Guest Post: Snack time with NuVal

Hey everyone! I’m so excited that the lovely Tina has written a guest post for me, especially since I’ve read her blog forever and she’s a good friend of mine 😀
I’m off to train a client then head to the Christmas wives’ coffee, but I’ll be back tonight with a re-cap and that super sweet giveaway as soon as I get the final go-ahead 😉

Enjoy!!!

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Many thanks to Gina for allowing me the opportunity to write a guest post for her blog. I’ve been a daily reader for quite a long time now, so it’s an honor to have this opportunity!

My name is Tina and you may know me from my healthy living blog, Carrots ‘N’ Cake (http://carrotsncake). In addition to blogging daily, I also work for a company called NuVal.

NuVal is a nutritional rating system that scores foods on a scale of 1 – 100 based on how nutritious they are for you. The higher the number, the higher the nutrition. Each NuVal Score takes into account more than just the nutrition fact panel.  It considers 30-plus nutrients and nutrition factors – the good (protein, calcium, vitamins) and the not-so-good (sugar, sodium, cholesterol).  And then it boils it down into a simple, easy-to-use number; a number you can trust to make better decisions about nutrition in just a few seconds. It’s a pretty cool system, if you ask me!

I love snacking, so it was easy for me to decide on a topic for my guest post: nutritious snacks!

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always eaten an afternoon snack. Even has a kid, the stretch of time from lunch to dinner always left my stomach grumbling. I’m 29-years-old, and I still sit down to enjoy an afternoon snack every day.

Fresh fruits and vegetables are the most nutritious options for an afternoon snack, but sometimes I crave something else. It’s easy to grab a bag of potato chips or a candy bar because they’re quick and convenient, but I know eating a more wholesome afternoon snack is a much better option.
My usual “go-to” afternoon snack almost always involves peanut butter– on bread, pitas, crackers… pretty much any carb will do! However, after learning more about the NuVal system, I realized that some of my snack o

ptions are pretty low-scoring, which means that they are not the most nutritionally sound choices to pair with my beloved peanut butter.
After going through the NuVal database of scores, I was able to come up with 2 healthy peanut butter snacks that were easy, high-scoring, and more nutritious than my usual snack of peanut butter spread on Ritz crackers (NuVal score: 11).

Peanut Butter-Banana Crackers
Makes 2 servings 
Ingredients:
   * 2 Ryvita Rye & Oat Bran Whole Grain Rye Crispbread (NuVal score: 87)
   * 1 tbsp Teddie Creamy Natural Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter (NuVal score: 49)
   * 1 banana (NuVal score: 91)
Directions:
   * Spread 1/2 tbsp of peanut butter on each crispbread.
   * Slice banana and place on top of peanut butter.

Peanut Butter "Sundae"
Makes 1 serving
Ingredients:
   * 1 container Chobani Greek Vanilla Non-fat Yogurt (NuVal score: 73)
   * 1 tbsp Teddie Creamy Natural Old-Fashioned Peanut Butter (NuVal score: 49)
   * 1 tbsp Kashi TLC Peanut Butter Granola (NuVal Score: 32)
Directions:
   * Swirl in peanut butter into yogurt until blended.
   * Top yogurt with granola.

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To read more about the NuVal scoring system and to see it’s available in your area, go to www.nuval.com

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(it’s me again)

My two cents: As you can see, NuVal is doing an awesome thing by getting behind the actual NUTRIENTS of food, rather than focusing of carbs/calories/fat/the usual mumbo jumbo. While shopping for processed food, it will definitely come in handy! On the other hand, if you’re trying to decide between two whole and obviously healthy foods, spinach and broccoli for example, eat them both! 😀

Thank you for the recipes and guest post, Tina!

See ya’ll tonight <3

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14 Comments

  1. VeggieGirl on December 8, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    GREAT guest post, Tina!

  2. Katie on December 8, 2009 at 4:13 pm

    I love this peanut butter sundae!

    New Giveaway, music + fitness – http://katiechangesforkatie.blogspot.com/

  3. Jessica @ How Sweet It Is on December 8, 2009 at 4:18 pm

    Love the guest post!! I love anything with banana and pb.

  4. Sana on December 8, 2009 at 6:05 pm

    I love snacking! Thanks for the healthy and helpful hints!

  5. Holly B on December 8, 2009 at 6:28 pm

    Honestly, I’m kind of bummed about this post 🙁 It is just free advertisement for NuVal written by a paid employee (whether we know and have read Tina’s blog from the beginning or not). I really hope the biggest and best blogs don’t start to sell out. I think that will be the end of healthy living blog reading for me.

    Also, when was the last time Tina ate Ritz crackers and PB? It’s hard to make a claim about your “usual afternoon snack” like this when you document your eats everyday. I don’t mean this to be snide, it just made the post that much less genuine to me and really made me sad 🙁

  6. ari on December 8, 2009 at 7:20 pm

    i gotta agree with holly.
    also, i feel like peanut butter should get a higher score. oh well.

  7. rebecca lustig on December 8, 2009 at 7:25 pm

    I came across that site the other day– LOVE IT. I can’t for it to expand more, though.

    bec xo

  8. Sarah @ The Foodie Diaries on December 8, 2009 at 8:30 pm

    I really love the logic behind NuVal! Great post!

  9. Jennifer on December 8, 2009 at 8:42 pm

    Of course it’s a cool system – if they are paying you…

  10. Katie on December 9, 2009 at 9:50 am

    I am a daily reader of Tina’s blog as well, and the only thought I had after reading this post was “Ritz crackers and PB” as a usual snack? Did I miss those posts? LOL Oh well, I still love Tina’s blog!

  11. Melissa on December 9, 2009 at 9:57 am

    I work for NuVal too. And I can tell you that I would be telling you all about how amazing the scoring sytstem is, whether they paid me or not. Tina was a fan of NuVal before she came to work there.

  12. Jean on December 9, 2009 at 11:55 am

    I’m sorry, I don’t see this post the same way as Holly does. The Meijer that I shop at has the NuVal system, and I think it’s pretty cool. There might be people out there that aren’t familiar with the system and would want to campaign to bring it to their local stores. And like Melissa said, if you’re a fan of something, you talk about it whether you’re paid or not.

  13. Kate on December 9, 2009 at 12:48 pm

    I kind of wish that my grocery had the NuVal system, I think it sounds cool and I do research on items that I know I need to purchase before I shop sometimes.

    Also I disagree with Ari – Peanut butter has a lot of saturated fat, and if you research the NuVal system you’ll see this would lower its score…

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