Mums are the busiest women I know. The day strains at the seams trying to contain the ever burgeoning amount of absolutely essential tasks at hand. Add something as innocent as a birthday party or one of the children suddenly needing a new set of underpants and it can warp the entire dynamic of the already frenetic schedule. Between the baby, the pre-teen and the tween in a super-hyper city, on some days I think of myself as a blur, pausing occasionally to breathe but never long enough to properly comb my hair.
Keeping fit, eating healthily and exercising adequately has hitherto been edged far down the list of priorities. But as I get older and wider, the children are simultaneously expanding their horizons and nature/nurture demands that I keep up.
Taking time to chew through three or six meals a day is ha-ha-hee-hee, not a chance. There’s barely enough time to put food in front of the offspring. I’d taken to eating what I could, with one hand (the other carrying the baby) out of the fridge because snacking or grazing is the only way I can keep going.
But what to snack on? It has to be light and clean and yet hit all the aching, deprived spots developing out of energy deficit. So this week is devoted to quick snacks that once prepared will sit in your fridge and when you’re ready to eat ‘em… will save you from — as my mother puts it so well — ‘looking like a Picasso at the end of the day’.

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Yogurt Fruit Parfait
The yoghurt will taste so good that even the kids will want some — maybe even with some chocolate sauce on top, mummy?

Ingredients:
2 tubs ready-made yoghurt (800 gms)
1 cup large black grapes
1/3 cup condensed milk
1 cup cubed dragon fruit*
Sunflower seeds

Method:
Hang the yoghurt overnight by putting it in a handkerchief, in a sieve with a bowl under. It the morning, discard the whey and stir the condensed milk in. You will get the mildest sweetening this way. Add more condensed milk if you want but remember the calories girl. Toast the sunflower seeds lightly if you have the time. Now in a very tall glass, layer: yoghurt, grapes, yoghurt, dragon fruit, yoghurt, fruit, seeds. Keep in the fridge. Everytime you need a booster, spoon some into your maw.

*(Note: you can use any fruit you like: blueberries, strawberries, mango… colour co-ordinating for fun. Malaysian dragonfruit is available in the market where I shop so I teamed it with black grapes.)

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Roasted Garbanzos
In one of her books, Sophie Kinsella is making this nutritious, filling, fun snack and she burns it. So watch out for that. Though you get roasted chickpeas in some traditional snack shops, these are far better because some retain a soft centre while others get very crisp. This non-uniformity makes them more delicious.

Ingredients:
2 cups cooked chickpeas
2 tbs olive oil
Nice pinch of salt
Dry herbs or spices for seasoning *

Method:

Preheat your oven to 425 F (or quite, quite hot). Rinse the chickpeas a couple of times. Then gently toss them in a towel to dry them as much as possible. In a baking tray, toss them with oil, salt and seasoning. Put them in the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Check on them every 20 minutes, stirring them around and every 5 minutes in the last 15. Shake the pan a bit — if they make a rattling sound then they’re almost done. Remove… cool, store in the fridge. They will go slightly soft, but that just makes the texture more interesting.
*(I used dried thyme and lemon zest to give the chickpeas a middle-easterny za’atar flavour but you can use anything you like that will take the oven heat without burning. Try Moroccan spices or garam masala. Spritz with fresh lemon and add chopped onion and coriander to give your snack a street food feel.)

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Caprese

This is the best breakfast/ lunch /dinner I know. A posh reincarnation of the TLC tomato-lettuce-cucumber, you take away the simple carbs from the bread and it’s a great weight-loss aid too. Eat this slowly and quietly and it is very satisfying.

Ingredients:
Sliced mozzarella
Slice tomatoes
Basil leaves
Salt, pepper
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Rye crispbread (optional)

Method:

Slice the mozzarella. If you have the time, marinate it in pepper, salt, dried basil for a while. (If you have extra mozzarella, fill a jar with olive oil and herbs and chuck the rest of the cheese in for another salad, another time.) Arrange the tomatoes, basil and cheese, season and dress with lemon juice and olive oil. Eat with crispbread or on its own.

Note: If you’re craving a grilled cheese, pop this into the microwave for 20 seconds. Ummmm… you’re welcome.

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For girls on the go
Smart snacking requires commitment, focus and a little planning. And you’ll know you’re really snacking smart when the rewards outweigh the effort. Set aside just a couple of hours over the weekend to build your battery reserves of snacks for the week. Shop for low-fat, high-fibre crackers, brain-food walnuts, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, big fat stalks of celery. Hang yoghurt to help curb ice-cream cravings, make your peanut butter at home to give you and your kids a break from the additives in commercial peanut butter, make a batch of hummous, cook apples down to applesauce for sweet-tooth moments, grind almonds down to powder to add power to fruit smoothies, prep and freeze raw veggies for soup or quick steaming… Promise yourself to do this for a month and soon you’ll have a routine that will be addictive. Mummies, working girls and generally girls on the go, I’m talking to you. Because you’re worth it. You’re the salt of the earth.

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Peanut Butter Cups
This is the simplest, most lovely thing to make and the way this recipe has been tweaked makes it quite good for you. Not using commercial peanut butter makes it lower in fat too. What was incredible was that offspring 5yrs and 9yrs helped considerably and had a lot of fun as well. Try making these on a playdate with a small number of children. Chocolate and peanuts, good stuff and fun — what’s not to love?

Ingredients:
2 cups cooking chocolate
250 gms roasted peanuts (with the thin brown skins on)
2 tsp oil
Silicon cake-cups or paper cupcake casings

Method:

Melt the chocolate in a large bowl. You can do this by placing your bowl of chocolate over a bowl of boiling water and stirring. But be very, very, very careful that no water gets into the chocolate because frankly, that is an irretrievable disaster (you can melt it, add warm milk and make a lot of hot chocolate then.) Easier way is to pop it into the microwave for 30 seconds. Then remove, fork through. Pop back into the microwave for another 30 seconds. Fork through. Ours melted to perfection with 2 thirty second blasts. Line each cake-cup or casing with melted chocolate and pop them into the fridge for 10 minutes for the chocolate to harden. In the meanwhile, grind the peanuts. Don’t worry about the flaky skins, they provide fibre and make it taste better. Add two tsp of oil and 2 tablespoons of melted chocolate to the peanuts. Stir. You want the peanut mix to form small, crumbly lumps as you stir through so add more chocolate if you need to, one teaspoon at a time.
Take the chilling casings or cake-cups out of the fridge, give them another painting of chocolate. Now, with a teaspoon, fill each casing with the peanut mixture. Press down very gently. Pop your melted chocolate back into the microwave for 20 seconds to re-melt. Gently pour over each casing to cover the peanut mix. Put in the fridge for about 20 minutes or more till properly set. You can unmould them or eat them straight from the casing. So so good.