4 Easy and Healthy Snacks to Satisfy Your Cravings (Comforting & Low Calorie, too!)

At Cotton Cattle, we’re big fans of staying positive and seeing the bright side. For that reason, we wanted to draw attention to those people who have discovered new enjoyment and skills in the kitchen throughout this pandemic. We’re receiving a lot of great testimonials and can’t truly express how special and inspirational these are to us. Please keep them coming! 

On the flip side, while putting thought and energy into your meals is always a good practice to follow, it can be a bit exhausting as well. So it’s totally understandable to be reaching for the occasional quick and not-so-healthy meal or snack, especially as we crave comfort during these trying times. If, however, you have been longing for healthier eats to satisfy your appetite more often, we think you’ll find these ideas fit the bill. The first one requires no prep what-so-ever, and is a Cotton Cattle favorite, and the other three are simply about getting creative with your leftovers. Enjoy! 

Snack Sticks

Our Snack Sticks are designed for the minimalist. The casing is 100% pure beef collagen and they are packaged individually for your convenience! The ingredients include Cotton Cattle Ground Beef, Salt, Sugar, Spices. There are NO Nitrates or Artificial Preservatives. The beef is 100% grass fed and finished, from humanely raised cattle that recieve no antibiotics and no added hormones.

Bratwurst Bites

This go-to snack is crafted using leftovers from a Cotton Cattle Bratwurst meal. Next time you order and cook our traditional, all natural, German sausage, make sure there’s a little left for snacking the next day. This pork make for a naturally gluten free snack with no nitrates - just ground heritage pork in an all natural casing, water, salt, bratwurst spice & seasoning, and crushed marjoram. Now that you’ve used some of the bratwurst for a delicious meal and you have at least a little slither left for snacking, pull it out of the fridge, chop it into coins, top it with your preferred veggies (we’re fans of onion and roasted red pepper), and enjoy. There are a couple variations to this if you’re interested in investing less or more time. For less time, just pull them out, slice them and enjoy dipping the little bite-sized bits into a quality mustard. For more time, drizzle the nice little stack of brat and veggies with olive oil, or maybe maple syrup, and pop them in the oven for 10 minutes, then enjoy. You could also opt for Cotton Cattle's sausage or chorizo.

Quick “Ramen”

This is a truly comforting meal that we love whipping up this time of year because it combines the comforts of the passing season with the fresh blooms of the arriving spring. Again, we recommend making this with some help from your Cotton Cattle leftovers. We typically use a leftover broth from making a chicken dish, and meat on the bone is best, like the Drumsticks, but you can certainly adjust to your needs. The concept is to use the bones and/or juices leftover from the dish, and add some water, keeping mind that the goal is to increase the amount of broth without sacrificing flavor. So, if you have a little bit of broth with heavy seasoning in it leftover from the meal, you can probably add more water. If it’s a clearer color, then you’ll likely already have a good amount of liquid and won’t need to add much water. If you do, consider adding more seasoning at this time. If you’re just working with bones, put them in a pot with a bay leaf, salt and pepper to taste, then cover the bones (it’s good if there’s still at least a little meat on them) with water, bring them to a boil, then let simmer. You can also do this part in a crockpot if you want them to simmer for a long time. Once you have your broth, you can keep it in the fridge for about a week. When it comes to using the broth as a healthy, quick snack, simply pour some into a pot, bring to a boil, add your preferred veggies (mushrooms, scallions/onions, peppers, garlic, and whole spinach are some of our favorites) for only a couple minutes (better if slightly cooked but a little crunchy), season to your liking, and enjoy! If you’re really into it, you can choose to add a grain of some sort or a soft boiled egg. 

Ground Beef Dip

Cotton Cattle ground beef is 100% grass fed and finished, humanely raised with no antibiotics and no added hormones. This means the product carries two to four times more Omega-3 fatty acids than grain-fed beef! So, you’re off to a good start when you choose our ground beef to prepare for a special meal, and you receive extra benefits when you save some to make a leftover dip for easy and healthy snacking. This dip is really inspired by an authentic chimichurri, which, in case you’ve never had it, is a deliciously herby, salty, savory, uncooked sauce with origins from Argentina and Uruguay.  You can really use different herbs, different vinegars/acids, and different peppers than any traditional recipe recommends. For example, basil and mint work well with cilantro and parsley. For simplicity, use what’s in your fridge or garden (but stay away from hardy herbs for this sauce like sage and rosemary). This sauce is often used to dress a skirt steak or other high quality steak that had been seared to perfection. Instead this snack opts to mix the ground beef right into the sauce and then use a dipping apparatus of choice (Stacy’s chips, baguette, or cucumbers if you’re going super low carb). Dig in!

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