35: High Protein Snacks: Healthy & Delicious

High protein snacks - they sound like a good idea, but why are they so hard to fit into your day? If you feel the same way, you're in the right place!

This week, we're diving deep into the incredible benefits of high protein snacks for everyone in your family, especially for us amazing women navigating perimenopause and beyond.

Ashley breaks down why protein is so much more than just a fitness fad. We'll explore how it can help manage your appetite, build lean muscle (so important!), support healthy skin, hair, and nails, and even keep those kiddos going strong. Forget those processed protein bars – we're talking real, delicious ways to power up your day!

In this episode we'll cover:

• Why Protein is Your Perimenopause BFF (and Everyone Else's Too!): Learn the key benefits of protein for appetite control, energy, muscle health, bone density, and even those pesky perimenopause symptoms.
• Snacks as Mini-Meals: Rethinking Your Protein Intake: Ditch the processed snacks and discover how to strategically incorporate protein throughout your day with satisfying and healthy "mini-meals."
• Delicious & Family-Friendly High-Protein Snack Ideas: Get five easy, portable, and yummy snack recipes that everyone in your family will love

This episode is packed with practical tips and inspiration to help you and your family easily incorporate more protein into your daily routine. Say goodbye to energy slumps and hello to feeling fueled, strong, and ready to take on anything!

Grab Your Protein Power-Ups:

• Download the free guide, Protein for Perimenopause, which includes links to my favorite protein powders
• Make my famous grain-free granola with this recipe
• An endless supply of protein-forward recipes in The Supper Club
• Have other questions, or want to connect directly with me? Start here!

Transcript

Hello there, my friend, and welcome back to this week's episode of The Family Fork.

Now, unless you have been living under a rock, you no doubt have heard a lot about protein and specifically the benefits of protein for perimenopause.

And while this is so true, you don't need to be in perimenopause in order to get the benefits from really pumping up the amount of protein that you get in every day. But the reality is that you might not be getting enough protein and the protein sources that you're choosing might not be the best for your body because I promise you, you need a lot more than just a couple of protein bars a week in order to get those full benefits from what protein can do for your body.

So today, I want to really dig into protein itself and how it can benefit you, especially as you age. We're also going to talk about how it can benefit your kids no matter what age they are. And let's also look at how we can get in all of that protein that we need every single day, but in a really healthy way.

You know, when I walked down, you know, when you walk down the aisles of the grocery store or actually noticed this at Costco last weekend, there are so many products that have protein listed on their packaging. Like it's part of their marketing. And one of the most, I don't know, guess interesting or gross, depending on how you look at it, things that I saw was protein chips. There were these chips that were made with

dehydrated chicken, I think, and then some other ingredients. And I looked at the ingredients, they weren't terrible, but there's gotta be a better way that we can get in our protein that is not a bunch of like processed dehydrated chicken made into a potato chip.

So let's cover protein, let's look at what it can do for you, your kids, your family, and then we're going to talk about how to get it all in.

And what I know that you are really here for is how do I get those high protein snacks? So we're definitely going to talk about that, but stick with me to the end. And I've got five really delicious, easy and portable snacks for you. And I also have my emergency list of foods and things that I take with me in case I need protein on the go.

You are definitely going to want to take notes as we often do here at The Family Fork. And you can also grab the free guide, Protein for Perimenopause. I'll link to that in the show notes. This will actually expand on what you hear today. It's even more information. So definitely go download that as soon as you're done with this episode.

All right, it is obvious. The benefits are definitely there in terms of how protein can support you, especially when you're in perimenopause. One of the best things that protein can do is to help you manage your appetite. So protein, when you eat it, it actually takes a while to break down. So if you find yourself struggling that you're like hungry all the time, you should add more protein to each of your meals.

so that you will stay fuller for longer. And while the protein is helping you stay full, it's also gonna give you a lot of energy. know, protein and all of its amino acids, that is also gonna help you to support your growth of lean muscle. We know that this is so important in perimenopause because this is that time of life where you are losing muscle mass.

So if you're strength training, that is great. You're increasing your muscle mass, but you also need to have more protein in order to keep growing that lean muscle, which once you have it, the lean muscle is gonna help your bones, your joints, and the protein itself is really going to support your bone density.

And really protein, my gosh, it's so good for healthy skin and hair and nails. I don't know about you, but as I've gone through perimenopause and now I'm in postmenopause, my hair is just not as soft as it used to be. My skin's a little bit drier and my nails are more brittle. So the more protein we can get in, the more it is gonna benefit your skin, your hair and your nails.

Now, of course, it goes without saying that protein is also important for our kids, no matter what age they are. They are going to get all of those same benefits that we do, that we just talked about, so essential for muscle development, bone health, especially as kids are growing. Suraya my six-year-old, she knows that we have protein at every single meal, including snacks. It's just that important.

It's helping to bolster her immune system so that she can stay healthy and ward off all of those germs that she gets at school. Seriously, those things go around like wildfire. The protein, helps her with energy and focus, just like it does for us in perimenopause. really protein is going to be so important for brain development. As our kids are growing, their brains, their bodies are growing and developing.

Protein is absolutely essential that they have high, high amounts of protein every single day. So nobody is disputing the fact that protein is really, really important for human beings and our growth, development, and just overall staying healthy and energized and fit. And you've probably said this to yourself. I know I have like, yeah, that is great. I get it. But I don't know how to get it all in or I don't even know how much to have every day.

And what I find when I work with women, like students that come into my group program, The Method, we really start digging into what they are eating. And for most of them, they're having maybe like some eggs for breakfast and a little bit of shredded chicken on their salad, and then maybe some more chicken or a piece of steak or a burger for dinner. So one of the most common questions that comes up is, well, what kind of snacks can I have?

But recently our conversation now is what kind of high protein snacks can I have? And I love that, but I want you to start thinking about snacks in a really different way. I want you to consider that your snacks are actually many meals because when your brain thinks about a snack, you probably default to something like a bag of chips or a rice cake with some almond butter, something that is typically

processed or probably comes in a package. And we just think this way because we believe that our snack needs to be quick and fast and portable. So if we continue to think this way, we're actually looking to process foods to kind of fill those nutritional gaps between our meals.

Trust me, we can do better. So if you start thinking about your snacks as mini meals, you're actually going to start to think differently. So when you think of a mini meal, maybe a visual comes up for you that's a bowl or a small plate. It's not a flattened processed protein bar stuffed in a wrapper.

By thinking about mini meals, it's actually going to broaden your idea of what you can have when you want a snack. And your brain is going to default to thinking about different options, which ultimately are going to be better for your health, your nutrition, your energy level.

So when we dial into protein specifically, I want you to make sure that you're not just expecting to get a lot of protein in your mini meals or your snacks. Now you definitely need to start your day with a minimum of 40 grams of protein before 10 a.m. Okay, 40 grams of protein before 10 a.m. And when I tell you that, I do not want you filling up on

two scoops of protein powder. That 40 grams that you eat for breakfast needs to include actual food, like eggs or chicken or chicken sausage or steak, food, actual food. So by starting your day with 40 grams of protein, you are going to instantly regulate your blood sugar. You're also gonna feel fuller for longer, and then you're gonna have lots of energy throughout your day.

It is really in your best interest to start your breakfast or even two smaller breakfasts with a huge dose of protein, that 40 grams of protein. For me, what that looks like is after a workout, I'm having a scoop of protein powder and I'm also adding some collagen. And then I follow that up with breakfast a little bit later, but it's packed with chicken or ground turkey and

some veggies and so all of that combined gives me close to 50 grams of protein before 10 a.m. So that is pretty doable, right? I know you can do that, but then the rest of the day it looks a little harder, right?

So the other thing that my students come to me where they're confused is, okay, well, how am I going to get protein throughout the day if we're not eating dairy? You will hear me say this time and time again. An anti-inflammatory diet is the only diet for women over age 35. It's not even a diet, it's a lifestyle. As we go into perimenopause, we lose estrogen.

Estrogen helps to reduce the amount of inflammation that we have in our body. So just by getting older and losing estrogen, you are naturally going to have more inflammation. So it is really important to make sure that you are eating an anti-inflammatory diet, and that means taking out dairy. Now, if you watch Instagram or TikTok or anything at all right now, cottage cheese, you will notice, is having a big moment.

People are using it in tons of recipes. But if you're like me and you've recognized that dairy does not set well with you, and because I'm telling you that dairy is super inflammatory, what are you supposed to do? You can't join in the cottage cheese bandwagon.

For me, even though I am very sensitive to dairy, I have found that Greek yogurt is actually pretty digestible for my body. With Greek yogurt, the lactose has been strained out of the yogurt quite substantially. There's still a little bit in there, but it's that lactose that is difficult to digest and causes inflammation. So with that Greek yogurt, you're getting less lactose.

and it's going to be easier for you to digest and it won't promote as much inflammation.

Now there are certain types of Greek yogurt that I have tried that actually don't set well with me. Personally, I have found that the fat free Greek yogurt at Costco, the Kirkland brand settles really well. And then there's a full fat Greek yogurt at Whole Foods. It's their 365 brand. And that one seems to do pretty well for me too. So you might need to try a couple to see what works for you.

And I know it is hard to go dairy free, but if we're looking to increase protein and not have as much dairy, Greek yogurt might be a good option for you.

At the beginning of this episode, I mentioned protein bars and protein powders. So let's talk a little bit about why I don't love these for snack options. Many protein bars and protein powders on the market today are made with really synthetic and processed ingredients, lots of additives and ingredients that are just really bad for gut health, which poor gut health will increase inflammation.

We don't need that. We don't need all of those processed ingredients just for the benefit of getting protein. And really, like if you look at it, three quarter cups of Greek yogurt can give you 16 to 20 grams of protein, depending on the brand. And a lot of protein bars on the market maybe give you six to 10 grams of protein. So it's like half as much. And those protein bars are going to be higher in fat.

higher in calories and probably higher in sugar. So if you're looking at macros, like that balance between fat and carbs and proteins, it's just too equal in a protein bar. So you're not necessarily getting more protein when you eat a protein bar.

Now as for protein powders, if you can find a clean protein powder that is not filled with processed ingredients and like weird sugars or sugar alcohols, that kind of thing, you still are going to be better off eating actual food if you're looking for a snack that's really going to tide you over. Now I do think that there's a place for the right kind of protein powders and we'll talk about it in a minute, but protein powder in itself,

probably isn't going to keep you full for very long.

Alright, so let's get into the good part. Let's talk about snacks because I know this is what you came for and I really know that what you are thinking of is how can I get a high protein snack that is healthy and super convenient and I don't have to think much about it, right? So let's look at some great options that are perfect alternatives to those bars. Like.

Let's look at some great options that are perfect alternatives to bars and prepackaged protein shakes.

have for you five different things to pick from that are high protein snacks that are also really healthy. And all of these are also kid friendly, family friendly. So you are not going to have to make any concessions for yourself or your healthy food. This is going to work for everybody in your family. So number one is an all time favorite, a protein smoothie. But I want to talk a little bit about how to make a healthier protein smoothie.

So this is an area where I do think using protein powder is great. When you can use the right protein powder to bring sweetness to your smoothie, as opposed to a banana or a high sugar fruit, it's really gonna be a benefit to you. So now raise your hand if you're someone who puts a half or a full banana into your smoothie, even when it's just for you. Honestly, that is too much sugar. Even though it's natural, it's a lot of sugar. A quarter of a banana

should be enough to give you a little bit of sweetness.

Or what you can do, which is what I do, is skip the banana altogether and just use the protein powder as your sweetener. So my favorite protein powder that I use right now is called Prime Protein. And it's a beef isolate protein, and it just dissolves so well, and it comes in tons of different flavors. But my favorites are chocolate, vanilla, and iced coffee.

So if I'm making like a fruit smoothie or a tropical smoothie, I'm probably going to use the vanilla prime protein powder. If you're going to add a quarter of a banana, that's fine. Go ahead and add your other fruit, but just make sure you're doing low sugar fruits like raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, something like that. And then I never use ice for my smoothies at all. If I'm going to add a quarter of a banana, I'm going to make sure that's frozen. And then I add frozen

spinach. So with today's high speed blenders, it is so easy to get that spinach all ground up. I promise you will never taste it, but it's a really good way to get in some of those extra vitamins and veggies, especially if you are giving this smoothie to your kids. And I promise you will not taste the spinach. You just can't taste it at all, but it does make it nice and thick and rich without having to add ice, which

For me, ice just makes a smoothie really watered down and I don't like that at all.

If you like a really thick, rich smoothie, add an eighth of an avocado. That's all you need. And that is definitely going to add some richness and creaminess to your smoothie. And then if you want to go crazy with these smoothies, make some extra and then pour them into popsicle molds and put them in the freezer. So for you or your kids on a hot summer day, it's going to be a delicious popsicle.

made with your smoothie ingredients. It's super healthy and good, and it's just gonna make everyone happy.

Now I'm going to tell you a funny story. So my mom has always been on the cutting edge when it comes to most things, but definitely in her business and when it came to food. And I remember being a kid back in the 1980s, so a long time ago. And my mom, even back then was already making us smoothies. And the way she would make them is with orange juice and milk, which I know that sounds totally gross to mix the two, but it totally works.

and then frozen strawberries, bananas, and then she would put in a big scoop of cottage cheese as a way of increasing protein. So even way back then, my mom already knew this was super important.

Now I know we already talked a little bit about cottage cheese and how today it's having a moment. There is a brand that's available right now called Good Culture and it is a lactose free cottage cheese. So just like we talked about with the Greek yogurt, when you strip that lactose, it is going to be easier to digest and be less inflammatory.

So if you can find the good culture cottage cheese, apparently it's hard to find right now, but that might be an option for you to put into a smoothie too. It's gonna make it really thick and delicious and give you a nice hefty dose of protein.

All right, so with our smoothies, the takeaways are to watch how many extra sugars you're adding, even though it's natural sugar, like the extra banana. You wanna use frozen spinach and then use protein powder or a lactose-free cottage cheese for your protein source. And then, of course, feel free to freeze them, because that is gonna be a fun way to eat your smoothie.

All right, snack number two is egg salad or tuna salad. So remember when I told you that I want you to consider your snacks like mini meals? This is exactly what I'm talking about. If you take two eggs and a couple of egg whites, just mix that up with some mustard and a dollop of Greek yogurt, some seasoning, some salt and pepper. That right there is a really protein rich snack for you. And when you use two eggs,

and then two or three egg whites, you'll keep the fat content a little bit lower, but you'll still have a substantial boost of protein. So you can serve that egg salad with Simple Mills crackers. Simple Mills, I've mentioned them before, they are one of my favorite low inflammatory brands. And then add some strawberries on the side and all of a sudden you have egg salad, crackers and fresh fruit.

This is what I mean by making a mini meal, but really it's just a snack that's super portable. You can put all of this in a glass container or a Tupperware and pack it with you on the go. It's just easy and delicious.

If going to opt to make the tuna salad, tuna is so good because it's incredibly high in protein. Just be sure that you're getting a low mercury tuna. The brand that I like is called Safe Catch. It's a yellowfin tuna. It's so good. And it's just a really good option for this tuna salad.

Alright, snack number three is going to be a complete throwback to your childhood. Ants on a log. Remember those? So they're cut pieces of celery filled with almond butter. I would rather you use almond butter over peanut butter. The almond butter is less inflammatory and just healthier overall. And then you can top that with either raisins, which is like the traditional way, or in our house, we like to add dried cherries. So it looks like red ants on a log.

but it's just a little bit something different, super easy to deal. When you buy your cherries or your raisins, just make sure they're unsweetened and both or either of those are gonna be a good option for your ants on the log.

Snack number four is a favorite in our house and it is especially fantastic with kids. It's a yogurt parfait. Now I don't know about you, but I used to travel a lot and when I would walk through the airport, I would see those refrigerated cases and they would have the really pretty plastic cups or they have these at Starbucks too, just filled with like beautiful yogurt parfaits layered with yogurt and fruit and they just look so good.

Well, good thing for us, we can actually make those at home and we can make them super healthy and super portable. for your Greek yogurt, so for your yogurt parfaits, I want you to use the Greek yogurt if you can tolerate it. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna mix that yogurt with some vanilla protein powder. Again, it's a great option instead of adding maple syrup or honey or sugar or jam, anything like that.

When you use the protein powder like we did with the smoothies, it will serve as your source of sweetener without adding unhealthy ingredients or added sugar or too many calories.

You can top your yogurt parfait with low sugar berries. then lately, I have been loving the granola from One Degree Organics. It is so good. I really recommend it. Or you can actually make a grain-free granola. I have a really good recipe, so I'll link to that in the show notes. So you can make your own grain-free granola and top your parfait that way.

Now, if you can't tolerate Greek yogurt, feel free to use coconut yogurt for this parfait. But I want you to keep in mind that coconut yogurt, it can actually be pretty high in fat and it can be high in sugar just because of the way they process it. So you only want to use a little bit. One of my favorite brands is called Coco June, and that is just a super clean option. But be forewarned if you have never had coconut yogurt before.

it does have a different taste, but it's going to serve the same purpose here when you're mixing it with low sugar berries and a little bit of grain-free granola.

Now, as I mentioned, I was always drawn to those really pretty cups that the yogurt parfaits came in with like the cute rounded tops. I don't know, they just looked really enticing, but we can do the same thing at home. So, Suraya and I, my six-year-old and I, we went on Amazon and we found some paper ice cream cups with lids. And it just so happens that the kit that we found came with matching spoons. So, we can make up a couple of yogurt parfaits

have them in the refrigerator in these cute paper cups that have lids, and they just look really cute and enticing, especially for your kids who don't necessarily wanna just eat a bowl of yogurt and fruit.

and one more tip about the yogurt parfaits. Before you add the granola, just like the smoothies, you can freeze your yogurt parfait. So if you want something that feels a little bit more like ice cream, just freeze the parfait in that paper cup and then pull it out about five minutes before you want to eat it and it will taste a little bit more like

ice cream. It'll be delicious.

All right, last but not least, another one of our favorite snacks in our house is a charcuterie plate. You can create a charcuterie plate, again, that travels. Just put it in a Tupperware or a glass container. So what you'll do here is you're going to pair nitrate-free deli slices like deli turkey or deli chicken. I personally really like the Applegate brand. And then you can add some white sharp cheddar cheese.

So with cheese, the harder the cheese, the lower the lactose. So sharp white cheddar is gonna be a great option for your charcuterie plate. And then you add some sliced red bell pepper or some broccoli, some cut up broccoli, and you can use like a honey mustard as a dipping sauce or a little bit of honey mustard on your deli.

This high protein snack in particular, I really love because I'm what's considered a volume eater. I want to see more food and I want to consume more food. So you have to have the right choices for that. So with the nitrate free deli, typically you can actually get away with like three or four slices of the deli meat. To me, that feels like a lot. And then when you pair that with a whole red bell pepper, all of a sudden you're eating a ton of food.

but it's still supporting your nutritional goals. And with that deli and the cheese, it's gonna be super high in protein.

Okay, stick with me, because there's one more thing I want to share with you. So we've talked about why protein is so important, how much protein you need.

We've talked about why protein is so important, how much protein you need to start your day with, and I've given you five snacks that will give you options to really boost your protein content throughout your entire day. You want to make sure that you have protein at every meal where you sit down, but as you're thinking about these snacks or mini meals, just make them protein forward, and that is going to help you feel so full and energized all day long.

But I also know that there are emergency situations like an airplane travel or something like that where it's hard to take some of these things along. Like it's harder to take a smoothie, right? So I want to give you a couple of quick tips on what I use when I'm traveling or I'm going to be away from the kitchen or the fridge for a long time and I just know I need something on hand. Now I always bring protein powder with me. It's easy to just dump it in some water. It's not always

the best with plain water, but in a pinch, it will really serve the purpose of getting you that extra protein and helping you stay fuller for longer without grabbing a processed food or a processed snack.

RX bars can be a decent option to take along. I have a lot of students that ask me about these in particular, and they're really pretty clean. They're made with minimal ingredients, and they're mostly like date and apple and a few other things. But I want you to notice that the sugar content is pretty high on those. Again, even though it's that natural sugar, it's still high in sugar, and the RX bars are not actually high in protein.

So just be aware of that if you need to bring something in a pinch, an RX bar, it'll be an OK option.

Hard-boiled eggs always travel easily and they hold up really well, especially if you're on a plane or traveling for a while.

And another option for you is dry roasted nuts. Super easy. In our house, we always have pecans and almonds that are dry roasted. You just put them in the oven for 350 degrees Fahrenheit for like 10 to 15 minutes. Stir them once throughout the baking cycle and that's it. That's all you have to do. And don't be afraid to pack a few things in your purse. So if you've been around me for a while or you know anything about me, you'll know that I

probably always have chicken in my purse when I go somewhere. This allows me to have a high protein snack or a mini meal when I need it, especially if I'm in a place where I can't get to the food that I need. I'll just pull that chicken out of my purse. I know, I get it. It sounds totally weird, but cooked chicken, it's gonna last a while out of your refrigerator. You'll be fine, I promise.

Hopefully this episode has really given you a different way to approach snacking because I know how you think it's like I'm gonna have three meals and I want to have one or two snacks throughout the day. Think differently about your snacks and consider them these mini meals. Go protein forward every single time you eat your meals, your mini meals, your snacks and that is going to help you stay very full throughout the day, very energized.

and it's going to help with your health and your wellness and your longevity. All around, it's just a great way to eat. So I hope you enjoyed. Go have a great week and I really can't wait to see you back here next week.