Healthy Eats: Oven-Baked Snacks

By Trish Coffman

Who doesn’t love a little afternoon snack involving salt and crunch? Unfortunately, most store-bought, mass-produced snacks don’t exactly love us back. Learn to make home-baked snacks — whole-grain pita chips, tortilla chips and kale crisps — that are worthy of your love.

Baked Chips

You will need:

• Pitas or tortillas (go for whole grain wheat or corn)
• Kosher or sea salt
• Cinnamon sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and have a muffin tin ready, along with a small bowl of water. Use a pizza cutter or kitchen shears to cut each tortilla or pita into 6 to 8 triangles. Dip each triangle very briefly into the water, or use a pastry brush to brush each side very lightly (no soaking necessary). Position triangles so that they rest in cups of a muffin tin and sprinkle them with either salt or cinnamon sugar. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until crisp (tip: wheat tortillas take less time to crisp up than corn tortillas).

*Cooking these chips in a muffin tin makes them curved, not flat, so they make great dipping mediums. Serve with your favorite hummus, guacamole or salsa. Chips baked with cinnamon sugar are good dipped in Greek yogurt.

Kale Crisps

You will need:

• About ½ bunch kale, thoroughly washed and dried
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Red pepper flakes (optional)
• Kosher or sea salt

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F and prepare a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Tear kale into pieces that are roughly two inches in size, removing the leaves from the thicker stems. Put the kale on the baking sheet, pour two teaspoons olive oil over it, and sprinkle with red pepper flakes to taste (about 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon, depending on your spice tolerance) and liberally with salt. Toss kale with your hands. Spread kale pieces over the baking sheet, making sure the pieces aren’t crowded (you may need to divide kale among two baking sheets, depending on the variety and size of the kale). Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until kale is crispy and even slightly brown at the edges.

*Have leftover kale crisps? Crumble them up over popcorn or pasta, or stir into soup.