Secret Recipe Club: Roasted Garbanzos

My Secret Recipe Club blog for August is A Vegan Obsession. The recipes on this blog are both vegan and gluten-free, which is pretty much the complete opposite of how I cook. Fortunately, there were some side dishes and snacks to choose from, and I found a great 3-ingredient recipe for a delicious, different, healthy snack: Roasted Chickpeas.

ROASTED GARBANZOS

1 15-ounce can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
coarse salt
garlic-pepper seasoning

Use a kitchen towel or paper towels to dry the garbanzos.  Spread them on a cookie sheet (I covered it in foil) and season generously.

Here's how they looked before cooking.  You could probably fit 2 cans' worth on a large cookie sheet.  I had lots of room to spread them out.

Bake at 400 for at least 20 minutes, opening the door and shaking the pan 2 or 3 times during baking to move the garbanzos around.

They'll cool off quickly and be ready to eat!  These are crunchy and tasty, and a good lowfat snack.  Or you could smack them once or twice with your meat mallet and sprinkle them over a salad.

I like to call these "garbanzos" because that's just more fun to say. I didn't change much from the original except my use of seasoning; the original recipe called for "herbsalt" and ground black pepper.

This makes about 3/4 cup when cooked, so if you're planning to serve these to a crowd, you'll need to make several cans of beans.

Enjoy this unusual, crunchy, and frugal snack!

Don't forget to "like" my new facebook page: Mom's Fridge: Recipes.

April Fool's Day Lunchbox Surprise

I got this idea from a Family Fun article.

Your kids will think it's an ordinary bag of cheese puffs...

but when they open the bag, they'll discover:

baby carrots!

All you need to pull this off is:
individual-serving-size bags of cheese puffs
baby carrots (about 6 for each bag you're making)
glue stick
slip of paper with the note:  "April Fool!"

Open the snack bags carefully.  Dump the contents of the cheese-puff bags into a sandwich bag.  No sense wasting a perfectly delicious snack!  Use a damp paper towel to pick up any crumbs left in the bag.  Add about 6 baby carrots--and don't forget the note!   Then run the glue stick along the very top inner edge of the bag.  Press to seal, and pack in the lunchbox!

I wish I'd be able to be there when my kids find these.

UPDATE:  My daughter just found hers when she opened her lunch.  I got a text message:  "Mom this is just gross.  I mean carrots?  In cheesecrunchy bag?"  (For the record, she likes carrots.  It's not like I put in her most un-favorite food ever.)  She's threatening revenge.
And Little Brother never noticed:  he gave his snack to another kid who had forgotten to bring a snack.  And she never said a word.  (Kind of disappointing, really!)

Pepperoni Bread

Make the dough in your bread machine, then fill, roll, rise and bake!

DOUGH:
1 cup water
1 1/2 tbl butter or olive oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
3 cups bread flour
2 1/2 tsp yeast

FILLING:
1/2 lb. pepperoni, sliced thin
1/2 lb. mozzarella cheese, shredded

Use the dough cycle of the bread machine, and put in the ingredients in the order recommended by the manufacturer.

Remove dough; cover and let it rest 10 minutes. Then roll it out on a floured surface into a large rectangle.

Sprinkle with: 1 cup mozzarella cheese

Spread a generous layer of pepperoni over the bread. Make sure that cheese and pepperoni are not too close to the edges. Leave 1/2 inch margin all around.

Roll tightly like a jelly roll. Pinch the seam closed, and the ends as well. Place on a foil-covered baking sheet. (The foil is important in case the bread springs a leak.) Cut a few slashes in the top.

Cover and let the bread rise 30 to 45 minutes.

Bake 35 minutes at 350. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before slicing.

Print this recipe!