— Paulette Bridges

So one of the things that I hear from people a lot is they feel great following a plant-based diet. They sleep better, they have more energy. And I can attest to all of those, but they kind of miss the snack arena. And, you know, if you've been following the NCAA playoffs, there are snack commercials on every seven seconds, it seems. And most of those commercials are for food that shouldn't even be called food. So crunch is the thing that people miss the most. So, uh, I like to recommend Mary's Gone Crackers. Uh, Mary was the mom of a child with Celiac. She didn't know what to do, and this is before being able to find gluten-free products was as available as they are today. So these crackers, uh, I happen to like the seaweed variety, but she has many different flavors, and they've got, uh, seeds and, and such in them. This has seaweed, uh, flax seed, uh, sunflower seeds. They're nice and crunchy, just what you're looking for. And you can serve them with hummus or you can serve them with a nut butter. Um, I'm also going to recommend, um, there is an a, um, a man in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where the Amish are known to reside, and his name is Jerry. And when he retired, his wife said to him, you're driving me crazy. You've gotta find something to do. So he said, well, you know, I like making pretzels, so I think I'll make pretzels. So fast forward to today, and if you're at a Whole Foods market in the northeast region, or the Mid-Atlantic region where I reside, uh, Jerry Jerry's, Jerry's pretzels, uncle Jerry's pretzels are handmade, and he has one that is whole wheat. And rather than using salt, they're covered in sesame seeds. So you're getting fiber, and then you're getting some added calcium from the sesame seeds, and they're absolutely delicious. I was gonna run over to Whole Foods this morning and get a package, but, uh, my, my timeline didn't allow that. So, crunchy crackers stay away from, um, any kind of cracker that says nutritious on the front or delicious, because if you read the label, you're going to see that one of the first five ingredients may be salt or sugar or oil, and you really want to avoid those. I also happen to like wasa crackers, and they're really delicious with, um, uh, hummus spread on them and some vegetables, or there's a whole thing here about how, uh, in the plant-based arena, how everybody is, uh, jumping on the bandwagon to make plant-based foods. And they're jumping into the arena of snacks, but they're not really good for you. So like they say, if it's from a plant, eat it. If it was made in a plant, don't I say explore and have fun and, uh, you know, uh, spend a little bit more time for everyone at the grocery store. I can remember when I first became Plant-based, I would carry a magnifying glass with me because sometimes the font on the box was so small and I wanted to make sure that I was eating something that was whole food plant-based, no oil, salt, or sugar. So Mary's does that, uncle Jerry's does it, fresh fruit, does it, and also try new fruits. You know, sometimes we get stuck in the citrus arena or we've tried every apple in the world, but, you know, berries are great. Uh, make a smoothie from some frozen fruit and, uh, just keep experimenting because there's so much, so much fun to do. And you have to be a little bit, uh, of a, um, of, uh, explorer, shall we say, to bring these new foods into your kitchen. And the important part of it, and I speak from personal experience, if other people in your household might not be plant-based, that's okay, because this is time for you to focus on you and feel your very best.