You know how it is. You're sitting there at your keyboard, and you get the very strong urge for something - anything - to munch on. Other than your pencil.

And usually, because the words are flowing, and you don't want to break the spell - or the words are trickling out at a snail's pace and you don't want to slow them down any farther - you'll snag the first edible food item in easy reach. Say a candy bar, a bag of chips, some carrot sticks the kids have been carrying around in their lunch boxes and rejecting for a week.

But the truth is, if you chose just a little more carefully, both your stomach and your mind, and okay, your soul - might be more satisfied.

All of these ideas take only a few seconds to prepare or grab.

Feeling a little stressed out? Try a glass of half grapefruit, half cranberry juice. Grapefruit relaxes and stimulates, cranberry helps prevent a host of infections by actually changing your body's acidity levels.

Need energy fast? It's probably a protein crash. But before you reach for one of those heavy-on-the-sugar protein bars, try plain yogurt or cottage cheese with a tablespoon of sweet apple butter. You get the protein and the sweet, with less calories and less sugar. The pectin in the apple butter is good for your bones, too.

Feeling under the weather? Time for some vitamin C and the youth enhancing enzymes found only in - blueberries and blackberries. They're so small and easy to eat, you might almost fool yourself into thinking they're m and m's.

And if a sweet tooth is really biting you, okay, give in. Try peanuts, chocolate chips, dried banana slices and dried cranberries or raisins. Go light as you can on the chocolate, and it's a preservative-free, fruit-rich way to deal with those sugar cravings.

Sick of over-processed peanut butter as a snack? Try chunky almond butter, and dip celery sticks, or hey, even those gnarly left over carrots, in the almond goodness. Warning, you will have to stir it up - the natural almond oils settle to the bottom of the carton.

Now what about that black bean soup?

Open a can of tomato soup. Open a can of black beans. Open a can of corn. Toss the contents of each can into a pot for stove top cooking or a microwave safe container and hit two minutes on the timer.

Open a jar of your favorite salsa - or if you're really feeling wild, chop up your own tomatoes, onions, garlic, cilantro, and add a pinch of red pepper. You can always mix this up once and refrigerate or freeze it for other times.

Pour soup in a bowl. Plop a little salsa on top. Inhale and consume. It couldn't be easier, or more filled with protein, vitamins and fiber. You can toss in a few tortilla chips...slice up a lime or an avocado on the side.

This soup isn't only simple, it really is comfort food. I guarantee that if you finish a bowl, you'll feel almost as content as if you'd just aced a major publishing deal, or heard your life story made the NY Time Best Seller List. Well maybe not quite that content. But close.

Genie Davis' romantic suspense The Model Man is her first with Kensington/Zebra. The noir Dreamtown was published by a small press in 2001. Also available - the short fiction of The Girl and the Gun on Amazon Shorts.

Coming July 2006: erotica written as Nikki Alton from Kensington Aphrodisia's The Cowboy - Rodeo Rider; January 2007, more suspense with Five O'Clock Shadow.

A produced screen and television writer, director, and producer, her work spans a variety of genres from supernatural thriller to romantic drama, action, family, teen, and comedy. Her credits include ABC's Port Charles; the independent film, Losing Hope; reality programming and documentaries for The Learning Channel, PBS, and HGTV, numerous television commercials and corporate videos.