The Tower Recommends: Healthy Quarantine Snacks

 

1. Making a smoothie is never a bad idea

First, pick your fruit. To make one triple berry smoothie, you’ll need around 3 cups of fruits total for your base; strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, or bananas are some of the best choices. Any combo of fruits can work, too. Frozen fruit works better than fresh fruit in terms of making a blend; put the fruit in the freezer for 30 minutes or blend your fresh fruits with ice cubes until smooth. 

Next, put in ½ cup of unsweetened Greek yogurt, peanut butter, almond butter, or vanilla yogurt to make your smoothie thicker. These are all great options to choose from, and you can either lessen the amount of thickener or skip this step completely. 

Then, choose a liquid: almond milk, coconut milk, whole milk, or just fruit juice. Add 1 ¼ cup of your choice into the mixture, but if you have skipped the thickener, use less of your desired liquid as well. 

Lastly, throw some add-ins! Fresh mint, vanilla extract, cinnamon, or honey will improve your smoothie to the next level. 

2. Trail mix creations

Trail mix is a snack where there aren’t many restrictions and mistakes for the maker to encounter. You just have to put together your favorite dry ingredients and store the mix in an airtight container in a cool, dry location, and you’re good to go.

Peanut-butter friend: 

banana chips, peanut butter chips, peanuts, almonds, and dark chocolate chips

Tropical mix: 

cashews, Brazil nuts, dried mango, coconut flakes, and banana chips

PB&J: 

peanuts, dried strawberries, peanut butter chips, and shredded wheat cereal

Cereal lover: 

bran flakes, shredded wheat cereal, puffed rice, granola, cashews, dried cherries, dried cranberries, and dried blueberries

Monkey munch: 

banana chips, peanuts, sea salt, almonds, dark chocolate chips, raisins, and coconut flakes.

3. One ingredient banana ice cream 

First, take 4-5 ripe bananas — the more ripe the better (should have a few brown spots) — peel them, cut them into ½ inch chunks, and put them in a Ziploc bag to freeze overnight until they’re completely solid. 

Next, you have a few choices: you can turn this into a mint chip ice cream, cherry vanilla ice cream, chocolate coconut ice cream, or peanut butter raisin ice cream. Obviously, you can also just stick to the one-ingredient banana ice cream. 

  • Mint chip ice cream: combine a few drops of peppermint oil with a small handful of dark chocolate chips
  • Cherry vanilla ice cream: add a few cherries (you can use fresh, but frozen works better) and a few drops of vanilla
  • Chocolate coconut: add some unsweetened coconut flakes and a tablespoon of cocoa powder
  • Peanut butter raisin ice cream: add a tablespoon or two of peanut butter with a handful of raisins

Then, blend all the ingredients (mixing speed depends on the blender) for 40-60 seconds until it becomes smooth. It might be a little melted from the time it took to blend, so you can freeze it for a few hours depending on your preference. 

Lastly, enjoy your simple and absolutely delicious creation!