Little Things - Baked Tortilla Chips

So the other night, I was really craving chicken nachos.  I was getting my ingredients together...chicken - check, avocado - check, cheese - check, beans - check, tortilla chips - nope...How could I make nachos without chips...time to make homemade tortilla chips out of the 5 pounds of white corn tortillas that I have stored in the freezer!  It was beyond easy, here's what I did.


Baked Tortilla Chips:

Corn tortilla - cut into triangles or strips ( I used a pizza cutter and cut them into fourths)
Olive oil
Salt

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Cut tortillas and place on baking sheet.  Spray with olive oil (or brush on before cutting) and sprinkle with salt.  Bake for 6-8 minutes, check on them half way through and stir.  That's it, super easy!

Black Bean Hummus

I had planned on making some hummus the other day, and was really looking forward to it.  I started to get out all of my ingredients, and I realized that I had no garbanzo beans...no hummus for me....but then I realized that I had an entire pantry of black beans.  So it ended up being a black bean hummus kind of day for me, and I think I liked it better than my garbanzo bean hummus, at the very least it was just as tasty!

Black Bean Hummus:

1 can black beans(drained and rinsed)
2 tbsp  lemon juice
2 tbsp tahini (sesame seed butter)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves of garlic (depending on how garlicky you like your hummus)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 hot water


Combine all the ingredients in the food processor except for the water and blend until smooth.  With the processor running pour in the hot water.  Taste the hummus to see if you need to adjust the flavor.  Store in the refrigerator for up to a week.  Enjoy!

Granola bar - FAIL

I love making snacks for our family.  I love knowing that we are snacking on healthy, homemade food...rather than processed food from the store.  I love the entire process (well everything but the clean up anyway) of creating delicious healthy treats.  Last week, I wanted to make some healthy snacks for the plane ride last week, so I decided to make some granola bars.  I based my recipe on one I saw in a Taste of Home magazine, but apparently I should have followed the recipe a little closer, because my granola bars wouldn't stick together...FAIL.

It wasn't a total failure though, because actually, this granola bar crumbled mess made some of the tastiest, chewiest granola I've ever had.  So...if you are in the mood to make your own granola, you can use my tried and true recipe healthy granola, or you could try this one too...minus the egg...that was only necessary for the granola bar recipe. Hey, and if you want to try to make bars out of this recipe, let me know if it works for you. 

3-1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup chopped almonds
1 cup chopped cashews  
1 egg, lightly beaten 
2/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup honey 
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
1/2 cup sunflower kernels 
1/2 cup flaked coconut 
1 cup dried cranberries 
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon  

In a large bowl, mix oats, almonds, cashews, cranberries, coconut, sunflower kernels, cinnamon, and any other seeds or nuts you would like to add.  In another bowl whisk together the honey, butter, and vanilla.  Pour the honey mixture into the oat mixture and stir until thoroughly combined.  Spread in a large cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes.  Enjoy!

Baked Veggie Chips

Wow...so baked chips are not for the faint of heart.  I've never baked chips (or fried them for that matter) and I had no idea how time consuming it was.  I gave my mandolin away at a white elephant Christmas party last year, which is unfortunate because it would have really come in handy yesterday.  I had to manually cut the potatoes and beets, which wasn't a big deal, except that they were different sizes and so they all cooked at different times.  Anyway, they were super tasty and I think I'll do it again, I just think it would be way easier with a mandolin.  Here is the recipe if you want to brave making these tasty treats.

2-3 russet potatoes (peeled and sliced thinly 1/8 inch-ish)
1 large beet (peeled and sliced thinly)
Any other root vegetable you have on hand (sweet potatoes, parsnips)

Place the slices in a large bowl, and drizzle with olive oil.  Sprinkle with garlic salt and pepper to taste.  Arrange on a baking sheet in a single layer.  Bake at 375 degrees until they veggies are golden brown or about 15 minutes, turn once. 

Enjoy!

Honey Buttered Popcorn

Popcorn is one of my favorite snacks.  It's crunchy, and you can eat a ton of it without feeling guilty.  I like to make my popcorn on the stove top.  It's really quite simple and so much better for you than buying the bagged popcorn with all the additives.  I pour a couple of swirls of olive oil in the bottom of a pot and turn the heat to medium-high.  Let the oil warm up for just a couple of minutes and pour in about 1/4 cup popcorn into the pot.  Cover and shake every few seconds.  Keep it covered and shake every few seconds until the popping has slowed down then take off heat.  Shake around a couple more times and add your toppings.  I've found it's really good this way with just a little bit of salt on it.   When you cook it in olive oil, you don't even need butter.  But....if you want butter...here is a simple, yummy way to eat you popcorn.

Honey Buttered Popcorn:

2 tbsp butter (melted)
2 tbsp honey
salt to taste

Melt butter, add honey and stir until well combined.  Pour mixture on your pop corn, and sprinkle salt.  Stir and taste, add more salt if needed.  Enjoy!

Hummus

This is my go to party (or I need something to dunk my carrots in) dip.  Hummus is easy and quick to make in a food processor.  In just a couple of minutes you can have a healthy, tasty snack to share with others or eat yourself.

Hummus:

1 can garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 tahini (sesame seed butter)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2-3 cloves of garlic (depending on how garlicky you like your hummus)
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cumin
1/4 hot water

Combine all the ingredients in the food processor except for the water and blend until smooth.  With the processor running pour in the hot water.  Taste the hummus to see if you need to adjust the flavor.  Store in the refrigerator for up to a week.  You can use hummus as a dip vegetables or crackers, or as a sandwich spread.  Enjoy!

Homemade Lara Bars

I am in LOVE with Lara Bars, but at $1.50 (at best) per bar, I don't get them very often.  I stumbled upon this fabulous blog that has very similar recipes to all kinds of health bars.  One of the things that first attracted me to Lara Bars was the lack of ingredients, usually packaged  food has a super long list of ingredients, most of which I can't even pronounce.  Now that I am making them at home, they are still attractive to me because of the very few ingredients it takes to make a batch.  I whipped up 12 bars, with only three ingredients, in less than 10 minutes.  I shaped them into balls, even though they kind of look like raw meatballs, just because I like them like that....but you could shape them into bars if you want. 

The recipe is here.  The bars (or balls) pictured above are the cashew cookie bars, but I've also made the peanut butter and jelly bars, and they were fantastic!  Enjoy!

Homemade fruit snacks

 

I made these in less than 10 minutes with 100 % fruit juice and gelatin.  I used a recipe found here and silicone heart molds from IKEA.  My little guy was very excited about the fruit snacks!  Tasty and super easy!

Apple Chips

These did not last very long in our house....I used three apples and the chips were gone in about an hour.  This is a great healthy snack and unlike dehydrated apples (which I also love) these were crunchy, so if you're craving some crunch, these are great!  They are super easy to make. Here's the recipe:

Thinly slice through the apple ( if you have a corer, use that first, otherwise you'll have to core them after you cut them...like me).
Cut the core out of the apple slices.
Place on parchment sheet lined cookie sheets and sprinkle with cinnamon.
Bake at 225 degrees for 2 hours, check every half an hour and rotate your cookie sheets.

Because I didn't use a mandolin, my slices were not all the same size, so some will cook faster than others.  As you check on your slices, just eat take out the cooked ones.  Enjoy!