Tuesday 19 October 2010

Seeds as Snacks

I really feel I need to explain about the seeds.

Usually one would not have leftovers from the budgie as the only sustenance to last through a morning until lunch, but I have recently signed up to a company who, once a week, deliver a little box full of healthy things to snack on. These healthy things are in small little portions, designed to stave off hunger but keep you slim.

Of course, it probably doesn’t quite work like that if you tick the box to receive flapjacks. But they are good flapjacks! And they are tiny little bite-size bits of flapjack. So really it is a lot healthier than me buying a Twirl bar every day or being seduced by the twisted genius of franchise cookie sellers.

Along with flapjacks, there are portions of dried fruit, olives, and crackers. Usually one little portion in the box will be of seeds. Mostly I take them home to add to salads. Seeds are only snacks in extreme desperation.

While we are talking office snacks, have you heard of Feeders? Beware the office feeders my friends. These are slim folk who bring in an awful lot of cakes and biscuits to ‘share’ and never seem to tuck in themselves. It is all part of an evil plot to make them the slimmest in the room.

Then there are the office swoopers. I am afraid to say that I can be, on occasion, a swooper. We have three kitchens in our large office building, and me and my fellow swoopers will migrate anywhere for a coffee should there be a rumour of sweeties. We sidle in, exclaim in pretend surprise at the cakes, swoop, and then exit with a little clutch of goodies. We don’t care whose birthday it is. We just want cake.

I think I would actually go on strike if sugar was banned. I wouldn’t do the same for seeds, which defines their importance in my snack world.

What is your office snack?

41 comments:

Unknown said...

Used to work in Zimbabwe in the Standard Bank and across the road was a deli with liver sausage pate and fresh rolls! But I know what you mean about the birthdays. Back it England in the school staffroom it was just a cup of indifferent coffee - worse still if you were on playground duty, the coffee was cold by the time it reached you. :0)

Terri Tiffany said...

I don't work in an office but when I did, I was one of those who brought their own. Pretzels, crackers and wonderful cookies!

Joanna St. James said...

Wanna learn a new tactic for swooping make strategic friends that will bring u the goodies or make them beg you to come and have a taste. *insert evil grin here*

Kathryn said...

I an a nut addict.Bags of walnuts,crunch,crunch.......
Love your blog,Jayne.

Summer Frey said...

We used to have food events fairly often at my old job, and I was a swooper extraordinaire. Because I certainly wasn't going to sit and TALK with anyone!

Jules said...

LOL, my old office was like a feeding stand when it came to goodies being left in the break room. :D

Olives, I love Olives. :)
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow

Carolyn V. said...

When I'm working I snack on chocolate chips, which aren't good for my waist line. =)

Plain Jane said...

Everyone I work with is on a diet, even the skinny ones. That means that we all bring sweets that we don't want to leave at home to tempt us. Therefore, all day we are downing coffee cake, donuts, pizza, ice cream. The other day we even sent someone to the store to buy chocolate and candy corn. Our diets don't seem to be working and we can't figure out why.
By the way, what is a budgie?

Anonymous said...

Carry on swooping. Great post!

All the best, Boonie

Nezzy (Cow Patty Surprise) said...

Oh baby, it was hard...truly hard. I am retired Special Ed. and we had the 'School Store' in our room to raise funds for field trips and special needs equipment. I had candy bars,soda and popcorn at my total disposal. It that wasn't enough someone was always leavin' a sweet 'treat' in the teachers lounge.

I now can pace myself at home grabbin' a handfull of walnuts or an orange with a 'pang' hits.

Ya'll have a marvelously blessed 'fall' day now...ya hear!!! :o)

Pat Tillett said...

black licorice for me...
nobody else ever wants any, and I don't have to worry about people stealing it off my desk

great post...

Southpaw said...

Ut oh, I’m a feeder. I bring in all the leftover whatever so I don’t over indulge myself. But I do my own swooping too!

Happy Frog and I said...

Chocolate chip flapjacks - yum!

L. Diane Wolfe said...

Love the descriptions of the office munchers.

I work at home and unfortunately my snack of choice right now is Candy Corn. Blame Halloween!

Old Kitty said...

THREE KITCHENS?!?!?!?! All with cakes for the taking?!?!?!

I want to work where you work! LOL!!

We have a tiny kitchen and so if it's your birthday you must bring cake or else you will be banned from using it!! Oh yes!! Cake and birthdays are a must and part of the job description!

I love flapjacks! The M&S tub of flapjacks are lovely!!!! And highly recommended! Cos they're bite-size...

Take care
x

Fran Hill said...

Office snacks include anything that's edible. We get desperate.

catdownunder said...

Purrhaps there is something to be said for working from home - purroviding I do not pad off to the supermarket in search of tuna chips? :-)

Anonymous said...

I'm a snack machine gal.

The repeat swoopers get on my nerves, especially if they come around just for food.

Lol @ feeders. Yup, I've met a few.

The Words Crafter said...

I had to smile at the swoopers. In our little workplace, we have swoopers. And a few vultures! It's comical to watch, don't you think?

Karen said...

Seeds don't agree with me. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I love flapjacks though - without seeds in, obviously :o)

Talli Roland said...

Oh yes, I hear you on the swoopers. I worked in a place with mostly women and every day there was some yummy treat in the kitche. It was a killer.

I used to snack on salt and vingear rice cakes. Try eating those quietly!

MTeacress said...

My 'office' only has one worker - me. So thankfully, because of this, I am not a swooper. But my husband is. :)

Emerging Writer said...

So true about the mugs. My mug is a Starbucks that I can customise. You unscrew the bottom and slide in your own page. Whatever. And when you're bored of I heart Instant Communicator, you can change to something more cerebral

Shaharizan Perez said...

The office snack, in my case teacher's lounge, is the bane of my existence. We have potato chips of every variety, cookies, cakes on birthdays and goodness the dreaded candy bars.

You would think that with one snack machine at our school that we would run out of snacks daily.

I will watch out for the feeders and try not to become a swooper.

Great post!

Guinevere said...

Ha, I am totally a swooper too. They always put the extra birthday cake when someone has a birthday in the break room for all the offices, and I will sidle in and eat the leftover cake.

Anonymous said...

I remember those Swoopers! We all had to turn into Feeders when we had our birthdays and then we would tuck into cakes, scones or biscuits.

We had a boss who was an ace Feeder and would bring in chocolate tiffin for meetings, also grapes from her own vine, or plums or clementines and mince pies at Christmas.

Now that I'm at home, I don't snack. No, really, I don't....

Eliza said...

Oh no, give me a pack of jaffa cakes any day! I'm afraid I'd be a swooper too.

Karen Lange said...

My office is at home and way too close to my kitchen! So there are many 'office' snacks for me. But it is a good exercise in self control. :)

Nice to meet you, Jayne! Thanks for coming by my blog and following.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Karen

Jayne said...

Carole Anne Carr – That deli sounds too tempting for words, which is more than can be said for the cold coffee!

Terri Tiffany – Wonderful cookies? You’d be my best pal!

Joanna St. James – I like your style.

Kathryn Braithwaite – Thank you! I always feel nicely virtuous if I snack on walnuts as opposed to chocolate.

Summer – You’d fit right in over here!

Jules – A feeding stand describes it exactly.

Carolyn V. – Oh chocolate chips. When I was working from home they were my secret treat. They never ever made it to be baked in a cake.

Plain Jane – Hee! I have an inkling why those diets are not working, but I’d love to work in your office! A budgie is a bird and pet shops nearly always have seeds as ‘budgie treats’.

Boonie S – Will do, Boonie.

Nezzy – Oh, to be in control of dishing out the sweets! All that power – heeheehee. I am very impressed with your snack control though.

Pat Tillett – Yup, black liquorice would be totally safe here. It would be so safe it would grow dusty.

Jayne said...

Holly Ruggiero – Ah ha! A Feeder! But a feeder that swoops is all cool.

Happy Frog – M&S do the best ever chocolate chip flapjacks. I could eat them all day.

L. Diane Wolfe – Candy corn... I wonder what that is. Like popcorn, perhaps? Ah no – I’ve just googled it. Gosh, that looks yum!

Old Kitty – There sadly isn’t always cake, so when we hear a rumour we all pounce. Totally agree with the M&S flapjacks – have you had the ones with the chocolate running though it, sold in the five-pack? Major yum.

Fran – At the moment I am wondering what cup-a-soup tastes most like chocolate.

catdownunder – My cats would totally agree with the tuna chips. If I work from home I raid the biscuit barrel. My waist-line is doomed.

Medeia Sharif – I am a nice swooper honest!

The Words Crafter – I think getting to know people’s habits and quirks is always amusing.

Karen – Another vote for flapjacks!

Jayne said...

Talli Roland – I have also tried rice cakes but they just didn’t do it for me. I start off thinking they will be good, but end up desperate for crisps.

MT – Hee!

Emerging Writer – I wouldn’t trust my own mug here. It would disappear and emerge later growing a tea-bag. Love the idea of the customised mug though!

Shaharizan Perez – Definitely keep an eye on those Feeders and Swoopers. Can only imagine the perils of a snack machine – am hoping work never install one!

Guinevere – Hee! I also do a mean sidle.

Christine – That boos sounds a spectacular Feeder. A class above the usual office snack.

Eliza – I am actually feeling rather swoop-ish at the moment. Wish there were jaffa cakes!

Karen – When I worked from home I would constantly make little swoops on the fridge. But I wouldn’t buy anything worth swooping, so I’d have to swoop off again.

Lydia Kang said...

Man, office snacks are deadly. YOu might be having a good day (I ate almonds instead of Doritos as a snack!) and then someone comes by. "Hey, we have this plateful of cookiles left over from that meeting..."
Sabotage is everywhere!

Amanda Borenstadt said...

No office, just twin girls. I have the horrid habit of finishing the food they leave behind. I must remind myself I am not a garbage can!

Angela Ackerman said...

Man, why don't we have a service that would do that where I live? It would be so awesome!

Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse

Deborah said...

I love seeds in my salad, but not on their own unless roasted sunflower seeds. I like putting chia seeds into yoghurt, especially coconut flavour. Very healthy!

Jemi Fraser said...

LOL :) I think our staff room sees the most people when someone has brought in treats! :)

david mcmahon said...

I saw the name of your blog on a friend's site and thought I simply had to come here.

Been there, done that - and let me tell you that if you put your mind to writing a novel, and you have the will, you can certainly do it.

Don't give up. Self-doubt can be the biggest enemy.

If there is ANYTHING that I can possibly do to help, let me know.

Rose said...

office feeders- I have these- and am guilty of it- everything except rose and violet creams gets brought into work to get the gannets to clear it up in no time!

Halloween is a good excuse to get rid of all the naughties in the house though no?

Seeds aren't for me- but that is why I am not slimmer. I do quite like sesame snaps though, they are a bit seed like

Amanda Summer said...

i'm big on seeds, nuts of any kind and dark chocolate of course!

Unknown said...

I am a neat freak, so I try not to snack in the office, because I'm also a slob and get crumbs everywhere. That said, when I worked in England (I'm American) I really liked the chicken sandwiches at the lunch counter. I think I like the bread in the UK better.

Olivia J. Herrell, writing as O.J. Barré said...

Mmm, I love seeds, and in fact am eating a breakfast (as I type) of cracked hemp seeds mixed with a dollop of yogurt and a chopped up pear. Yum. Lots of protein and good oils and Vitamin D.

But yeah, I'm hooked on raw seeds and nuts.

Love your blog! that rebel, Olivia