Healthyish nighttime snack for me?

[wendibird22]

We eat dinner most nights at 5:30pm. Meals are usually a good balance of meat, vegetable, starch (gf grain or other carb). Because I'm gf most of my meals are heavier on the meat and veggie. No matter what dinner is I'm hungry by 8pm. Not boredom eating, not thirsty, hungry. But I'm kind of at a loss for decent snacking. I usually already had veggies at lunch and dinner. I've done a fruit smoothie for breakfast. I usually have cheese (brick or cottage) at lunch or late afternoon snack. My habit is to reach for a few chips, popcorn, or ice cream. I'd like to find something healthier. Ideas?

[mikala]

I'm struggling with this too. I'm switching from traditional snacks to a cup of tea and fruit or some water and cut veggies plus hummus. Pineapple and grapefruit are both in heavy rotation because the really strong flavors seem to appeal more at night.

You could also do a handful of nuts or a nut butter on apple slices if you want more calories. A hard boiled egg or some lunch meat would add protein.

You might want to watch the 100 days of real food blog. A lot of the school lunch ideas could work for a healthy evening snack.

[georgiegirl]

Frozen grapes or a frozen banana

I always end up eating popcorn...homemade on the stovetop

[ang79]

I have this problem too. I think its been an issue ever since I was pregnant w/ my first actually! Lately I've been trying to do nuts or trail mix. Sometimes I'll dip pretzels in either Nutella or peanut butter. Or banana slices w/ Nutella and peanut butter if I haven't had a banana earlier in the day. When fresh fruit is abundant in the summer I eat that. If I haven't had yogurt yet that day I'll eat a Chobani yogurt cup. Sometimes I just crave something salty though, so then I end up snacking on chips, crackers, or kettle popcorn while I read or watch TV. In the winter I always have some hot herbal tea or hot chocolate and then try to downsize the snack portion.

[baymom]

Defrosted Costco berries, cut watermelon/mango/pomagrante/melon whatever is in season, cup of tea, popcorn and sometimes ice cream. :

[Beth24]

I usually have Greek yogurt with nuts and berries when I'm that hungry before bed.

[citymama]

Home-made popcorn isn't terrible as long as there isn't too much butter and/or salt. Pretzels, rice cakes, crackers and cheese. Bananas or berries with yogurt makes a great snack. Carrots and hummus works too! Now I'm hungry...

[wendibird22]

Apples and bananas with nutella and/or peanut butter is a great idea. Fruit, fiber, and a bit of something sweet.

I've really tried to up my protein and healthy fat intake throughout the day to make up for the lack of grains and keep me from substituting GF grain replacements (which aren't all that healthy). But that means I've already done greek yogurt, cheese/cottage cheese, egg, lunch meat, hummus, and nuts during the day. I don't want to overdue the dairy or nuts. Eliminate that and all the gluten containing items and you aren't left with much.

Glad to know I'm not the only one with a serious nightly popcorn habit!

[oneplustwo]

I often have some nuts, cheese and dried fruit (dried apricots or dates) with a glass of wine or a cup of herbal tea as my dessert, a few hours after dinner. During the holidays, I got a bag of chestnuts from Costco and had those ~ they are very starchy and sweet, not like regular nuts, and to me they tasted best when warmed in the microwave.

Besides peanut butter or Nutella with apples/bananas, don't forget the other nut butters or sunbutter, all great with fruit.

[specialp]

I'm lower carb and have started feeling hungry at night and grabbing a rice cake or splitting a bag of single serve of lime and salt popcorn with DH, but I don't think either of those are too bad. It's becoming a big of a habit so I'm going to try and eat a bit more for dinner tonight. The thing is I must have crunchy. I feel like so much of my diet is soft/mushy and I miss crunch (try to avoid too many nuts). One thing is for sure, no way could I have nutella in the house. I love that stuff way too much.