Late working hours and busy schedule at office has gripped me badly this time. I have been thinking only work more than anything else. And that leaves me all the more agitated and restless, of not being able to cook more at home. Cooking in my home kitchen is something I would trade off for even a nice vacation. Trust me I am that crazy. But with barely any time to cook I have to feed myself more on whatever food I get at work.
And not sure why this is, I get sudden craving for some real bad-ass junk food, when I am super busy at work. I would try to find excuses to munch onto unhealthy snacks and that could range anything from chips to chocolates. And when I am finished satisfying my cravings, I would start mulling and repenting that why I did that to myself, making myself all the more terrible. It’s kind of a vicious circle. You know, what I mean.
So, I promised myself that I wouldn’t do this to my body, however ugly that desire may be. And I started making some nice wholemeal stuff, with whatever time I am left with during weekends. I made these wonderful wholewheat brownies, almond and wholemeal chocolate cake and also baked wonderfully fruity pear granola. Took them to work, and made my colleagues happy and did some justice to my stomach as well.
And last to last weekend, I made this yummy caramelized onion jam and some oats crackers to munch with. Onion jam with accents of caramelized flavor and wonderful balsamic vinegar came out so yumm. And the oats crackers were from Heidi Swanson of 101Cookbooks.com, which I found pretty decent too. A definitely a healthy snack to take away for potlucks and picnics as well.
While I was busy bringing back the joy of cooking and eating smartly at work and fighting the monster of bad cravings, I got this box of SmartEats snacks for review…a box full of healthy and nutritious snacks, delivered to your door step, either at home or at work.
SmartEats is a convenient and tasty way of healthier snacking for you and your family. We deliver 100% Natural, Delicious, Unique and Healthy snacks along to your door month after month.Every “Smart Box” is full of new & exciting snacks.
Nicely packaged box had got 5 kind of snacks inside. Of all the goodies in there, I opened the dehydrated strawberries first. They were quite delicious and I found myself reaching for them thrice. But one thing I really doubted that they had some kind of added sugar and eventually found the liquid glucose on the ingredients list….that disappointed me a bit, feeling if liquid glucose was all fine to be termed as healthy? Being a dessert person, I next opened Oat & Raisin Cookies. Sadly, cookies failed to impress me at all. Found them really floury, almost raw sort of and couldn’t dare to finish the one piece only. Honey Chili Nuts were quite good though, with slight hint of chili powder and sour taste. It would have been more interesting, if added some cumin seeds too. But they were still good though. Lean Bean mixture was okay sort of, as I am not much of a savory mixture person. Parsely Pepper Crackers were crispy, thin and cheesy, but I found them way more peppery…could have been gentle on pepper as it left an aftertaste. The box comes for 499 with 5 or 6 snacks packaged separately and neatly with re-sealable packaging, which I found quite convenient, as you can take these snacks to work as well or even while you are travelling. It could have been better with slight improvement in flavors. But the concept is really authentic and adaptable to the current needs of a busy routine life. You could reach SmartEats here, and order your box conveniently with a click of a button.
Till then I am leaving you with this wonderful Caramelized onion jam and Oats Crackers.
Ingredients
4 large onions, peeled and finely sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt flakes
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1.5 tbsp soft brown sugar
Directions
- Place onions into a large, deep heavy-bottomed saucepan and drizzle with olive oil. Using a wooden spoon, stir the onions to coat thoroughly with the oil, then season with a good pinch of salt.
- Cook over medium-high heat for about 15 minutes or until softened. Turn the heat down to low and continue cooking for a further 30 minutes, stirring frequently to scrape any sticky bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Add the vinegar and sugar and stir to coat well. Continue to cook over low heat for another 30 minutes, again scraping all the sticky bits from the bottom of the pan. The consistency should be that of a thick, luscious marmalade.
- Set aside to cool. Store in a sterilized jar. It can be kept in the fridge for up to 1 week.