My repertoire of recipes is dwindling as we work our way through our food stores. One of the challenges is always “snack time”–that time of the afternoon when we’re three hours from lunch and about three hours until supper.
Before our $20 per month grocery budget was instituted, we would often just grab some saltines and peanut butter for snack. Now, I don’t buy crackers…and if I do splurge on peanut butter, we usually have PB&J for lunch or use it in a dessert (one of our favorites is peanut butter pudding). A while back, we got a bunch of dried figs, so those made a good snack, but now they’re almost gone. Occasionally I make potato chips or corn chips, but frankly by mid-afternoon I want a rest from food preparation and the accompanying kitchen mess.
So…when looking frantically for a fast, healthy snack idea the other day, I unexpectedly stumbled upon the idea of Puffed Wheat Berries in my More-with-Less cookbook by Doris Janzen Longacre. All you do is heat a little oil in a pan (I use coconut oil if I have it), add wheat berries, and shake the pan over the heat until you don’t hear any more popping sounds. After the wheat was pleasantly warm and puffed, I added a little soy sauce and some seasoned salt. Yum! Everyone has a new favorite (easy!) snack.
I would LOVE some more easy snack suggestions that use simple (staple) ingredients. Leave a comment if you have any ideas.