Let's face it, it's easy to eat all the wrong things when we're talking snacks. You walk into a shop, grab a few bags of potato chips, a couple of litres of soft drinks and some beers. It all takes about 10 minutes from car to shop, and back to car. Nice and convenient. What people seem to forget is that, just because they are snacks, doesn't discount them as food that your body is going to use for fuel. Besides the extra body fat you'll gain, how about what all those genetically modified, processed bits of wanna-be foods are doing to your poor body while you are sitting on the couch, unconsciously shoveling them into your mouth because you're too busy watching the TMO decide if it was a try or not. They're taking the place of real food fuel your body could be putting to GOOD use while you are couch potatoing it.
There are healthy snacks you can replace those GMO foods with. They may require slightly more work than opening a chip packet and finding an empty bowl, but they are just as tasty and so worth it. You won't even have to think about consequences and you can enjoy the game without the guilt (don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about!) I have tried and tested these options on GLM and on a few friends with great success so if you have some fussy eaters in your house, there's some good news for you!
We'll start with cabbage or kale chips... I can hear the WHAAAAAATTTT?!??!?!?! I know. It's sounds revoltingly healthy and vegetarian-like doesn't it? I guess it is. But the good news is, they taste REALLY good! I say cabbage or kale because either will work but most people usually have cabbage on hand, not kale, so we'll work with cabbage for this recipe. Feel free to try kale though! Incidentally, I discovered I could do this quite by accident when I was making roast chicken in the oven a few days ago. I put some vegetables under the chicken to cook in the juices but the cabbage wasn't covered enough by the juice and delicious cabbage chips were the result! Inspired, I played around a bit and came up with this recipe.
Dehydrated Cabbage chips
Several large cabbage leaves (the more guests you have coming over, the more you will need)
A big glass jar or several small ones
Fine himalayan rock salt or sea salt
Filtered or boiled water
Method
- Turn the oven on to 50°C
- Tear cabbage leaves to desired size for chips (usually about 5x5cm in size)
- Place a tsp salt in the glass jar and half fill with filtered water (I use boiled water that has cooled slightly so the salt dissolves nicely)
- Mix until the salt is dissolved
- Add cabbage pieces to jar until just below the top of the jar
- Top up with cool, filtered water (make sure the water is covering all the leaves)
- Place lid on and leave to soak overnight (yes, you need to prepare in advance for these!)
- The following day drain the salt water
- Lay all the cabbage out on a tray or in a dish
- Place in the oven and leave for ± 20mins
- Take out tray and turn leaves over (if you don't they tend to stick to the pan. This could be solved by using baking paper? Haven't tried it yet but I will!)
- Put back in oven for ± 20mins (times depend on your oven. My door doesn't shut properly so it may need longer than yours)
- This is the best part, you get to taste and see if they're ready, which will be when they are crisped to your satisfaction.
I first tried this just with cabbage straight out of the fridge, no salt. They weren't bad but they were a bit bland and they went soggy within an hour. Soaking them in salt gives them a delicious flavour and it seems to help them maintain their crispness because they were still crispy 24 hours later.
These are DELICIOUS just on their own but you can also make an avocado dip to go with them. Just watch out because they break pretty easily. In fact, because they crumble REALLY well so, what I do is I take a few in my hand and crumble them over my salad. It adds the most DELICIOUS flavour!
The other snack is something absolutely heavenly and so simple to make! Once I tasted these things I was addicted I tell you! Now, if we go to a friend's place for a braai, I just take these along to snack on while everyone is eating their GMO chips;) Most can't resist having some of mine though!
Coconut flake chips
A bag of dehydrated coconut flakes (it has to be flakes. The small, grated pieces won't work the same)
Fine himalayan rock salt or sea salt
Cinnamon
Method
- Put a frying pan on the stove and turn on to medium heat
- Pour coconut flakes into the pan and spread them out to cover the whole pan (do not add any oil or butter)
- Leave to cook, shaking the pan around now and then so they get cooked as evenly as possible
- While they are cooking mix your spice
- In a small container add a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of cinnamon
- Put the lid on and shake it up to mix well
- By now your coconut will have started to brown and that's when you know they are ready. You don't want to burn them.
- Remove them from heat and pour into a ceramic or glass dish
- Immediately sprinkle with spice mix and shake around to get all the bits of coconut covered
- Leave for about 5 minutes
- Eat!
The natural oil of the coconut flakes will initially make them a little soggy, but that's perfect because your spice will stick nicely to them. Leaving them for 5 minutes allows them to crisp so they will have a nice crunch when you eat them. BEWARE, these are ADDICTIVE!
Have a wonderful, health-filled weekend!
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