Ranch Pretzels

My friend, Heather, had this great idea to invite the workout friends to her house before the holidays and share some healthy recipes.  It was a fun evening of friends, food, and laughter and we all got a tour of Heather's beautiful new house.  We had some delicious chili with pumpkin, roasted green beans, Paleo meatballs with a bit of a kick, no fat added chocolate-peanut butter no bake cookies, and these ranch seasoned pretzels.

With the kids coming over the holidays, I've been looking for some snacks to make and have around while we visit, play games and watch football.  These are addictive.  They will make good additions to goodie bags, and I think these will be what I take for November's Girl's Night.

The original recipe called for 1 cup olive oil, I cut that to 1/2 cup and it seemed to be plenty.  Be sure to mix the pretzels well before laying them on the pans, you want them all coated.  They are simple as can be, delicious warm from the oven, or cooled, and they store well.  My first batch was made with gluten free pretzels for the DIL, and everyone ate them.  No one knew they were GF.

Ranch Pretzels
adapted from Sonia's recipe

1 lb. bag of pretzels, I used gluten free for the DIL
1/2 cup olive oil
1 pkg. Ranch dressing & seasoning mix
2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 200ºF.  Pour pretzels into a large mixing bowl.  In a measuring cup mix together the rest of the ingredients an pour over top of the pretzels.  Mix well to cover all the pretzels with the oil/seasoning mixture.  Place pretzels in a single layer on cookie sheets and bake for 2 hours.  After 1 hour, mix pretzels to ensure they are coated evenly.  After the 2 hour mark, remove from oven and let cool.  Store in covered container, if they last that long!

These are so good, everyone kept snitching them from the plate while I tried to take pictures!

November 23, 2012   Daylight 5 hours, 22 minutes, 52 seconds   Temp: H -8 /L -13  ºF