Treating Pangs Between Lunch & Supper

TREATING HUNGER PANGS BETWEEN MEALS & AFTER Mort Fox – Article #4

(First off I wish to repeat I am NOT a health care professional of any description. I am a man whose weight was, according to doctor’s records, 220 pounds. That was several years ago. My current weight is about 155. That’s a far leaner cry from 220. This was accomplished without dieting. Honest!)

If your internal organs could verbally communicate and you could listen in, some times of the day it may sound like this: “Hey brain.” “Yeah, stomach, what can I do for you?” “Say, is there any food on the horizon? I sure could go for something nice and sweet” “Can’t you think about anything but food?” “Listen brain, you do the thinking and I do the eating, with the help of some of my friends.” “Well, stomach, I have been thinking, and I know that you’ve been getting too big for your britches!”

Hopefully, you got the message! The difficulty associated with eating proper meals is ongoing and perhaps more solvable than the between meals desire to chomp down on something. What time of the day or night do you get hungry? Perhaps you just have the munchies (definition: you’re not hungry but you have nothing better to do). Since I have both of these conditions for over seventy years, which I know of, I have found some remedies that I use.

The most simple of these is the ever-popular rice cake. That’s what they are called, although they are not really a pastry, but kind of thick wafers made from a bunch of exploded rice. They are available at supermarkets. The ones that I eat have only 30 calories each and no fat, at all . Spread some sugar free preservatives (only 10 calories per tablespoon) and zap, you have a very low cal, no fat snack.

A variation to this would be a light rye Wasa or Ry Crisp cracker; they’re only 25 to 30 calories each. It is important to choose the fat free variety. Apply a portion of fat free cream cheese (only 15 calories per tablespoon) and you are munching on another very low cal snack. Either of these ideas will only cost about 50 calories and no fat, spread and all.

Practically everyone likes popcorn. I don’t like it; I love it! I remember way back when I was about 10 or 11 years old and our favorite grocery store (those were junior supermarkets, back in the good old days) had giant bags of popcorn on sale, really cheap. For the price of say 2 or 3 boxes in the theater (10 cents per box), I could purchase a super duper jumbo size bag of my favorite snack and sit down and watch a double feature, cartoon and special feature short subject and munch to my heart’s content and my stomach’s capacity. Now, I only had one problem. You guessed it, getting it into the theater. My jacket covered most of my clandestine possession. I took a chance, bought my ticket and went in. My devious plan worked; however, my eyes were bigger than my stomach. Although I gave it my all, I was no match for the super sized bag of popcorn, I couldn’t finish it. From then on I satisfied myself with 2 or 3 boxes of the movie theater popcorn.

Yes, it’s popcorn time. Popcorn all by its lonesome is a very fine snack item. It is high in protein, dietary fiber, has a moderate amount of fat (naturally occurring) and is not bad in calories when eaten in logical quantities. Let say you ate 2 cups of it popped, that’s only about 30 calories and only an extremely small amount of good fat. You say you can’t eat popcorn plain. Have you tried? You may find it quite satisfying. But if you wish to garnish your popcorn, try Splenda. So here is what I have done. The first method gives you a “very fake” sort of carmel corn. Actually the result is a delicately sweetened snack. This requires a large new paper lunch bag (6 1/8” wide x 12 3/8 x 4”, sold in supermarkets), three tablespoons of unpopped kernels, two or three packets of Splenda (sucralose sweetner). Add kernels and Splenda into the opened paper bag. Fold down the top of the bag about an inch and five more times on the original fold (to prevent the popcorn from going berserk in your microwave). Microwave it on high for about 2½-3 minutes. The alternate method only requires the dry popcorn, made in a hot air popper or a microwave and the Splenda gently poured over the still warm popcorn. You’ll love it, either way! Remember, this sweetening treatment will not add a single calorie!

Naturally, a small piece of raw fruit makes an excellent snack. Almost any variety of these natural contributions to our cause will have more calories than any of the other ideas mentioned, but they contain many nutritional benefits.

If you like chocolate, and who doesn’t, let me tell you about my chocolate cookies. Even though they have nuts and raisins they have only about 34 calories in each one. The other cookie suggestion is an oatmeal raisin, nut and bran combination. There are 48 calories in each of these.

Both of these snacks are portioned out on a cookie sheet (I use Teflon-coated ones) with a small ice cream scoop (approximately 1 5/8” in diameter). Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Both cookies will bake in about 12 minutes.

Chocolate Cookies with Nuts & Raisins Dry Ingredients 2½ cups Whole-wheat Pastry Flour ½ cup Wheat Bran 1½ tsp (Low Sodium) Baking Powder ½ tsp Baking Soda ¾ cup Raisins 3/8 cup Sliced Almonds 3/8 cup Chopped Pecans 2 cups Splenda Sweetener 6 tbsp Cocoa Powder

Liquid Ingredients ¼ cup Egg Beaters or Egg White ¾ cup Apple Sauce, Unsweetened 1 tbsp Vanilla 2 cups Water

If you use the same size ice cream scoop that I do, you should yield about 66 cookies with approximately 34 calories in each and virtually no fat.

Oatmeal Raisin with Nut & Bran Cookies Dry Ingredients 1¼ cups Whole-wheat Pastry Flour ¾ cup Wheat Bran 3¾ cups Rolled Oats (oatmeal) 1 tbsp (Low Sodium) Baking Powder 1 cup Raisins 3/8 cup Sliced Almonds 3/8 cup Chopped Pecans 2 cups Splenda Sweetener ¼ tsp Cinnamon (I use only half of that amount)

Liquid Ingredients ½ cup Egg Beaters or Egg White 1 cup Apple Sauce, Unsweetened 2 tsp Vanilla 1½ cups Water

The end result of this cookie, if the same scoop is used, should be about 72 with about 48 calories each and almost no fat. Both versions will supply dietary fiber to your diet. Actually, all of my suggestions will do that!

The directions are the same for both cookies. Combine all dry ingredients together. Add mixed liquid phase and blend until uniform. Enjoy!