Some Healthy Snack Ideas for the Course

Golf Digest has an article with recipes for 17 different healthy snacks you can carry out on the golf course. It includes, for example, the Sweet & Hot Roasted Chickpeas pictured below.

Doesn't that sound just scrumptious? Uhhhh...

Okay, I'll grant you that some of the stuff sounds a bit silly to me. I suppose some people really like things like edamame (green soybeans) although it doesn't sound particularly appetizing to me. (BTW, some people are allergic to soybeans. Just so you know.) And who isn't yearning for a handful of baked kale chips?

However, there are a few neat things in the article that you might want to explore:

• For example, the Apple Pie Spice & Brown Sugar Wonton Chips might be pretty good -- sweet and crunchy.
• The Cucumber Sandwich Rounds -- you use the cucumbers as the "bread" -- present some interesting ideas. (If you like cucumbers the way I do, you'll immediately see some tasty possibilities.)
• The Ham & Turkey Deli Roll-ups seem a bit wimpy to me -- they don't use bread of any sort -- but if you added some flatbreads or tortillas to the mix... YUM!
• And in addition to the standard recipes for granola and trail mixes, there's a recipe for making your own beef jerky. (Lots of room for experimentation there!)

But while the popcorn recipe at the end of the article has some neat ideas for flavorings, let me suggest you try this recipe from Alton Brown, who hosted the shows Good Eats and Iron Chef America for Food Network. It's called the Plain Brown Popper and it teaches you how to microwave regular popcorn in a plain brown paper lunch bag. (And yes, that is as cool as it sounds!)

Although I haven't tried the jalapeno seasoning in the recipe, I can tell you from personal experience that the basic technique works great and that popcorn popped in olive oil has a wonderful flavor and aroma. (And I'm pretty sure this is the only way you can use olive oil to pop popcorn and not burn the oil.)

Besides, let's face it... even if it's too cold this weekend to hit the course, you don't really need an excuse to fix extra snacks, do you?