Study break munchies

Original Recipe: Baked Spiced Chickpeas

I have a minor obsession with Pinterest, mainly the food & drink category.  My board of "Recipes I Want to Try" is nearing 50 pins, so I should probably start working on actually trying them instead of just drooling over their pictures!

I chose to make the baked spiced chickpeas because I've been looking for a healthy, nutritious snack food to satisfy the munchies I get when I study.  I NEED something crunchy (I think I get that from my mom and her need for something crunchy on long car rides!)  Carrots and apples only go so far, and I usually crave something salty/savory anyway.  These take very little time to make, and not only do they taste great, they have a lot of protein and fiber!

I linked to the original recipe at the top of the post, but I made a slight alteration in the recipe by leaving out the cayenne pepper and using less sugar and oil.  I also only used 1 can of beans, because I've only used my oven twice and I wanted a backup can in case I burned these!

Ingredients:
2 cans chickpeas
1 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp spice mix

Spice mix:
1 tsp sugar
1-1/2 tsp ground cumin
1-1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt

Drying the chickpeas

Ready to be baked to a crisp!!

Looking toasty and delicious!

Rinse the chickpeas and lay them out on a towel to dry, and make the spice mix while they are drying.  Set the oven to 400 degrees and line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil and non-stick spray.  In a small bowl, mix the chickpeas, olive oil, and 3 tsp of the spice mix (save the rest of the mix for use later - it smells amazing!!).  Put them in the oven for 40-60 minutes, or until they are firm and crunchy!  I set a timer for 20 minute intervals and mixed them around a bit each time.  It took 40 minutes in my oven, but different ovens may vary!  I used the skins turning black as my cue to take them out.  They will get crunchier as they cool.

Enjoy!

Refrigerator Oatmeal

I like to sleep.  I'm one of those people who rolls out of bed with JUST enough time to get ready and run out the door.  It was great last year when it took me a whopping 5 minutes to walk to my first class, but now that I have to walk a couple blocks and wait for the bus to take me to school, so I find myself having to wake up over an hour before class starts (I know, I know...the horror!!).  Since I try to maximize on sleep, I would always just grab a breakfast bar and run out the door, only to be starving an hour later.  I needed a filling meal that I could grab and go!

Over the summer I discovered this refrigerator oatmeal (also called summer porridge, muesli) from the blog The Yummy Life.  It's AMAZING.  The author concocted recipes using different fruits, and the results are nutritious, delicious, and more than enough to get me from 8am to lunch.

The author just came out with 8 new recipes, so I went out to buy some ingredients to make the "Cherry Garcia" oatmeal.  It did not disappoint!

All the fixings for a delicious and nutritious breakfast!!

 What you need:

• 1/4 cup old fashioned rolled oats
• 1/4 cup fat free Greek yogurt (the black cherry works perfectly with this one!)
• 1/3 cup fat free milk
• 1-1/2 tsp dried chia seed (or flax seed)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Lots of cherries, quartered
• Dark chocolate - use as much as you desire, I used half a serving of Hershey's Special Dark (about 1/6 of a big bar) and it was more than enough chocolate!

Look at all those cherries!

 Throw everything but the cherries into a mason jar or other sealable, portable container.  Mix with a spoon, then add the cherries.  I like to stuff it with fruit so it almost fills up the whole jar.

All mixed, ready for the fridge!

Once it's all mixed, put it in the fridge and let it sit at least overnight so the oatmeal and chia seeds can soften.  It will be ready by morning, and you'll be enjoying Cherry Garcia for breakfast!  Once I'm out of cherries, I'll experiment with the other recipes.  I'm looking forward to the mocha and the pineapple coconut.  Out of the old flavors, I have made the Mango, Banana Chocolate, and Raspberry Vanilla, and I recommend them all!

A note about the chia seeds - they're not a necessity (I made my first batch of oatmeal without them) but I think they add a nice texture, plus they're nutritious.  You can apparently use flax seeds as an alternative, or leave them out.  If you do leave them out, be sure to use less liquid, as the chia seeds absorb some of the liquid.

Enjoy!