I have always been a grazer. If I walk by something that looks appealing, I grab some of it and eat it – before meals or after and at every imaginable hour or in any imaginable circumstance. I love to graze. Problem is, of course, that open field human grazing tends, by its very nature, to be somewhat indiscriminate and often includes the ingestion of lots of fatty and high calorie items. Just a little here and a little there – but it all adds up – at least in my body.
Thus, a quest. A deliberate search for things that I would genuinely enjoy eating, that I could easily access when I felt the urge which would spare my arteries the clogging impact of trans and other fats and my waste line the ever-expanding evidence of excess calories. I was not hopeful or optimistic. In the past, I had tried rice cakes. They seemed like small bites of an arid area of dry sponges that I knew would swell once swallowed and cause me to feel full – but yielding absolutely no pleasure in the eating.
On a mission of no little desperation to the store one munchy driven afternoon, I came across these Snyder’s Mini Pretzels. They looked really dry, so I picked up a couple of bottles of unsweetened iced tea to go along with them and bypassing both the candy aisle and ice cream freezer, I scooted through the checkout and brought myself home. A rather delightful surprise awaited me. Simply put, they are not perfect.
They are not succulent. They do not make me drool to think about them and they don’t taste nearly as good as a slice of fresh cheesecake or a bowl of high-fat ice cream. They are, however, quite acceptable. The texture is crunchy (and noisy) to eat, the salting is on the mild side, the taste is fresh and they contain absolutely no fat of any kind ant have a caloric content of only 110 per serving. (Two in a 2.25 oz bag; about 20 pretzels per serving.)
This doesn’t seem like a lot because it isn’t! A handful, though, takes the edge of doing only negligible damage and actually tastes good. They ARE dry and a cold drink to wash them down is probably of the essence in really being able to enjoy them. Eaten dry, coughing might ensue. However, compared to rice cakes, they are little filet mignons of flavor. Reasonable low in sodium for a bagged snack item (250mg per serving) they are inexpensive and commonly available.
So: Are they mouth-watering delicious? No. Are they succulent and a good substitute for the experience of eating really fatty and delicious snacks or deserts? No. What they are, though, is a reasonable appetite suppressant to help those of us stricken with occasional attacks of the munchies get through the day. Graze on over to them. Available in either salted or unsalted varieties, they do the job that needs to be done.
