Healthy Vegan Snacks for the Road: 3 Easy Recipes

Eating healthy on the road is a feat. Whether you’re on a road trip, on a hike or you’ve decided to get out of town for a few days, you still need to take care of what you’re going to eat while travelling. Sure, you can always go for some greasy junk food in diners along the way, but you better believe that those calories will stay right where you are and they’re not that good for you to begin with. This is why we come to you with healthy vegan snacks suggestions that are perfect when you’re hitting the road and you need to eat right.

Yummy Vegan Granola Bars

There are many recipes for granola bars that taste great and are really filling, but we decided for this chocolate chip one that is very easy to make and can last for a few days. With these, you don’t have to buy chocolate bars or any other sweet; they’re scrumptious enough.

what you'll need:

• 1½ cup of oats

• 1 cup of pitted dates

• ¼ cup of maple syrup

• ¼ cup of almond butter

• ¼ cup of vegan chocolate chips

• ½ cup of raw cashews

• ½ cup of raw almonds.

what to do:

Bake the oats for up to 15 minutes in the oven, the temperature should be 350 degrees F. While they’re toasting, pulse out cashews and almonds in your food processor just until they’re in chunks and then mix them with roasted oats in a bowl.

After that, take your dates and use your food processor to make them pasty and finely chopped, and then add them into the bowl as well.

Take a saucepan where you can warm up the maple syrup and peanut butter (on a low heat) and then pour it over the oats, nuts and dates mixture. It’s mixing time, so don’t give up until you get a well-combined sticky mess. Line a tray with parchment paper, pour the mixture into it and press it down firmly, after which it’s time for the chocolate chips. When you’ve pressed them into the mixture too, you should put it all into the freezer for about 10-15 minutes. After the granola is hardened, you can cut it into even pieces, put it in a plastic container and take it on the road with you.

Fresh Veggies and Hummus

Though it might be a bit rough to preserve fresh veggies for a longer period of time, you can always restock on the go and it’s actually more affordable than buying chips and snacks. Carrot sticks and celery are always a good way to go, because they don’t have to be refrigerated to stay nice and crunchy, but you can also go for some sliced bell pepper, cauliflower and even cucumber. You can add some spices into the combination and we always suggest taking some hummus along with you because let’s face it, hummus goes well with everything. If you want to go all out and make your own hummus, there are some excellent recipes out there, but we’re giving you our favorite and simplest one. Anybody like garlic?

what you'll need:

what to do:

Take your garlic bulb and cut off the top, so that you can clearly see the cloves. Generously drizzle olive oil over it, add a bit of salt and wrap it in aluminum foil. Roast it in the oven at 375 degrees F for an hour.

When the garlic is done, make sure to gently squeeze it out of the peel and put all the creamy garlicky goodness into the food processor. Add the rest of the listed ingredients into the processor and then mix it until it gets smooth and hummus-like. Get it into a container and you’ve got yourself a healthy and delicious vegan dip.

• 1 large garlic bulb

• 2 cans of chickpeas (don’t forget to rinse them)

• juice of 1 lemon

• 3 tbsp. tahini

• ¼ cup water

• 3 tablespoons EVOO

• ¼ teaspoon of sea salt

Energy Bite

These little balls of joy and taste are a great way to go when you’re craving something sweet, and there’s no vegan treat in sight. Besides, nothing beats eating healthy food you’ve made yourself. Here’s one recipe that can be taken anywhere you go, it won’t get bad easily and it’s filling. When you’re on the road and filling a bit hungry, reach for these ginger-fueled energy bites and enjoy.

what you'll need:

what to do:

Put the walnuts into the food processor and pulse until they’re chopped well. Add the dates and pulse continually so that you get a mixture that resembles a dough. Chuck in the rest of the ingredients and mix until you’re satisfied with what you have, after which you can roll the dough into balls and have them on the go. Portion yield: 15+ gingerbread bites.

• 1 cup of quick oats

• 2 tbsp. of maple syrup

• 1¼ cup of walnut pieces

• 3 tsp. of ground ginger

• 2 tbsp. of blackstrap molasses

• 1 cup of dates

• ½ tsp. of sea salt

• 2 tbsp. of cinnamon

As you can see, preparing vegan snacks for the road doesn’t have to be complicated nor expensive. These munches are simple to make, they will help you stay full longer and what’s most important, they will allow you to eat healthy even when the conditions for it are not ideal. 

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Monica Nichols is a 32-year-old fashion designer and freelance writer from Omaha, Nebraska. She's been writing for www.diet.st since 2014, and in her free time, she likes making pottery and playing with her pet cat.

Connect with Monica: Blog // Twitter

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Asian Style Noodle Salad

Since the weather has warmed up tremendously, I'm more eager for cold, fresh salads to be on the table. I also have a crazy huge weakness for all things pasta, so although I would love chomping on tomatoes and cucumbers all summer (oh my. I'm hungry now!), once in a while, I crave some starch!

Pasta, however, does not provide the crunch I crave come summertime. My mom always makes this delicious Asian salad with ramen and a delicious ginger dressing, so I decided to do a take on it and see what I could come up with. 

It has been a crazy summer, and since this can be whipped up quickly in a pinch, this is perfect. The dressing can be made ahead for even faster assembly.

Simple Asain-Style Noodle Salad

What You Need:

• 4 ounces chopped or grated carrots

• 12 ounces (or more!) chopped red cabbage

• 12 ounces chopped broccoli

• About 8 ounces whole wheat pasta (I used soba noodles)

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

• 1/4 cup rice vinegar (or lemon juice)

• 3 TBSP agave nectar

• 3 TBSP natural creamy peanut butter

• 3 TBSP low-sodium soy sauce

• 2 tsp minced garlic

• 1 TBSP minced fresh ginger

• 1/2 cup roasted, unsalted peanuts, roughly chopped

• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped

What to Do:

1. Cook the noodles until al dente (follow package directions).

2. Drain and rinse with cool water and transfer to a large serving bowl.

3. Add the red cabbage, broccoli and carrots.

4. Whisk together the olive oil, rice vinegar, peanut butter, agave, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic.

5. Pour over the noodle mixture and toss to combine.

6. Add the peanuts and cilantro.

7. Serve chilled.

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What's your favourite summertime salad? 

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The Most Delicious Cashew Cream Sauce

I cannot tell you half of the raving I hear about this sauce. I made it for a vegan lasagna a couple of weeks ago, and let’s just say, I made sure that the spatula got every last drop of it out of the blender. The spatula didn’t have any left on it by the end either if you catch my drift.

We discovered that this sauce is good on everything. We put it in our fajitas, added some to our enchiladas before (and after!) baking them (goodbye vegan cheese!), and my husband even likes spreading it on his bread in the mornings! My guess would be that it would make a fantastic vegan queso...just putting that out there. Must experiment more to find out.

The stuff is gold - and not just because raw cashews are expensive.

I think I have officially found my cheese alternative, and I am crazy excited to share it with you!

Cashew Cream Sauce
Makes about 2 cups

what you need:

• 1 ¼ c raw cashews (soaked overnight or for an hour in hot water if you don’t have a high speed blender)

• 1 cup almond milk, unsweetened

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• 1 tsp onion powder

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp lemon juice

• ¼ c nutritional yeast flakes

what to do:

Add all ingredients to blender and blend until very smooth

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Have you tried a cashew cream sauce before? Tell me about it below!

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Family Movie Night & The Best Topping for Popcorn

With summer upon us and school out, I feel I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. But not really. It's only about to get busier as the next couple of months are some of our most full ones!

A few days ago, my husband and I were reminiscing about childhood family-fun traditions we had growing up.  For me, it was getting take out some Saturday nights and getting to choose DVDs from Blockbuster (they still had those then!). It was always so fun and we looked forward to those nights as a family. Game night wasn’t as fun to everyone since there would usually be the more competitive of us left up at 2 am still trying to win Monopoly. Those games could last days, I tell you!

As we move on from participating in family fun nights to having to be intentional about planning our own, these fond memories still play in our minds. Even when life gets hectic, we know how important it is to set aside time to bond and relax. For us, a family fun night isn’t complete without some kind of fun food and an activity we can do together - whether it be a rad board game or a great movie.

When it comes to a fun movie night, we like to get creative to switch things up. Once we find the perfect movie (that usually takes a while), we start getting cozy. Sometimes we set up a blanket fort, and sometimes we use a projector to get a theatre-type feel. Blankets and snacks are a must, whatever we do.

We are pretty picky about the movies we decide to watch and always go for true stories that are inspirational. If you like a good family-friendly movie too, be sure to check out Pure Flix for some wholesome, Christian and educational movies. You can try Pure Flix free for a month, which is a good thing since it might take you longer to decide on a movie than to watch one!  You can pair your subscription with Plugged In Movie Reviews from Focus on the Family to get some in-depth and free reviews.

And then, of course, we need snacks. We take snacks very seriously.

We LOOOOOOOVE popcorn. We recently got a new stovetop popcorn popper and it has been put to good use! I personally like sprinkling (okay, dumping!) nutritional yeast flakes on mine. If we have time, we even cut up some potatoes and throw them in the oven for homemade "fries!" Depending on the night, we might even whip up a homemade pizza or pop some frozen stuff in the oven. It’s a seriously good time. Here's what we do with our popcorn:

Easy Popcorn Topping

what you need:

• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels

• up to 1/2 TBSP olive oil (or vegan butter)

• a bit of salt to taste

• nutritional yeast flakes (in my opinion, you can never have to much, so it's up to how much you want!)

what to do:

1) Pop your popcorn by whatever means you do so (we have a stovetop popper right now, but I do love air poppers!)

2) Add (sparingly) your olive oil or vegan butter and sprinkle a bit of salt

3) Go to town with adding your nutritional yeast flakes :) 

Now that it’s summer, we hope to spend more time outside on the porch or around the fire pit making s’mores and roasting hot dogs. It's so much fun just hanging out outside and enjoying the heat of the fire.

Hope you've been inspired to set some time aside to enjoy an evening with your loved ones. I’ve decided to share some favourites with you so you can get started right away with your family-fun movie night - and don’t forget the popcorn! I'd love to hear about your family fun nights too!

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What do you do for family fun? I'd love to hear about it!

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Easy Enchilada Sauce

I've been conjuring up all sorts of sauces lately. I've always been a gravy-type food fan, so it's only natural that I love all sorts of sauces. 

The other day, I was cooking up some dinners I had frozen and came across some enchiladas. They were so sad there in the bottom of the freezer, so of course, I had to whip up some sauce to bake them in.

I have a sauce that I usually make, but I was feeling a little adventurous, so I changed it up a bit. This one is a little thicker and a little spicier. Yes, it's very similar with one added ingredient, and I like it a little more!

Best part? Freezer friendly!

Related: Spinach & Black Bean Enchiladas

Enchilada Sauce
Makes about 2 cups

what you need:

• 3 TBSP olive oil

• 1 1/2 TBSP white whole wheat flour

• 2 TBSP chili powder

• 2 1/2 cups vegetable broth (Try this homemade version!)

• 6 Ounces tomato paste

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

• 1/2 tsp onion powder

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp organic cane sugar

• 1 tsp nutritional yeast flakes

what to do:

1. Heat oil in a saucepan. Sprinkle flour over oil and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

2. Stir in chili powder and tomato paste and continue to cook for another 30 seconds.

3. Whisk in stock,  cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, cane sugar and nutritional yeast flakes.

4. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings and use.