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Candies that count

Peanut Butter Log

Sesame Seed Delight

Tiger’s Candy

*New recipe.

The recipes in this section prove that a snack or a sweet doesn’t have to be considered just an energy food, a filler, or a mere self-indulgence. It can also contribute substantially to meeting your body’s need for protein.

Snacks That Count

Instant Cottage Cheese Pudding

To cottage cheese add:

chopped nuts

applesauce

toasted sunflower seeds

dried fruit

dash cinnamon

Choose your favorite ingredients and mix together to your taste for a great snack.

Instant Buttermilk Pudding

This has a great sweet-sour taste that is addicting. If you think you don’t like buttermilk, try it this way.

To leftover rice add:

buttermilk

brown sugar or honey

raisins

nuts or seeds

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Peanut Butter Protein Sandwich

Remember that when you eat peanut butter by itself your body can use only about 40 percent of the protein in it. The rest is wasted because the amino acids are unbalanced. This is why commercials that promote peanut butter as a good source of protein are misleading unless you know how to combine it with other protein sources to create an amino acid balance that the body can use more fully.

So, go get your jar of peanut butter. If it is partly eaten, there’ll be room to add some nonfat dry milk powder. The exact proportion is 2 parts peanut butter to slightly less than 1 part milk powder (or slightly less than ½ cup milk powder for every cup of peanut butter). However, this much powder will make the peanut butter too stiff, so either add less powder (any at all is helpful, protein-wise) or add honey to soften it up. Or, if the peanut butter-milk mix is stiff, I like to add a quarter of a mashed banana when I am making a sandwich for my little girl. She loves it that way.

Make your peanut protein count.

Complementary protein: peanut + milk

Low-Calorie Cheese Spread

Ricotta cheese or low-fat cottage cheese

Optional:

chopped dried fruit

chopped nuts

Try either cheese on toast, English muffins, or a bagel. Add just a touch of marmalade. Delicious!

If you want more protein and fewer calories, ricotta is a great substitute for cream cheese. It has one-third the calories and 75 percent more protein.

Appetizers That Count

Cool Spinach Appetizer

2 cups

Claire Greensfelder (see Betty the Peacenik Gingerbread) developed this recipe in an effort to re-create the great taste she had in an Afghanistan restaurant. I don’t know whether she succeeded, but my kids love it, even though spinach is not their favorite vegetable.

1 pound spinach

1 cup plain yogurt

1 tablespoon tahini (sesame butter) or more to taste

Juice of 1 lemon

1 clove garlic, minced

Cook spinach, drain, and let cool. Mix thoroughly with remaining ingredients. Great on pita bread, crackers, or pumpernickel.

Complementary protein: milk product + wheat (bread)

Cold Gallentine

6 servings

Makes a fine hors d’oeuvre or lunchtime dish.

2 tablespoons margarine

1 medium onion, chopped

¼ pound mushrooms, coarsely chopped

2 eggs, beaten

Salt and pepper to taste

Pinch nutmeg

1¼ cups cooked brown rice (½ cup uncooked)

2 tablespoons brewer’s yeast

¾ cup bread crumbs

¼ cup nuts or ground toasted seeds

Spread (optional):

2 tablespoons ricotta cheese

2 tablespoons yogurt

2 tablespoons mayonnaise

Preheat oven to 375°F. Heat margarine and saute onion and mushrooms until onion is translucent. Mix eggs with salt and pepper and nutmeg and add rice, yeast, bread crumbs, and nuts; then mix in sautéed vegetables. Put in an oiled casserole and bake for 30 minutes. Let cool. Cut in 2-inch squares. Combine spread ingredients and serve on or with cold gallentine.

Complementary protein: rice + yeast + wheat + seeds + milk products

Sesame Crisp Crackers

3 to 4 dozen crackers

These crackers go well with soups as well as sweets. Serve them with your favorite dips, spreads, and cheeses.

1½ cups whole wheat flour

¼ cup soy flour

¼ cup ground sesame seeds

Salt to taste

1/3 cup oil

About ½ cup water

Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir together whole