Craving Crunch
Stressed? Craving something crunchy? Many times people who are really stressed out, often crave crunchy, salty food. This can come with a price! High fat, high sodium, and high in calories. Yuck. Who wants that? You will just feel more sluggish when you are finished devouring that bag of chips or popcorn. A few healthy options can be these homemade snacks (recipes below), yogurt with granola, apple with almond butter, carrot sticks with hummus, homemade dried apple chips, or air popped popcorn. When the stress just gets to be too much……..don’t let your waistline take the beating.
Momma’s chex mix:
Ingredients:
3 cups corn chex
3 cups rice chex
3 cups wheat chex
1 cup slivered almonds
1 cup bite sized pretzels
1 cup cheerios
Melt 6 Tbsp. smart balance butter in microwave; add 2 Tbsp. worchestershire sauce, 1 1/2 teaspoons seasoned salt, 3/4 tsp. garlic powder and 1/2 tsp. onion powder. Mix this together well and pour over cereal mixture and stir well. Bake at 250 for about an hour stirring every 15 minutes. ENJOY!
Homemade Apple chips: These are super easy and a very low maintenance recipe.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 large apple
Prep:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees, and line a baking sheet parchment paper. Core the apples and then slice them with a mandoline, or as thinly as you can with a kitchen knife. Lay them in a single layer on the baking sheet, and sprinkle with 1 tbsp sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Bake for one hour, and then flip the apple slices on the baking sheet. Sprinkle the additional tbsp of sugar on the flipped slices, and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Allow to cool and serve.
Golden Pita chips:
Ingredients:
1 ½ tsp cumin
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Garlic Powder
Black pepper and salt, to taste
2 Pitas
Prep:
Preheat broiler and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
Mix together cumin, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Set aside.
Cut Pitas into 8-12 pieces and split each piece in half to make thin chips. Arrange in a single layer on baking sheet. Spray with cooking spray. Sprinkle evenly with spice mixture. Broil for 3-5 minutes, until golden brown. Serve with homemade hummus or salsa.