Apple Nachos

There are recipes for apple nachos all over the internet.  I love apples, and I love them even more now that it's Honeycrisp season, so apple nachos seemed to be just the ticket, but so many of the recipes are soooo unhealthy. I mean come on! Marshmallows? An entire stick of butter? Caramel sauce? Commercial chocolate syrup? Do you have any idea what's even in that sticky, sweet, processed chocolate stuff? I'll give you a hint: high fructose corn syrup is the number one ingredient in the grand majority of them. This is a snack that has such potential to be healthy, so I decided to health it up. I had mine for dinner last night! This recipe is for a single serving, so feel free to up it and make more. Had I done that, I would have eaten the whole thing!

Healthy Apple Nachos

Ingredients:

• 1/2 of a Honeycrisp apple
• 1/4 cup Sunflower Seed Butter (or any other nut or seed butter you so desire; I used this, because I had just finished making it earlier in the day)
• Cinnamon to taste
• 1 TBSP raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
• 1 TBSP raw pecans
• 1 TBSP raw slivered almonds
• 10-12 vegan chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Core and slice apple and arrange on plate (spritz with lemon juice if you are concerned about browning; my apples didn't brown while I got the rest of the stuff ready)
2. Put nuts/seeds into toaster oven at 350 degrees for about five minutes.  You'll know when they're done, because they start to smell terrific.
3. Put nut/seed butter in a microwave safe dish and microwave until runny.  It took mine about 20 seconds.
4. Drizzle nut/seed butter over apples.
5. Sprinkle with cinnamon to taste.
6. Top with nuts and chocolate chips.

There you have it. It's so easy. It's so good. It's so healthy, full of heart healthy fats, protein, fiber, phytonutrients, antioxidents, and also vitamin C. You can eat the whole danged plate full all by yourself, and it's guilt free! Yuummmm.

Enjoy!