Busy Thursday {Cinnamon Sugar Roasted Chickpeas}

Welcome to Crazy Thursdays! If you've been following my blog for the past few months, you now know that my Thursdays are probably theee busiest days of all... Because I have to drive to the hospital for my clinical off-site, I get up at 5:30am to beat the traffic. This is actually wonderful because I get to have breakfast with my mom! But because my brain can't function at such an hour, my go-to bfast is my bowl of mixed cereal (unless I had prepared something else the night before). Today was a cereal day. Plus coffee. Plus an orange.

But before I actually sat down for my breakfast, I put these guys in the oven...

Cinnamon Sugar Roasted Chickpeas!

I actually don't remember which was the very first recipe to inspire me, but this morning I followed the one by yet another one of my fave bloggers - Cupcake Project!

Ingredients:

• 1 can chickpeas, drained and dried


• 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted


• 1 tsp cinnamon


• 1.5 tsp brown sugar


• 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450F. Spread chickpeas on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.


2. Bake for 30 minutes.


3. In the meantime, combine the rest of the ingredients in a mixing bowl.


4. Transfer chickpeas to the bowl and mix thoroughly with the rest of the ingredients.


5. Enjoy hot, or bring to room temperature and store in an air-tight container.

I packed my chickpeas into a glass container and brought them along for my lunch date with N! She liked them, but asked that I make them crunchier next time. Does that mean increasing baking time? To be determined...

The rest of lunch features a mixed salad with balsamic strawberries (current addiction!) and quinoa. I ended up combining all of the ingredients into one big happy nutritious salad.

Afternoon snacks included fruit (orange and apple), and a slice of pizza during a class-wide meeting.

These snacks successfully held me over til dinner, which included salad, plov (Russian pilaf) with chicken, and red pepper-zucchini spread!

Post-diner sweet treat featured 180 snacks almond rice pops again! Thank goodness these are actually healthy because they are so addictive!!!

And look what I found on my doorstep earlier this week! I call this Raw Nut Butter HEAVEN!!! Who knew nut butters existed in so many shapes and forms?! As I try them all, I'll be sure to share my thoughts on these raw, organic, and all natural treats by Artisana. (I anticipate nothing less than great taste bud impression!) So exciting!!!

OMG! The weekend is almost here yet again! I'm going skiing with M and friends - can't wait to get on the slopes. I'm actually a total beginner and terrible, but I hope to improve (I better!), or else my tailbone will pay the price... as it did last year :-/