my new snack: rice cakes with nut butter

As I've said in the past, I've been looking for new snacks.  Life in terms of eating can sometimes get a little boring after weight loss surgery.  Not because we can't eat anything, but because we tend to gravitate towards the things we know sit well in our new stomachs, or things we know have a lot of protein, or things that are just easy to throw together into a minuscule container; it gets to be too much effort sometimes to keep it interesting.  Luckily I don't have an issue with foods bothering me; I'm just lazy.

I went grocery shopping last weekend and came across these nut butter packets from Wild Friends. They're one serving and there were lots of interesting flavors.  And I couldn't ignore the "10 for $10.00" sign.  You know what that means:  they're only $1.00 each. (You're sneaky Big Chain Grocery Store!) Yes, I'm a sucker for the "10 for $10.00" sign.  I grabbed Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter and Chocolate Almond Butter with Sunflower Seeds.

I decided to get some rice cakes on which to spread the nut butters:  Quaker Lightly Salted.  I haven't had rice cakes in years, so I figured it was worth trying them again. (Years ago there weren't a lot of flavor options.)

The packet says to make sure you "knead and squeeze" before opening.  It's because these are natural nut butters, not the jarred big brand stuff.  I did as I was told.  The Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter was just fine and wasn't liquid-y.  The almond butter, however, was a mix of thick liquid and thick nut butter.  It was a bit uneven to spread, but not messy.

Both of these nut butters were yummy.  They tasted just like the packet says.  The Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter was a nice mix of all three flavors, but I would say there wasn't as strong of a chocolate flavor as I was hoping for. Still delicious and rich, though.  The Chocolate Almond Butter with Sunflower Seeds was delicious also.  Again, I was hoping for more chocolate flavor, but it was still present.

This is the Chocolate Coconut Peanut Butter.

I added some unsweetened coconut, which added another 35 calories.  Yummy!

This is the Chocolate Almond Butter with Sunflower Seeds.  It's a little runny, but not too bad.  It doesn't look as appetizing, because I made it at work today.  I forgot to take a picture before I started eating it. Oops!

This made for a very satisfying snack, both in terms of flavor and richness, and satiety.  But it clocked in at about 225 calories, which is a lot when a post-op's standard calorie intake is about 1,000 calories a day.  The rice cakes have only 35 calories, but these nut butters are not low calorie, obviously.  Peanut butter never is.  They're low in sugar, though, and have a nice amount of protein - 6g for the packet!

I would most definitely buy these nut butters again, but I would have to be very careful since they're so high in calories and taste so damn good!