healthy snacks Archives |

Simple & Savory Homemade Applesauce (Recipe)

October 13, 2014 By Laura Leave a Comment

With the Fall season, comes apple season! And we all know there are innumerable wonderful and delicious things, that can be made with apples!
They really are a fruit of so many gifts. But some recipes take a lot more ambition, than others!
If you just want to enjoy the simplicity and goodness of apples, while still having a great celebration happening in your mouth, than this applesauce recipe is for you!
Applesauce is also a versatile food, that can be used in so many different ways. We’ll talk about there here, too.

4-6 pounds Apples, Peeled, Cored, And Cut Into 8 Slices
1 cup Water
Juice Of 1 Lemon (or 6 shakes of Lemon Essential Oil)
1/2 cup Brown Sugar, Packed
1 teaspoon Cinnamon or Cassia, More Or Less To Taste

(*Optional Ingredients: Nutmeg, Maple Syrup, Allspice, Butter)

It’s This Simple:

1. First, we always recommend you begin with washed, organic apples, if possible.
What kind of apples? That’s up to you! But varieties of the sweet and soft kind, are best when making applesauce. In this recipe, we used all McIntosh apples, and so can attest to the goodness of an applesauce made with that variety! But [Read more…]

Granola Goodness | Recipe

February 1, 2012 By Laura Leave a Comment

We love granola around here! It’s such a good and wholesome snack, handful after handful, with CrUnCh! (Oh, how I love crunch.) It’s really a great way to start your day off right too, in the morning! Throw some in a bowl with a few splashes of cold milk, or load it on top of a serving of yogurt!

Unfortunately, it’s next to impossible to find ‘peanut-safe’ granola at the markets. Added to the allergies now, is cashews and pistachios. Even small amounts of granola are kind of pricey to buy, ready-made, anyway. So, if we want granola (and we do!), it’s up to us to make it homemade. But we don’t mind, because it’s easy and fun to make, and we can make BIG batches.

granola-recipe We have posted another granola recipe here on the blog before, and that one can be found here. There is so many ways to make granola! Experimenting with different ingredients, is half the fun and surprise! Here is the granola recipe we’ve been crunching on this week!

Granola Goodness

(Note: All C.(cup) measurements are heaping – not level.)

4C rolled oats
1 1/2 C shredded unsweetened coconut
1 C wheat germ
1/2 C natural bran (We used Fiber One cereal.)
2 C raisins
1/2 C cooking oil
1/2 C honey
1/2 tsp. vanilla

(*Chopped nuts optional. We have a kiddo allergic.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a small saucepan, combine oil and honey. Stir over low heat until the honey is melted and it’s warm and blended with the oil enough. (About 5 minutes.) Stir in vanilla. Pour oil mixture over dry ingredients, little by little, mixing to blend well. Spread mixture on two cookie sheets, and bake for for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned, stirring and flipping mixture over about half way through time. Let cool completely. Store in an airtight container. Makes about 12+ cups!

Granola Goodness

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

30 mins

There is nothing like a good granola! Here we are sharing our recipe with you, in hopes you'll enjoy it as much as we do!

: House of Joyful Noise blog

: Snack

Serves: 12 Cups

Ingredients

4C rolled oats
1½ C shredded unsweetened coconut
1 C wheat germ
½ C natural bran (We used Fiber One cereal.)
2 C raisins
½ C cooking oil
½ C honey
½ tsp. vanilla
(*Chopped nuts optional. We have a kiddo allergic.)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
In a small saucepan, combine oil and honey.
Stir over low heat until the honey is melted and it's warm and blended with the oil enough. (About 5 minutes.)
Stir in vanilla.
Pour oil mixture over dry ingredients, little by little, mixing to blend well.
Spread mixture on two cookie sheets, and bake for for 15-20 minutes until lightly browned, stirring and flipping mixture over about half way through time.
Let cool completely.
Store in an airtight container. Makes about 12+ cups!

Banana-Fanna-Fo-Fanna…Fe-Fi-Fo-Fanna…Banana.(CHIPS!) | Recipe

February 2, 2011 By Laura 7 Comments

There’s nothing like a snack you can give your kids, and feel good about!
So today, we’re going to show you how to make a simple, healthy and natural snack – Banana Chips!

Like most recipes, there are always a few variations or different ways to go about preparing a food. Banana chips can either be fried, or baked. We try to opt for the healthy options first.

Making baked banana chips really couldn’t be any simpler.

Get this:

Participating Ingredients:

Bananas!

Need I say more? Maybe. Some may want to know exactly what to do with them. But I am willing to bet, this is going to go just about how you think it is.

The main thing you need to make banana chips, is a bunch of bananas.

But really, if you want a bunch of banana chips, you might want to go with two bunches of bananas. Because they shrink up to nothing, and you may find yourself asking in the end, “That’s all we got? Seriously?” Much like mushrooms, or onions…..you start out with a big pile, get cooking them, and wonder where it all went!

So, you’ll want to peel and slice the bananas to about 1/8″ thick. Now…above, is a little thicker than that. I went thinner after this one. (And after I already took the photo.)

But either way….if you cut them or like them a little thicker, you’ll just bake them a little longer, and I’ll get to that.

If it’s gardening season, and you garden, remember…..banana peels are a wonderful organic compost ingredient! They are a great source of potassium for the soil. That means excellent nutrients for your producing plants. When burying peels near your rose bushes, you’re bound to get bigger blooms too!

But right….we were talking about banana chips.

Preheat your oven to ~150 degrees for thinner slices, 200 degrees for thicker.

Then, you can lightly grease your pans, or spray oil on them.

Spread your banana slices on the cookie sheets, not touching.

Now, if it’s important to you that the banana slices maintain their color for the most part, and don’t turn too brown, you can spray them with lemon juice.

We didn’t care, and I was afraid I would taste the lemon juice. (Not a lemon fan.) So….we skipped that.

How long you bake them, depends on how thick you sliced them:

1/8″ : 2-3 hours, turning over every 30 minutes or so.

(The temp is so low, I used a spatula the first time, but used me fingers after that.)

When they are dried out and nice and a little golden brown, they are done.

Thicker than 1/8: Bake an hour, turn over and check if they are dehydrated yet. If not, put in a little longer.

Really……when they are chippy, they are done. You can’t do it wrong, People. (Unless they are still mushy, or burnt. ; ). After that, just leave them out to harden a little more. Then put them in a storage container to keep fresh.

Ours came out crunchy at first bite, and then a little fun and chewy.

They can be eaten alone, or added to a trail mix.

A couple of other Fun Banana Facts!:

1) Bananas make you HaPpY!! They contain the natural chemical found in prozac.

2) Bananas, eaten raw, do not make me happy. Well, they used to make my mouth happy. But then I found, they do not make my stomach happy. After several bouts of excruciating stomach pains, on different occasions, I had always asked myself what I had recently eaten. The common consumption? A banana. I’ve come to the conclusion that my stomach can digest anything under the sun, except raw bananas. Which is a bummer, because I love them. So I make myself feel better with, banana chips!….banana bread…..banana muffins…..banana pancakes…..banana-fanna-fo-fanna….you get the idea.

Banana chips (baked) are a healthy, organic snack for the kiddos too! So be sure to share!

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