March 4th is National Snack Day – great ready to celebrate! With the right tips and inspiration, we’ll show you how to pull together a delicious, healthy snack board that’s loaded with greenhouse grown fruits and vegetables in only minutes. It’s the type of snack that fuels your body throughout the day and is loaded with fresh ingredients you can feel good about!
Snacking is such a big part of everyone’s day and often snack boards have replaced full meals for their ease and medley of flavors. At Pure Flavor® snacking is a part of our DNA and we love that our full line-up of snacking items helps people across North America Live Deliciously®. In fact, you could even say that we’re Certified Snackers!
To celebrate National Snack Day, we’d like to show you just how easy healthy snacking can be. Let us inspire you to create a snack board that is both visually appealing and tasty in just about 5 minutes. While we usually associate snacking with processed foods, Pure Flavor® greenhouse grown fruits & vegetables are a game changer since they make snacking so simple. It is important to not only be conscious of the foods we are putting into our bodies but also to feel a sense of enjoyment while eating them.
EAT WITH YOUR EYES FIRST –
It’s true what they say, we eat with our eyes first, and just because you are fixing a quick snack for yourself doesn’t mean it needs to lack in presentation. There is nothing more satisfying than sitting down to enjoy a snack that makes you excited to eat just by looking at it. Whoever said you can’t have fun with your food was wrong. Think of different colors, textures, and flavors when searching your home for items to put on your board. When we look at the food on our plates our brains will tell us before our mouths whether we want to eat it or not, so preparing a snack that looks good before you even taste it can be just as important.
It’s time to think outside of the box when choosing how to plate your snack board. Creating a healthy relationship with food is a positive step in maintaining a healthy lifestyle and what you display your meals on should also be as important as the food itself. Take a look through your cupboards and use what you have at home. Try using a fun bowl or platter or take out that fine China platter sitting in your cupboard to make every day a special occasion. If you want something new but tight on a budget, stroll through your local thrift store where it’s easy to find unique serving ware that fits your personality. Since it is a personal snack board, use something that strikes inspiration and encourages you to use it.
BUILDING YOUR SNACK BOARD –
When building a snack board, always strive for balance and a combination of textures, colors, and flavors of snacks. With Pure Flavor® greenhouse grown vegetables snack boards can be easily made in either personal size or scaled up for a crowd. A great concept to follow is to fill half your plate with vegetables and fruits. You may think you need to run to the grocery store to buy ingredients to make a snack board, but make sure to check your fridge, cupboards, and pantry to first use what you have! Making a snack board is a great way to use up the fresh produce that sometimes gets forgotten in the back of the fridge to cut down on food waste. The following are some great ideas and common ingredients you can put on your own snack plate:
Fresh Vegetables: Pure Flavor® greenhouse grown snacking vegetables are essential to star on snack boards. The flavor is simply irresistible with consistent quality and taste all year round. Not only are they all convenient to eat but they require zero preparation like cutting or peeling. Uno Bites™ Nano Cucumbers are not only adorable to look at but the crunch they have is out of this world and are super hydrating! Aurora® Bites Mini Sweet Peppers and Sangria® Medley Tomatoes add a colorful aesthetic factor we crave with a variety of flavor profiles. Not only are they appealing to look at, but including colorful veggies like these in your diet can help boost your immune system and protect your body against ailments and free radicals.
No snack board is complete without ® Cloud 9® Fruity Tomatoes. The sweetness of these tasty little tomatoes may have you questioning how they are so good for you when they taste as sweet as candy! As an added bonus, Cloud 9® Fruity Tomatoes are also packed with vitamins like folate and potassium which promote healthy cellular regeneration, and potassium to help prevent heart disease.
Fruits: Slicing up an Alonna® Canary Melon or Solara™ Mini Galia Melon will add a refreshing element to your board with the added bonus that they are packed with Vitamin C and fiber. Bright Sweet Blooms® Strawberries add a punch of color and sweetness with an extra boost of antioxidants. Grapes and blueberries are also great add-ons as they require no preparation and can be eaten as is.
Nuts/Grains: Almonds, walnuts, and seed crackers are a great way to even out your snack board. Use what you have on hand! These are just a few suggestions to add some crunch to your plate with the added benefit of healthy fats and vitamins. You can throw them right on your plate or in a tiny bowl.
Dairy/Protein: Whether it’s an aged cheddar, a wedge of brie, or a tasty hummus spread, these are all nice compliments to any snack board by providing a salty and creamy element to your plate. Meat skewers or cured meats are also a great addition if you have them available and add even more protein to your plate.
HOW TO ASSEMBLE –
Now that we know what snacks to use and what to put them on, let’s work on the assembly. The trick here is not to overcomplicate it. The longest preparation time for making this board is probably rinsing your fresh produce. Since this is a 5-minute snack board the key is to use all your produce exactly as is and let them shine on their own. Simply roll up any lunchmeats and cut cheeses into cubes for ease.
Once you have everything prepped, stack, arrange, and lay out all your fruits and veggies in sections on your plate leaving some space in between. If you are serving up a dip or hummus, add a bowl of that to your plate for easy dipping. Then in any gaps, fill the spaces with the rest of the foods you found in your kitchen and that’s it – you’re ready to #flavorUP and get snacking!
For more ideas on how to celebrate National Snack Day and to learn more about each of our snacking items, click here!
