Don't you love the change of pace weekends offer? It's the perfect time to prepare foods for the coming week's meals as well make extra for a neighbor or to bring in to an office potluck.

With this idea in mind, here's a recipe for a healthy and delicious treat you can serve up as part of a meal, or just as a perfect snack. It's a recipe you can whip up quickly with ease. This recipe is from an email newsletter I get, "Your Health Today," by Jim and Colleen Simmons and I believe it's their creation. So hat's off to 'em--they've got a winner here.

Another snack we love is a marshmallow krispy bar. But wow, they are so loaded with fats and calories—and then there’s the sugar load. So when hunting for a better alternative, I ran onto this neat recipe for a sinless marshmallow bar (that is its actual name, too). These lighter marshmallow cereal bars have improved flavor, fiber and nutrients due to the added cranberries and pumpkin seeds.

Finally, I found a great recipe for a healthy pizza crisp—who would’ve thought such a delicious snack could be made from simple flour tortillas?

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Tropical Black Bean Salsa

1 mango, peeled, pitted and cubed
1 cup pineapple chunks
3 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
1 medium onion, chopped
6 ripe roma tomatoes
1 red pepper, chopped
1/2 Serrano chili pepper
5 or 6 baby carrots
2 cups frozen or fresh from the cob corn
2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
1 Avocado
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tsp cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon minced fresh garlic
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 dash of chili powder
1 large bed of leafy greens of choice

Add all the ingredients, except the mango, pineapple, corn, beans, avocado, and leafy greens to blender; with variable speed blender begin on the lowest setting and slowly increase until ingredients are chopped (not blended) to a nice salsa consistency. Next, stir in remaining ingredients. Allow mix to combine flavors for 15 minutes or so and then enjoy over a large bed of leafy greens. This is also exceptionally good over a piece of toasted naturally leavened bread, Mmmm! Also, this salsa bean combination can be refrigerated successfully for several days.

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Sinless Marshmallow Bars

Makes 30 bars

1/4 cup butter
40 marshmallows
1 tsp vanilla
5 cups crisp rice cereal
1 cup dried cranberries or raisins
1/2 cup raw green pumpkin seeds

Spray a 13- x 9-in (3 L) baking dish lightly with vegetable oil; set aside. Melt butter in a saucepan set over medium-low heat. Stir in marshmallows, a handful at a time, until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Add crisp rice cereal, cranberries and green pumpkin seeds, stirring until evenly combined. Press into prepared dish. Cool completely and cut into rectangles.

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Homemade Pizza Crisps

Serves 8

4 wheat flour tortillas, each 6-in wide
1/2 cup pizza or pasta sauce
1 cup shredded light mozzarella cheese or light Italian blend of shredded cheese
1 cup sliced mushrooms or diced red or green pepper
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 400F (200C). Lay tortillas in a single layer on baking sheets and place in the oven for 2 minutes. Turn and spread sauce evenly over each tortilla. Sprinkle evenly with mozzarella cheese, mushroom slices and Parmesan cheese. Return to oven for 5 minutes or until cheese is bubbly. Cut each tortilla into 8 wedges using a pizza wheel or kitchen shears.

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