Wholesome Snacking

During the holiday season, I've been known to have meals consisting entirely of cookies (the oatmeal cookies with dried cherries turned out especially well last year). There are also plenty of celebratory get-togethers with friends, family, and co-workers that are perfect excuses to indulge. Not that I need excuses--I have always been an indulgent person. I don't feel "guilty" when I've eaten something naughty because I'm not a little girl anymore and I refuse to fall into the trap of self-loathing just because I occasionally do something that I enjoy. Ladies, you know what I'm talking about.

However, I do know there's a time to indulge, and a time to cut back on the snacking. Notice I didn't say "eliminate" snacking. Some people are snackers. Some would rather nibble a little of this and a little of that all day long than sit down and eat a meal with fork and knife. But rather than snacking on a fistful of cookies, full of sugar and fat and white flour, post-holiday snacking should involve more whole foods, like nuts and popcorn. I got into the habit of eating dried fruit and nuts when I was doing Whole30 last year, so I decided to stock up on similar snacks to ease me away from cookies and back into eating more healthily.

We shop at ShopRite Supermarkets' fairly regularly, so I decided to try items from their line of Wholesome Pantry snacks. The Wholesome Pantry brand includes hundreds of products like pasta sauce and eggs, all of which are made from simple, clean ingredients and free of unpronounceable chemicals. We already buy the Wholesome Pantry Organic Salad Blends, so venturing into snack land was a no-brainer.

We tried the Energy Mix (sunflower seeds, organic raisins, dried cranberries, nuts, and dried apples) that are great to toss in a backpack or in the car for when the urge for something crunchy/sweet/chewy arises, pecan halves, and dried Fuji apple crisps (sooo addictive) plus the somewhat more fancy Crushed Pepper & Truffle Oil popcorn. It was pretty easy to kill the whole bag while binge-watching The Crown. We also got a jar of almond butter. We eat the stuff all the time, and I like to use it in hummus.

My hummus is pretty non-traditional. I am allergic to chickpeas, so I use any other canned bean, plus almond butter, lots of garlic, lemon, and olive oil. The last time I made it, I used the Wholesome Pantry almond butter and lemon-flavored olive oil instead of lemon juice, which gave it such a sunny flavor.

I also tossed some of the Wholesome Pantry pecan halves on a warm farro and broccoli salad that I served with lamb meatballs. They added just the right crunch to the dish.

So far the healthy snacking has been working for me. The natural fats and sugars from nuts and dried fruit fill me up better than a handful of cookies, so I'm actually shoving food into my pie-hole less-often. Maybe now I'll drop those couple pounds I always seem to pick up in December.

Warm Farro and Broccoli Salad with Pecans

1 lb broccoli
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
1/2 cup farro, cooked according to package directions
Lemon juice
Wholesome Pantry pecan halves

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Separate the broccoli into medium sized florets. Peel stems and slice them lengthwise into strips. Place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Toss with olive oil and salt and roast in a preheated oven until florets start to get some good browning on them and the stems are tender, 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook the farro.

Remove the broccoli from the oven and chop it roughly. Toss the warm broccoli and farro together in a bowl. Squeeze over lemon juice to taste and season with additional salt, if needed. You may also add other seasonings like chile flakes, garlic, black pepper--whatever sounds good to you.

Crush up a small handful of pecans and stir into the salad. Serve immediately.

Serves 2 as a meal, 4 as a side dish.

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Posted on Minxeats.com.

Tortilla Espanola

You might remember a few weeks back reading about our boxes of various Calbee snacks. Rather than just eating them as they were, I thought it might be fun to use them in recipes. First, I employed shrimp chips as an extra-crisp crust for fried tofu; for this post, a bag of potato chips was transformed into something both simple and elevated.

Ok, mostly simple, but elevated in that the recipe is a riff on a dish by famed Spanish chef, Ferran Adria. The omelet-like tortilla espanola is a popular tapas dish made with fried potatoes and eggs. Adria simplified the dish by using potato chips in place of sliced and fried raw potatoes. His recipe called for Serrano ham and pequillo peppers; I omitted both and added simply sliced green onion in their place.

Now when the recipe calls for a "small" skillet, that means 8". Any larger than that, your omelet will be a pancake. If all you have is a 10" oven-safe skillet (as was our issue), lower the cooking time a skotch so your tortilla won't get dried out.

Potato Chip Tortilla (adapted from Ferran Adria in Food & Wine)

5 large eggs
2 cups coarsely crushed Calbee Hot and Spicy potato chips (about 2 ounces)
1 tablespoon finely sliced green onion
Freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
Salt

Beat two eggs in a medium bowl and add the potato chips. Let stand until slightly softened, five minutes or so. Beat the remaining eggs in a separate bowl, then stir into the potato/egg mixture. Add the scallions and season with pepper.

Heat the olive oil in a small non-stick ovenproof skillet. Add the egg mixture and cook over medium high heat until the bottom is golden brown, about 3 minutes. Broil for about 2 minutes more, until the top is golden and the center is just slightly jiggly.

Slide onto a plate, cut into quarters, and serve with a nice salad or bowl of soup. (Gazpacho would be perfect here.) Depending on the saltiness of the chips used, you may or may not need to add a pinch at the table.



Posted on Minxeats.com.