Roasted Chili Lime Nuts w/ Coconut Oil

Buy me some peanuts and crackerjack…
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire….
Ahhh nuts.  I love nuts, especially roasted, salty, flavorful nuts.

Unfortunately, the lovely flavor coated nuts that leave wonderfully yummy powder on your fingers almost always include MSG, tons of salt, and many DUBIOUS ingredients.  Dubious, difficult to pronounce, and even detrimental*.  What’s a girl who used to lick her finger and get the extra powder from the bottom of the Cheetos bag, the pretzel bag and the Blue Diamond smokehouse almond container to do?  You know what I’m going to say already, don’t you?

Make them yourself.  Spiced, roasted nuts are such a great alternative to chips.  Nuts pack a lot of nutrition and although they also pack calories, they are very satisfying and keep you full for awhile.  So just place a reasonable amount in a small bowl and give your body and your taste buds something to sing songs about.

I know, I know, so many recipes and so little time, however, roasting nuts doesn’t take a lot of time and the majority of the time spent is checking and stirring so that could be done while working on something else in the kitchen.  Even though Little Sis and I do not wish to induce maniacal multi-tasking in anyone (although I wouldn’t mind sharing a little if it would reduce my personal load), there are times in the kitchen when if you are already there chopping or mixing you could keep an eye on something in the oven that needs just a scant amount of attention.

I give you the yummiest flavored nuts I’ve ever had.  Hope you enjoy them as well!

Roasted Chili Lime Nuts (modified from : Shannon at A Cozy Place Called Home)

4 cups nuts (Any kind is fine. I used almonds, salted peanuts, pecans, and walnuts.)

3 tablespoons coconut oil (melted) – original recipe is butter so that would work

3 tablespoons lime juice

1 1/2 Tbsp chili powder

3 cloves garlic (pressed)

If you use salted nuts, don’t add salt.  I added 1/2 tsp because only the peanuts were salty.

1/8 teaspoon ground red and black pepper blend (I did not use)

1. Preheat oven to 350.

2. Combine all ingredients but nuts in a small bowl and mix.

3. Add nuts and stir

4. Pour out onto cookie sheet with edges.  Make sure to scrape the extra off the bowl with a spatula

5. Bake approximately 15 – 20 minutes or until nuts are golden brown.  Stir a couple of times in there for even coating and browing.  (The original recipe was for 10 minutes but I increased the ratio of oil and spices and I used coconut oil, so it took longer)

6. Allow nuts to cool.

7. Make sure to lick the remaining spices off of the cookie sheet ;-)  Just kidding.

My co-workers enjoyed these very much at our Super Bowl pot-luck (and I got to see the runback of a kickoff on one trip to the nurse’s lounge to eat).  Several asked for the recipe.  Hope you enjoy them as well!

* Back to the detrimental part.  MSG is a very dubious ingredient indeed and it has lots of names.  One is yeast extract which is an ingredient in Blue Diamond’s Honey Dijon flavor almonds.  Here is the ingredient list from their website: almonds, vegetable oil (canola, safflower, and/or sunflower), sugar, salt, tomato, molasses powder (cane refinery syrup, molasses), vinegar powder, (maltodextrin, vinegar solids), onion, garlic, natural smoke flavor (contains soybean oil), yeast extract, habanero chile pepper, mustard, malic acid, spices and extractive of paprika.

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