Drawer Full of Snacks - Cranberry Orange Hand Pies

Everyone has been freaking out about "The Great Twinkie Shortage of 2012" but honestly, Twinkies weren't my favorite Hostess treat back when I use to eat full powered (ie regular sugary) sweets. My favorites were the fruit or pudding pies. You know the ones I'm talking about. They're the ones with the "fruit" in the bright mystery gel encrusted in a white sugar flaked crust? My favorite were the lemon ones. Those didn't even have fruit...just the dayglo yellow gel!

 

Hm, now that I think about, that doesn't sound as appetizing as it did when I was ten. Yet, the idea of having a homemade hand pie does sound appealing. Those Hostess pies are also known as hand pies...pies that fit conveniently in your hand with no utensils required. Especially with it being Thanksgiving week, what better drawer snack to share with you than a cranberry orange hand pie.

 

Cranberry Orange Hand Pies

1/4 cup orange juice

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup stevia sugar blend

1 tablespoon grated orange zest

1 cup fresh cranberries, cut in halves

1 package of ready pie crust (usually comes with 2-9in rounds)

egg wash (1 egg, 1 tablespoon water)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preheat oven to 350*F.

In a medium saucepan, heat orange juice, sugar, orange zest, and cornstarch over low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves. Add cranberries and coat with sugar glaze. Heat until the cranberries soften but remain whole, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Unroll the pie crust rounds. With a cookie or biscuit cutter, cut shapes front crust and lay on a parchment lined baking sheet. Spoon cranberry orange filling onto half of the crust cutouts, leaving enough edge to seal. Top the pie filling with another crust cutout. Seal along the edges with a fork.

Lightly brush the top of the crust with the egg wash. Poke small holes or cut a tiny slit in the middle of the pie to vent.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown. Cool before serving.

Have fun with the cookie cutters. I used a maple leaf cutter for the season but they were rather large and only made 4 pies. I ended up with lots of crust scraps so I took one of my mini cutters and made bite size pies so not to waste all the flaky goodness. The very next day, I placed two of them in a plastic baggie and took them to work. They sat in my desk drawer until snack time and I have to confess how my weird mind works sometimes: The image of a whole pie...or even a slice of pie...sitting in my desk drawer just made me smirk. Anyways, I tore myself away from my work computer, took a break to eat my pies. The tart cranberries and sweet orange flavor went nicely with a cup of hot tea in my Little Miss Sunshine mug. They were delicious and perfect for a Fall afternoon. So if you aren't completely tired of pie or cranberries after Thanksgiving, take the time to make these super easy hand pies which I'm positive are more appealing (and healthier) then the neon gel pies.

Wordless Wednesday - Walking in My Shoes

 

Today is World Diabetes Day. The key phrase: "Think Blue, Wear Blue"

 I'm wearing my blue shoes.

For more information about World Diabetes Day, visit: http://www.idf.org/worlddiabetesday/

 

 

 

 

 

Drawer Full of Snacks - Caramel Corn

I think a lot of people who have desk jobs have a snack drawer. I know of least 4 people in my department that have one. If you do work at a desk and don't have a snack drawer, once 3 o'clock rolls around, what do you do?! I'm usually ready to crash and need a pick-me-up. Unfortunately, with being diabetic, I don't have the luxury of keeping junk food in my drawer and I have to be a little more picky so my sugars don't suddenly spike. Also not good for a diabetic is not to have emergency snacks. I had just started my insulin shots again and I had gotten lazy about restocking. One afternoon, I started to shake uncontrollably and I had trouble concentrating. My blood sugar was too low and I didn't have anything to eat to bring it back up. I had to run to the store for some orange juice so I could feel like I could function again. It's scary to feel like you don't have control of your body and I certainly don't want to go through that again. I've learned to keep my snack drawer stocked but again, sometimes it's hard to find something to snack on.

 

So with that said, November is National Diabetes Awareness Month and I've decided to focus on some homemade snacks to keep in my desk drawer that might be slightly healthier than what you find at the market. One of the staples in my drawer is popcorn and I know that with all that "butter," it can't be the healthiest thing to eat. But then again, I also want my popcorn to taste like something. I decided to experiment this weekend with plain organic popcorn and a bottle of Sohgave that I recently found at Home Goods.

 

 

Caramel Corn

Adapted from sparkpeople.com

 

1/2 cup Splenda Brown Sugar Blend (equivilent to 1 cup of brown sugar)

1/2 cup of agave nectar (such as Sohgave)

1/4 cup of butter

1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

10 cups of air popped popcorn or 2 bags of plain microwavable popcorn*

 

 

Preheat the oven to 250*F. Spray a large baking sheet generously with cooking spray such as Pam.

Pop popcorn and set aside in a large bowl.*

In a saucepan, mix together butter, sugar, and agave over medium heat and stir occasionally. Cook for approximately 5 minutes. Lower heat if the sauce begins to bubble too much or it may burn. Remove from heat and mix in the vanilla, baking soda, and salt.

Pour about 1/3 of the sauce over the popcorn and gently mix so the popcorn is coated. Continue to pour more of the caramel sauce over the popcorn and continue to mix.

Once the popcorn is coated, spread onto your baking sheet in an even layer.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Approximately 15 minutes into the baking time, stir to avoid burning or sticking.

Remove from oven and stir gently to break up any clumps. Cool before serving.

 

 

*Sueshine Notes

-I stared at all the various popcorn brands in the snack aisle for a long time before settling on plain microwavable popcorn because 1) I didn't have an electric air popcorn popper 2) Everything seemed to be either "movie theater butter" or kettle corn flavored. I went with Albertson's Wild Harvest popcorn because it was organic, unflavored, and has no trans fats or artificial flavors.

-I made the mistake of not separating the kernels from the popcorn before I started. The end result was the kernels sinking to the bottom of my baking sheet and sticking to the caramel. Talk about trying not to chip a tooth when you're distracted with all the sticky goodness! So in other words, please take the time to let the kernels settle to the bottom of the bowl then dump them out.

-Unless you have a giant bowl that can hold two bags of popcorn, I recommend mixing in smaller batches. My puppy thanks me for not realizing this earlier and dropping a few stray pieces all over the kitchen floor.

 

 

 

 

I've missed caramel corn and this was certainly a suprising treat. This was the first time I used agave nectar and it served as a great substitute to corn syrup. One new snack in my desk drawer....I can't wait until 3 o'clock!

 

 

note: I'm not a doctor or nutritionist. You know your dietary restrictions and your body so be sure to keep with your doctor's plan for you. Also, remember to eat your snacks in moderation