Fix Me A Snack

Yes, we have a jar of petro-chemical based “cherries” lurking in our pantry. No, I am not ashamed. Unsurprisingly, my “testers” consumed these with glee. Next time I might need to put a bit of whipped cream around the base of the ice cream.

Note: Cherries could be replaced with a dollop of strawberry jam or just a plain ol’ strawberry.

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½ cup cooked sweet potato (with skin)
1 cup cooked brown rice
½ cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/3 cup cottage cheese
1 tablespoon wheat germ (optional)
¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place sweet potato, rice, Monterey Jack cheese, cottage cheese, wheat germ and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Process for 45 – 60 seconds or until smooth and a ball starts to form.

Roll sweet potato mixture into tablespoon-sized balls with your hands. Place balls on baking sheet and bake on the center rack of the oven for 15-17 minutes or until the bottoms are golden.

Allow balls to cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes. Gently remove balls with thin metal spatula and serve. Store leftovers in the refrigerator in an airtight container.

Yield: 20 balls
Prep time: 10 minutes
Bake time: 15 minutes

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1 large egg, beaten
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup lowfat milk
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 F

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, Italian Seasoning, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together, egg, olive oil, sugar, buttermilk, milk, tomato paste, cottage cheese and parmesan cheese until almost uniform in color. Small bits of tomato and cheese are actually a good thing so do not over mix.

Transfer batter to a muffin pan sprayed with oil. Fill each muffin cup up to ¾ full with batter. Bake on a rack in the center of the oven for 15 – 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Allow muffins to cool for 5 minutes in pan and then transfer to a cooling rack. Serve or store in an airtight container.

Yield: 12 muffins
Prep time: 20 minutes
Bake time: 15 minutes

Note: If you don’t have any buttermilk, you can make a substitute. If you don’t have any white whole wheat flour, I’d suggest replacing it with 1 cup of all-purpose flour and 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour.

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These are otherwise known as Pavlovas. But I can barely say ‘pavlova’, much less my kids. Good tongue twister, bad name for a kid snack.  My kids came up with name while stuffing their faces. There were no leftovers.

Crispy Clouds have a delightful mouthfeel. They remind me of eating a roasted marshmallow, but take away the heat and sugar overload.

3 large egg whites
1 tablespoon agave nectar or sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Pinch salt

3/4 cup whipped cream (give or take)
1 cup fresh raspberries (give or take)

Preheat oven to 200 F.

Place the egg whites, agave, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer. With the whisk attachment, whip the egg white mixture on medium high speed until peaks form. Turn off mixer and detach bowl. Transfer large spoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheet. Place the scoops at least an inch apart. Make a well in the center of each scoop with the back of the spoon. They should be approximately 4-inches wide once the wells are created.

Bake on the center rack of the oven for approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes or until the clouds are stiff and willing to detach from the parchment paper.

Allow the clouds to cool for 1-2 minutes on the baking sheet. Gently remove from parchment paper and transfer to serving plate. Garnish each cloud with approximately 1 tablespoon whipped cream and a heaping tablespoon of berries. Serve.

Makes 12 clouds
Prep time: 10 minutes
Bake time: 1 1/2 hours

Note: Raspberries can be replaced by any soft fresh fruit.

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I need to make these again sometime soon because I might have eaten most of them myself and my kids might not have really gotten a chance to taste them. Poor little souls.

4 apples, coarsely grated (approximately 1 1/2 cup lightly packed)
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons wheat germ
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch salt

Preheat oven to 250 F.

In a medium bowl mix together the apple, brown sugar, wheat germ, butter, cinnamon, and salt. Place heaping tablespoon-sized scoops of the apple mixture onto parchment lined baking sheets. Make sure the scoops are 2- inches apart. With the back of a spoon, flatten the scoops until they are 1/4-inch thick. Pay careful attention to achieving a uniform thickness as the cookies will require more time in the oven if they are too thick.

Bake for 1 1/2 – 2 hours or until the cookies are dry yet pliable. Allow to cool before serving. Store in an airtight container.

Makes 20 cookies
Prep time: 10 minutes
Baking time: 1 1/2 hours

Note: These “cookies” will cook differently depending how thinly they are spread out on the baking sheets. So after an hour and a half, check in on them every ten minutes or so. They may brown a bit and that’s fine. They dry quite a bit after they cool down so if they’ve been in the oven for two hours and no longer feel squishy, they are most likely done.

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In a small bowl, mix together nut butter, dates, cereal, cream cheese, and honey with a metal spoon. Don’t be shy about crushing the cereal as you stir. Continue to stir until the cereal is broken up into small bits. Set aside.

Spread the bread slices out a level surface and flatten them with a rolling pin as much as possible. Spread 2-3 tablespoons of the nut butter mixture onto each slice depending on the size of the bread. Smaller slices should have 2 tablespoons and medium or large slices should have 3 tablespoons. Roll up each slice as tightly as possible without ripping the bread. Cut each tube into 1/2-inch thick slices and serve.

Makes 4-5 servings
Prep time: 10 minutes

Note: If you don’t have any dates in your pantry, try replacing them with raisins.

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1 apple, cored
5-6 teaspoons nut butter
Raspberries (for garnish)

Slice apple horizontaly into rings approximately 1/4 inch thick. Make a sandwich by spreading approximately 1 teaspoon of nut butter between two apple rings. Insert raspberry in center. Serve.

Makes 5 to 6 flying saucers
Prep time: 5 minutes

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I started thinking seriously about kid snacks about a year ago and apples were featured in some of my first experiments. This is probably the first of my homegrown recipes that made me smile when I tasted it.

Today I used a Jonamac apple (which is a cross between a Jonathan and a MacIntosh). Other tart and sweet apple choices are: Cortland, Empire, Golden Delicious, or Winesap.

4 slices soft whole wheat bread
1 medium apple, peeled, cored, and chopped fine (approximately 1 cup of chopped apple)
4 tablespoons cream cheese or vanilla greek-style yogurt
4 teaspoons apricot preserves
Cinnamon sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cut the crusts off of the bread slices and discard. Spread the bread slices out on a large cutting board and flatten with a rolling pin. Cut a small (approximately 1 ½ to 2 inches long and ½ wide at the base) triangle out of each of the four corners on each slice.

Transfer the bread slices to greased muffin pan. Make sure the center of each slice is resting on the bottom of a cup and the sides are overlapping slightly. Using your fingers, press the side flaps together and make adjustments to minimize any gaps or holes.

In the bottom of each bread cup, place ¼ of the chopped apple. Center 1 tablespoon of cream cheese and 1 teaspoon of apricot preserves on top of the apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (if desired).

Bake on the center rack of the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the edges of the bread crust are browned and the preserves start to sizzle. Allow tarts to cool in the pan for at least 5 minutes or more depending on your child’s age and preference. Gently remove from muffin pan and serve immediately.

Makes 4 “tarts” (easily doubled)
Assembly time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes

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Kids have fun building this snack themselves.

1 apple, cored and sliced
9 squares (2-inch) of cheddar cheese
2 raspberries

Make sure your apple slices are about 1/3 of an inch thick and flat rather than tapered so that they will stack easily. Cheese should be sliced 1/4 inch thick. Alternate apple slices and cheese on top of each other. Garnish with raspberry.

Serves 2.

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Cookies are a personal battle when it comes to making “healthy” snacks. When I first started investigating and experimenting, I tasted a lot of low-fat, low-sugar baked goods that were cookies in name but definitely not in spirit. Therefore, my official policy is that cookies should not be tinkered with and be allowed to do what they do best: deliver a luscious combination of fat and sugar.

I am nonetheless tempted to experiment from time to time. And simply because I’ve never eaten an avocado cookie before and avocados are so high in good-for-you fat, I’ve come up with this “healthier” cookie that I feel a little bit better about putting in my kid’s lunch box. Its taste is no where near a Toll House. But I feel like they are probably as close as I am going to get to a “healthy” cookie that my family still enjoys eating.

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt

1 ripe haas avocado, pitted and skin removed
½ cup butter (1 stick), softened
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 large egg
½ cup low-fat milk
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, oats, coconut, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

Mash avocado with a fork in a large bowl until there are no large chunks remaining. Add butter and mix very well with avocado. Add sugars and stir well. Add egg and stir. Finally add the milk and stir until incorporated. Add the flour mixture and stir until combined. Fold in chocolate chips (if desired).

Drop heaping tablespoons full of batter onto ungreased baking sheets or jelly roll pans two inches apart. Bake for 15-17 minutes near the center of the oven, rotating once if necessary. Once the edges of the cookies start to brown, remove from oven and transfer to cooling rack with spatula. Allow to cool slightly and serve.

These cookies will soften considerably if left out overnight. They are best stored in the freezer in an airtight container and thawed on demand.

Makes 38 cookies.
Prep time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 30 minutes

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