Bacon wrapped Pickles with spicy cajun mayo recipe at Abbey's Kitchen

I won't be hosting a super bowl party, but I do love a good snack recipe.  At this time of year I always hear a ton of great ideals for snacks that gets me wanting to make some.  When I have hosted a party in the past I've found way to many interesting appetizers to make that sounded easy at first....until it came down to making all of them at the same time!  Now that I'm older and wiser I know that with appetizers it's best to keep it simple.  Which is why I'm sure you will love my favorite appetizers too.

This chocolate peanut butter popcorn is so easy to make from home!  This popcorn is perfect for movie night, game day, or any day really.  I know I could eat a big bowl every day.  It's super addicting!  :)  Not a fan of peanut butter?  No problem just substitute it with almond butter.

Lately I've been craving muffins.  And since I'm trying to clear out our freezer for Thanksgiving (we host every year) and we have alot of frozen pumpkin puree I made in our freezer, of course I thought of pumpkin muffins.

If you follow this blog you know that I love to grow kale in my garden.  Next to perennial veggies and fruit kale is the easiest plants we grow.  It's one of the first and last veggies in our garden every year.  I like that I can also harvest it whenever I want to.  It's also so nutritious it's a super food.  The only problem is we planted 6 kale plants this year and we only eat a little bit.  I like to sneak it into chocolate banana almond butter smoothies, and as a wrap for sandwiches.  I also occasionally add some to soup or stews.  But that doesn't amount to much.  So I'm determined to find some recipes with kale that I like.

This Jalapeño Bacon Egg Salad is fantastic on my grain free crackers

Having a lot of eggs from Easter has made me crave Egg salad and in particular bacon jalapeno egg salad.  Yesterday I hard boiled the eggs and posted how to make perfect hard boiled eggs, and today I made my egg salad.  Boy am I glad I made a lot.  It's so good it won't last long!  The best part is that if you use the right ingredients this can actually be a healthy breakfast, lunch, or snack.  The trick is to use good ingredients.  Mayo, bacon, and eggs can all be bad for you if your using your standard super market stuff, but it doesn't have to be!  Wish I knew that a long time ago.  Here's how you can make this recipe and enjoy it as often as you wish because it's healthy. 

For over 6 months I've been trying to avoid grains as much as possible, and when I do have them I try to go GF (gluten free) and whole grain as much as possible.  This means bread and bread like products such as crackers have not been a big part of my diet for awhile.  I have started to miss it after awhile, so I am so excited to have finally learn how to make my own grain free crackers that are seriously good.  I almost bought some to go with my Sun Dried Tomato Bacon Bean Dip I made for a pot luck, but even the whole grain fiber crackers I saw at the store had bad fats in them, unbleached four and likely GMO (genetically modified Organisms) ingredients in it, not to mention preservatives. I decided after my trip to the store to finally cross of learn to make crackers from my list. 

For the holidays my family did a pot luck.  I wanted to bring something healthy that required no cooking or refrigeration and would be something everyone would eat.  I also wanted it to be more filling and savory than sweet since most people bring desserts for pot lucks.  I decided to bring a veggie tray, make some really good healthy dip and to make grain free crackers (I 'll post that recipe soon).  It went over well and I made a huge batch of everything (I doubled this recipe and put it in freezable half pint containers and froze the extras) so now I'll have dip ready to go for snacking for awhile!

zucchini chips and hummus

Welcome to my latest obsession.  I can't get enough of these.  Who knew that zucchini could be so good?  I got the ideal for this because I had hummus but I was tired of eating it with bread and would rather eat veggies.  Since I had a lot of zucchini in the fridge (they are so cheap at the farmer's market) I figured maybe I could turn them into chips.  I usually research many recipes before creating my own recipe, but not this time.  I totally winged it which was pretty daring since I've never made chips before, but I lucked out they turned out so fantastic I might just be addicted.  At least they're healthier than potato chips!  You can flavor them really however you want.  So feel free and try other spices you have on hand that you think you might like!

I have recently become interested in raw food.  I can't see myself ever going completely raw (or vegan) but I think increasing my diet with the best raw and vegan recipes out there is a good addition to our diet.  I am particularly interested in all the fantastic sounding desserts on raw food blogs along with lots of great dehydration cracker recipes, and smoothies.  If you read this blog you know that I love desserts, so I am on a constant quest for simple easy healthy desserts, so I can eat as much desert as I want! 

My husband and I bought Stoney Field organic yogurt because it was on sale.  We bought one of every flavor, except two of vanilla and chocolate.  We both agreed that the chocolate and vanilla was awesome.   "Why aren't there more chocolate yogurt," I thought.  I mean seriously?   So I started thinking about how I could make my own.   I think I've succeeded and surpassed the original.  And it takes only like 2 min to make (as long as you use the microwave).  It's great for breakfast, lunch, or as a healthy snack.  This could also be great as a parfait.  It looks like an ice cream Sunday.

I made this as a surprise for my husband today who is obsessed with chocolate and peanut butter.  It's no bake and took like 5 min to make.  I am so making this often.  The possibilities are endless and are a great healthy snack full of protein and fiber to keep you full.  They're great for lunches (adults and kids), road trips (no stopping at fast food places or processed foods), after work out snack (if you add whey protein powder), family gatherings, pot lucks, picnics, or just a healthy snack to keep you from eating the bad stuff that lurks in your house.    

I adapted this recipe from The Cilatropist who appears to have adapted it from someone who adapted it from someone....  It appears the original source was Keep the Faith each time it was changed a little.  I also changed the recipe a little based on what my husband likes and what we had on hand in the house.   Other ingredients that are great to add are organic raisins or cranberries, dates, raw pumpkin seeds, organic psyllium husks or oat bran (for added fiber), cocao (raw chocolate higher vitamins and minerals), and white chocolate. 

I've been dreaming of cookies lately and how to make healthy ones so I can have as many as I want.  In my quest for finding a GI (Glycemic Index) friendly, low carb cookie I found this recipe from 101 cookbooks it's called Nikki's Healthy Cookies Recipe.  It does not use flour, sugar, eggs, or butter.  Hmmm could this really work?  Since I had 3 bananas I needed to bake with and was feeling like making cookies I figured why not?  It did but I felt I could do better, so I tinkered around a bit and boy did I create a great healthy cookie! 

When it's 100 degrees for a high, all you feel like eating is a snack.  Why not make it a healthy snack?


Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of cooked chick peas (garbanza beans)
1/4 cup of tahini paste
1/2 cup of filtered water
5 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp pink salt
1 tablespoon garlic puree
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
4 dashes of hot sauce

Instructions
Place in a food processor until blended, and serve with veggies for a super healthy snack!

Freezing Tip How to Avoid Having to use Canned Chick Peas:  I cook a lot of chick peas at once (since they take an 1hr and a half to cook) and then place the extra in half pint canning jars that are freezable leave a bit of room for it to expand and freeze it.  Just place in the fridge the night before you want to use it to defrost.

Making chocolate covered pretzels is basically the same as dipping chocolate, so this could be applied to say chocolate dipped strawberries or anything else.  I looked at many recipes before trying it myself.  Some added cream or shortening.  I have found adding anything to the chocolate is not necessary.

Here's what I did:

Prep:
Have cookie sheets covered with wax paper ready.  Create a double boiler with a glass or metal bowl over a pot with water.

Directions

1. Temper chocolate.
2.  Add pretzels to the bowl, stir until they are all covered in chocolate,
3.  Using a fork place the pretzel on the wax covered cookie sheet.
4. Let set, probably will take 2-5 min.
5. Store covered in a cool place for up to a few weeks or freeze in a prex freezeable glass container, or plastic bag.

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