Cream Cheese Apple Dip

My sister Saydi taught me how to make this scrumptious apple dip a few years back and now it's a family favorite every fall. It's so easy and is so much better for you (and better tasting in my opinion) than caramel or other apple/fruit dips.

Mix together in an electric mixer until smooth:
1 8 oz. brick of cream cheese (or neuchautel low-fat cream cheese)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp milk (if you want to make it a bit less stiff but I usually skip this)

Serve with slices of your favorite apples (our favorite varieties are Fuji or Honey Crisp or Gala).

Baked Cranberry Brie (Favorite Holiday Appetizer)

This has become a "must" at our Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations.

Ingredients:
3 cups fresh cranberries (about 1 12-oz bag)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup water
1/8 tsp dry mustard
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cardamon (can be hard to find - works fine w/o this - but really good with!)
1 8-inch wheel of Brie
baguette slices, toasted pita slices, crackers and/or apple wedges for dipping

Put everything except the Brie and bread and apples into small pot. Stir together over medium heat until the cranberries and popped and liquid thickens a bit. Set aside (or refrigerate until you're about ready to serve the appetizer).

When almost time to serve the appetizer, skim off the top white rind on the Brie (leaving about a 1/4 inch border around the edges on the top - this way the remaining rind can keep the Brie from oozing all over the place when you bake it but the cranberry topping can bake into the Brie somewhat). Put Brie on foil-covered baking sheet and put cranberry topping on the Brie.


Bake at 350 degrees for about 12-15 minutes until cheese is soft and warm. Serve with baguette slices or toasted pita slices, and apple wedges.

Makes enough for 15 hungry people or for 20-30 if you're serving this along with other appetizers.

(This is an adjusted version of a recipe I found years ago in "Always in Season: A Collection of Recipes from the Junior League of Salt Lake City)

Favorite Snacks

When it comes up that I don't buy chips, pretzels, goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, and other typical kid snacks, I've had a lot of moms have ask me what in the world we have around for kids to snack on. I tell them that we don't really have open-pantry snacking going on and that we really only have one snack a day - a healthy little snack right after school (used to do a small morning snack as well when I had preschoolers). People who come to dinner at our house are often amazed to see how much dinner my kids eat and to see that they eat things many kids might turn up their noses at. I'm pretty sure they eat dinner so readily because their tummies aren't already somewhat full from snacking.

But we do eat snacks and we've developed some healthy and tasty favorites. So for this week's recipe post (I'm trying to do one every Saturday), I thought I'd share our family's current favorite snacks. These are all easy and fairly healthy things that my kids and all their friends who come over after school seem to really enjoy.

Loosli Family Trail Mix

My favorite snack for the past year or so has been this trail mix. I made it up myself after not being able to find a store-bought trail mix I liked (I don't really like peanuts or milk chocolate so that made lots of trail mixes less-than-enticing to me). I looked at all the trail mix options I could find to come up with ideas, did some adjustments on what I saw, and came up with this trail mix that has become not only a favorite for me and my family but also a staple at all our Power of Moms Retreats - we serve it alongside fresh fruits and veggies during our breaks at Retreats and it's always a big hit. It's much lower in fat and calories than many trail mixes but has a lot of protein and even omega 3 from the pumpkin seeds. You can buy the individual ingredients packaged at most grocery stores but it's cheapest and easiest if you can buy them at good bulk food place.

Ingredients:
1 cup raw unsalted sunflower seeds
1 cup raw unsalted pumpkin seeds
1 cup raw unsalted almonds
(adjust to your taste - some people like to use the salted variety for one of the kinds of nuts/seeds)
1 cup craisins (can use strawberry or cherry flavored craisins)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix together. Eat handful by handful. Don't eat it all at once!

Fruits and Veggies

We've always got apples, pears, and grapes around (whatever's on sale at the store) as well as baby carrots and frozen peas (my kids like to eat handfuls of frozen peas, right out of the freezer, as a little snack). I cut up apples, pears or cucumbers, set out grapes, etc. a lot of days as the after-school snack and kids know they can grab some carrots or grapes out of the fridge for a quick snack if they're feeling hungry. I also like to get a "special fun fruit" most weeks when I go to the store - something different and exciting for the kids to try - they loved it when I brought a dragon fruit home from the store one time and mini bananas, kiwis, various melons and the occasional pineapple have all been big hits.

Here's Isaac with some dragon fruit - the kids thought it was sort of like kiwi and marveled at it's beautiful pink exterior that's so different from the interior.

Crackers and Cheese with Apples

These are by far our favorite crackers - they're SO tasty and SO much better for you than most crackers. We like to eat them for an after school snack topped with some sharp cheddar cheese alongside some nice crispy Fuji or Gala apple wedges. We probably do this for after school snack at least a couple times a week.

Smoothies

We do smoothies a lot - especially in the summer. Every smoothie I make is a little different since I just use what's on hand.

Ingredients:
1-2 frozen bananas (peel them and put then in your freezer when they start to get brown)
whatever other fruits I've got in the fridge (grapes past their prime, overripe pears, bruised apples, etc work great in smoothies - chop up larger fruits into quarters or eighths before trying to blend them)
frozen berries or other frozen fruit along with the fresh fruit or just frozen fruit if that's all I've got
several handfuls of spinach
2-3 heaping tablespoons of vanilla yogurt (Nancy's is my favorite brand lately - hate how most yogurts in the store are full of sugar or corn syrup and fake flavors and aren't really any better for you than low-fat ice cream would be...)
a little water or juice (1/2 - 1 cup of liquid is usually needed to get everything to blend right)

Mix in blender until smooth.

Cookies

We eat quite a lot of cookies. We have some fairly healthy and very tasty favorite recipes and while maybe it would be healthier to stick with fruits and veggies all the time, I admit it, I love cookies and my kids have taken on that love. I think homemade cookies are a perfectly great after-school snack and after-dinner treat a time or two every week.

Here are my favorite three cookie recipes:
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
(all work great w/o the chocolate chips but I like a little chocolate in my life)

What are some of your family's easy healthy snack favorites? I can always use new ideas!

Cowboy Caviar

* This recipe is great as a topping for simple grilled chicken or fish or it's wonderful just with chips.

Cowboy Caviar

12 oz. can of black beans (or 2 cups if you've made them from dry beans)
4 chopped tomatoes (can use canned diced tomatoes if that's all you've got)
chopped cilantro (a lot - I like to use 1/2 a bunch to a whole bunch bunch, chopped)
about 4 chopped green onions (more if you really like green onions like I do) OR 1/2 a chopped sweet onion
1-2 avocados, cubed
1/2 tsp. garlic powder or 1 tsp crushed fresh garlic
1/4 tsp. cumin
juice from 1-2 limes (depending on how much you like limes)
1 c. corn (frozen is my favorite but canned is OK)
1 c. finely chopped orange or yellow peppers (optional)
1 pkg. good seasons Italian dressing mix (or I skip this - don't like the MSG and some of the other stuff in the mix. I just put in 2 tsp chili powder and 1/2 tsp oregano, works great that way)

Mix everything together. Makes enough to serve 10-15 (depending on how hungry people are!)