Everyone has a food they love and add to everything, for myself I have two: avocado and goat cheese! (OK I have more favorite foods such as peanut butter, almond butter, and the list could go on lol).  When eating out at a restaurant I love to create my own menu items based around what they are already offering, for example, I frequently ask to add avocado to almost anything I order or swap any cheese for goat cheese.

We all know how good avocado is for you, but what about goat cheese? do you know all the amazing health benefits of adding goat cheese to your diet?

Don’t worry, not only am I going to tell you all about it, but I’m going to fill you in on one of my favorite quick snacks too!

HEALTH BENEFITS OF GOAT CHEESE

1. Low in Calories:  1 serving of goat cheese (normally 1 oz) contains only 70 calories with 45 of those calories being from fat (good fat!).  Compare this to the average 1 oz serving of cheddar cheese usually averaging about 110 calories and 80 calories from fat.  Think about how many calories you could save by just making this simple cheese swap in an omelet or on a sandwich.

2. Low Sodium: Sodium is found in a lot of foods you would least suspect to find it in, cheese is one of these foods.  Goat cheese has about 65mg of sodium per 1 oz. serving while cheddar cheese contains approximately 170mg of sodium, which is more than double the amount of goat cheese.  In a healthy diet the average person should aim to keep their sodium intake below 2300mg per day, so making this simple swap could help keep your sodium intake in a healthy range.

3. Good Serving of Protein:  Now this is the one category where cheddar cheese wins over goat cheese, as cheddar cheese has a higher amount of protein per serving.  One serving of goat cheese contains about 4g of protein while one serving of cheddar cheese contains about 7g of protein per serving.  Even though cheddar wins in this category, cheese should not be the main source of protein in your diet making the 3 less grams of protein per serving in goat cheese insignificant.

4. Low in Cholesterol and High in Vitamins and Minerals:  Goat cheese has zero mg of cholesterol, while cheddar cheese contains 25mg per serving.  Goat cheese is also higher in vitamin D, K, thiamine, and niacin than one serving of cheddar cheese and on top of that it’s also loaded with vitamin B, riboflavin, and phosphorus.

After hearing all of that why wouldn’t you want to start adding goat cheese to your healthy diet?

But Be Careful!  Just like many other tasty foods, it’s easy to overeat goat cheese, so to be sure you keep an eye on your portion sizes!

NOW TIME FOR ONE OF MY FAVORITE SNACKS

I use this snack as a quick way to curb hunger or even a quick pre-workout energizer

What you need:

– 3 Corn Thins (you can use rice cakes or any other low cal cracker)

– Goat Cheese (I buy crumbled chevre goat cheese from costco)

– Yellow Mustard

– Cucumber Slices

Here’s How you Do It:

– Spread a little bit of goat cheese on each corn thin

– Spread a little bit of yellow mustard on top of the goat cheese

– Place sliced cucumbers on top and enjoy!

ps. you notice one is a little different looking, for this snack option I spread a little bit of Trader Joe’s

Pumpkin butter jam on top of the goat cheese.  This is a little bit sweeter and kind of like a desert to have

after the cucumber corn thins 🙂

Enjoy and comment below if you have any other great recipes with goat cheese!  I like to add it to my egg scrambles or omelets too!