The Aspiring RD

The Fridge Diaries is a segment on The Aspiring RD where I will open my fridge to you, dear readers, and show you all of its magical secrets. Some may be new to you. Some may be shameful for me. But most importantly, they will all be an honest and true representation of what a soon-to-be RD is eating.

Today’s Item: Somersaults (and I ain’t talkin’ forward rolls)

The Lowdown: A bite size snack food made of sunflower seeds, toasted grains, and love.

Used for: An alternative to chips when a salty bite is needed or a popular addition to the ho-hum cheese and crackers plate.

Katie’s Score (out of 5 YUMS): 5 YUMS (mama can’t get enough!)

Finding healthful snack foods is an ongoing challenge in my house. I hate buying “diet” versions of favorite foods; baked chips, low-fat ice cream, and fat-free cheese do not cross the threshold of my grocery cart. I’d rather find alternatives that still taste good without making you think, “Yeah this is fine. But it’s not real ice cream.” Alternatively, I’ll have a small portion of something really good, but it can be awkward to eat your ice cream out of a thimble.

You seriously can find anything on eBay

While my mother may not be familiar with this struggle, she knows that I have a soft spot in my heart for new, innovative, health-minded food companies that aren’t trying to poison me with their processed junk. So naturally, she doled out Somersaults to my family members for Christmas. Because it’s totally normal to gift snack foods. At the Andrews house we also gift salt blocks, garlic jams, bacon, and pastured eggs. Just how we roll.

Unfortunately, the poor Somersaults sat in my snack drawer for months, unable to unleash their sunflower magic upon me without being opened. I carelessly ignored them and instead solved my salt cravings by consuming inappropriate amounts of specialty pickles. I then realized that I was dropping something close to $12 a week on pickles and knew the madness had to stop. It was time to crown a new king of the snack world.

I opened the sad excuse for a snack drawer and spotted some long overdue yogurt pretzels, some whole grain crackers (boring!), and some kale chips, which I allow myself to eat only 1 of per week due to their pickle-like price tag. And then, buried down in the corner, I saw the bag of Somersaults. Santa Fe Salsa flavor you say? Don’t mind of I do.

As you can see, this is no ordinary cracker. The Somersault is composed of sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and toasted wheat flour. The nutty little nugget is then dusted with a spicy caliente kind of flavor made from paprika, garlic, chives, lime, and mesquite. A serving of 14 pieces is filling and weighs in at only 140 calories, 7 g of fat, 3 g of fiber, and 6 g protein. Paired with a skim string cheese, this is the perfect, balanced snack.

There are a couple downsides to the Somersault that I must address. First, I don’t love the ingredient list. There isn’t anything terrible in there, it’s just long (this is the list for the Salty Pepper flavor – the list for the Santa Fe Salsa is almost twice as long). Most of the ingredients are flavorings, such as onion powder, garlic powder, and dehydrated jalapeno pepper, but Somersaults do break my general rule of avoiding long ingredient lists. My second complaint is that these little nuggets are hard to find! I have seen the Dutch Cocoa flavor in Whole Foods, but Peet’s Coffee in Boston seems to be the best place to seek out the savory varietals. Or ask your mom to buy some and ship them to you.

But the upsides of this snack food outweigh any downsides. First off, they are delicious. Secondly, everyone I give them to is like “Katie, these are amazing! You find the best snacks!” That makes me feel good about myself, even though I have to correct them and tell them that in fact my mom is the real hero here. And finally, they are GMO-free, high in healthy monounsaturated fats, and contain pictures of cowboys and pirates on their packaging.

I mean, could these nuggets get any better? Go try some and let me know!

- The Aspiring RD

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