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A snack is a portion of food, often smaller than a regular meal, generally eaten between meals. Snacks come in a variety of forms including packaged snack foods and other processed foods, as well as items made from fresh ingredients at home.

Traditionally, snacks are prepared from ingredients commonly available in the home. Often cold cuts, fruit, leftovers, nuts, sandwiches, and the like are used as snacks. The Dagwood sandwich was originally the humorous result of a cartoon character's desire for large snacks. With the spread of convenience stores, packaged snack foods became a significant business. Snack foods are typically designed to be portable, quick, and satisfying. Processed snack foods, as one form of convenience food, are designed to be less perishable, more durable, and more portable than prepared foods. They often contain substantial amounts of sweeteners, preservatives, and appealing ingredients such as chocolate, peanuts, and specially-designed flavors (such as flavored potato chips).

Beverages, such as coffee, are not generally considered snacks though they may be consumed along with or in lieu of snack foods.

A snack eaten shortly before going to bed or during the night may be called a midnight snack.

Snack Review: Dora the Explorer – Edamame Snack

Category: Snack Reviews

There’s nothing like a good multi-tasker to make you feel on top of things. And in the spirit of multi-tasking, I bring you a kid-friendly, grownup-friendly,HEALTH-friendly snack that satisfies my hunger pangs with little inconvenience.

Let’s examine it as a three parter, shall we? First I’ll hit the health angle, then move on to convenience (because let’s face it, rarely do we have time to get all gourmet at snacktime), and finally, taste. As for the kid-friendly stuff … well, that’s mostly advertising. As you can see, this is a snack with some personality – Dora the Explorer’s personality, that is. I’m talking about individual packets of Frozen Edamame made by Seapoint Farms.

These edamame snacks come shelled in packages of eight, each one containing a 1 ½-ounce serving, perfect for carrying around. If you don’t have little ones, never mind the picture, it’s what’s inside that counts.

Is it healthy?

Here’s what’s inside a 1 ½ ounce (43 grams) pack:

  • Calories – 59
  • Total Fat – 2 grams
  • Sodium – 17 grams
  • Carbs – 5 grams
  • Dietary Fiber – 2 grams
  • Sugar – less than 1 gram
  • Protein – 5 grams

Not too bad, huh? I was impressed by there being only 59 calories in each pack because they actually are satisfying. And only 2 grams of fat – phew, plus no trans fats and no cholesterol. And to wrap it up, there are 5 grams of protein per pack, which is especially good news if you’re buying these for your kids, because protein is an essential building block for bone, muscle, and cartilage. Protein also helps to fight hunger, which is an important part of your snack’s job. I don’t know about you, but I’m impressed, these edamame packs are good for you and utterly guilt free.

Is it easy to prepare and eat?


I’m also happy to report that they’re very simple to prepare, in fact, you have three options of execution so you can choose the one that best suits your schedule.

  1. You can put a still frozen bag in your purse, backpack, etc, and have it thawed and ready to eat by afternoon (they come pre-prepared).
  2. You can pop it into the microwave for 1-2 minutes, at the end of which time you’ll hear a faint "pop" as the bag splits open neatly. (No, the edamame doesn’t fly all over the microwave…as funny as that might be).
  3. You can also put a pack into the fridge overnight, and have it nicely thawed and ready to go by morning.

Any way you look at it, either you’re doing nothing at all to prepare them, or you’re spending two minutes with the microwave.

How does it taste?

I know, I know, what we all really want to know before we try any new food is how it tastes. Frankly, at first, I found it to be a little dry and even a bit tasteless, but it’s certainly a snack that’s grown on me. Like most of you, I’m drawn to snacks with lots of flavor, snacks that are salty or sweet, so sometimes when it’s been a while since I’ve had something pure, it can throw me off. After a few more test runs, its refreshing simplicity became attractive. The bottom line is that it is what it is. It tastes like veggies, plain and simple. No other flavors, no bells and whistles, just shelled edamame, ready to be eaten by you!

Good luck, enjoy, and HAPPY SNACKING everyone, as always!

Some more on Seapoint Farms

They also make a unshelled version of these with a picture of SpongeBob SquarePants on them, if shelled edamame and Sponge Bob are more your style.

Then there is their Ready-To-Eat Edamame, but this pack contains two and a half 75 gram serving, and unless you’re going to eat all of that, I’d stick with the 45-ounce pouches, which make for a more practical snack.

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