Fix Me A Snack

Here we have a chocolate meringue with fresh whipped cream and crushed strawberries – a mini pavlova. 

As I was preparing the meringues, my husband was kind enough to tell me they look like pertrified dog poop. So I guess this snack doesn’t score a 10 for presentation, but the kids didn’t seem bothered in the least.

This recipe is substantially lower in sugar than any other pavlova recipe I’ve seen.  It’s a relatively light snack all around, except for the whipped cream. But you can’t not have the whipped cream.

 For the meringue:

3 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1 ounce dark chocolate, chopped very fine

For the whipped cream:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1-2 tablespoons sugar

For the strawberries:

6 frozen strawberries (about 1/3 cup), thawed
1/2 teaspoon sugar

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

In a standing electric mixer, whip the egg whites, sugar, cocoa powder, and vinegar on medium-high speed until semi-stiff peaks form. Gently fold in the chocolate pieces with a rubber spatula. Spoon the meringue mixture onto a parchment-lined baking sheet about a 1/3 cup at a time. Create a heart shape, if desired.

Bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until outer shell has formed and the meringues are not terribly difficult to remove from the parchment. Allow to cool on the pan.

Meanwhile, make your whipped cream by pouring the heavy cream and sugar into a bowl and beating it with an electric mixer until peaks form. If it’s an especially hot day, put the bowl in the freezer for a while before you begin. Store the whipped cream an airtight container in the refrigerator until the meringues are ready.

Meanwhile, drain any excess liquid off the strawberries. Crush the berries and sugar in a small bowl with a fork until they are broken down. Cover and keep at room temperature until the meringues are ready.

To assemble simply place a dollop of whipped cream on top of each meringue and top with 1-2 teaspoons of crushed strawberries. Serve immediately.

Yield: 10 mini heart-shaped pavlovas
Prep-time: 20 minutes
Bake time: 1 1/2 hours

My first-grader has her 100th day of school coming up. The teachers turn the day into one big party about the number 100. So I thought we could do our part at home and make a snack in honor of the day. We happened to have some chocolate candies, raisins, pretzels and Os cereal. We got them all out and counted out 100 pieces of each ingredient (give or take).

At school, they’re also doing some work with measurements in Math. So we chatted briefly about which ingredient would make the longest row and so on. But mostly it was fun to gather it all up. I think I’ve got school snack covered for next week now!

This snack is inspired by the Salad Bars recipe in Julie Van Rosendaal’s cookbook Grazing. If you’re feeling extra fancy, top them with some vanilla greek-style yogurt!

1 cup white whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon ketchup or tomato paste
1 cup grated zucchini
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a mini muffin pan and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, and ketchup. Pour the flour mixture into the bowl and stir to combine. Add the zucchini, carrot and raisins and stir until evenly distributed.

Transfer batter to mini muffin pan, filling each cup approximately 3/4 full. Bake on the center rack of the oven for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Yield: 24 mini muffins
Prep-time: 20 minutes
Bake-time: 15 minutes

Inspired by The 6 o’clock Scramble’s Snack list. The soft marshmallows on top of creamy melted peanut butter are a winning combination. Seriously. The smell of this snack was very distracting during the “photo shoot”.

1 ripe banana, peeled and sliced
4 teaspoons nut butter (such as peanut or almond)
8 mini marshmallows

Line the bottom of two small bowls with 4 banana slices each. Top each with 1 teaspoon nut butter. Layer on another four banana slices and additional teaspoon of nut butter. Place 4 marshmallows on top.

Microwave on high for 20 – 30 seconds or until marshmallows start to melt. Top with sprinkles or chocolate sauce and serve.

Yield: 2 servings
Prep-time: 5 minutes

The absence of bacon in these vegetarian potato skins is offset a bit by the flavor of the smoked cheddar.

I’d need a nutritionist to do the math for me to say for sure, but there might be a nice little dose of Iron in this snack. Potatoes and their skins supposedly have a relatively high level of Iron (for a vegetable) and the Vitamin C in the broccoli might be enough to help boost the Iron’s absorption.

When all is said and done though, I just love potato skins. And even though there is broccoli in the mix, my three-year-old does too!

4 medium russet potatoes
1/2 cup grated smoked white cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated orange cheddar cheese
1/8 teaspoon chili powder (or more to taste)
4 broccoli florets, cooked and chopped (about 1/3 cup)
Salt to taste
Sour cream or greek-style yogurt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash and bake the potatoes for 40-60 minutes, depending on their size. When a knife inserted into a potato meets little resistance, they are done. Remove from oven and allow to cool until they are easy to handle. Leave the oven on.

Meanwhile, mix the cheeses, chili powder, and broccoli in a small bowl. Set aside.

Cut each potato in half lengthwise. Scoop out the potato’s flesh leaving about 1/4 inch of the flesh attached to the skin. Cut each potato skin into halves or thirds depending on the size  of the potato and your preference. I made them on the smaller side in order to accommodate small hands.

Spread the potato skins out on a parchment or foil-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle the cheese mixture over the skins. Bake at 400 degrees Farenhiet for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt if desired. Serve with sour cream or greek-style yogurt if desired.

Yield: 22 potato skins
Prep-time: 15 minutes
Bake-time: 50 minutes

There has been very little love in the air for snacking this past week. The New York Times’ Snack Time Never Ends chronicles the out-of-hand snack habits of busy families in Beverly Hills and calls for an end to the madness.

NutritionDataBlog is kind enough to point out that  Snacks now account for a quarter of daily calories [in adults. But I imagine kids aren't far behind.]

To top it all off, there’s some buzz going on that agave nectar might not be all it’s cracked up to be: Agave Nectar – Healthful or Harmful? from The Kitchn.

So, now that we’ve had our daily dose of sobering news about how we’re feeding our ourselves and our children incorrectly and have made a solemn vow to eat in moderation, here are more links about happy and healthy snacks:

A list to end all lists of non-persiable healthy snacks from Enlightened Cooking. If you’re looking for inspiration for what to eat and serve on the go, here it is. Enlightened Cooking also has a good-looking recipe for homemade lara bars.

Tip: Revive dry peanut butter with a drop of peanut oil from Parent Hacks.

I’m sure there are healthy and tasty cookie recipes out there somewhere. But Fix Me A Snack has come to an exectutive decision that there will be no more cookies here.

Every six months or so I decide I need to make a cookie that is yummy and has some redeeming nutritional qualities. And every time the process is fraught with disappointment. Sometimes I just need a sugar hit. Biting into something that looks like a cookie, but does not deliver the goods is cruel. I will no longer do this to myself or my children.

Here’s a picture of the results of the latest round of experiments: Oatmeal Raisin Flax Cookies.

Looks yummy, doesn’t it? Don’t be fooled. Save yourself for the real thing. And by real I mean loaded with sugar and butter.

A friend of mine special-ordered this recipe. I hope it provides a happy home for all of her overripe bananas.

3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup mashed ripe banana (from two medium bananas)
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup honey
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup frozen or fresh blueberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Put the oats, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse for 10 seconds. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the egg, banana, oil, honey, buttermilk and vanilla. Make sure that the honey is dissolved and not hiding out anywhere in a big clump. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir to combine. Add the blueberries and fold them in gently.

Pour batter into a greased muffin tin. Fill the cups 3/4 full. Bake for 23-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the biggest muffin comes out clean.

Yield: 12 muffins
Prep-time: 20 minutes
Bake time: 23 minutes

Note: My friend tested these out for me and told me that mini muffins only take 13 minutes to bake. Oh, and she said they have earned a place in her recipe box! Yippee!

When all else fails, I usually have some almond butter balls in my freezer. These are a little tricky to form into balls. But that’s because they have a fraction of the honey most recipes for peanut butter balls call for and they have glorious crispy rice cereal which makes them crunchy!

Feel free to replace the almond butter with cashew or peanut. I used natural-style almond butter. But this recipe is extremely flexible so feel free to experiment.

3/4 cup powdered milk
1/2 cup crispy brown rice cereal
2 tablespoons wheat germ
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed (optional)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted almond butter
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small mixing bowl, stir the powdered milk, cereal, wheat germ, flaxseed, and salt until combined. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, stir the almond butter, honey, and vanilla extract with a rubber spatula until combined. Add the powdered milk mixture and stir until uniform.

The mixture may be on the crumbly side. To form into balls, take a tablespoon of the mixture and squeeze it with your hands more than roll it. I pass it back and forth between my hands squeezing and rolling gently with my fingers as I pass. This might be tough for kids to master. If the mixture is too crumbly, add more of something gooey such as honey or even a tablespoon of vegetable, coconut, or flax oil.

Serve or store in the freezer for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw for a couple minutes before serving.

Yield: 30 balls
Prep-time: 20 minutes
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This is easy and delightfully yummy, especially if you are a fan of grapefruit. The inspiration for this particular flavor combination came from the Amateur Gourmet’s Grapefruit Granita which has some nice photos of the preparation process that might be helpful if you’ve never made Granita before.

I’m guessing that grapefruit might not be every kid’s favorite fruit. My kids liked it. But more and more I’m thinking they are being reprogrammed by my endless snack experiments – another unexpected benefit of blogging.

Juice from 3 red grapefruits
Juice from 1 blood orange
1/4 cup agave nectar

Pour the juices into a medium mixing bowl. Add the agave nectar and whisk vigorously for a minute or two in order to make sure the agave has dissolved.

Trasfer the grapefruit mixture to a baking pan somewhere around the 8 x 8-inch size. It can be metal or glass. Cover with plastic wrap and move to your freezer. Allow to freeze overnight.

Before serving, scrape and scratch the frozen grapefruit mixture with a fork, creating little flakes of ice in the process. Serve in cups or bowls.

Yield: 3-4 cups
Prep-time: 10 minutes
Freezer time: 8 hours