Skip the commercially made products and prepare your own tasty finger food.
By Janet Groene, F40166
March 2015
Call them canapés, appetizers, or midnight snacks. Nibbles and noshes seem to be the first provisions to disappear during a motorhome trip. Snacks are also the likeliest place for diets to die and food budgets to bulge. Let’s try to do better than greasy potato chips and chemical-laden cheese crisps.
When you create snacks yourself, you gain control over ingredients, costs, portions, packaging, and pleasures. Freshly made snacks are also free of many of the preservatives found in commercial foods. Put them in a bowl for the potluck party or tailgating, or avoid the temptation to binge by measuring them by the cup or half cup for snack bags. Take a bagful on a fitness walk. Keep one in the cockpit for a long drive.
Many snack recipes don’t require cooking. Most are adaptable to your own diet needs. Just keep proportions the same while using ingredients that are suited to your own dietary requirements for, say, foods that are nondairy, low-salt, or gluten-free. You can customize a recipe for a family member who has food allergies by substituting soy nuts for tree nuts or olive oil for peanut oil, and use cereals that are heart-healthy or sugar-free or organic.
You can avoid trans fats and chemicals. In fact, old recipes can be brought up-to-date with many more healthful choices that are now available in ready-to-eat cereals, herb blends, unsulfured dried fruit, and oils. And if you choose, you can use sugar substitutes and nondairy cheeses and milks.
Chocolate Bonbons
Vanilla wafers and graham crackers are now available in sugar-free and low-fat varieties.
4 cups vanilla wafer crumbs or graham cracker crumbs
2 cups pecan meal
2 cups powdered sugar, divided
1 cup unsweetened cocoa, divided
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/2 cup coconut rum
Mix the cookie crumbs and pecan meal. Set aside 1/2-cup sugar and 1/4-cup cocoa; mix the rest with the crumb mixture. Stir coconut oil into the crumb mixture with just enough coconut rum to make the mixture stick together when pressed tightly in the hand. Form into one-inch balls and roll them in a mixture of the reserved sugar and cocoa. Set aside to dry several hours. Keep cool. Makes about 4 dozen.
Sesame Pecan Snacks
2 prepackaged or homemade 9-inch pie crusts
32 large pecan halves
1 cup sesame seeds
Set the oven to 375 degrees. Coat baking pans or sheets with nonstick spray. Unroll one pie crust and cut it in 16 wedges. Starting at the wide end, roll each piece of dough around one pecan.
Put the sesame seeds on a saucer and lightly press the top of each pastry into the seeds. Arrange on baking sheets. Cut the second crust into 16 wedges and repeat. Bake 8 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 32 pastries.
Sugar ’N’ Spice Nuts
5 cups unsalted nuts
1/4 cup liquid egg whites
2/3 cup sugar or equivalent
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
1 teaspoon salt (optional)
Heat the oven to 300 degrees and coat two 9-inch-by-13-inch pans with nonstick spray. Put the nuts in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk the egg whites with the sugar and spices until frothy. Fold the mixture into the nuts to coat evenly. Spread the nuts in pans and bake 20 minutes, stirring once, until golden brown. Makes 10 half-cup portions.
Buffalo Kick Popcorn
5 packages of light microwave popcorn
1/2 stick unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup bottled buffalo wing sauce
1 packet dry ranch dressing mix
Pop the popcorn and discard unpopped kernels. Put the popcorn in a large kettle or dish. Melt the butter in the wing sauce and drizzle over the popcorn, stirring constantly to coat the popcorn evenly. Sprinkle with ranch dressing mix. Makes 20 cups.
Sweet ’N’ Hot Pretzels
4 cups unsalted miniature pretzels
2 tablespoons liquid egg white
1/2 cup sugar or equivalent
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Put the pretzels in a large bowl and set the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking pan(s) with nonstick foil or parchment. Whisk the egg white, sugar, and spices. Drizzle over the pretzels and use a spatula gently to mix, coating the pretzels evenly. Spread on baking pan(s) and bake about 10 minutes, stirring after 5 minutes, until the pretzels are dry.
Tic Tac Toe
New cereals allow you to make old-time Chex-type snacks that are gluten-free, sugar-free, or organic.
4 cups your choice of square cereals
4 cups unsweetened round oat cereal
1/2 stick butter
1 teaspoon garlic powder or onion powder
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 cups your choice of nuts
2 cups bite-size dried fruit
Put cereals in a large bowl. Melt the butter with the garlic powder/onion powder and soy sauce. Drizzle over the cereal, stirring gently to mix well. Fold in the nuts and fruit. Makes 24 half-cup portions.
King Neptune Snack Spread
This carries well in the refrigerator, so it’s an ideal make-ahead spread for travel.
1 8-ounce brick of cream cheese (regular, low-fat, or nonfat)
2 5 1/2-ounce cans tuna
1/4 cup Greek-style yogurt, regular or low-fat
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons capers, well drained
3 anchovy fillets
Let the cream cheese come to room temperature. Drain the tuna. Blend everything until smooth. Taste the mixture, adjust seasonings, and place in a bowl or crock. Keep it cold, but let it warm to room temperature before serving as a spread for crackers or vegetable slices. Makes about 2 cups.
Granola Your Way
This recipe can be different each time. Use agave or maple syrup in place of honey, walnut oil instead of canola, and different types of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. Serve granola as a snack or sprinkle it on other foods.
3 cups minute oats (not instant, not old-fashioned)
1 cup chopped nuts
1 cup sunflower kernels
1 cup shredded coconut
1/3 cup water
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt (optional)
1 cup dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, snipped apricots, cherries)
Combine oats, nuts, sunflower kernels, and coconut in a bowl coated with nonstick spray. Also spray a 15-inch-by-10-inch baking pan or two smaller pans. Set the oven to 350 degrees. Combine and heat the water, honey, oil, and flavorings until well blended. Drizzle over the oat mixture, stirring well. Spread in the pan(s) and bake 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned, stirring every 10 to 12 minutes. Cool, then stir in the dried fruit. Store in a cool, dry place. Makes about 12 half-cup portions.
Two-Bite Scones
2 cups biscuit mix
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
Half-and-half or evaporated milk
2 tablespoons real bacon bits
Set the oven to 400 degrees and prepare a baking pan with nonstick spray, or use a silicone baking sheet. Mix garlic powder and parsley flakes with the biscuit mix and add just enough milk to make a thick dough. Add the bacon bits. Knead on a floured paper towel only eight to 10 times. Do not overwork the dough. Divide the dough into four balls and pat each into a small circle about 1/2-inch thick. Cut each circle in six wedges. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Serve as is, or with dip. Makes 24 two-bite scones.
More Snack Suggestions
- Cut corn on the cob into 2-inch pieces, steam or boil them for a minute or two, and serve warm with a healthful dip.
- Let children separate Twizzlers-brand candy into individual strands and use them to tie various kinds of knots. Then add them to cereals, nuts, popcorn, etc. to make a snack mix.
- Add miniature marshmallows — an inexpensive, low-fat ingredient — to a sweet snack mix.
- Read labels. Gluten, trans fats, peanut dust, and other potential allergens are found in unexpected places.
- Make granola or another baked snack recipe, then drizzle it with melted chocolate while it’s still warm and in one piece. Let it cool completely, then cut or break it apart.
For more of my snack recipes, visit www.createagorp.blogspot.com.
New Cookbook
Michael Love’s The Salvage Chef Cookbook (Skyhorse Publishing, $24.95) is not just a show-off book for the shelf. It’s plainspoken and practical enough for any traveling cook. The hardback volume may be heavy to carry in the coach, but foodies will love paging through it for ways to use leftovers on the go. Serving suggestions are inspired by colorful photos.
One way the author uses leftover tidbits is in a frittata. It’s delicious and clever, but even more tantalizing is his suggestion to cut the cold frittata into small squares to serve as canapés. Leftover stuffing? Stir in a couple of eggs and cook in a waffle maker. If you’re from the “waste not, want not” generation, you’ll love Michael Love’s book.