Snacking friends—

We’re obviously all about snacks, though that’s usually when we are on the go, movin’ and groovin’, shakin’ and bakin’. We also love cooking at home, especially at the end of a productive day when the cold evening sets in.

This week, we bring our attention to three great, plant-based, whole-food recipes for a weekend when much of the country is blanketed in a winter freeze.

Stay warm, stay healthy, and enjoy.

Lentil and Spinach Soup

With the overnight temperature outside airfare headquarters in Cambridge, Mass. hovering right around -10 degrees, it’s a wonderful weekend for soup. And lentil soup is one of our all-time favorites.

Most store-bought soups suffer from the same issues that plague their granola cousins, which we detail below. Sneaky added sugars and oils ruin the party, and premade soups are often loaded with salt.

With unhealthy options everywhere, this simple, quick, delicious rendition of lentil soup stands out.

This recipe is even easier with an instant pot. Simply sauté the veggies for five minutes and then add the lentils for another 15 minutes or so in the pressure cooker.

If you aren’t wise enough to partake in instant pot life, boil the dry lentils in a regular pot for longer, like the recipe spells out.

Delicious Banana Date Granola

We’re Whole Foods regulars, but on a recent visit, the cereal aisle again blew us away, but for the wrong reasons. More than the overwhelming number of options—more than 200—we were shocked at how few of them were #actuallyhealthy.

By that we mean made of whole, plant foods, and including no added sugars, sweeteners or oils. Even self-proclaimed “healthy” granolas often contain added sugars and oils, even at a healthy haven like Whole Foods.

So we love this granola recipe, which has no added oil, and uses only blended whole fruit as its sweetening element. It looks delicious and easy to make, and host Dillion is quite entertaining.

As a bonus, use this same banana and date base to make oat cookies in the oven with a a similar process.

Nacho Cheese Kale Chips

When stuck at home or fresh out of our favorite kale chips in the universe, Earthy Krunchy Snacks Kale Chips, just make some at home.

We really enjoyed this recipe because of Brit’s simple breakdown of the process and…nacho cheese, duh. This is an easy, non-intimidating way to make a whole-food, #actuallyhealthy snack.

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