what the fox says.  Let's just say, it is not pretty!  Especially if you are the only female fox around and 15 or so males are surrounding you!

As you can see, I took a ton of pictures.  I wasn't scared of them and I didn't feel at risk for any issues.  I did have a few get close but mostly they saw me as in their way and just ran quickly passed me.

This area contained some houses too to provide shelter.  Some were sleeping inside these.

This was definitely one of the cutest things we saw while there.

Also very, very cute!

Here is a group waiting for some hot dogs.  Ryan and I went up into an enclosed and elevated structure so we could feed them the hot dog pieces we bought in the store.  It was nice that they provided a place to feed them that was able to keep people and fox separated, which was definitely safer.

Here is a snow mound with some sleeping foxes.

So cute!  Seriously, there was so much cute here that it wasn't funny!

After we left the enclosed fox area we headed over to see the bunnies.

Then we checked out some of the foxes in a separate caged area.  I assume there was a good reason why they were separate, but I didn't see anything in English that indicated why.

Next up came petting time.  They had one fox and visitors could get in line and take turns petting the fox, alongside a staff member.  Not going to lie, this was pretty cool!

And then we felt like we really needed to go back into the main fenced in area.

Next on the agenda was a trip up to see the Snow Monsters at Zao.  Well that was the plan until part of the way up the road (known as Echoline) we were caught in what I suspect was a massive blizzard and discovered that the road was actually closed.  As in, big metal gate and couldn't drive any higher. It was actually very scary since there was zero visibility and hairpin turns with the switchbacks on the mountain.  We were practically driving using the GPS as a guide but it was too much when other traffic was coming down at us.  Thankfully we made it back down safely and back to Sendai without any serious problems.  The issue was that at ground level it was clear and not snowing so we had no way to know that part way up the mountain was a massive storm.  To top it all off, there was a lot of wind and 5-6 foot snow walls, if not higher, so it was like riding through a snow canyon or wave.  I was worried that it could cave in.  But, we made it back!  In order to de-stress and warm up we decided to go our for Indian food.

Yum, yum, yum!  We actually had eaten here before and I managed to find the same place again accidentally, which worked out well.

I must say, that was a wonderful weekend getaway with an amazing meal and a very cute visit with furry little foxes.

QUESTIONS:  How did you celebrate Valentine's Day?  What was the last zoo you visited?  Have you ever been in a free range zoo facility where you could be out in the open with the animals?