Curry Chevre and Cilantro Toast

It's funny how tracking your diet for a project becomes the mother of culinary invention. The prospect of telling someone my favorite snack of the moment happens to be wheat toast, 1 oz chevre cheese, a drizzle of honey and smoked sea salt from trader joes seems harmless enough. That is, until I realize that I am adding both sugar and salt to something that has a decent amount of both already. So, I set about my kitchen to find things with a nominal amount of caloric input to replace the honey and salt.

Freebies in this regard are generally spices and herbs. I also consider any vegetables to also be freebies since they are usually not very calorie dense.

So, this is what I came up with:

1 piece whole wheat toast
1oz Chevre
1/4 tsp curry paste
1/2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped

This may not seem like a giant difference. Both snacks are within a decent calorie range and have a good portion size. They both contain whole grains, dietary fiber, and calcium. The total calorie difference is probably about 20 calories and perhaps half the added sodium. The more important differences are that I substituted empty honey calories for vitamin rich cilantro (A, K, C, antioxidants) and straight salt for curry paste which has trace vitamins and is spicy enough to keep me from going back and eating seconds when I am not hungry.