As the Jewish new year, Rosh Hashanah, begins tonight, so will the tradition of dipping apples into healthful honey to symbolize a sweet year. However, it isn’t obligatory to pour the golden stuff from a bear-shaped bottle that often gets jammed with a crusty residue. Instead, try one that seamlessly drops in your dish while also getting the benefits of antioxidants, B vitamins and amino acids that make queen bees proud.

Honibe

Resembling a portable honeycomb, the Honibe Drops do just that, travel with you, (without sticking) and sweeten your tea and coffee with 100% natural honey, once they are torn from their individual packages and dissolved into your cup.

Sold at: Modern Tea With Company (160 East 27th Street), William Poll, Inc. (1051 Lexington Avenue), Nimli Inc.
(252 W. 38th St., Suite 306) and Karen’s on Astor (1 Astor Place), www.honibe.com

Zambezi

A sustainable, organic approach to honey-making isn’t a trendy concept in Zambia, where the Lunda people have been producing the sweet stuff for 500 years from a rare honeybee, that only feeds on flowering trees.

Their products also contain significant antioxidant properties, higher than the normal levels (the National Honey Board gave them a 10, most rank between 3 and 5). Plus, it’s tinged with the woodsy taste of toasted caramel. http://www.zambezihoney.com/

Savannah Bee Company

Because a holiday party should invite honey too, the Savannah Bee Company dressed up their Tupelo Honey Flutes ($20.40) for the occasion. Harvested for two to three weeks before getting corked in the slim and sleek bottle, once poured, the flavors overflow with tastes of melon, crème brulée, butter, and dried pear. KSA Kosher Certified.

www.savannahbee.com/, flutes are 15% off through the end of September.

PICKING UP 100 CALORIE SLACK

We used to giddily skip along with our pre-portioned Twinkies and Reeses and their cute, colorful, kid-lunch-like plastic exteriors. That was, until FoodNavigator.com shook us out of our sugar-induced stupor:

“Consumers are looking for value over convenience in the current economic situation; 100-calorie packs were a diet fad that has been shown not to work; and they use an unsustainably large amount of packaging.”

Oh.

So we got to thinking. How can we most efficiently snack at 3PM without sabotaging our diet, the environment and our budget?

IN THE KITCH: We hit the bottom of the bag waaay too soon when it came to those pre-portioned bites. So we’re preparing a balance of protein, fat and carbs coming in at 100 to 180 calories.

Toast a 1/2 Sabra pita, 1/4 cup tomato sauce, 1 slice low fat American cheese, add fresh ground pepper & sprinkle oregano, to taste 140 cals

• 1 tbs Peanut Butter & Co.’s Cinnamon and Raisin Swirl, 80 cal whole wheat bread 165 cals
  

• Boil or bake or stir fry 1⁄2 (40 gms) Plaintain Banana 150 cals

• 3 tbs. Friendship Farmer Cheese, 4 Trader Joes Reduced Guilt Wheat Wafers 155 cals

• 1 pack regular oatmeal, 1⁄2 cup sliced strawberries, cinnamon 140 cals

• 8 oz. Kettle Cuisine Chicken Vegetable Soup with Rice 100 cals
  

• 5 tbs. Argo Tzatziki Yogurt sauce, 1 cup raw veggies 150 cals
  

ON THE GO: Because sometimes we don’t see our refrigerators for days.

• Figamajig Bar 130-150 cals
• KIND Bar Fruit and Nut Delight 170 cals
• Vitalicious Muffin Top 100 cals
• 

Fullbar Bites 150 cals

Go-Mango-Man Peeled Snacks: 150 cals

Kooloos Oven Roasted Soynuts and Flax Seed Honey BBQ 130 cals