After School Snacks

You know, I was just standing out here thinking about when my boys were little

and they would come home from school, and they would be so hungry

They would be starved, and of course, I naturally wanted to have them a snack ready

So that's what I'm going to do today. The first thing I'm going to be making is a mini veggie pizza

and then I'm going to make some apple raisin mini muffins that are just delicious

and then later my boys are gonna be dropping in to help me make their favorite childhood snack

popcorn balls. And then I'm gonna finish up by making some pretzel peanut bark

So school's out. Mom, we're hungry. We're ready for a snack, so come on

All right, are y'all ready to start your pizza, kids

Because that's what I'm making for us now. I'm taking rich, crispy English muffins

and topping them with sautéed vegetables and two different kinds of cheese

Now I'm going to start with one yellow squash. Isn't that pretty

And I know it's fresh, and they're going to get what they need out of it

And for the next one, I'm going to be using the zucchini squash

which they love. So I've got beautiful colors going on here. I've got beautiful flavors

Now let's come over here, and I'm going to turn on our skillet, because I don't have a marinara sauce

sauce or anything like that. So I'm gonna make one using fresh tomatoes and

This is three-quarters of a cup of halved grape tomatoes. Now I'm gonna give them a little

Squeeze to kind of get them broke up and going All right, I'm gonna add a little olive oil to them

It would have been great had I had time to roast these in the oven

but I didn't, so I'm just going to quickly roast them right here in my pan

All right, now while those are finishing, come on over here, and let's talk about our crust for our pizza

I'm going to be using an English muffin. It's going to make us a nice, thick crust

and we're going to put them over here on our baking sheet. All right, now it's time for us to put our tomatoes on

I'm gonna come over here now, and I'm gonna divide the tomato on my English muffins

So it's fine that we don't have a sauce. Our tomatoes are gonna give us a little tomatoey taste

Alright, now that gets that. All right, now it's time for us to saute our vegetables off

and I'm gonna add a little bit more olive oil to the pan, and in goes three cups of diced eggplant

And a fourth of a cup of diced onions. And it won't take but just a second for those to saute off

Now I'm gonna throw in my squash and my zucchini. And I don't want to cook these much because, remember, we're going to cook our pizzas in the oven, so they're going to have more cooking to them

All right. So, let's bring our pizzas up here. And let's just pile our veggies on

I don't want them to be skimpy. I want these to be nice and generous

Mmm. They really smell good. Okay, let's come back over here

All right, let's get our veggies up there. Now I'm gonna sprinkle them with just a little balsamic vinegar

Not much, but just a little bit. to give them that flavor

Okay, and then on goes some mozzarella cheese. Oh, yeah

You know, if you, as parents, will have everything ready for them

they can come in and they can even make their own pizzas, put them together and put what they want on it

Now we're gonna go on with a little feta cheese. Feta adds so much to pizza

It's gonna give it just a little bite on your pizza. We gonna sprinkle each of our pizzas with a Greek seasoning Because the fat in the tomatoes you know it just reminds me that it maybe just a

little bit on the Greek side. But I think this will be nice, I think they'll like it

All right, now I'm gonna take some fresh basil. And just shred that just a little bit

And then just put a little bit of fresh basil. Oh, it smells so good

Okay, there we go. Now, we're just gonna run these in the oven

We're gonna put them in a preheated oven of 400 degrees. And we're gonna let these bake for maybe 15 or 20 minutes

Not very long, we just want our English muffin very crispy and crunchy

And our vegetables just melted all in that cheese. So let's put them in the oven

When we come back, I'm gonna be making us some scrumptious apple raisin mini muffins

And then later, my boys are gonna be dropping in to help me make their favorite childhood snack, popcorn balls

So I'll see y'all back here in a minute. It's all about the kids today

Hey, y'all, welcome back

Today's show is all about afternoon snacks. And kids, I've got our first snack ready to come out of the oven

Those little mini pizzas with the feta cheese. Oh, they're going to be so good

Look at them. Doesn't that look good? You know, and the fun thing about pizzas

is you can make them and put whatever you want on them

And today we have tomatoes and zucchinis and yellow squashes and fadaya onions and eggplant

Look how good that looks. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Mmm. Yummy

And the English muffin that we used made such a nice crust. It's almost kind of like a little deep-dish pizza

I think the kids will love them. Well, move on down the counter

because I want to show you the easiest recipe recipe for little apple raisin mini muffins that you ever put in your mouth. It's so easy

I'm going to start with two apples that I peeled and grated. All right. And I'm going to throw them

into the skillet where I've got two sticks of butter melting. These apples are going to make

these little mini muffins. So moist and delicious. All right, now I'm going to add

two cups of raisins. And that's a lot of raisins. If you're not a real big raisin fan

you can certainly cut back on that amount. I'm going to add one cup of water

I'm going to add two teaspoons of cinnamon. two teaspoons of nutmeg

and a half a teaspoon of cloves. So we've got all those good spices that taste so good with apple

All right, now to this, we're going to add two cups of sugar

so you can see that these are almost going to be cake-like in the fact that they're sweet it

almost reminds me of carrot cake muffins all right we're gonna let this cook for about 15

minutes and then we're gonna let it completely cool and i have some that's already cooked back

here and that has cooled. So I'm going to bring this up here and you can see what it looks like

The apples are just, you know, really cooked now and the raisins are plump and the butter and the

sugar has made it kind of thick. All right, now in this bowl, I have three and a half cups

of all-purpose flour, and I'm going to add two teaspoons of baking soda

I'm just going to kind of flip that together. Now, these are real easy to put together

All we're going to do is take our apple mixture and mix it in with our flour

and a cup of walnuts. Now, the walnuts are real good, but if you don't have anything

but pecans, you can certainly use those. So that all it is Really doesn take but just a minute The thing that I like about these little apple muffins is not only are they good fun afternoon snack along with a glass of milk

they're great to go along with breakfast, a hot bowl of oatmeal

All right, I have my mini muffin tins that I've sprayed with a nonstick spray

Now I'm going to use like this looks to be about a one ounce ice cream scoop

All right, so we're going to fill each one of these little muffin holes with our batter

And we're going to fill them all the way to the top just like this

This is a perfect scooper. Okay. Okay

Now, we're going to put these in a 350-degree preheated oven, and we're going to bake these for about 15 minutes

When we come back, y'all, my boys are going to be stopping in to help me make their favorite childhood snack, popcorn balls

And later, I'm going to be making a sweet and savory pretzel peanut bar

So I'll meet y'all right back here in the kitchen. 15 minutes at 350

Welcome back, y'all. Today is all about afternoon snacks. And, you know, I really kind of like to control what my children eat

Of course, you're going to laugh when I show you the next thing that they really love after school

But our muffins are ready. Look how good these look. And you see, I filled them to the tip top

when I was putting the battery in, and they have worked out just perfectly

Now, if you wanted to, you could make these in a regular muffin pan

You just have to cook them a little bit longer. All right, now I think they'll all pop out

There we go. And these make a lot. These make a lot of little mini muffins

And these freeze well, too. You can make them ahead of time, stick them in the freezer

and when you go out camping or on a picnic or fishing

all you have to do is pop these out, and they're ready to go

Aren't those pretty? All right, now, personally, I like mine. with a little cream cheese or a little butter

Look at that. Doesn't that look good? Mmm. The perfect snack with a glass of milk

They're so good. That's a real keeper. Well, come on down here, because I can hardly wait

to make my popcorn balls. Now, you can see I've got a candy thermometer here in my pot

Well, I'm going to need it, because we're going to make a syrup

And we're going to cook that syrup to 255 degrees. Now, to make our syrup, I'm going to use one and a third cup of water

one teaspoon of vinegar, a white vinegar, a pinch of salt, a half a cup of white corn syrup

That looks perfect. And I didn't do this, but if you'll spray your measuring cup

with a nonstick spray, that syrup will come out a lot easier

All right, now to this, we're going to add two cups of sugar

Whoops. There we go. All right, we're just going to stir it together

and then we're just going to let it cook away, like I said, to 255 degrees

Hey, y'all. Hey, son. Popcorn's my favorite. I can smell it from a mile away

And sugar. What are y'all doing? I'm making the snack that your grandma Paul

used to make for you. I just got our syrup cooked up to 255 degrees

Now I'm going to stir in a teaspoon. Wait, which snack is this? Hot corn balls, brother. Hot corn balls

Mm-hmm. Look at that. Ooh-wee. Wow, that smells great, too. Doesn't it smell wonderful

That vanilla, boom. Where have y'all been? What have y'all? We've been out playing

Y'all slipped in, and I didn't even. Whoa, now. All right. Take that, Bobby

Mix it up Okay Is the car running Yeah because we would have to take a little We need to go to the hospital

But thanks for the offer. You're welcome. Look how sticky that is

It's sticky. What is that? It's popcorn. I mean, I know what that is, but I mean, what is that

Oh, it's just the syrup that's going to stick our balls together

Come here, Bobby. You have to work. Hey. Come here, Bobby. Let's put us on some gloves

Doctor? I'm gonna put some on, although I'm not gonna touch that hot stuff

I'm just gonna wear them. I don't wanna touch it either. You don't wanna touch it

No, I don't. Well, I'm gonna touch it. Do you have to work with it pretty quick

It's so sticky, does it get... Yeah, I mean, it'll get... Look at that. That's not that hot

Bunch of sissies. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah

You're crazy. I know it is a little warm. That's not too bad. All right, and it was sticking

Yes, it was. That was the problem. Jamie, here. Like my asphalt

Don't spray my ball. Look, now. Spray my ball. Ooh. Ooh. How many is this going to make

That's not... As many as we want it to make. Golly, that's hot. You know, and you can make these different sizes

like I would kind of like this size that would be just like just enough for me

Jamie must have made that one yeah I did no it looks good

y'all are so much fun to be with I just love being with y'all

I wish I could zap you back into little boys sometimes but I can't

when we come back though y'all we're gonna be moving on to another great after school snack

and it's gonna be pretzel peanut bark Hey, welcome back, y'all

It's all about after-school snacks today. And this next recipe is a white chocolate pretzel peanut bar

It's the perfect combination of sweet and savory with salty pretzels and peanuts

and sinfully sweet white chocolate. Now, I have melted 18 ounces of white chocolate in my bowl over hot water

I've got three cups of pretzels, the pretzel sticks, and I've kind of broken them up, and I'm just going to dump those in

And I have two cups of salted peanuts. Y'all have heard me say so often how I love the sweet and the salty together

and this just makes a perfect snack. Now all we have to do is stir these together

All right. So there we go just that easily. It's mixed together

Let me turn off my pot and move it out of the way

All right, now I've got a parchment paper lined cookie sheet And I'm just gonna pour this out onto the sheet

Ooh, look at that white chocolate. Ooh. Doesn't that look good? Now I'm just gonna spread this out

and we're gonna let it cool on the counter for, you know

three or four hours, just until it's hard. And then we're gonna break this up in pieces

and then it's ready to eat. great afternoon snack, isn't it? So there it is, just that easy, kids

18 ounces of white chocolate, three cups of broken pretzels, and two cups of salted peanuts

And we're going to let it sit here until it's hardened. And I've got one right here

So why don't we go over to the table and look at all the yummy after-school snacks we have

Come on. So we've got all our snacks together for the children

Our bark is ready. All we have to do is break it into nice big pieces just like that

Mmm. Boy, howdy, it's that good. The salty pretzels and the white chocolate are so good together

Yum. You know, I think the kids are just going to love all these afternoon snacks

The little veggie pizza minis, it's a good, nutritious snack. The apple raisin mini muffins are just perfect

And of course, that moves us on to our popcorn balls. It's fun to get in the kitchen with your children and make these

I hope y'all have had a good time this afternoon with me, making these snacks for our children

and I hope, kids, that y'all will get in the kitchen with Mommy, make these snacks together

and along with these snacks, make some wonderful memories for y'all. And until next time

you know I always send you love and best dishes from my kitchen to yours