snackies

Our munchies bag today included bananas, cashews, 100% fruit leather, and Korean dried seaweed. (I'm also hankering to make peanut butter balls again, but with almond butter instead. Also, none of the optional dry milk powder, but adding in sunflower seeds instead.)

What do you take along on outings? I'm nosy.

cheesy krabby appetizers

We're not doing much wheat or dairy lately, but when we go out, I'm not religious about it. Plus, we were sharing this with quite a few other folks and not downing it all ourselves.

Recently we had a Japanese homestay student staying with us and the leaving party for her group was potluck. Luckily I have a quick and easy appetizer to pull out of my hat! I got it from a 2001 or 2002 Taste of Home magazine that I had a year's subscription to, and this is one recipe from that year that I've kept and adapted (I found the original recipe online, too, if you're interested). It's basically wheat tortillas rolled up with cream cheese, cheddar cheese, krab, and baked. Of course I add my own flair!

You'll need:

• 1 package tortillas (I think this pack had 10 medium-sized ones)
• grated cheddar cheese
• 1 block cream cheese
• krab, chopped
• green onions, chopped
• black olives, chopped
• cilantro, chopped
• salsa for dipping

Do this:

Mix the cheddar, cream cheese, krab, onions, black olives, and cilantro in a bowl. Spread a bit on each tortilla and roll up. Place them next to each other on a cookie sheet, bake at 350 for 12 minutes or so (until melted in the middle and a bit crispy on the outside), let cool a few minutes, then chop into rounds. Serve with salsa and if you're so inclined, do the salsa.

purple "green" smoothie

I make green smoothies every day and we have them with our lunch. I guess they really are green sometimes but mostly end up being a bright shade of purple because we all love berries. A recent favorite:

• big bunch of organic spring mix greens
• one organic avocado
• key lime juice
• 2 organic Granny Smith apples, cored but unpeeled
• 2 organic bananas
• frozen unsweetened cranberries
• mixed frozen berries: raspberries, blueberries, blackberries
• a bit of water
• fresh cilantro leaves

The cranberries and key lime juice add such a wonderful tang and I've repeated this one a couple of times already.