Snacker Day Saturday: 5/26

Alright, alright. You caught me.

I can’t get enough peanut-butter and chocolate in my life.

Every week I try to think of some new flavor combination for a snack that will really surprise your taste buds. But if we take a look back real quick, here are all of the snacks I’ve come up with: Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Pretzel Bites (the title’s a mouthful, but the snack is easy to pop in your mouth), Frozen Orange Slices, Chocolate Peanut-Butter Bars, Oven-baked Squash Chips, Peanut Butter Bars, Sinless Cinnabon Rolls, and  Healthy Chocolate Cake . That’s 4/7 snacks that involve peanut butter and chocolate. And, I’ve done it again today.

There’s something irresistible about the semi-salty taste of creamy peanut butter mixed with the rich tones of chocolate. I know that eating Reese’s 24/7 isn’t exactly the healthiest though, so I usually try to get my fix of this addictive combination in more nutritionally sound ways (note, I said try). Today’s snack mixes fiber-filled, naturally sweet fruit with protein-packed Greek Yogurt (I know, surprise, surprise). I packed the Greek Yogurt with peanut butter, a smattering of good-for-you nuts, and a drizzle of chocolate that’ll make any of you pb&choco lovers out there swoon.

I’d recommend making this snack in large batches. Actually, make it in quadruple-billion extra-large batches. So what if ‘quadruple billion’ isn’t a feasible number…it’s how much you’ll want to eat of this stuff. And really, it takes 2 hours to make, so I highly recommend making a bunch while you’ve got the oven on for that long. This snack is just one more excuse to hang out with your family on a sunny afternoon or invite a bunch of friends over for a barbeque. Oh wait- you’re probably already doing that this memorial day weekend! So go right ahead and use this recipe as a fun snack or healthy dessert. Everyone will thank you for it with huge chocolate-covered smiles on their faces. The recipe below serves one – mayyyybeeeeee two people (if you’re not a hungry snacker like I am) so keep that in mind when you’re making portions.

Apple Chips
Ingredients
1 apple
How To
1. Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Slice the apple as thin as you can, getting rid of seeds and stem as you cut.
2. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray and lay the apple slices out on it. Cook apple slices for 2-2.5 hours, flipping them about halfway through. Before eating, let the slices cool for like three minutes so they get crunchy.
Loaded Peanut Butter-Chocolate Dip
Ingredients
1 5oz. container plain greek yogurt
1 tablespoon peanut butter
4 or 5 nuts (I used a mix of almonds, macadamia, and cashews)
Chocolate sauce (such as Hershey’s syrup)
How To
1. In yogurt container, mix peanut butter in until the two substances are combined.
2. If plating the dip, go ahead and pour the yogurt into a small dipping cup or onto a plate at this point.
3. Crush up the nuts (or cut them up with a knife) and sprinkle all over the top of the dip. Then, swirl chocolate sauce on top.
4. Grab an apple chip (or a handful), and dunk them into pure bliss. Trust me, your taste buds will love you for it.

Need a little reading snack to keep you from shoveling these chips ‘n dip faster than chocolate melts on a hot summer day? Thought so. Today, I suggest reading “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” by Flannery O’Connor. I love reading O’Connor because her writing is unexpected and eerily beautiful. It resonates within every reader even though the subject matter sometimes seems too strange to be related to life as we know it. In this story set on a farm, a strange man comes to town and well, things happen. I highly suggest reading it, not only because you’ll be dumbfounded by the end, but because O’Connor writes about nature in a way that is almost unparalleled by anyone else. I love the way she uses nature in figurative imagery to project what she is trying to say.

With that said, enjoy your snacks of literature and food and have a wonderful weekend with family and friends! Try not to eat too much of this dip over the long weekend.

Oh, who am I kidding? Go ahead – stuff your face with this snack! It’s healthy!

Snacker Day Saturday: 5/19

It’s gonna be a great Saturday if you spend a couple minutes in the kitchen whipping these up. Yep, you heard me right – a couple minutes for a perfect sweet and salty snack that’ll blow your tastebuds right out of the kiddie pool and into a lounge chair in the sunshine where they belong. Bonus? They’re so cute that if you managed not to inhale them all straight after making them, they’d be perfect to bring to a summery barbeque, a memorial day picnic, or just as a little snack to pass around during a late-night summer movie with the family. Another bonus? You probably have all the ingredients in your pantry.

Summertime always reminds me of s’mores, which kind of inspired this snack. My brother and I used to sit out in the backyard on fallen logs and roast a bag of marshmallows each over our homemade firepit. I’d brave swarms of ticks and chiggers in the high grass just to find the perfect roasting sticks while my brother fanned the flames. Once the fire simmered to the point in which little coves of scorched logs trapped heat, and we were able to lightly brown our marshmallows by simply twisting our sticks a couple times, we’d break into our bags and start chowing down. And I wasn’t joking when I said we ate a bag of marshmallows each.

Now I know you might be thinking, what do s’more have to do with this snack? There aren’t any graham crackers. Or marshmallows. Or flickering flames lapping up a creamsicle sky. Truth is, I’ve never loved graham crackers. My favorite way to eat marshmallows over a fire is to stuff a marshmallow with a thin sliver of chocolate and then smear peanut butter all over the outside of it after it finishes roasting.

Since my house is currently being rebuilt (it was hit by a tornado), I don’t really have access to our usual firepit. I almost bought marshmallows at the store the other day but it felt wrong to eat them before puffing them up and adding a crispy outer layer to them in the flames. So I did what I do best: I switched up a recipe so it is almost unrecognizable. Case in point – traditional s’mores: graham cracker, chocolate, marshmallow. My revamped summer snack-attack version: pretzels, peanut butter, banana, chocolate. This snack is s’more like in its’ layers, chocolate-laced character, and satisfying sweetness. Oh, and in crowd-pleasing abilities. Trust me, everyone will swarm to these snacks like flies to the sticky-sweet chocolate bars that always melt near the flames. I like to think though, that they’re a little better than s’mores, if only because of the fact that they are nutritionally superior. These nibbles are filled with potassium, protein, and antioxidants. So go ahead, get snackin’!

PB&Choco Banana Pretzel Bites
Ingredients
1 banana
7 pretzels (+1 for sprinkling)
2 tablespoons chunky peanut butter
.5 oz dark chocolate
How To
1. Set out 7 pretzels on a small plate.
2. Spread the peanut butter evenly on each pretzel.
3. Chop the banana into 7 sections (be sure to cut off the two ends of the banana and eat them or discard them – don’t use them on the pretzels). Top each PB covered pretzel with one slice of banana.
4. Place the dark chocolate on a microwave safe plate or bowl and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds. Check on the chocolate and stir a little bit. Then, put the chocolate back into the microwave for another 15 seconds and check on the chocolate. If necessary, microwave for 10-30 seconds more, ensuring that you don’t burn the chocolate.
5. Once the chocolate is melted, spoon a little bit on the top of each banana. Smooth it out and let the chocolate start to harden. While it’s hardening, crumble a pretzel into very small pieces and sprinkle the pretzel on top of each chocolate topping. Then, let the chocolate harden for a while, or just eat the pretzels as is. Either way, I guarantee you’ll want s’more!

So I know I usually recommend a short story or poem, but today I have a little something different to share as far as reading materials go. Yesterday I blogged about a sweet potato and apple casserole that Jane Brody included in her book Jane Brody’s Good Food Book. I’ve been reading the opening chapters of the book that details a nutritional outline of what humans need and how Brody believes these requirements are best met. She includes tons of information about foods that seem common but have been neglected because of the introduction of technology, food processing, and various diet-references to certain foods. For example, she talks about white potatoes (and how they are healthy!!), wheat and how it has been stripped of most nutritional properties, and more plant-based methods of attaining full and complete nutrition than what society relies on today. Since I’m so into the book, I figured I’d recommend it as a snacker day Saturday read. Best part about this book? You can read as little as a section per time, or as much as the whole book (which would take you a few days because it’s loooonngggg). Also great? The book has hundreds of healthy recipes at the end that follow the nutritional guidelines she suggests. Hope you have a great snacker day Saturday!

Snacker Day Saturday: 4/21

Snacks come in handy when you’re hiking.

I only know this because some of the most rewarding moments spent hiking are when you reach the top of a mountain or the mid-point of a trail, or a lookout and have the chance to rest for ten minutes or so and indulge in a treat. Snacks are also useful if you’ve walked for so long you feel like your feet are about to fall off and your stomach is growling.

Andrea is going hiking this weekend so I thought I’d surprise her and try to create my own bars so she could bring them on her trip with her. I’m usually not a huge fan of bars (I’d rather sit down for a real meal), but on the trail this just isn’t possible. So I did what I could to make three different flavors of bars for her to take into the wilderness for snacks this weekend.

I made chocolate peanut-butter, plain peanut-butter (both of these flavors also have variations that include chocolate chips), and…..drumroll please…..GINGERBREAD! I know, I know, some of you think that gingerbread isn’t ‘in season’ right now, but I’ll explain my rationale.

I’m not sure if I’ve confessed this or not before, but I’m a fan of listening to Christmas music almost year round. Note, I said almost. I usually take a break of a month or two and then crank up the frosty tunes starting in about June.  Last year my family moved houses and because it was summer and I had nothing else planned, I decided to physically “move” myself from one house to the other by walking. I set out on a nearly 15 mile journey from one house to the other with a water bottle in hand and speakers in my ears. To combat the above-100 degree heat, I thought it would be smart to listen to some Christmas music. So I did. The whole way. And even if the music didn’t really cool my body down at all, it put a pep in my step the entire walk.

Today I went on a walk with my iPod on shuffle and a Christmas song popped up. As soon as it did, I knew that today was the day to deck the halls. I did by coming up with this gingerbread flavored bar that would make even the grinch happy. So, without further ado, whip out your food processors and Christmas jams and let’s get snackin’!

Snacker Bars are Comin’ To Town

Peanut Butter Bars
Ingredients
1 1/2 cup peanut butter puff cereal
3 dates (pitted and sliced in half)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
How To
1. Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend until all ingredients meld together into one ball or until the consistency reaches the point that you can easily put the batter in your hands and make a cohesive ball.
2. Shape the batter into whatever form you’d like or see below for a variation!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Bars
Ingredients
1/2 of batter from above
1 1/2 tablespoons chocolate chips
How To
1. Split the batter above in half with a knife. Leave one half as plain peanut butter bars and mix the other half of the batter with chocolate chips.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups peanut butter puff cereal
3 dates (pitted and sliced in half)
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tablespoon agave
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
How To
1. Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend until all ingredients meld together into one ball or until the consistency reaches the point that you can easily put the batter in your hands and make a cohesive ball.
2. Shape the batter into whatever form you’d like or see below for a variation!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Bars
Ingredients
1/2 of batter from above 1 1/2 tablespoons chocolate chips
How To
1. Split the batter above in half with a knife. Leave one half as plain peanut butter bars and mix the other half of the batter with chocolate chips.

Gingerbread Bars

Ingredients
1/2 cup mixed soy nuts and pumpkin seeds
1 packet vegan maple instant oats
1/2 overflowing tablespoon molasses
1 tablespoon agave
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
How To
1. Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend until all ingredients meld together into one ball or until the consistency reaches the point that you can easily put the batter in your hands and make a cohesive ball.
2. Shape the batter into whatever form you’d like! (I suggest gingerbread men).

Now that you’ve got your hands on these bars, I’m sure that your brain is hungry for some reading material. Good thing I’ve got a little snack to appease your intellectual side. It’s a story called “Christ, Their Lord” by Stacey Richter and you can find it in the Best of Tin House Stories published in 2006. It’s an energetic story packed with strange happenings that all center around Christmas, which is why I thought it would be perfect for this snacker day that I’ve packed full of Christmas references and stories. I hope you enjoy this slightly different and artistic take on Christmas that Richter uses in order to convey the complex relationship that the main characters are involved in.

Happy snacker day to all, and to all a good day!

“Lovely, Dark, and Deep”

Do any of you know who wrote that line? I’ll give you a hint of what the scenery looks like…

Snowy woods. Robert Frost seems to have an innate fascination with slumbering birches and pines when they’re being coated by blankets of fluffy, white powder. And who doesn’t? The feeling of standing outside while it snows is a special one. The world almost seems quieter in a way, as if everything is dimmed by the snowfall. However, although I think that snow is something magical in itself, I certainly haven’t written a series of poems about how this makes me feel, let alone write poems that have been included in The Norton Anthology of American Literature.

Robert Frost has the ability to illuminate nature through his poems. Through carefully selected words and meticulous examinations of various natural phenomena, he weighs the importance of humans on nature and also offers comparisons of how life parallels the natural world that we live in. For example, in his poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, he beautifully and simply says that the best moments in life are finite, just as the changing colors of leaves. While leaves may be most attractive while they are newly gold, they quickly change and then drop from the tree. Frost compares this to life and the seasons of change that all of us experience.

As I mentioned before, one of Frost’s favorite images in nature is that of a dark, snowy night. In his poem “Birches”, he uses trees bent over from the weight of ice in comparison to those bent over because of the playfulness of young boys to demonstrate how within nature there is an inherent presence of innocence. Frost expresses admiration for people who let their imaginations run wild in nature by flinging themselves off of branches and learning to properly ride a tree. Within these passages that explain innocence, Frost also explains a lament at the loss of such quality. Frost includes a loaded passage in which he describes the intricacies of a field of birches that have been hit by an ice storm. He explains that there are such “heaps of broken glass to sweep away / You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen” and that even “Years afterwards, [they trail] their leaves on the ground” (Frost, 12-13, 18-19). This specific and thoughtful description of the long-term effects of natural events show that while Frost is concerned with answering fundamental life questions, he is also deeply involved in understanding nature.

The poem that really got me thinking (even though all of Frost’s poems did), was “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. In the poem, Frost describes himself stopping in the middle of the woods while riding his horse just so he can look out at the snow falling on the trees. The poem has a melancholy tone to it, perhaps because of the bleak way that Frost views his “promises to keep” to the world (13). He seems to enjoy the stillness of nature and the peace that the “easy wind and downy flake” of the snowfall bring to him, which show that he is more comfortable and content in the natural environment than he is in the ‘human’ world where he is met with obligations and responsibilities to others (12). Although the entire poem is beautiful (I recommend that you look it up and read the whole thing), the last stanza is particularly powerful:

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.
Robert Frost, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, 13-16

These lines, especially with the repetition of the last line at the end are almost haunting in a way. Within a few, small words, Frost manages to convey his complex love for the woods and nature by personifying them in such an eerie and beautiful manner. In addition, he is able to express his dissatisfaction with the world and his obligations within the last three lines. By stating twice that he has many more miles to travel, it is as if he is affirming to himself that he must not stay in the woods all night. While he desires to stay alone in the woods and watch the snow fall (perhaps to his own peril), he recognizes that he has obligations to others and uses this as motivation to carry himself away from the snow-capped trees and branches that captivate him.

While reading this poem, I got the inspiration to make something “lovely, dark, and deep”. What is it? A decadent vat of chocolate-peanut butter mousse. It’s a rich dessert but far less mysterious ingredient-wise than the woods described in Frost’s poem. So, without further ado, here’s the recipe for the chocolate mousse (twigs optional!).

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Mousse

Ingredients

1/2 block silken tofu

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons natural peanut butter

2 tablespoons vanilla almond milk

A pinch of salt

1 tablespoon agave

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 of a banana

How To

1. Robert Frost probably could’ve managed making this mousse while sitting on his horse in the middle of the woods. That’s how easy it is. Dump all ingredients into a food processor and blend until they are well mixed and the mousse is creamy.

2. Go watch snow fall or stand in the woods or something while the mousse chills in the fridge for an hour or two.

3. Dig into the mousse! I hope you find it as lovely as Frost found the snow-covered forest!!

Twice as Nice

And I mean twice-baked. And we’re talking sweet potatoes. And peanut butter. I should just stop the post here. It’s almost too good of a cliffhanger to pass up. Phew, I said almost, which means you’re in for one of the best recipes you’ve ever read about. Think fluffy mounds of spice and honey infused sweet potatoes baked in a delicious, creamy and nutritious sweet potato skin.

You might remember me talking about the yam-peanut butter combination in this post. That’s right folks, The Color Purple is responsible for this stroke of genius. More specifically, Mr. ______ is responsible for the recipe. Despite his downfalls throughout the majority of the book as a father, a husband, and just as a person in general, he gets some bonus points in my book for coming up with a combination of yams and peanut butter to feed to sick Henrietta. Remember her? She’s the one who has to eat sweet potatoes every day so that she recovers from her sickness. Trust me, if these sweet potatoes were offered to me every time I got sick, I wouldn’t mind a few more sniffly noses in my lifetime.

Let me backtrack really quickly to Mr. ______ (or Albert) and talk about his transformation. It comes about the same point in the book as his brilliant suggestion about the sweet potatoes. Throughout the whole novel, he is selfish, abusive and seemingly uncaring. He’s mean to his wife Celie. More than that, he’s cruel towards her. Some of the scenes in the book are so hard to read because Celie is pushed past her limits by Mr. _______. He constantly breaks her down and still she stays quiet about how upset she is because she thinks it is better to be submissive and bear the hardships that are given to her. Now it’s hard to believe, but Mr. _______ redeems himself a little bit at the end of the book because he expresses genuine personal change. The dialogue is beautiful, so I’ll let his transformation speak for itself. And after you read the quote, the sweet potato recipe awaits!

“Anyhow, he say, you know how it is. You ast yourself one question, it lead to fifteen. I start to wonder why us need love. Why us suffer. Why us black. Why us men and women. where do children really come from. It didn’t take long to realize I didn’t hardly know nothing. And that if you ast yourself why you black or a man or a woman or a bush it don’t mean nothing if you don’t ast why you here, period.

So what you think? I ast.

I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ast. And that in wondering bout the big things and asting bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, he say, the more I love.” (The Color Purple, Alice Walker)

Twice As Nice Double-Baked Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients (for one)

1 Sweet Potato

1/4 Cup Greek Yogurt (plain)

1 Tablespoon Peanut Butter

1 Teaspoon Honey

1/2 Teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice

1/4 Teaspoon Cinnamon

How to

Poke holes in a sweet potato with a fork. Set sweet potato on a baking sheet or casserole pan and bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes or until relatively soft to the touch. While this is baking, mix yogurt, peanut butter, honey, and spices in a bowl. After the sweet potato is done baking, cut it in half. Use a spoon or knife to gently remove most of the sweet potato ‘meat’ away from the skin. Leave about half a centimeter attached to the skin. Scoop all of the potato into the yogurt mixture. Use a fork or a potato-masher to blend the potato with the other ingredients. It should resemble something like this when you are done mixing:

At this point, the hardest part will be resisting eating the mixture. Once blended, it smells like a freshly baked pumpkin pie drizzled in honey and peanut butter. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Anyway, after all the ingredients are mixed, scoop the mixture back into the sweet potato skins that should still be sitting on your baking sheet or casserole pan. The mixture will probably pile up to be higher than the shell. Don’t worry about patting it down. Bake the sweet potatoes again at 375 degrees or 10-15 minutes or until the fluffy mixture has browned slightly. Then, sit down and dig in.