Snacks Archives - Pure Thyme

Baked Cinnamon-Spiced Sweet Potato Fries with Apple Date Butter Dipping Sauce

October 19, 2011 By Jennifer 15 Comments

Sweet potato fries anyone? How about Baked Cinnamon-Spiced Sweet Potato Fries with Apple Date Butter Dipping Sauce? Yeah, it’s a mouthful, but this is the perfect fall-flavored healthy treat to serve up to your family and friends.

So easy to make and so full of flavor. Get ready to enjoy sweet potato fries that are naturally sweet, fall-spiced, light and healthy. Loaded with carotenoids, vitamin C, potassium, and fiber. You won’t feel guilty indulging with these fries knowing you are giving your body the powerful nutrients it needs.

Did I mention my kids devoured these? Oh, I will make a double batch next time for sure. =)

Simply cut the fries into 1/2 inch wide strips like so. Mine where *almost* all the same size, maybe you can do better. I would like to try my Mandoline slicer but I’m deathly afraid of it ever since I sliced my finger – *ouch* – I need to order a protective glove because it juliennes veggies so perfectly.

Mix in your cinnamon and clementine juice.

Place on a parchment-lined baking tray.

Bake AND broil for the perfect, crispy, and delicious sweet potato fries. =) Baking alone didn’t do the trick, so throwing under the broiler gets them nice and crispy because who wants soggy fries? Not me!

Printable Recipe

Baked Cinnamon-Spiced Sweet Potato Fries with Apple Date Butter Dipping Sauce

Yield: 4-6 servings

Ingredients:

1-2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch wide strips

¼ tsp cinnamon

1 Clementine, juiced

Apple Date Butter for dipping

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

In a large bowl, toss sweet potato strips with cinnamon and clementine juice to coat evenly.

Spread potatoes in a single layer on a parchment lined baking tray.

Bake on middle shelf in oven for 20 minutes.

Broil on top rack in the oven for 3-5 minutes per side. Flip fries every couple of minutes to make sure fries brown and crisp evenly. Keep a close on these so they don’t burn.

Cool slightly and serve with Apple Date Butter Dipping Sauce. You can warm the butter or serve it chilled, either way is delish.

What’s your favorite way to eat sweet potatoes? Tell us in the comments or join the conversation on Twitter at #cookingwith.

Fall Fest is a season long franchise where Food Network editors team up with blogs to share tips and recipes about seasonal produce.
Here are some more potato links for you to check out for ideas and inspiration.

Taste With The Eyes: Poached Salmon, Lobster Mash, Lentil Gumbo “Gravy”

And Love It Too: Twice Baked Potato – Paleo Style

What’s Gaby Cooking: Smashed Potatoes

From My Corner of Saratoga: Potato Canapes

Napa Farmhouse 1885: Chorizo and Potato Tacos

Cooking Channel: Cozy Up With In Season Potatoes

FN Dish: Best Potato Casserole Recipes

Cooking With Elise: The Irish Boxty

CIA Dropout: Potato and Leek Soup

The Sensitive Epicure: Potatoes Anna With Fresh Thyme and Truffle Salt

Glory Foods: Chicken Smashed Potatoes

Daily*Dishin: Creamy Loaded Potato Casserole

Baked Eggplant Fries with Lemon Dill Dipping Sauce

June 14, 2011 By Jennifer 52 Comments

My children love french fries, what kid doesn’t? Okay, and I confess so do the adults around our house. I prefer to make mine at home so I can make sure they are not deep fried in unhealthy oils and loaded with sodium.

I have been dreaming about making these eggplant fries for a couple of weeks now. I have had zucchini fries at restaurants in the past and considered making that – I will definitely be trying those out since these came out perfect. If you have had zucchini fries at a restaurant you know that they are deep fried and definitely not healthy. I hate to think all the nutritional benefits of vegetables are just destroyed by deep-frying and dumping huge amounts of salt on them. I personally don’t think that even tastes good anymore. I want to taste my food and not salt, butter, or oil – how about you?

I love eggplant because it is downright delicious and it’s such a versatile vegetable that can be cooked in so many ways. It is also an important antioxidant vegetable that makes a wonderful addition to your diet. It is loaded with vitamin A, B, C folate and minerals like potassium. It is rich in dietary fiber, contains no fat and is low in calories. How perfect, right?

I did a quick search for eggplant fries to see what delicious recipes were out there. Most were deep fried like I thought they would be, but I did find a great one at Dianne’s Dishes. I used her method for cutting the fries because I definitely needed a visual on that – check it out. Thank you Dianne for this and for my recipe inspiration.

Baked Eggplant Fries with Lemon Dill Dipping Sauce

Author: Virtually Vegan Mama

Recipe type: Appetizer, Side

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 6

Ingredients

For fries:
1 eggplant, cut into strips
⅓ cup unsweetened plain soy yogurt
1 tbsp. dried parsley
¼ tsp. garlic powder
¼ tsp. paprika
¼ tsp. ground cumin
¼ tsp. onion powder
2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
2 cups whole-wheat seasoned breadcrumbs
For dip:
1 cup unsweetened plain soy yogurt
1 tsp. dill
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp. lemon juice
Fresh black pepper to taste

Instructions

For fries:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with a non-stick baking mat or parchment paper. Cut the top and bottom off of your eggplant. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise and then into quarters. Next, cut the eggplant quarters into slices roughly ¼ in. thick. Now cut the eggplant slices into strips roughly the size of French fries. Combine yogurt, parsley, garlic powder, paprika, ground cumin, onion powder, lemon juice, and apple cider vinegar in a large bowl. Toss eggplant fries in soy yogurt mixture, coating evenly. Place breadcrumbs on a plate and lightly coat eggplant fries with breadcrumbs. Spread out evenly on trays making sure they don’t touch. Bake in preheated oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown and crispy. Turn halfway during baking to brown evenly. Serve immediately with lemon dill dipping sauce.
For dip:
Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized bowl. Place in the refrigerator for a minimum of 1 hour to chill and allow flavors to combine.

Notes

Without dip: 141 calories, 4.7 grams sugar, 1.3 grams fat, 28.3 grams carbohydrates, 5.9 grams protein For dip: You can add cut up cucumber to this to make it traditional Tzatziki Sauce.

Here’s a great review of Baked Eggplant Fries done by Healthy Girl’s Kitchen check it out!

Have you tries Baked Eggplant Fries before, what do you think?

Quinoa Oatmeal Mini-Muffins

February 28, 2011 By Jennifer 11 Comments

Today, I decided to try out quinoa flour for the first time. I actually want to experiment with all gluten-free flours so I thought this was a good starting point. I am a HUGE fan of quinoa in general for its nutritional benefits and use it often, but I’ve never made anything out of quinoa flour. Quinoa has a slightly bitter taste, but I love it and most of you probably do as well! There are definitely many recipes out there that use it, but I had to try it out for myself. I modified a recipe I’ve had for a long time for oatmeal muffins by just replacing the whole wheat pastry flour with the quinoa flour.

The end result…the muffins do have a distinct quinoa flavor to them, but are they good? My husband thinks they are fantastic, they are kid-approved, and I kind of like them too. These are a great, healthy snack for kids. Every time I eat one I like them even more…they are growing on me…yep. I definitely need to experiment with quinoa flour some more and maybe mix the quinoa flour with another gluten-free flour like amaranth. I think that is what I will do next time I make these, which will probably be in the next couple days because I will obsess about it until I try it!

Have you tried quinoa flour? What do you think about it? If you haven’t, try these muffins out and let me know what you think!

Quinoa Oatmeal Mini-Muffins

Yield: 24 mini-muffins

Ingredients:

1 tbsp flaxseed meal mixed with 3 tbsp water

1 ¼ cup quinoa flour

1 cup old fashioned oats (not instant)

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

1/2 cup date syrup

2 tsp pure vanilla extract

¼ cup raisins

¼ cup chopped dates

¼ cup chopped pecans

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 Degrees F.

Lightly spray a mini-muffin pan with cooking spray. Mix 1 tbsp flaxseed meal with 3 tbsp water, set aside. Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda into mixing bowl. Add oatmeal and stir to combine. In a separate bowl combine flaxseed meal mixture, almond milk, date syrup, and vanilla extract. Stir to combine. Fold in dry ingredients and add raisins, dates and pecans. Mix until just combined. Spoon the batter into muffin pans, filling each one almost to the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the tops are lightly browned and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool slightly, remove from the pan, and serve.

Happy healthy eating!

Heart-Shaped Almond Coconut Granola Bars

February 9, 2011 By Jennifer 29 Comments

Okay, so I could have made some sugar-filled cookies dipped in chocolate to celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, but I didn’t. This plant-strong family needed a healthier version. I was now on a mission to come up with a recipe that would make my family happy and not miss those cookies. We love granola bars around here and making the home-made ones are so easy to do. If you have kids, granola bars are a great kid-friendly recipe for them to help make – it’s fun and easy. Most any combination of ingredients will be yummy and so much better than the store-bought ones. Believe me, once you make your own you will never buy store-bought again.

I really loved Almond Joys growing up, so I wanted to come up with a granola bar that is reminiscent of that. OH MY GOSH, I think I did it! The whole family really loved these and I swear you will think you are eating something unhealthy (hee hee) they are so good. They also looked so cute heart-shaped which the kids really loved. Heart-shaped and heart-healthy, I’m loving this recipe. These are even better the next day and they are a very moist, cake-like granola bar.

Heart-Shaped Almond Coconut Granola Bars

I adapted this recipe from Dr. Fuhrman’s Yummy Banana-Oat Bars. I did not put bananas in mine because I didn’t want a granola bar that tasted like bananas this time. Those are great, but I am a little anti-baking with bananas now from perfecting my Banana Bread Recipe. I sure was obsessed with that one. Try them out and let me know what you think.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all!

Heart-shaped Almond Coconut Granola Bars

Author: Jennifer Strohmeyer - Virtually Vegan Mama

Recipe type: Snack

Serves: 12 hearts

Ingredients

Equipment needed: 3-inch Metal Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter

3 dates, pitted and chopped
¼ cup almond butter
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
½ -1 cup unsweetened almond milk (I used 1 cup and it made a very moist, chewy bar)
¼ tsp cinnamon
1-2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (depending on how chocolatey you want these)
1 ½ tsp almond extract
1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ cup almonds, chopped
2 cups old fashioned oats (not instant)
½ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
½ cup mixed raisins and cranberries (you can use any combination of dried fruit you would like here)

Instructions

Cover dates in water and soak for at least 1 hour, up to 4 hours.
Drain dates and combine them with almond butter, applesauce, almond milk, cinnamon, cocoa powder, almond and vanilla extract in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Transfer mixture to small saucepan and heat on low for 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F.
Line a large baking tray with parchment paper.
In a medium mixing bowl mix; almonds, oats, coconut, raisins and cranberries. Fold in the almond butter mixture. Place cookie cutter on the parchment lined baking sheet and spoon batter into cookie cutter filling halfway. Press down firmly with your fingers. Gently lift the cookie cutter away from the granola and press down around inside edges to help keep its shape. Reform granola hearts with your fingers if necessary and repeat.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool completely before eating. These can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks.

Enjoy!

XOXO,

Jen

stay in touch