Gluten Free Snacks: National Snack Food Month

February is National Snack Food Month, and for gluten free folks like you and me, it’s a great opportunity to rethink our gluten free snack options!

Snacking sometimes gets a bad rap, but it can actually be a healthy way to maintain weight and appropriate caloric intake, if managed appropriately. Snacking can take the edge off hunger and prevent bingeing, and won’t reduce your appetite for your next meal. In fact, people with some of the healthiest eating habits snack more than twice as much as less healthy folks — wonder if they’re on to something?

One of my favorite gluten free snacks is a handful of nuts and dried fruit; we actually have a large bowl on our kitchen island filled with a rotating combination of these for a quick protein pick-me-up instead of chips or other vacuous munchies. I also love pitting a fresh avocado and filling the center with hummus, and just eating it with a spoon!

Air popped popcorn (check to be sure it’s gluten free), carrot sticks, grape tomatoes, and of course any piece of fruit are easy go-to, low calorie gluten free snacks. Hard boiled eggs are fantastic for protein, too, and an apple or pear with peanut butter is a family favorite for afternoon snacking.

But what if you’re not at home? I carry a gluten free protein bar in my purse or car for hunger emergencies, so I’m always on the lookout for great new gluten free bars with ingenious ingredients and a healthy nutritional profile. Fortunately, there are plenty of great gluten free bars out there, but if you eat one more more daily, as I tend to do, the old standby chocolate-peanut butter flavor combo can lose its luster.

That’s why I was so happy to discover Simple Squares organic nut nutrition bars.* Not only are they gluten free, organic, raw and paleo, they also are high in protein and fiber, which means they offer sustainable energy. Perhaps the most unique feature, to me: their savory-sweet flavors! Cinna-Clove, Ginger, Coffee, Rosemary, Sage … really cool combinations you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find in a snack bar, but ones that somehow really work.

I’m excited to be able to introduce you to one of my newest favorite gluten free bars companies, and to offer one of my readers a mixed box of their newest flavors, Chili Pep and Cho-Coco. The winner will receive 12 bars in total.

To enter:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

*I was provided with bars to sample and photograph for this giveaway. I have received no other compensation for this post and all opinions are my own.