Healthy Football Sunday Snacks

Today I decided I wanted to be in the kitchen and watch nothing but football all day. I decided I wanted to try and make healthy football snacks. :)

I have always wanted to bake chickpeas and almost all the recipes on the web state the same thing... what a great healthy snack. So pretty much all you do is clean a 15-ounce can of chickpeas and dry, mix whatever spices you want with a tablespoon of EVOO, coat the chickpeas with your mixture and then bake at 375 degrees for 50 minutes (turn 25 minutes through). And you get an amazing crunchy snack! I think next time I am going to make spicy version. This time I used cumin, cinnamon, paprika and chili pepper. They really are quite tasty and super easy to make... I have added this to my Superbowl snack list.

Next I decided to give Kale Chips another try. Last year I tried to make these... and it just didn't go well. They weren't crunchy or tasty at all. So today I decided to try making them again. The general consensus on the web was to preheat the oven to 275 degrees and then simply toss the kale with EVOO and sea salt and then bake for 22 minutes (turning half way through). When making these buy the precut kale from Trader Joe's... it makes working with kale so much easier. :) After 22 minutes I had the most perfect Kale Chips a girl could as for. They were salty, crunchy and delicious. I definitely could replace regular chips with kale chips! Again I found another healthy snack to add to my Superbowl snack list.

As I was making all these snacks I realized that I hadn't had lunch. I was still kind of full from my amazing breakfast sandwich from The Essential Bakery so I decided to have a protein smoothie. I was craving oatmeal so I decided to Google 'oatmeal protein smoothie' and I found a recipe that sounded perfect from Eating Bird Food blog. It was titled 'Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookie Smoothie.' After I blended this smoothie I was so excited to taste it... it really did taste like an oatmeal cookie. Thank you Eating Bird Food blog for creating this wonderful smoothie that made me smile. I changed the recipe slightly by using almond milk, whey protein powder and omitting nutmeg.

What a great day! Next on my list a healthy Tuscan Kale Salad and Spaghetti Squash with tofu marina sauce.