- We are apparently the United States of snackers.

Americans get more than 25% of their calories from snacks.

Today, I'll show you how to make them really count.

Here are some snack ideas to satisfy the cravings we get around the clock.

Nutty oatmeal bars, spring cottage peas with basil, hummus with cumin roasted carrots, three-ingredient chocolate grape banana skewers.

Making the most of your snacks, right now on Ellie's Real Good Food.

(lively instrumental music) - [Narrator] Funding for this series has been provided by... (upbeat lighthearted music) - [Announcer] Grapes from California, grown by families for families.

- [Narrator] And by Regal Springs Tilapia.

Ellie's kitchen is provided by Clarke, New England's Sub-Zero and Wolf showroom and test kitchen.

- Hi, I'm Ellie Krieger and welcome to Ellie's Real Good Food.

We have all been there, we're tired, we're stressed, or we skipped a meal, and we hear the siren call of the snacks.

As a busy documentary producer, Cara is always on the go, so she's having a hard time getting the right fuel.

- Hi, Ellie, my name's Cara and I really need your help finding a healthy alternative to my snacking habits.

I'm a busy professional in the city and I find myself rarely having any time to do a proper meal prep day, so I really need help to make the right decisions and maybe find a snack that is filling and satisfying and healthy and doesn't take too much time to make.

I usually find myself, you know, snacking on whatever is there in front of me.

If it's a leftover cupcake from a co-worker's birthday party or whatever junk food my husband brings home and leaves on the counter, I find myself picking on because it's easy and it's there.

But what I really need is something that's easy and simple to make, and still makes me satisfied, full, and ready to go for the day.

- Cara, you're gonna just love these nutty oatmeal bars.

You should bring these to work with you every single day.

And it's one of those things that you can, they're really easy to make.

And you can make them ahead.

So, nutty oatmeal bars of course, have lots of nuts in them.

So, a half cup of walnuts, a half cup of almonds, and I'll put some sunflower seeds in there too.

So it's nuts and seeds.

I'm just gonna give these a quick chop, like a rough chop.

And these nuts are perfect for snacking, including in snack recipes, because they're so loaded with good protein, good healthy fat, a ton of fiber.

Sure, you can buy a bar in a grocery store.

I mean, there's plenty to choose from.

But when you make them yourself, you really have control over all the ingredients.

I find many of the store bought bars are more like candy bars.

They're so overly sweet, and this one has just the right amount of sweetness.

Whole grains, and this whole grain I'm adding is just rolled oats, one cup of rolled oats, so you're getting that great fiber from the rolled oats.

Whole grain flour, three quarters of a cup.

Teaspoon of cinnamon.

So you get that nice, warm, kind of homey flavor.

Little bit of that comfort food feel.

Quarter teaspoon of salt, because that actually brings out the sweetness.

Just gonna whisk that together.

Whenever I travel, I pack up some of these and stick them in my suitcase.

I individually wrap them and freeze them so I just grab a couple out of the freezer in the morning if I'm doing to work or have a long day on the road.

Put them in my suitcase for traveling.

It's just one of those great go-to recipes that you can do a double batch ahead, even.

That's the dry ingredients.

Now the wet ingredients.

This recipe is sweetened by pure maple syrup, and I love to use unrefined sweeteners because they not only add this incredible flavor because maple syrup just has that unbeatable flavor, also some minerals and they have less of a intense impact on your blood sugar.

Some oil, just a little bit of canola oil there, a quarter cup.

Then a third cup of applesauce.

Just adds more moisture.

Also helps bind everything together.

And one egg.

Of course, an egg is providing protein too.

Whisk that together.

Okay.

Then just add the dry ingredients to the wet.

Put that together.

It's great to have the oats in here too because oats add that soluble fiber that makes you feel fuller longer.

And some sunflower seeds.

Half a cup of those also.

Toss those right in.

They're the perfect size already.

And I'm also gonna just run my knife through these dried cranberries.

And I always buy the unsweetened ones.

They just give a nice, tart punch.

But you could really use any dried fruit here.

Dried cherries would nice, raisins of course would be great.

When you make these bars yourself, you can see all of the good stuff that goes in.

It's all just real ingredients.

Sometimes I read the labels on some of these bars and I can't believe, like what is that?

What's in here?

This just goes into a square pan, eight by eight square pan.

I've sprayed it already with some oil spray.

Just goes right in.

All that great texture.

This just goes into the oven, 350 for 30 minutes.

There's just this lovely fragrance in the room.

These have cooled now completely.

You see how beautiful and golden they are and I get 12 bars out of this.

Give them a cut and you can cut them really in any shape you want.

Any square, rectangle.

I'll go rectangle here.

I'm just gonna show you what I like to do with these.

So I make a batch or sometimes two batches and I wrap them in plastic wrap like this.

And I freeze them.

So when I'm going in the morning, just grab one out of the freezer.

They thaw really quickly.

So it'll be ready when you're ready to eat it.

Or you can take it out the night before also.

Of course, I have to eat one now.

Nutty oat bars.

It's like the perfect balance of chewy and crunchy.

It almost has a cookie-like texture.

And it really tastes of the pure ingredients that it's made with.

I think you're gonna love them.

So one of the key things about making snacking work for you, it's not just what you're snacking on, it's also when.

So rather than just grabbing food willy nilly all day long here and there, it's really important to have strategic snacks, right?

Two or three snacks a day that are well planned, and part of that is having the right groceries around you.

Having the right foods that you love, that inspire you, that are gonna energize you at your fingertips.

One of the great ingredients there is cottage cheese.

I was actually kind of milling through my refrigerator the other day looking for a snack and I came across some cottage cheese and I kind of forgot how much I love it.

Now I'm well reminded and I have this fabulous savory cottage cheese bowl.

You can do some sort of inspiring things with your basic cottage cheese.

This is one of my favorites.

So I have some cottage cheese there.

But first I'm working on getting these lovely vegetables and seasonings going.

So just a little bit of lemon zest in there.

Just a half a cup of cottage cheese, or however much you want for your snack, really.

This could really actually be a lunch too.

A little more than a snack, if you want to build it up.

Then savory, right?

This is kind of a trend in yogurt, using a lot of savory yogurt bowls.

It really works well with cottage cheese too.

So for that I'm just gonna put some peas.

I literally just have frozen peas.

Mainly these are all things you can just have in your fridge really easily.

These are frozen peas.

You could also use fresh peas.

Then they would be cooked and cooled.

Maybe it's peas left over from dinner.

A little more in there, why not?

Some radishes.

A little crunchy element here.

Crunchy and colorful.

Some toasted pine nuts, and you could also use any other nut as well.

Again, that little crunch.

Layer of texture.

Lemon zest is lovely here, so I don't want to use the juice because that gives a lot of acidity.

I just want that lemon flavor, that delicate lemon flavor.

And I'm putting some basil leaves on here too because that gives that fresh, springy effect.

A final touch, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil just makes it luxurious.

So you have vegetables, healthy fat, great protein.

It's everything you need in a snack and it is easy peasy (laughs) cottage cheesy.

It's really good.

So hummus and carrots, that's like a classic snack, and if you're like me, you're a little bored of your basic hummus and raw carrots.

So I'm switching it up and really with barely any different ingredients, I'm roasting the carrots with a little bit of cumin, so they're soft and sweet and still have a little bite to them.

And I'm gonna put that on top of some homemade hummus because I'm telling you, when you make hummus yourself, it tastes so much better.

It really is so much more delicious and fresh tasting and secondly, it's so easy.

It's so easy to do that it's almost funny.

When you do it, you're gonna say, "Why haven't I done this before?"

I'm just leaving a little bit of the greens on the carrots because they look really pretty that way.

I'm gonna save some of the greens because these are edible.

They're really delicious, and they're pretty intensely carroty.

Just a little bit goes a long way, but it looks beautiful as a way to garnish the dish.

So I'm gonna hang on to some of those.

Really, all it is is just peeling the carrots.

I'm gonna leave them whole because that's really beautiful too.

So getting sort of smaller carrots is good for this dish.

Save these.

These are so nice looking.

Then I'm gonna get these on a baking tray, and the thing with this dish in terms of being a really great snack is you can kind of make this for dinner one night and then just have a few carrots left over, or you can make this all ahead and just have this as a snack in your fridge.

I'm gonna do a tablespoon of olive oil.

And the cumin.

This is gonna sort of tie the carrots in with the hummus because there's always a little pinch of cumin in hummus.

Or often, anyway.

Quarter teaspoon of salt.

And some pepper.

I'm just gonna toss this around a bit.

So they're all coated.

Okay.

These just get roasted, 450 degrees for 20 minutes.

They'll come out completely transformed.

So these carrots are beautifully roasted and I'm just gonna give them a finish with a little sprinkle of lemon.

Just give them a little brightness.

So they're sweet, have this wonderful depth of flavor, and now for the hummus.

My first step in making hummus is I make this kind of salt-garlic paste.

I just have one small clove of garlic and I'm gonna put half a teaspoon of salt.

And I do this whenever I want the garlic to kind of seamlessly blend throughout whatever I'm making.

Oftentimes I'll do this for something like a dressing where you don't necessarily want a chunk of garlic or a shocking bit of garlic, but you really want that garlic essence throughout.

And the coarseness of the salt helps kind of work into the garlic to form a paste.

I'm just using the edge of my knife, really, to make that happen.

This can go into the food processor.

This is how easy homemade hummus is, and I have to admit I do sometimes buy hummus.

It's not an either-or proposition.

When you have, you have a couple extra minutes, you make it yourself.

Otherwise it's definitely a staple in the house too, store bought.

That's one can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed.

Then two tablespoons of tahini, which is sesame paste.

I love to make tahini dressing too.

All you need to do for that is just take some tahini, lemon, parsley, a little water, and stir it up, salt and pepper.

Two tablespoons of that.

A tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil.

Some lemon.

About a tablespoon.

I kind of like my hummus really lemony.

This is the thing, you can really just customize it however you like it.

Want to put a little cayenne pepper in there, some roasted red pepper, whatever, you can just have fun with it.

I'm just making a real basic hummus here, but kind of lemony.

And an eighth of a teaspoon of cumin, and remember that's gonna tie back with those savory lemoned-up carrots over there.

Then a couple tablespoons of water.

Might need more than this but I'm gonna start with two.

Then just whir it up and that's it.

Just want to maybe push down along the edges to make sure you get everything, check the texture.

Check the seasoning.

Mm, see, I want more lemon.

I just love lemon, what can I say?

A little more.

That is done.

Creamy, with just the right amount of seasoning.

And that's what I find a lot of the store bought hummuses are kind of overly seasoned to me.

And so now you have a nice amount of hummus here.

You can use that to snack on throughout the week.

Guests come over, you put it out with some vegetables if you want.

Nice to have with some endive, maybe.

Something different, right?

That's the whole idea of this recipe with the carrots is taking the ordinary and really doing a couple little extra things to turn it into something extraordinary.

That looks great.

But now let's turn it into a great snack.

I'm just gonna spoon some on the plate.

It's another thing, instead of serving it the same old way as a dip, if you just spread it on the plate like this, kind of gives it all of a sudden a whole different dimension.

A couple of carrots.

Like that.

You can really have a larger portion of this if you want.

It can be like a little lunch with some pita.

It's perfect as a snack like this.

Some sunflower seeds.

Some of these carrot greens.

Just to bring home that fabulous carrot flavor, add the color.

Why toss them when they do so much?

And last but not least, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

This is my kind of carrots and hummus.

Taking it to a whole new level.

In a healthy way, of course.

A sun kissed grape at its peak of ripeness.

Here in the Golden State, as the harvest makes its way north, they're in season most of the year.

Actually, anytime between May and January.

And unlike many fresh fruits, grapes are harvested fully ripe.

After they're picked, they do not become sweeter, so timing is everything.

Sugar content, color, bunch and berry size, uniformity, they're ll measured before harvest begins, so grapes are ready to eat when you buy them.

When shopping for grapes, look for bunches like this, with green, pliable stems and plump berries.

You see the powdery white coating?

That's bloom and it's good.

Bloom is a naturally occurring substance that protects grapes from moisture loss and decay.

While there are three colors grown here, red, green, and black, they come in more than 85 varieties and they have such a range of flavors.

Green ones, for example, have that beautiful flavor balance of tart and sweet that makes them perfect for my next snack.

One of my favorite snacks of all times is really simple.

A bowl of grapes.

They're refreshing, they're juicy, and it couldn't be easier to do.

You just rinse them and go, and they're so portable too.

You can really take them on the go, stick them in your bag.

I just love them.

And of course they have so many health benefits too, all those great antioxidants.

I have an amazing recipe that takes the whole thing up a notch.

Three ingredient frozen grape and banana skewers with chocolate drizzle.

They're so delicious and really couldn't be easier or simpler.

Just one of those crowd pleasing kinds of snacks.

You're always looking for something that's good for you and kind of maybe satisfies that need for something frosty and a little sweet.

So basically just alternating bananas with grapes.

I like to use different colors.

It just adds an extra level of beauty to the whole thing.

Just building the skewers like this.

This is a really fun thing to do with kids.

So just freezing grapes on their own is a pretty fantastic thing to do.

But I love taking that basic concept, just taking it one step further.

You get to snack on grapes while you do it, so that's fun.

Once these are all skewered up, you drizzle with chocolate.

Just like this, kind of run the chocolate.

This is just about an ounce of chocolate, dark chocolate, that I just microwaved to melt it.

Maybe one minute to 90 seconds in the microwave.

So pretty.

These just go in the freezer and when they come out, there's gonna be a delicious, sweet treat.

They're all frozen, mm.

That chocolate looks amazing.

The grapes are beautiful.

And when grapes are frozen, they get this almost sorbet-like texture.

So these skewers in general, they're just a great way to satisfy that craving for like a frozen dessert basically.

Because this is one, with benefits.

It's melt in your mouth, cool, refreshing, and super satisfying.

Three ingredient frozen grape and banana skewers with chocolate drizzle.

That's what I call hitting the sweet spot where delicious and healthy meet.

- These bars are so good.

I've already been using them as fuel throughout my work day and they work out perfectly because all I have to do is pop them in the freezer and they last me all week.

Thanks so much, Ellie.

Cheers.

- It's almost funny how easy it is, you'll see.

Oh, I see, I cut the top off.

Yeah, I screwed up.

I screwed up.

I screwed up!

I screwed up once again.

- [Narrator] For these recipes and much more, go to ElliesRealGoodFood.com.

Also connect with Ellie on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Funding for this series has been provided by... And by... - [Announcer] Grapes from California.

Grown by families, for families.

- [Narrator] And by Regal Springs Tilapia.

Ellie's kitchen is provided by Clark, New England's Subzero and Wolf showroom and test kitchen.