March 26th: berry smoothie, roasted chickpeas and pistachios

Mmm, Saturday is the best day for making snack foods! For a Saturday morning snack, I made a fruit smoothie for Olivia and I. It took less than 2 minutes for her to spill the bright pink drink all over her white shirt.

It seems most smoothie recipes call for a banana, which I appear to be allergic to, so I am always excited when I find a good non-banana smoothie recipe. I've tried many that were not good. This one is good. The recipe comes from a cookbook we were given as a wedding present many a year ago, The Newlyweds' Cookbook.

Very Berry Smoothie

1 cup strawberries, hulled
1 cup raspberries
1/2 cup blueberries
3/4 cup cranberry juice
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 tsp honey*
4 large ice cubes

Put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and process until almost smooth. Taste for sweetness, adding more honey, if needed. Pour into two chilled glasses and serve immediately.

Serves 2.

*The recipe calls for 1 tsp. I used 1 tbsp.

The last time her shirt was seen in its original white condition.

For a Saturday night snack for me and Greg, I tried a new variation on roasted chickpeas. I like this version even better than the last one I tried out. This one comes from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, although I tweaked it a bit.

Roasted Chickpeas and Pistachios

4 tbsps extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
1/2 cup shelled pistachios
1 tbsp minced garlic
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 400°F. Put 3 tbsps oil in a large ovenproof skillet large enough to hold the chickpeas and pistachios in one layer and put on the stove over medium heat. When hot, add the chickpeas, pistachios and garlic and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir quickly so that everything is well coated with oil and sitting in one layer.

Transfer the skillet to the oven and roast, stirring occcasionally, until the chickpeas begin to brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, add last 1 tbsp oil, a good squeeze of lemon juice, and more salt and pepper, if desired. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store in the refrigerator.

Serves 2 as a great snack for movie-watching! That's what we did. But we're lame and fell asleep watching the movie, which was some Woody Allen movie, I don't even know which one. I am so old.

The cookbook suggests topping the hot chickpeas with curry powder or chili powder rather than lemon juice. I think that sounds good too, but haven't tried them out.