Hi Friends! I hope you’re having a great weekend so far.  I know I am because I’m done working for a few days and am about to start my actual “weekend” today.  Yay for that!

Today’s recipe is inspired by my childhood love of honey roasted peanuts as well those nuts that you can get from the mall around the holidays.  The kind of nuts that the scent wafts through the air and drives you insane and you just have to have them. 

The kind of nuts, that once you pop, you can’t stop.  Yes, those nuts that you eat a a big container at once and give yourself a belly ache because nuts are hard to digest and not to mention, peanuts have aflatoxin.   Hard to digest and aflatoxins are just a couple reasons to not go too hog wild on peanuts and why my “peanuts” recipe may come in handy.

I’ve seen versions of roasted chickpeas but many recipes seem shy about using sugar.  I am not.  If you’re shy with sugar, then don’t make these.  But you’ll be missing out.  They are possibly one of the best baked foods I’ve made in ages and if you want to take $2 dollars worth of ingredients and make them taste like a million bucks, try these.  It will be worth it and your house will smell divine.  Plus, lots of the sugar gets stuck to the foil anyway.

Carmelized Cinnamon Sugar Roasted Chickpea “Peanuts”
1 can (15 oz.) of garbanzo beans/chickpeas
2/3 c brown sugar
1/2 c white sugar
1.5 Tsp Cinnamon (you can adjust up or down to taste)

Optional:
1 Tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
Sprinkle with course salt at the end or add salt to the cinnamon sugar mixture, to taste

Directions:
Drain and rinse your chickpeas

Pat fairly dry with paper towels

Combine dry ingredients and dredge chickpeas with sugar + cinnamon

Place on a Foil-Lined or Parchment-Lined Cookie Sheet and Bake at 375F for 40 minutes or until done.

Before Baking:

I baked mine for 40 minutes, stirring once at 20 minutes.   Ovens are variable and with all that sugar, don’t burn it!  Watch it and if it looks and smells done, they are.    

After 20 Minutes:

….Until the sugar carmelizes

After 40 Minutes of Baking:

Allow chickpeas to cool for as long as your can take it.  They will crisp up in the air, too.  So even if they don’t seem as “done” or as crunchy as you’d like when you first remove them from the oven, they will crunch-up more with air time.

These were insanely good and eaten immediately.  The whole batch done and gone in about 10 minutes.  

                      
“Mmm, good Mommy!”    

They are nearly as crunchy as peanuts and if you want the sweet + salty vibe, dust with a sprinkle of salt at the end.

Close your eyes, and pretend you’re eating honey roasted peanuts. 

From yesterday’s post about new shoes, most of you don’t replace your shoes as often as I do, but you try to be diligent so that you’re not injuring yourself by working out, running, or walking with old kicks.  Good for you!

Most of you said regarding commute time to a gym that 15 minutes each way would be tops for you.  And lots of you said if you couldn’t walk there, you wouldn’t go.  Childcare and hours that it’s open throws a whole new dilemma into working out that a few years ago never even crossed my mind.

And Big Congrats to all the People I mentioned yesterday who just ran your races today!  You’re all wonderful athletes, give yourself a huge pat on the back.  And go take a load off and get off your feet!  And load up on some cookies or a drink or whatever floats your boat!

Dessert:  No-Bake Vegan Maple Flaxseed Cookies 5 minute, 3 Ingredients, an easy way to get more healthy Omegas in your diet from the flax.  And maple syrup over the top just makes them even better, but feel free to omit.  But why would you? ha!

 

Questions
1. Best Thing You’ve Done or Ate all Weekend?
Me = Time with my family, my roasted “peanuts”, and being done with work for a few days and getting my weekend started!

2. Have you ever roasted chickpeas?  Did you like them?
This was the first time I ever have, and oh yes, I liked them.  I have heard from others that roasted chickpeas tended to be bland.  Trust me, these are not bland.  There’s a time and a place to cut corners on ingredients and “healthify” something by using stevia or less sugar, but this wasn’t one of those times in my kitchen.   You could try tweaking, and I’m sure they will work though.

3.  Do you try to health-ify things or not really?  Do you care?
I have tried to make healthier versions of an original, such as my High Raw Vegan Girl Scout “Thin Mint”-Inspired Fudge 

Or my Reese’s PB Cup knockoffs in the form of my Raw Vegan Peanut Butter Cups

Are my versions healthier than storebought?  Yes, probably.  But I would never call chocolate desserts “health food”; no matter how you look at it.  They are desserts.  Enjoy them.  In whatever degree of “healthiness” they have, or not.

That said, with food allergies and intolerances, if I want something badly enough, I need to learn how to make it myself since most commercially prepared food isn’t going to meet my parameters and needs.  In these cases, it becomes less about “healthifying” something and more about just being able to have it, whatever that “it” may be.

4. Do you eat things that others may call “unhealthy”?  Do you care?
I try not to look at food as “healthy” vs. “unhealthy”.  Or as choices being “good” or “bad”.  Food is just food, choices are just choices.  I touched on that a bit in this post and also in this post.

Some foods are of course better than others.  No one would say that a Twinkie is “better” than broccoli.  But I really try to not label things as good or bad because for me, so what if I eat something someone would call “bad”?  I still feel healthy overall, I still feel like I eat a “healthy” diet in general, and that isolated choices are not what matters; it’s about looking at choices as a whole and not getting too hung up. 

I try to keep things relaxed and look at the big picture: see the whole forest, not fixate on that one tree.   Too often I feel that many people get so tunnel-visioned and I just want to say, who cares, it’s one choice or one item, not a biggie.  Tomorrow is a new day and you can make new choices if you didn’t like the ones you made today.

Have a great Sunday and rest of your weekend everyone!