Roasted Chickpeas

Besides bringing the fruit bars to Easter, I also wanted to bring along a snack. I debated bringing a polenta appetizer but thought it may be too filling. (I will be posting that recipe hopefully this week or next week however when I make it for myself!) I have seen several recipes for roasted chickpeas so I thought I'd try to make them and bring those with me. It seemed super easy and it was but it didn't have a lot of flavor. For some reason, the chickpeas didn't absorb any of the spices, except for the red pepper flakes. And they were definitely patted dry. I may do some more experimenting with smaller batches and with different spices to see if I can get them to stick.

I found this recipe on Rachel Ray's website.

Crispy Roasted Chickpeas (Rachel Ray):

3 cans chickpeas
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Drain and rinse chickpeas. Lay on paper towels to thoroughly dry (you can also gently pat them dry). Line a cookie sheet with foil and coat with cooking spray. Transfer chickpeas to a med bowl.

Combine olive oil and spices and whisk to combine. Immediately pour over chickpeas and toss. Bake 45-50 min or until browned and crispy. Serve hot or at room temp.

Store at room temp.




Rinsed and drained chickpeas...






Spices mixed with the olive oil...






Ready to roast...






Fresh from the oven...

Snickers Popcorn

This recipe didn't turn out the way I thought it would. I found the idea for this on Pinterest and it sounded easy enough. I'm horrible at melting things on the stove...they never melt and they always harden up. And of course I don't have a double broiler, which would make things a whole lot easier. So when they started hardening up after being cooked on the stove, I put some popcorn on a cookie sheet and put the semi-melted chunks of Snickers over the top and put it in the oven for about 5-10 min. That didn't work so great either but I was able to pick up chunks of melted chocolate to make a decent size bowl of Snickers popcorn. And it tasted pretty good too.

I've seen a couple ways to cook this from Pinterest...one is where you melt down the candy bars over a double broiler or another way is to put the chopped candy on top of the popcorn in the oven and they supposedly melt down. Then again, by the time I figured out I couldn't melt them on the stove, my popcorn had gone cold so maybe hot popcorn would have worked best for this idea. Oh well, I was able to still make the best of it and be able to eat it. Next time! :)

Find the recipe here




Cut up Snickers bars...






Enjoy!...