My new favorite snack: Pizza Bites

Tis' the season of tomatoes and basil. And boy do they go well together! I love just looking at all the neatly lined up containers of various tomatoes at the farmer’s market. I cannot go home without an assortment of them! I am always sad when tomato season is over.

While reading an article on line about the unhealthy lunches our kids are eating at school, whether they eat in the cafeteria or pack them themselves, I ran across a link for healthy snacks. That had my name all over it so of course I clicked it! And aha! I found a great recipe to use both the tomatoes and basil together.  This year I had basil growing in my garden like crazy, so I was eager to combine the two. I altered the recipe a little, but basically followed the one that was on the Reboot with Joe website.

This is the finished Pizza Crisp or Pizza Bite as I call them. I didn't want to make you wait until the end to see what it looks like!

Let's make some. Start out with beautiful basil. Ah, the smell!

Add it to the blender with cashews that have been soaked 2-4 hours, rinsed and drained. Add the spices and garlic cloves and blend it until smooth. Add water if necessary. You want a thick almost paste consistency.

This doesn't look too appetizing. Looks like green goop or a science experiment that went wrong! But I assure you it has a remarkable taste and the basil smell is wonderful. (I diluted what was left and used it as a salad dressing!)

Next up, the tomatoes. I just love tomatoes no matter how you slice them!

But for our Pizza Bites, you want to slice them thinly, maybe 1/8^th of an inch or so. I used my mandolin for nice uniform slices.

Now coat the tomato slices with the basil mixture.

Cover it pretty good.

Line the coated slices up on a teflex sheet on your dehydrator tray.

Then sprinkle with nutritional yeast and red pepper flakes.

Pop them in the dehydrator at 105 – 115 degrees.

Within 24 hours you will have a great snack, and while they are dehydrating your house will smell like pizza!

Here is how they looked when I took them out of the dehydrator. They were very crispy.

All piled up and waiting to be eaten!

These actually did not last very long. Because we ate them! I did store them in a glass container and they stayed crispy until they were gone. I have dehydrated tomatoes before and I have dehydrated basil, but never together like this. 

I made another trip to the Farmer's Market. Lot's of tomatoes and basil came home with me. 

Can you guess what I am going to make?