The 3 Best Potato Chip Replacements

I don't know about you, but I tend to get snacky when I study. The smaller meals I'm eating these days coupled with the dry boredom of textbooks always does me in. But what to eat? I eat fruit, veggies, yogurt, and granola bars, but I always miss eating chips. I just crave something salty and crunchy! But I certainly don't want to stuff my face with notoriously unhealthy fried, processed potatoes.

So I took a trup down my grocery aisle and discovered these yummy, satisfying snacks. Just remember: Follow the portion sizes or you can easily eat way too much and defeat the purpose.

Ritz Chips are Ritz crackers redesignd to be more crunchy and chip-like. They come in flavours like cheddar and sour cream and onion, and at 150 calories per 30g serving and 5g of fat (half that in a serving of Lay's potato chips!) they're definitely a great choice.

Special K Cracker Chips are pretty new to the market. My mom bought a box. They don't have quite the same crunch as a chip, but the taste definitely more than makes up for it. And they're 110 calories for a generous 27-cracker portion, so I'm definitely going to keep these in my cupboard!

No one I know likes Triscuit, but I love them! They might be an acquired taste, but they're definitely worth a try. They come in a range of interesting flavours, like Rosemary & Olive Oil and Roasted Tomato & Olive Oil. They're around 120 calories and 4g of fat per serving.

Favourite Ways to Eat Veggies

I love eating vegetables - when they're cooked the right way, that is. Here are my favourite ways to cook various veggies:

• Carrots are great roasted. I just cut them into pieces, toss them in olive oil, salt, pepper, and roast them in the oven.

My sister thinks these look gross.

• I like cauliflower, broccoli, red bell peppers, and zuchinni together grilled. I sprinkle salt, pepper, paprika, and whatever assorted seasonings are in my mom's cupboard, grill 'em, and they make a great side dish or snack.

• Asparagus is awesome sauteed in some balsamic vinegar and salt. Don't overdo it on the balsamic though.

Definitely my favourite!

• Peas, broccoli, or cauliflower I like to just steam and eat. You can add salt and/or pepper. I don't and I love them though.

• Butternut squash can be transformed into an almost-soup if you cook it in a pot with some cooked chicken and baby carrots. I add some potatoes sometimes as well too, as well as salt, pepper, and whatever other seasonings I feel like. The butternut squash melts right down.

• I make a stir-fry of mushrooms, bell peppers of any colour, cauliflower, broccoli, beansprouts, and bok choy. There are many complicated recipes out there but I just sautee onions and garlic in a little olive oil, add my vegetables, and cook it up with a little soy sauce.

I need a skillet like this.

• Don't forget raw, the best way to get all the nutrients! Carrots, red peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes are all yummy dipped in some hummus or low-fat dressing

The 5 Healthiest Foods to Eat at Timmy's

I was telling my sister about my last blog and my discovery of how bad in general the food there is for you (Ironically while stuffing our faces with fried shrimp at Red Lobster - but it was her birthday!). She inspired me to write this post because she asked, "So what is there to eat at Timmy's?" So here I present to you the 5 best foods to eat at Tim Horton's:

1. Chicken wraps: 190 calories each and relatively low-fat (4.5 - 6g depending on the dressing). Save more calories and fat by requesting less dressing.

Yummy AND one of the healthiest choices on the menu!

2. Oatmeal: For breakfast only, but the only breakfast item that's trans-fat free. Around 220 calories per serving. A little higher in sugar, but you can request less maple or berries on top to save some sugar.

3. Soups: Stick to soups with clear broth rather than cream-based soups - most of these have trans fat. Chicken noodle, minsestrone, and hearty vegetable are all good choices that are under 120 calories and low-fat.

Remember, avoid the cream-based!

4. Garden vegetable sandwich: This is the only sandwich I eat at Timmy's. Get it with swiss cheese to eliminate the trans fat. Around 320 calories.

5. Drinks: Coffee, lattes, and cappucinos are all under 100 calories. Try iced lattes instead of iced capps - 11g of sugar in a small vs. 32g in a small iced capp. Also, if you must have hot chocolate or french vanilla, try requesting it with half coffee to halve the sugar.

Hope this helps! Again, check out Tim Horton's nutritional info for further information.

The Top 5 Foods to Avoid at Timmy's

Most Canadians love Tim Horton's - myself included. But have you stopped to look at what their products contain? I did, and it really surprised me.

So here is my list of the Top 5 foods to Avoid at Tim Hortons:

1. Breakfast Sandwiches - Any of them, on a homestyle biscuit, will earn you 0.5g trans fat. Considering it's encouraged to eliminate consumption of trans fats as much as possible, that's a hell of a lot for one food item. On an english muffin, 0.2g.

2. Iced Cappucinos - A small serving will get you 11g of fat - 6 saturated and 0.4 trans fat, both of which are considered "bad fats". Why? Because there is a lot of cream in there. Get it with milk instead - 1.5g fat, 1g saturated.

A customer favourite that you may want to rethink.

3. Honey Crullers - ALL the donuts and cookies have at least 0.1 g of trans fat, but this one takes the cake with 0.4g.

4. Hot Chocolate - A small. drink has the most sugar of any item on the menu - 38g. Also 6g of fat, 5g saturated and 0.2g trans.

5. "Real" Fruit Smoothies - These are really a travesty, and marketed as a healthy choice, which is severely misleading. It's 1/5 of some kind of alien fruit concentrate mix out of a box, and the rest a beverage base, which is basically sugar and water. Eat a fruit, for gosh sakes! Or go to McDonald's, their's are actually made from fruit. Small with no yogurt 30g sugar, all the way up to large with yogurt 60g of sugar.

Sorry, but what is your definition of "real", Timmy's? SMH!

Need more info? Go to Timmy's official nutition guide or their nutrition calculator.