Sprouted Almonds

Sometimes our days are so packed full with back-to-back meetings, appointments, phone calls and fire drills that pretty soon it’s 3 o’clock in the afternoon and we haven’t had lunch yet.  Food seems to be the first thing that we de-prioritize when shit get’s hectic.  The truth is, your performance will actually suffer the more malnourished you become because so much of the energy from our food is used by our brains!  This is not how it has to be.

Lately some good friends have been asking me to write about this exact scenario – what constitutes a good mid-day snack and what is portable, non-perishable, nutritious and tastes delicious at the same time?

While I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve to stay nourished throughout the day, my most current go-to, in-between-meetings snack are sprouted almonds.

I not only take them around with me throughout the work day, but I kid you not… I pack them in my purse when my friends and I go out to shows, clubs, parties, etc.  I have been known to whip out a plastic bag of snacks during intermission or on the dance floor.

Laugh all you want, but the funniest part is that I’m not kidding.

Sprouting is a process by which nuts are soaked in water for 24 hours, causing them to start germinating.  The nuts are then removed and slowly dried in a controlled environment with low humidity and temperature.  This slow drying process destroys enzyme inhibitors in the nut, releasing the full nutritional content and allowing the body’s natural enzymes to digest with more ease.  While much more time-consuming, sprouting makes nuts more digestible and gives them much greater nutritional value.  All good things.

They look no different than any other almond, but there are two things that really set sprouted nuts apart aside from just the nutritional content.  First, they are wayyyyyyyy crunchier than a raw nut or even a roasted nut!  They literally POP! in your mouth.

However, the very best thing in my opinion that the sprouting process releases an unmistakably fresh flavor that you will not find in any other nut.  It is unbelievable.

Available online or in the bulk aisle of your favorite natural foods store!