Anyone who knows me knows I love to eat. I am a self-proclaimed foodie because I love food. I love all the combinations of flavors and textures that comes in perfect harmony in a good dish. I love the pleasure I get when I get the first taste of a delicious bite. You know that bite, where you can’t help but let out a “MMmmmmmm” followed by silence as you continue to enjoy the rest of it? That. My love to eat fueled my passion to cook, while my path of being a mother who wanted to provide the best health for my kids fueled my passion for learning healthy eating habits. Some cannabis strains stimulate appetite, and many of us are familiar with having the munchies as an association to weed. We’ve all felt the wave of hunger and desire to snack after smoking, and everything somehow tastes more delicious too. And many of those times, the munchies we reach for are not healthy options, but rather the ultra processed artificially flavored food. What we put into our bodies makes a huge difference in our physique, energy level, immunity and overall health, therefore I try to maintain healthy eating habits 85-90% of the time. I learned to put together healthy ingredients in creative ways while making sure it was delicious and satisfying. Over the years of smoking, I no longer get the munchies like I used to so I don’t feel the want to eat after smoking and usually don’t, especially when it’s past a certain time (due to intermittent fasting). But if you still have the munchies often, and want to stay on a fairly healthy path during those moments, you’ll want to have some healthy options on hand that’ll give you the satisfaction.
That’s when your creativity with food can be activated. Cooking is creating. You’re creating flavor combinations with your knowledge and imagination. Tasting and creating in your mind first (like all other creations that comes into existence) then physically creating it to see if it comes out like you had envisioned. I know we can all name one snack combination that we created while high and turned out to be a great delicious snack, perhaps on the less healthy side, but can definitely do it with healthy options as well.
A lot of people who are not familiar with healthier eating tend to think that foods that are healthy tend to not taste as good. I will not disagree that such things as butter, bacon, sugar, and flour do make things taste so much better. It’s always the things that are not good for you that tastes good right? That’s how they get us hooked. However, healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring or lack flavor or be less satisfying. It just takes a willingness to try to these foods with an openness to realize that it’s not what you think, and that healthy can taste great but also makes you feel better after you eat them. It takes getting know the vast amount of ingredients out there, naturally derived from the mother earth, that create delicious flavors, and then using the creative mind to put those flavors together. Now of course, in order to do this, you have to have a passion for cooking and some cooking skills. If you’re not one with the ability to cook, there are still many options of healthy munchies nowadays, which are much better for your body and soul that you can reach for as opposed to the usual processed unhealthy snacks. Here are some healthy munchies options below, for when you really need to munch.
- Fruits (pomegranates are great cause they are sweet, tart, juicy with a slight crunch and takes a while to eat, therefore you’ll eat less)
- Nuts and seeds
- Trail mix (better to make your own with some dried fruits, nuts, seeds, coconut chips, etc)
- Dehydrated veggies or fruits
- Guacamole and tortilla chips
- Hummus with pita and veggies
- Natural peanut butter and banana
- Dark chocolate (70% +)
- Any type of veggie snacks on the market now (hippies and cauliflower stalks are 2 of my favorites)
- Kale chips
- “Nice cream” or smoothie bowls made with frozen fruits (mainly bananas with other fruits added. The combinations are endless) You can top it with nuts, more fruits, coconut, chocolate chips, etc.
If you have any other snack creations that you’ve had and you would like to share, pls feel free. And if you try any of the ones I’ve suggested, pls let me know how you like them. Food is a way to nourish our bodies and our souls. We need to unlearn the unhealthy habits of eating foods that are readily made available to us for cheap but are causing damage to our health, so that we can train our minds to love and cherish our bodies. Once we do that, the desire to feed it healthy food will come naturally, and you might even notice your creativity with food will start to open up as well.
