Healthy Tasty Chowcleaner recipes, reviews, toddler mom stuff and food chatter

Two things happened yesterday that inspired me to make these.  First, I get an email from the people over at Saucy Mama telling me that I have until the end of the month to submit a new recipe to be considered in their contest.  If you haven’t read some prior posts, they sent 25 bloggers lots of sauces to try out and sponsor a giveaway (mine is over!) to finally compete to win prizes for the best recipes!  Then, I get a comment from Denise on my previous post, about Toddler Snack Ideas, suggesting that crunchy baked garbanzo beans are a different great snack idea that maybe O would enjoy.  Eureka!  Suddenly, nothing sounded better than some hot and spicy crunchy garbanzo beans (that end up tasting nutty rather than beany).  I had been wondering what to do with the hot wing sauce and kept wanting to press some tofu and put it on there for some “hot tofu fries,” but I just never got excited enough to do it.  See, I have never really liked hot wings but have always loved the sauce.  So, I crossed my fingers and gave the garbanzo beans a shot and am sooooo glad that I did.  I love them!  I only made a little just in case - since the last few things I’ve experimented with didn’t work out and then I get sad that I wasted good ingredients.  I used about a quarter of the can with the hot wings, and with the rest I just made with olive oil and sea salt.  I inhaled the hot wing sauce version!!!  The sauce gave the garbanzo beans an extra crunchy outside layer, kinda like sweet roasted nuts.  Or, I guess you could say kinda like chicken wings! 

I’m definitely making these for my next bunco with the girls.  I’m a little embarrassed to admit I play bunco- I’m only 30 and don’t feel that old but I guess that I really am that old.  I love it!  We have a great time.  To be fair, I started at 28, still in my 20s!   I used to roll my eyes at my mom playing bridge with her lady friends (because there was always so much giggling which is a little embarrassing and annoying when you’re a kid and it’s your parents and friends) and here I am doing the same thing.  Sigh.  Anyway, there is a girl there that is allergic to nuts, and some of the girls and myself always end up making something with nuts in it to bring and then remembering when it’s too late.  We’re getting better at that lately.  Plus, we like to eat healthy for the most part so we can enjoy the few really rich things at the table.  These seem like the absolute perfect healthy snack solution.  Yay!  If you want to make them, rest assured that they’re simple and cheap!  A little sauce goes a long way and a can of garbanzo beans is quite affordable.  However, I ate half the can of crunchy beans so maybe you can restrain yourself better than I can.

Lastly, I wanted to answer the question that may be in your mind.  Denise recommended these for my toddler as a great snack that he may like that adds extra protein - because he doesn’t eat as much protein as I’d like him to eat.  Does he like them?  The answer is: a little!  Which is great, I shared a bowl of the olive oil and salt version with him and he liked to play with them with his hands and eat one now and then and every so often spit one out.  I’m happy that he ate at least a few!  It’s something, which is much better than nothing I think!

Ingredients:

• 1 16oz can garbanzo beans (chick peas)
• Hot wing sauce (Saucy Mama)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Rinse and drain garbanzo beans
• In a shallow bowl, spread out garbanzo beans
• Pour a little bit of sauce over the beans and stir them up - keep adding until there’s just enough to coat the beans on all sides
• Grease a cookie sheet - I sprayed mine
• With a slotted spoon (like the kind you remove doughnuts from oil with) remove the beans and shake off excess sauce gently
• Spread evenly on pan - bake about 45 minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes.  Beans will shrivel - you’ll notice in my picture some start to look a little burnt but they are not burnt- there is no burnt flavor, if you leave it in too long or don’t stir often enough, I assume it’ll start tasting burnt so make sure you keep checking on it!
• Remove from heat, allow to cool and enjoy!

Side note…the olive oil version took about an hour while these only took 45 minutes.

Disclosure:  I was provided free product from Barhyte Specialty Foods