Garbanzos!

Sometimes when I want a salty snack, I make crunchy chickpeas instead of just going right for the Pretzel Goldfish. This doesn't always work. I do love goldfish.

I don't know about you, but crunchy chickpeas sound really good!

My trick is to blend turmeric, garlic powder, garlic salt, and this channa masala spice blend that I bought in New York in a little bowl. About a teaspoon of each, usually.

I drain MOST but not ALL of the juice from the chickpea can, and then pour them in a bowl. I pour the spices I have mixed on top, and stir this all around until they are all pretty well coated.

Depending on my mood, I will either bake the chickpeas in the oven on a cookie sheet, or sauté them in a little pan. If baking, I pour them onto a lined cookie sheet (parchment paper, or just grease the sheet if you don't have it) and stick them onto the middle rack of the oven for about twenty minutes.

Then I take them out, stir them around carefully, and put them back in for another 15 minutes. They come out crunchy but soft on the inside, almost like french fries.

Sautéing them is a little bit more fun. I use the tiny bit of juice from the can instead of water or oil. I keep the burner at about a 4, and stir pretty consistently.

This method makes the chickpeas really crispy, warm-tasting, and fulfilling. It's more of a side-dish than a snack this way. In making this snack, you could use other spices instead, like a chili-paprika blend, or sea salt and dill. Chickpeas are really fun to work with. I've also made homemade hummus, and the classic Indian dish channa masala.

New Favorites

I was a VERY picky child. Every day in fourth grade, I ate a bag of fritos, a cup of chocolate-vanilla pudding, and a Polly-O cheese stick for lunch. My grandfather was certain I was going to get scurvy. My dinners consisted of plain white pasta with butter, or chicken fingers and ketchup. My brother had the same tendencies: he ate a plain, untoasted bagel with three strips of bacon every day for breakfast for five years. Try taking us out for dinner. Good luck.

In the past few years, I've tried dozens of new foods. Now that I am in my twenties, my picky ways are gone and my love of food has arrived. Sure, some of the things I've tried don't pass the lips of most people until they're adults, like balsamic vinegar, or beets. But other things are so basic! For example, I had bacon for the first time at 18, and cherries for the first time last year.

My rule now is TRY IT! Here are 15 of my favorite things that I've tried in the last three years:


1. Cauliflower
2. Key Lime Pie
3. Coconut Oil
4. Zucchini
5. Eggplant
6. Blue cheese
7. Gruyere cheese
8. Horchata
9. Lentils
10. Cranberries
11. Blueberries
12. Figs
13. Pumpkin ravioli
14. Chicken sausage
15. Kale! Especially homemade kale chips.


How many of these things do you love? Looking over this list, it seems a little crazy that I was so reluctant to try new things my whole life! If you haven't tried something, try it!

DIY Peanut Butter Cups

Are you ready? I made the best dessert ever tonight.

PUMPKIN PEANUT BUTTER CUPS! 

This is a recipe on my favorite dessert blog, Chocolate Covered Katie. I have been meaning to make them forever, and tonight inspiration struck. Don't they look delicious?

I used my mini muffin liner and pan, and melted down the ingredients for the chocolate in my nonstick pan. I spooned the chocolate into the liners, stuck the pan in the freezer for 8 minutes, and then added the PB and second layer of chocolate. I froze them for another twenty minutes.

Here is the recipe: Reese's Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cups. Thanks, Katie!

These were perfect because I will NEVER eat Reese's brand candies ever again (PB easter eggs, peanut butter cups, Reese's Pieces, etc.). And you shouldn't either. They contain TBHQ as a preservative, and some are hydrogenated. Luckily these are the perfect substitute, and homemade at that!

Yogurt Love

I will be honest: I love Greek yogurt.

Especially Chobani Flips. They're new, and I waited a long time for the Targets in Austin to start carrying them. I had seen the Key Lime Crumble one on the @chobani instagram page in like, December, and finally tried it this past week!

I love it, and it prompted Scott and me to embark on one of our favorite past times: YOGURT HUNTING. We drove to a bunch of different grocery stores in Austin, hoping they would have different flavors in stock.

Yogurt Hunting is actually a riff of cider hunting. Scott, my brother Tom, and I would check out different Central Markets, Whole Foods, and HEBs around Austin, looking for different flavors of Woodchuck Cider- like Summer, or Crisp. It's really fun, unless you hate the thrill of finding something delicious in a strange part of town like an adult scavenger hunt.

The Chobani Flips we have found so far on our Yogurt Hunting are:

-Strawberry with honey oats
-Coconut yogurt with toasted almond and dark chocolate chips
-Vanilla with pralines and cornflakes
-Vanilla with banana jelly (not pictured)
-Key Lime yogurt with graham cracker and white chocolate

And also a different brand vanilla yogurt with malted milk balls that I just couldn't pass up.

I'm not usually tempted by the other Chobani flavors like Blood Orange or Pear. I like the plain ones, and then I make my own parfaits with them.

 Here are my dream Greek yogurt flavors:

1. Cotton Candy
2. S'mores
3. Cookies & Cream
4. Pumpkin Pie
5. Bubble Gum
6. Red Velvet
7. Peaches & Cream
8. White Chocolate Mocha
9. Salted Caramel
10. Wild Strawberry

 (Apparently I have the palette of a very precocious fourth grader). Get on it, Chobani!