Healthy Snacks: Roll-Ups

The South Beach Diet has some good recipes and snacks. I don't like everything they have but I do like quite a few of the recipes. I thought I'd make my first post for SSSC on these snacks because sometimes you just get hungry between meals and to eat something healthy and low calorie to take the edge off is a good idea to keep your metabolism up AND to keep from eating too much and too fast when you do sit down to a meal.

CALIFORNIA ROLL UP: use red or green leaf lettuce (use green leaf, it doesn't tear as easily as red leaf). The South Beach diet suggests a quantity of 4. Top each leaf with 1 slice each turkey breast and boiled ham (lunchmeat - Hormel Natural Choice is *nitrate and nitrite free), 1 thin slice tomato, 1 thin slice avocado (it tastes just as well without if avocado's are too pricey), 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice, a few leaves of either watercress or arugula (I think you could arrange some thin radish slices here to give it a bite as the arugula does) and 1 tablespoon Ranch (Paul Newman's Ranch Dressing does not have MSG but it is hard to find. The Maria's brand in the refrigerated produce section does not have MSG**). Roll up and secure with toothpicks.

GRILLED CHICKEN AND ROASTED RED PEPPER ROLL-UP: using the same lettuce and rolling up when finished, use thinly sliced boneless, skinless grilled chicken breast, roasted red peppers from jar, top with reduced fat feta cheese and sliced scallions.

TEX-MEX SMOKED TURKEY ROLL-UP: same lettuce rolled up, combine all together 8 slices chopped smoked turkey breast, 1 diced avocado, 1/4 cup diced reduced fat pepper Jack cheese, 3 tablespoons salsa, 1 tablespoon lime juice. Mix together and divide amongst leaves.

*Nitrates - Sodium nitrate preserves the color of meats. It reacts with your stomach acid to produce nitrosamines. In large quantities, nitrosamines has been sown to cause cancer in animals.

**Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) - The Mayo Clinic posts the following regarding warning signs of negative reaction to MSG: headache, flushing, sweating, sense of facial pressure or tightness, rapid fluttering heartbeat, chest pain, shotness of breath, nausea, weakness.