A Healthy, After-School Snack

Sometimes simple recipes aren’t so simple if you do not know how to quickly and efficiently prepare the ingredients. Chopping an onion can take 30 seconds or 5 minutes depending on how you do it. A big focus of this blog is to teach you techniques, not just how to follow a recipe. I researched a lot of blogs when I first had the idea to create my own. One thing I found was that although many of the recipes are terrific, they can be very intimidating if you do not know the basics of food preparation. Since I am lucky to have those skills, I am comfortable preparing most things. There are also lots of useless gadgets out there that honestly don’t even work very well, like apple corers. All you really need is a big knife and a cutting board and you can accurately and uniformly slice or cube your apples with minimal waste.

The next recipe is my oldest daughter’s favorite after-school snack. It takes no time at all to prepare, once you know how to cut up an apple, and it is loaded with nutrients. Apples have a ton of fiber, among other valuable vitamins, while peanut butter has protein and Greek yogurt has calcium, protein and less sugar than regular yogurt. You can also leave out the honey to cut back on sugar, but I wouldn’t recommend it because it tastes so good. I always use local honey because I have heard it can help build up your tolerance for seasonal allergies (I need that right now!). If you must slice your apples in advance, you can always toss them in a little lemony water-not too lemony, just enough to prevent browning (juice ½ of a lemon and add to 1 cup of cold water). This process is called acidulation because the acid prevents browning. You can also use an orange or pineapple juice. Bon appétit!

Apple Slices & Peanut Butter Dip

Makes 1/2 Cup

 *Gluten Free*

**For a nut-free version, use sunflower seed butter. You may need to adjust honey amount depending on whether or not there is a sweetener in it.**

Ingredients:

1/4 cup all natural, no sugar-added peanut butter

1/4 cup 2% Greek yogurt

2 teaspoons local honey

1 large or 2 small apples

Equipment:

Cutting board

Chef's knife

Silcone spatula

 

Procedure:

-Combine peanut butter, yogurt and honey in a small bowl and set aside.



-Core and slice apples. (Technique: Cut apple(s) in half from stem to base. With the flat sides down for stability, cut in half again, going right through the core. You will now have 4 pieces. Make a diagonal cut through each quarter, removing the core. Slice each quarter in half and then cut each half again so you have 16 pieces total.)

-Place apples and dip on as decorative a platter as you see fit and enjoy!