Something magical happens in my kitchen when you combine cooking attention deficit–oh look! A squirrel! with eggs and cream cheese and popcorn seasoning. When I’m not busy trying to put out oven fires or throwing away something wrecktacular in the waste receptacle, sometimes I end up with something wholly unintended and spectacular.

Take cheese doodles as an example.

After making the peppermint cream puffs, I had some extra oopsie rolls, so I tossed them into the dehydrator for kicks. The result? Light popped cheese snacks like popcorn. With that recipe I said to myself, “Self, why not try piping oopsie batter through a tube and see what happens.”

I grabbed a plastic sandwich bag, sliced off the edge, stuck 1 cake tip in there (you don’t need a cake tip if you cut a tiny hole in the bag) and went to town.

The result? A snack you can take anywhere, from the movies to the Super Bowl. And for only 3.7 net carbs for half of the batch (it’s only 1.7 net carbs without the seasoning), there’s no telling how often you’re going to have to mix up a new batch.

These are light, crispy, and flavorful. Be sure to try different seasonings for different flavors. I mean, we have two teams competing, head to head in the games; why not pit two flavors together, have some cheese doodle smack talk and then bring the game minus the penalty flags.

No dehydrator? NO worries! Simply put the cooked puffs back into the oven with the door propped oven safely for air circulation (a wooden spoon or a folded dish towel usually do the trick) and let them stay in there on the lowest oven setting for 1-2 hours, depending on what your lowest oven setting is. Make sure to rotate the trays and move them to different shelves every 30-60 minutes for optimal drying.

Cheetos

3 egg whites

1/8 tsp cream of tartar

3 egg yolks

3 ounces cream cheese, softened

Flavored popcorn seasoning

To Prepare:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degree Fahrenheit.

2 In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until thick, stiff peaks form, about 3-5 minutes.

3. In another mixing bowl, combine egg yolks and cream cheese.

4. Carefully fold yolk mixture into whites.

5. With a spatula, scoop mixture into a sandwich or quart-sized food /sandwich bag with a tiny bit of the edge cut off to make a 1/2″ opening.

6. Pipe batter into 2″ doodles on parchment paper.

7. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until doodles achieve a light golden brown.

8. Cool slightly.

9. Lightly toss with popcorn seasoning in a bowl.

10. Place in dehydrator for 2 hours on high heat or allow to stay out overnight to achieve more crunch.

11. Store in a semi-sealed plastic or paper sack at room temperature for up to a day.

Makes 3-4 cups cheese doodles.

*Nutritional Information: this does not contain the amount of scant carbs totaled in for popcorn seasoning. If te label reads “0,” I’d add .2-.3 carbs per serving of seasoning used to be on the same side. 0 carb on many labels simply means “less than .5”.



For 1/2 recipe: Calories: 255.5, Carbohydrates: 1.7 g, Fiber: 0 g, Net Carbohydrates: 1.7 g, Protein: 12.65 g, Fat: 22 g

Per entire recipe: Calories: 511, Carbohydrates: 3.4 g, Fiber: 0 g, Net Carbohydrates: 3.4 g, Protein: 25.3 g, Fat: 44.5

