Healthy, easy snack food

If you could invent a snack food that tastes like it has tons of fat, salt and additives but is really, really healthy, you would probably become the next overnight millionaire. I am not going to nominate this snack for the next new trend for snacking but it is healthy, very easy and even tastes good.

I like raw pumpkin seeds on salads and have tried oven-baking pumpkin seeds with little success but when my daughter ran across this recipe for toasted pumpkin seeds we decided to give it a try. I will say that toasting them certainly adds flavor and turns a rather dull tasking seed into a tasty, yet healthy alternative to more fattening and unhealthy "treats."

It was very easy to do, using a made for the microwave pan I have had for years, but had never used. I mixed up some spices with a little water, mixed in the pumpkin seeds and hit the button for four minutes. Above is how the mixture looks after four minutes.

This is how it looks after cooking two minutes more. I was concerned that the seeds might burn if I cooked them any longer so I stopped there. You could hear the seeds crackling for a while after the cooking was completed. They are ready for snacking. Careful, they can be addictive!

This recipe was adapted from a recipe from Seven Secrets Cookbook by Neva and Jim Brackett.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

1 tablespoon water
Scant 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 cups raw pumpkin seeds (I used Whole Foods 365 packaged seeds)

Mix water, salt and onion powder in microwavable bowl (that has a cover). Pour in pumpkin seeds and mix well.

Cover and cook in microwave on high for 4 minutes. Remove from microwave, stir and cook another 2 minutes on high. Mine were done at this point but if you have a slow microwave, they may need to be cooked another minute or two. They will puff up and brown when they are completed. Allow to cool before eating.