My husband is not satisfied in the....

[Grace and Granola]

kitchen area.

I do my best to provide a healthy whole foods diet. All of the food in our house is very "normal," but does need some preparation. So, if there are no leftovers in the fridge, DH is just about what to eat.

I guess the main problem is snack foods. What does everyone eat for snacks? I assume that fruit and cheese is a reasonable snack. He apparently doesn't see it.

He is a health-minded person, but if there is a snack food within 50 feet, he is all over it. The snackiest things I buy are crackers, tortilla chips and pretzels. I was trying to buy less of that stuff, just because it is the junkiest things I buy and the kids were sort of asking for those things all the time. BUT, if we don't have any of those, dh is lost.

Help me please my husband in the kitchen! Give me some "manly" snack ideas!

[JessicaS]

Trail mix? Jerky? Bananas and almond butter?

You can roast garbanzo beans, I saw it in that Cook Yourself Thin cookbook

My dh loves baked goods. If I have banana bread sitting around he will munch on it.

My dh likes fruit and cheeze-its

[blumooned]

nuts
dried fruit
cheese & crackers
hummus
cut-up raw veggies
granola
jerky (if you eat meat)

Do you bake? You could make some muffins, bars, cookies, etc. You can make them healthier than store-bought & whatever flavor your family likes.

[Sol_y_Paz]

Some husband favorites: air popped pop corn. He likes organic butter in it. Or parmesan cheese. Sea salt sometimes too.
He also likes peanut butter sprinkled with unsweetened coconut flakes paired with raw veggies or apples. Boiled eggs with sea salt on top. Vanilla organic yogurt with nuts with apples to dip. Dehydrated and fresh herb mixture added to plain organic yogurt or organic sour cream, raw veggies for dipping. Granola bars. Raw nuts, sometimes with dried fruit. Frozen fruit chunks, like blueberries or frozen payapa. Small chunks of dark chocolate. Mini pizzas from homemade dough topped with fresh veggies. Whole grain tortillas plain or with butter. Whole grain tortillas with melted cheese and black bean salsa or dip (always have this on hand, make big batches weekly). Pita chips with black bean salsa. Slices of homemade bread are also a big hit for him, he loves cinnamon bread.

[caiesmommy]

My dh's snacks

-stove popped popcorn
-chip/salsa(usually homemade salsa..using jarred tomatoes in the winter)
-pita chips(cut the pita into triangles and crisp up in the oven) with hummus or spicy black bean dip
-muffins the odd time

When dh did eat meat..many many years ago jerky was a big one. Now when I can find it he loves shitaki mushroom jerky

[Kelilah]

My husband snacks on fruit, cheese, leftovers from dinner, a slice of bread with jam (all homemade by me), stovetop popcorn, a glass of raw milk, etc. He also cooks a big pot of beans and rice every week, and if I'm not there to cook when he's hungry, he eats that rice and beans with cheese and salsa on it. He also loves to snack on cashews or other nuts.

[mumkimum]

My dh must have crunchy snacks - this has led to a deluge of bags of junky chips and crackers (that he even forgets to finish) around our place lately - so we've been brainstorming here too.

We almost always keep tortilla chips (& salsa) around as well as popcorn.
Some other options we've found that work out - freeze dried fruits (they're crunchy), wasabi peas, spicy nut mixes (tabasco-lemon almonds or chili-lime nuts from Trader Joes, or homemade fennel-chilie almonds that I make). Sometimes 'healthier' frozen pizzas also count as a snack for dh (and meal for the rest of us).

[Chicky2]

boiled eggs
cheese (esp. this super yummo bleu cheese from a sheep dairy by my mom, or Amish raw cheddar)
tortilla chips
spoonful of pb or pb on bread
fruit
muffins or cookies I bake
dry Chex cereal
wasabi peas (he LOVES these)
kale chips
nuts

[Shantimama]

chips and salsa
popcorn
baked goods
pita and hummus

[Grace and Granola]

Originally Posted by blumooned

nuts
dried fruit
cheese & crackers
hummus
cut-up raw veggies
granola
jerky (if you eat meat)

Do you bake? You could make some muffins, bars, cookies, etc. You can make them healthier than store-bought & whatever flavor your family likes.

Do I bake? Not regularly, but this week, I decided I would. Two days in a row I made a dozen muffins, they were gone in the same day. Now that's a little discouraging to me. I really don't want to make a dozen muffins every day!

All of your replies got me thinking....I think dh is just addicted to carbs/bread! out of those two dozen muffins that i made in two days, he probably ate half of them. The next day, I bought a loaf of bread, which took him two days to finish off, minus about 4 slices that I made sandwiches with. He doesn't look at the fruit and veggies and think it's a snack. I'll have to use some of your ideas for other crunchy things to see if I can get him off all this bread!

[Chicky2]

Originally Posted by Grace and Granola

Do I bake? Not regularly, but this week, I decided I would. Two days in a row I made a dozen muffins, they were gone in the same day. Now that's a little discouraging to me. I really don't want to make a dozen muffins every day!

All of your replies got me thinking....I think dh is just addicted to carbs/bread! out of those two dozen muffins that i made in two days, he probably ate half of them. The next day, I bought a loaf of bread, which took him two days to finish off, minus about 4 slices that I made sandwiches with. He doesn't look at the fruit and veggies and think it's a snack. I'll have to use some of your ideas for other crunchy things to see if I can get him off all this bread!

About baking....I have found that w/my family if I bake on a regular basis, they don't binge on it. If I skip it for awhile, when I start back up they go nuts. Maybe give it awhile longer before you nix that idea completely. Add in other home made snacks, too, though. If he doesn't like fruit by itself as a snack, what about on those muffins? What about smoothies? What about fruit salads? How 'bout granola w/plain yogurt w/added fruit and drizzled w/honey?

[laura-belle]

I have to ask; you say you always have fruit and cheese, but are they already cut up into snack size pieces or would your husband have to do that himself? With my husband if it isn't already cut up he won't even look at it as a possibility, but if I cut it up and leave it in the fridge it will disappear in a day or so. Could that be part of the issue with healthier options?

[lil_miss_understood]

subbing

[Shantimama]

Does your husband bake? Is he willing to learn? You might not feel like baking muffins so often but he might enjoy the process and the results and you could both be happier!

[rere]

Originally Posted by Chicky2

About baking....I have found that w/my family if I bake on a regular basis, they don't binge on it. If I skip it for awhile, when I start back up they go nuts. Maybe give it awhile longer before you nix that idea completely. Add in other home made snacks, too, though. If he doesn't like fruit by itself as a snack, what about on those muffins? What about smoothies? What about fruit salads? How 'bout granola w/plain yogurt w/added fruit and drizzled w/honey?

You could freeze the baked goods and only defrost a little every day.

[Grace and Granola]

Originally Posted by laura-belle

I have to ask; you say you always have fruit and cheese, but are they already cut up into snack size pieces or would your husband have to do that himself? With my husband if it isn't already cut up he won't even look at it as a possibility, but if I cut it up and leave it in the fridge it will disappear in a day or so. Could that be part of the issue with healthier options?

Totally. And part of me is like, seriously? I know alot of men are like this, but I just feel like I prepare plenty of food and he could do SOME.THING.

Originally Posted by Shantimama

Does your husband bake? Is he willing to learn? You might not feel like baking muffins so often but he might enjoy the process and the results and you could both be happier!

See above The only cooking he does is hard boil eggs because I never think too!