Snack

Do you know how to make a snack called "ants on a banana bus?" The hamsters do! The Hamsters Web site (www.hamster tours.com), hosted by several animated rodents, is a fun-filled Web site for children in second grade and older.It offers snack recipes that kids can make with just a little help from parents. The hamsters move around on the screen and give step-by-step visual instructions. There are also suggestions on variations so kids can give their snacks a personal touch.Besides recipes, kids will find a photo album with colorful pictures of the hamsters' adventures, such as hamster ballooning and hamster boating.

Facing reality: It's diet time Now that the holidays are over, it's time to get back to reality. That means cutting back on the junk food and watching the calories and eating right. According to MINTEL, a market research company, Americans eat an average of 4.6 times a day. Adults age 18 to 34 are significantly more likely to snack in between regular meals. And because of the hectic lifestyles of most Americans, the on-the-go food and beverage market has grown faster than the spending on food prepared at home during the past decade.

Toaster snacks a hit with younger setItem: Pop-Tarts Snak-StixWhat you get: 6 servingsCost: About $1.80Preparation time: Eat from package or warm briefly in toasterReview: Kellogg's is billing its newest addition to the Pop-Tarts line as a snack for kids and parents on the go. The Snak-Stix is basically a traditional Pop-Tart sectioned into three break-apart pieces and packaged in a resealable foil pouch. While I found the frosted sticks with the graham-cracker crust a little sweet, my 2-year-old loved them, as did a 4-year-old neighbor.

Lara DiPaola makes brownies with applesauce instead of oil, sneaks shredded carrots into her son's macaroni and cheese and gets her four children to tend to the pears, squash and tomatoes in the family garden. But when she's in her home office, grinding out work on deadline, she has been known to tell her kids to grab a Pop-Tart for a snack. "When you're busy, it's whatever's available," said DiPaola, a freelance writer from Severn. "Any parent, whether you've got four kids or just one, you are so inundated with so many things you have to do. Nutrition sometimes falls by the wayside, and we need to get back to that."

This year, make some weight-control resolutions you can keep.Behavior experts tell us we'll be more successful if we're positive and specific. Instead of vague promises like "I will lose weight," set clear steps for behavior changes that will bring you to your goal.Below are three ideas for shaping an "eater-friendly" environment to help you keep your weight-loss resolutions.* Resolve to be informed.Knowledge is power. Each time you visit a different fast-food place, ask for its nutrition information.

It is a good thing that the grocery store in my neighborhood is open 24 hours because I do my shopping late at night these days. Not because I am busy, although I am that. But because I am ashamed. School has ended, and with it the 10-hour separation of my children from the refrigerator. Summer vacation is one long snack punctuated by an occasional large snack that might be called a meal. The only time my two teen-agers are not eating is when they are sleeping. I have taken to doing my grocery shopping in the middle of the night because I don't want to be seen pushing a grocery cart full of items from what my friends and I call the "orange" food group: Doritos, frozen pizza, Kraft macaroni and cheese, Spaghettios, cheese slices and gallons of inexpensive sugar water colored orange.

Sometimes you look at a decades-old photo of yourself at the beach and are struck by the thought that you should have worn more skimpy two-pieces while you had the chance. Sometimes you watch a mystery in a movie theater and realize you just don't enjoy it as much as you would at home, where you can use the remote to go back if you missed a clue. And sometimes you go to heat up your soup in the office microwave and glance at the controls and think, "What is this country coming to?" In my company's newly remodeled kitchenette sit two General Electric microwave ovens (because heaven knows we efficient Americans cannot be expected to wait while someone else flash-cooks his meal in less than two minutes)

For those of us who are caught up in breakfast, lunch and dinner, nibbling throughout the day can be as easy as dividing by two."It's not difficult to do -- taking a meal and splitting it up into two meals," says Dr. Ronni Chernoff, associate director of the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center at McClellan Veterans Hospital in Little Rock, Ark.True enough, if you eat traditional meals and aren't pressed for time.But if you're on a short leash -- because of work or other demands -- it's all but impossible to fit six little meals into a day.One strategy is to shrink the three squares and expand on snacks.

Fluffy doughnuts slathered in gooey chocolate. A chocolate-chip cookie dipped in a steaming mocha. Warm turtle brownies topped with rocky road ice cream. Many women crave chocolate over all other foods. In fact, "craving" may not quite capture the level of desire. It's more like a burning obsession that cannot be quenched until the last smidgen of the creamy confection has been licked from shaky fingers. Why can't women crave a less destructive snack -- say, carrot sticks? Because, according to nutritionists, cravings are nearly always for high-fat, high-calorie foods.

Introducing your Top 6…After a shocking elimination Just when you think you have a show completely figured out…it will change your mind with one night of eliminations. Last night on The Voice, it was time to introduce American to their Top 6 performers. After Monday night's lack of energy during some of the performances, you figured more than ever this week America would vote for the guaranteed favorites. Let's recap before I jump into the spoiler alert. Coming into last night's live results show Team Usher had one contestant (Michelle Chamuel)