Help me win almond roulette.

Cafe Society
1

Almond roulette is a game I play. At the beginning of the week, I put one-ounce portions of different flavors of almonds into snack bags. I use them as my main snack during the day - it’s part of my Weight Watchers program, since an ounce of almonds is 5 points and so they’re yummy, satisfying, and easy to mentally track if I can’t get a wireless connection.

The roulette part consists of grabbing two bags, sight unseen, in the morning and throwing them into my lunch bag with a lunch entree so I can eat them between classes.

Currently, my almond bullpen consists of four varieties of Blue Diamond: Lime ‘n’ Chili, Habanero BBQ, Wasabi & Soy Sauce, and Dark Chocolate. Anyone have suggestions for other flavors to throw into some snack bags for the morning draw? Also, anyone have any ideas for relatively healthy things to do with raw almonds that might beat the flavors available in cans at the store?

2

The Wasabi & Soy sauce ones are all you need. All others pale in comparison.

Since you’re on WW, I guess “candied” almonds are out of the question, eh?

3

I was never a fan of glazed almonds, truth be told. I occasionally grab a pack at Starbucks because they’re a known quantity, but I’m generally going savory rather than sweet.

4

I was going to make some suggestions on how to throw raw almonds in a pan with a little bit of oil and any seasonings you want and saute them until they absorb all those flavors. But then I read “Wasabi and soy sauce” and that just wins. I gotta find me some of those. Blue Diamond, you say?

I can eat wasabi peas until the cows come home, but their carb count makes them unhealthy for me. Almonds, on the other hand…

5

They are in fact pretty awesome.

6

There’s an awesome recipe in The New Basics Cookbook for spiced nuts (almonds or pecans) but I’m not sure I can post it because of copyright issues.

FWIW, it’s the first recipe in post #2 here.

ETA: Do NOT do more than two cups (one recipe) of nuts per baking sheet. You need the nuts to be uncrowded.

7

Thanks, Sue! That looks really tasty.

The rosemary cashew recipe from the first post also looks interesting. I’ll have to try it out and see if I can cut the sugar a tad.

8

I found wasabi pistachios on a trip somewhere and have never been able to find them since. Wow, they were good.

9

Wasabi pistachios, eh? That sounds like a project…

10

For Blue Diamond, my absolute favorite is the Jalapeno Smokehouse flavor.

11

I just now finished two experimental batches of pecans. (With melted butter, though.) The spicing for these is similar - I did cayenne pepper, salt and cinnamon, with just a sprinkle of sugar first, then chipotle pepper powder, salt, cinnamon, cayenne, no sugar (turned out to be unnecessary) . I like the cayenne better than the chipotle, as it’s brighter and less earthy. I have also been roasting pumpkin seeds with cayenne, jalapeno powder and salt. Today I tried similar spicing with sunflower seeds, and that’s pretty good, too.

Here’s a calorie and carb chartfor nuts and seeds, just for kicks.