5 Healthy Vegan Snacks to Eat When You’re on the Road

Staying healthy and beating hunger pangs throughout the day is a must so that you can live your life well, but when you’re on the move you often don’t have time to whip up delicious vegan meals. Luckily, there are some tasty and nutritious vegan snacks you can carry with you.

Salted Chickpeas

Forget peanuts—chickpeas are the new salty snack! By drizzling chickpeas with sea salt and vinegar before popping them into the oven to roast, you score a nutritious snack you won’t be able to resist. Chickpeas contain lots of fiber. Just two cups of them a day will be enough for your daily fibre requirement. They’re also a good source of protein, folate and manganese. We need manganese for a variety of processes in the body, such as maintaining blood sugar, thyroid health and ensuring strong bones. So, chickpeas maintain our health while keeping hunger at bay.

5 Healthy Vegan Snacks to Eat When You’re on the Road

Granola Bars

If you love biting into a crunchy, delicious granola bar, the good news is that you can make your own vegan and healthy ones which can then be packed in your bag when you’re on the road. This is especially a good idea because granola bars you buy at the supermarket are not always healthy for you. Often they contain loads of sugar, not forgetting that some might contain dairy. Making your own granola bars is easy and it cuts out all the sugar while giving you nutritious ingredients. This recipe for vegan granola bars contains seeds, bananas and nuts. You can even freeze some of them so that you’ve always got a stash handy!

5 Healthy Vegan Snacks to Eat When You’re on the Road

Power Smoothies

The great thing about having smoothies when you’re on the go is that you quench your thirst while filling up with nutrients to keep you going. You can make your own smoothies easily and there are different varieties based on your nutritional needs.

If you want a quick snack, blend together frozen fruit and almond milk; on the other hand, if you need the extra protein (such as before a workout at the gym) mix together almond milk with bananas, flaxseeds and protein powder.

For an antioxidant-rich smoothie, mix together blueberries, raspberries and strawberries with almond milk. The berry blend offers a variety of antioxidants to protect against free radical damage, such as Vitamin C. Berries are also known for having a low glycemic index (GI), so they maintain blood sugar levels between meals. When buying berries for yummy smoothies, go organic! This is especially the case for strawberries grown conventionally which contain more than 40 pesticides and blueberries that have higher antioxidant concentrations when organically grown.

Fruit Dips

Eating your five servings of fruit every day doesn’t have to be boring. Pack slices of fruit, such as apples or peaches, and then dip them into a jar of almond butter when you get a sweet craving. This is a treat that’s also good for you. Not just vegan, almond butter contains iron, magnesium and Vitamin E in higher quantities than peanut butter. When purchasing almond butter, be sure to choose the healthiest variety by checking that it is free of sugar, additives and hydrogenated fats.

5 Healthy Vegan Snacks to Eat When You’re on the Road
Kale Chips

Kale has been called a superfood because of its high nutritional value. Kale contains more iron than beef and more calcium than milk! What’s great about kale is that you can cook it in a variety of ways, one of them being to bake it into kale chips. Baking kale also boasts some great nutritional advantages, such as being low in calories while offering protein, potassium and iron. You can make your own kale chips by cutting off the leaves of kale and breaking them into small pieces, then spraying a light layer of canola oil over them. Pop them into the oven and bake them for approximately 20 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Delicious and crispy!

Being vegan doesn’t mean you can’t create delicious and interesting food that’s also good for you. Enjoy the above snacks to boost your energy levels and feel great.

About the author
Cassie Brewer is a journalist based in Southern California. Her interest in health began when she started working as a makeup artist. She soon realized that health and beauty were far more complex and nuanced than she had initially thought. Since then, she has dedicated her time to writing about diet and wellness in order to help others not only be beautiful on the outside, but radiant on the inside. She has recently developed an interest in yoga, which she has found to be a great complement to her holistic diet. @cassiembrewer Blog: http://cassiembrewer.weebly.com/

Images courtesy of Shutterstock

 

What are your favorite vegan snacks to eat when you are on the move?

Share your thoughts and comments with us.

 

“Shared on Healthy Vegan Fridays”

“Shared at Real Food Fridays”

“Shared at Gluten Free Fridays”

“Shared on Simply Natural Saturdays”

“Shared at The SITS Girls Link Up”