Best Snacks Ever: Crispy, Tasty and Healthy

This recipe adapted from My New Roots is my personal food revolution concerning snacks, healthy foods, fast foods and joy of food at the same time.

When you deside to switch to wholesome foods - no matter how you do it, of your own free will or by force - the first thing you have to do is to give a lot of things up. You give up chips, sausages, mayo, cookies and other prosessed foods and this is so hard mentally - on one day to review all your habits which you developed during your life. It's sad and it's logical that you indulge from time to time and your weight goes up and down and you finally face the necessity of starting over or at least another completing the steps that you have already once completed. All right, here is where I stop talking the sad stuff because I am going to write about the victory of health over useless snacks without prejudice to taste and even to texture!

My advice when switching to healthy foods is not to give anything up but to add healthy wholesome foods to your shopping list. The right grains, green smoothies, organic vegetables and fruits will redirect your body to a completely new healthy way of life and finally on one day you will sipmly stop craving for this fat burger and those sugary pancakes. If only I was given a bag of these healthy snacks when I just desided I wanted to be healthy and beautiful both inside and outside! How easier and happier my way could be!

Ok, these are definitely the healthiest snacks ever. The base is brown rice, quinoa and flaxseeds. The rest is natural flavourings that can be whichever you want: herbs, poppy seeds, olives, nuts, onion, garlic, chia seeds, etc. My favourite is ground cumin: the snacks with this flavour taste exactly like falafel-flavoured Israeli "Bissli" snacks - awfully chemical small "cookies" which I adore to my shame but absolutely can't eat because of my clean stomach :) No more rancid oils, modified potatoes and questionable starches!

I am also posting this as a part of the monthly link up party Our Growing Edge, an event aimed to connect food bloggers and inspire us to try new things. This month is hosted by Chandler from The Chef With The Red Shoes.

And now I will be happy to share with you this simple but wonderful and necessary recipe!

Best Snacks Ever

Ingredients (serves 4-5):

1 cup boiled brown rice (I had a mixture of brown and wild rice)

1 cup boiled quinoa

1/4 cup raw sesame seeds

1/4 cup flaxseeds

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 teaspoon sea salt

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

Toppings and flavourings: walnuts, dried paprika, dried basil, chia seeds, hemp seeds, garlic, ground cumin

Directions:

Cover your flaxseeds with 1/2 cup boiling water and set aside for 15 minutes. Meanwhile toast sesame seeds in a pan to open their flavour.

In a bowl of your blender mix rice, quinoa, flaxseeds with their liquid, salt, balsamic vinegar and olive oil and blend them all together.

You may blend the mixture into a smooth dough or you can leave the texture of the ingredients - it will not affect the taste. The aim is to get a rather viscous and sticky mixture. In the end you'll just have to add toasted sesame seeds and mix without blending.

And now begins the creative part: you choose the toppings and flavours and start to roll the dough. If you are using some ground spices or herbs (like I used paprika, basil and cumin) then you first have to mix the flavour into the dough, and if you use a topping (like nuts, garlic and various seeds) then you just roll the dough and then top with what you want and press a little to let it stick to the base.

To roll the dough you will need to place it between 2 sheets of non-sticking parchment paper. Roll it into a very thin layer, then remove the upper sheet of paper and with a knife score the dough into the shapes of your future snacks.

This time I had 7 different flavourings and took 2 heaped tablespoons dough for each of them.

Bake the snacks at 170ºC for 25-30 minutes until golden and crispy. If the edges are already done while the middle pieces are not - just remove the cooked ones and return the rest to the oven until done. Cool the cooked snacks and break them into separate pieces.

Hereby you get absolutely guilt-free snacks with great health benefits of brown rice, quinoa, flaxseeds and your chosen toppings. You can eat these while keeping any diet, sticking to healthy foods and even once a week during detox! You can eat them in the evening and not be afraid to gain weight, you can take them with you to the country side, for a trip, for a walk and for work as a healthy snack! And it's so easy to vary the flavours depending on your personal taste!

Basil-flavoured snacks get a traditional Italian hint, snacks topped with chia or hemp seeds are the richest sources of health benefits, walnuts give a very mild and pleasant sweet taste.

Snacks with paprika are the most beautiful due to their bright red color, snacks with garlic are the most "brutal" ones for those who like it hot, cumin-flavoured snacks remind of Mediterranean cuisine.

No matter what flavour or topping you choose - you get a beautiful crispy texture which will make you forget about store-bought crackers made of white flour and chips in unhealthy oil. You have to definitely try these ones and this will make a huge step forward to your new healthy life!