Depending on your food preferences, weight goals, and the type of diet you are following, rice cakes can be a great snack for weight loss.
Rice cakes are low in calories and can be topped with various sweet and savory spreads or chopped-up ingredients for a more filling rice cake snack or meal.
However, as with almost any other type of food, we often get stuck in a rut with how to eat rice cakes. Perhaps you slap on a little bit of peanut butter and arent sure what other types of rice cake snack ideas might taste good and meet your nutritional needs.
In this diet guide, we will discuss the benefits of eating rice cake snacks and provide a list of some of the best rice cake snack ideas and healthy rice cake toppings for nutritious, tasty, healthy rice cakes for snacks or meals to help you stick with your diet goals.
We will cover:
- Are Rice Cakes a Good Snack for Weight Loss?
- How to Make Good Rice Cake Snacks for Weight Loss
- What Are the Best Rice Cake Snack Ideas?
Lets get started!
Are Rice Cakes a Good Snack for Weight Loss?
Before we provide some ideas for rice cake snacks, its helpful to have a discussion about whether rice cakes are healthy and whether you can have a rice cake snack on a weight loss diet.
Of course, as with most types of foods, opinions about whether rice cakes are healthy or unhealthy span the gamut from some people saying that rice cakes are one of the best snacks for weight loss, whereas others say that rice cakes are fattening or bad for weight loss.
Ultimately, rice cakes are low in calories, but they provide only simple carbohydrates.
If you are trying to lose weight, you need to be in a caloric deficit, so choosing a rice cake vs bread, crackers, a bagel, tortilla, or English muffin, for example, will be better for weight loss because there are fewer calories in a rice cake than the other foods listed.
However, if you are following a low-carb diet or the keto diet, rice cake snacks may not work well.
How to Make Good Rice Cake Snacks for Weight Loss
Eating a bunch of plain rice cakes all at once will spike your blood sugar due to the lack of fiber, protein, and fat to slow digestion.
Therefore, rather than snacking on a bag of plain rice cakes or flavored mini rice cakes, it is best to make a rice cake snack for weight loss that uses one or two larger puffed rice cakes covered with a healthy topping that provides some protein, fiber, and healthy fat.
Making a rice cake snack in this way will be much more satiating, will decrease the glucose response of the rice cake (making it a more low-glycemic food), and will be better nutritionally since you will be providing your body with other nutrients such as protein, fat, vitamins, and minerals.
There are several benefits of using rice cakes as a vehicle for healthy snacks or even meals.
For one, plain rice cakes are very low in calories, sodium, and sugar, which means that you can create a healthy rice cake snack for weight loss that will be low in calories and potentially low in carbs, depending on the rice cake toppings you choose.
I love the Lundberg OrganicThin Stackers for rice cake weight loss snacks since the rice cake is made from high-quality ingredients and has a really nice density to handle heavier toppings without crumbling.
Secondly, plain rice cakes or lightly salted rice cakes have a very neutral flavor profile, so the list of rice cake toppings is wide open.
You can make healthy sweet rice cake snacks or healthy desserts with rice cakes using sweet toppings, or you can use savory toppings for salty rice cakes.
In general, although you can buy flavored rice cakes, such as caramel, chocolate, white cheddar, or barbecue flavored rice cakes if you are looking for the healthiest puffed rice cake recipes or healthiest rice cake snack ideas, it is best to start with a plain or lightly salted rice cake.
The flavored rice cakes work well for healthy rice cake snacks if you do not want to add additional spreads or toppings to the rice cakes because the sweet or salty rice cake flavoring will already add some calories and may compete with whatever toppings you are adding.
That said, if you arent concerned about the calories in rice cake snacks or you are looking for heartier rice cake meals, starting with a flavored puffed rice cake for the base can give you a boost of flavor and the direction for how to create your nutritious rice cake recipe.
If you prefer to have flavored rice cake snacks like the little mini ones you can pop right in your mouth, you can have those alongside some protein for a more complete, filling snack.
I highly recommend Lundberg rice cake snacks like the Organic Mini Apple Pie Rice Cakes, Sesame Seaweed Rice Chips, Organic Kettle Corn Cakes, or Santa Fe Barbeque Rice Chips.
With any of these, you might have a handful of some of the rice cake snacks and then have a hard-boiled egg, some tuna fish in a pouch, some nuts, etc.
What Are the Best Rice Cake Snack Ideas?
Below, we have put together some healthy rice cake snack ideas (and some more indulgent puffed rice cake dessert ideas and rice cake snacks when you are looking for topping ideas when calories arent a major concern) for various dietary needs and taste preferences.
Sweet Rice Cake Snack Ideas
Here are some rice cake dessert ideas and sweet rice cake snack topping ideas.
Again, you can use a plain, unsalted, or lightly salted rice cake for weight-loss rice cake snacks and low-calorie rice cake snack ideas,
If you arent as concerned about the calories in rice cake snacks or the carbs in rice cake snacks, you might want to start with a sweet rice cake like a caramel or chocolate rice cake as the base.
- Rice cake with peanut butter and honey
- Rice cake with peanut butter and sliced banana
- Rice cake with peanut butter and apple slices
- Rice cake with ricotta cheese and a drizzle of honey, cinnamon, or jam
- Rice cake with a little bit of nut butter and finely chopped chocolate peanut butter protein bar
- Rice cake with peanut butter or almond butter, apple slices, and cinnamon sugar or sprinkled ground cinnamon
- Rice cake with almond butter and blueberries or raspberries
- Rice cake with almond butter and Chia seeds with fresh berries or other fruit slices
- Rice cake with mashed banana and dark chocolate chips
- Rice cake with applesauce and cinnamon and/or cinnamon sugar
- Rice cake with a light smear of Nutella with or without banana slices
- Rice cake made with powdered peanut butter, powdered almond butter, or powdered chocolate peanut butter, such as the delicious, low-calorie powdered peanut butters from PB2
- Rice cake with unsalted cottage cheese and fresh sliced strawberries, blueberries, or other fresh berries
- Rice cake with cashew butter, almond butter, or favorite nut butter with hemp seeds
- Rice cake with Greek yogurt, low-sugar granola or muesli, and fresh berries
- Rice cake with a small smear of fig jam or your favorite fresh jam or preserve
- Rice cake with a little bit of brie and drizzled honey
Savory Rice Cake Snack Ideas
Here are a few savory rice cake snack ideas:
- Rice cake with lox or salmon
- Rice cake with tuna fish or tuna salad made with mustard or light mayonnaise
- Rice cake with canned sardines
- Rice cake with salmon from a pouch
- Rice cake with cheddar cheese or some other type of cheese
- Rice cake with hummus, bell pepper strips, sprouts, spinach, and other low-carb veggies
- Rice cake with smoked salmon, sliced tomato, and red onion
- Rice cake with cream cheese and smoked salmon
- Rice cake with turkey breast and Swiss cheese
- Rice cake with sliced ham and banana peppers
- Rice cake with turkey bacon, Swiss cheese, tomato, and lettuce
- Rice cake with cottage cheese, cucumber, tomato, and spinach
- Rice cake with cottage cheese and chives
- Rice cake with egg salad
- Rice cake with fried egg and provolone cheese
- Rice cake with curry scrambled eggs
- Rice cake with hummus and falafel
- Rice cake with tahini and portobello mushrooms
- Rice cake with guacamole and fried egg
- Rice cake with sliced avocado, pepper, and tomato
- Rice cake with cream cheese and cucumber
- Rice cake with hummus and black bean burger
- Rice cake with Greek yogurt, fennel, and chives
- Rice cake with ricotta cheese, spinach, and sun-dried tomato
- Rice cake with tomato jam and turkey meatballs
- Rice cake with jerk chicken
- Rice cake with cream cheese and shrimp with dill or lemon juice
- Rice cake with tempeh, lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts, and hummus
- Rice cake with chicken strips, jack cheese, salsa, lettuce, and avocado
- Rice cake with tuna salad and veggies or curry chicken salad and chopped veggies
You can find some other healthy snacks for weight loss diets with 200 calories (at most) here.
