Seasoned Pretzels with Italian Dressing and Lemon
Let me introduce you to your new favorite snack recipe: seasoned pretzels with Italian dressing and lemon. These seasoned pretzels were a COLOSSAL hit at our recent board game night. The bowl diminished just about as quickly as my chances of winning. If you love seasoned pretzels, you have got to try this easy oven-baked snack recipe.
How to Make Seasoned Pretzels in the Oven
When using the oven to make these seasoned pretzels with Italian dressing, keep your oven at a low heat (250 degrees Fahrenheit). You want to heat the pretzels long enough for the seasoning to attach. But not too much, because we don’t want to accidentally burn our pretzels. Keep a close eye on your pretzels so that they don’t burn.
3 Tips for the Best Seasoned Pretzels with Italian Dressing and Lemon
1. Add a Bit of Acidity
The BEST pretzel seasoning always has a bit of acidity added to it.
Take the ranch dressing seasoning packet, for example, it has a heavy acidic buttermilk flavor. However, the Italian seasoning packet doesn’t have as much of an acidic flavor, which is why on its own, it might taste like it needs a bit more flavor. Well, it does. Add in some freshly squeezed lemon juice to brighten the pretzels and lift the seasoning packet to its full potential. Lemon juice makes these seasoned pretzels with Italian dressing PERFECT.
2. Flip the Pretzels Once During the cooking time
ALWAYS make sure to flip your pretzels. A neglected pretzel is a burnt pretzel.
During this flip stage, you can squeeze the lemon juice onto the pretzels and toss the pretzels around to distribute the seasoning on all of the pretzels. Otherwise, you will find that the seasoning is not even throughout your seasoned pretzels with Italian dressing.
3. Utilize Seasoning Packets for Easy Work
I LOVE a good seasoning packet hack. Seasoning packets are pretty inexpensive ( I typically purchase Aldi’s store brand packets) and they are wonderful pantry staples to quickly season your food. However, it is important to further elevate the seasoning packet with a few additional items. I like to add additional lemon pepper, fresh lemon juice, and garlic powder to enhance the seasoning packet.
Seasoned Pretzels with Italian Dressing and Lemon Ingredients
- Italian Dressing Seasoning Packet: The dressing packet provides the base flavor to these lemon-seasoned pretzels. Buy the store brand, we will doctor up the flavor anyway.
- Lemon Pepper: Lemon pepper adds some ZING and TANG to the pretzels. It also enhances the flavor of the lemon juice that we add later into the bake.
- Garlic Powder: Just trust me, you want more garlic on these seasoned pretzels with Italian seasoning.
- Mini Twist Pretzels: You can use other types of pretzels but mini twists coat really well and are also really cheap and easy to find in the store brand.
- Vegetable Oil: Helps the seasoning stick to the pretzels better.
- Lemon Juice: YES. You need the lemon juice. The lemon juice brightens the pretzels and brings out the flavor of the seasoning packet. Without the fresh lemon juice, the pretzels can taste a tad bland.
Tips for Saving On Snack Foods
Let’s be real snack food is EXPENSIVE. I recently saw a bag of Doritos for like $7 for a normal-size bag???? Snacks are yummy, but when you are on a tight budget it can be pretty expensive to fork over grocery money on snack food.
While snack food is not nutritionally a necessity, in our household we do like to treat ourselves to the occasional snack. But, when I do so, I like to snack on the cheap. Which often means being a little creative in the kitchen. Here are some of my best tips to save on snack food.
Purchase Generic Or Store Brand Snack Foods
Okay, I will admit there are some things that I am brand loyal to when it comes to snack foods. Like Oreos–I have never met a generic chocolate sandwich cookie that has had the same taste. But there are a lot of REALLY good store-brand snack foods. You may find a flavor or type of snack food that you prefer to the brand name. That’s how I feel about Aldi’s BBQ baked chips–YUM. When you can, buy generic, it’s no secret that it will save you A LOT of money.
Buy More Whole Foods as SnaCk
Try to limit snack-only foods to foods that you can use for other meals or as other ingredients. Here are some great snacks that you can buy for pretty cheap and use in many other ways:
- hard-boiled eggs
- English muffins and peanut butter
- sliced pineapple
- sliced peppers
- mini cucumbers
- rice cakes
- cottage cheese
- whole almonds
Take A Basic Snack and Make it Your Own
One of my favorite tricks when it comes to snacking is to purchase the most basic store-brand snack item for REALLY cheap and doctor it up into something delicious and entirely better than it was before. That was the inspiration behind these seasoned pretzels with Italian seasoning and lemon.
How Long Do Seasoned Pretzels with Italian Dressing Last
When seasoned pretzels with Italian seasoning are stored properly, they can last for up to 2 weeks. You can make them for a single event, but they also make INSANELY good snacks for lunch boxes as well.
How to Store Your Pretzels
These seasoned pretzels with Italian seasoning and lemon are wonderful to prep ahead of time. Make sure to store them properly so that you can maximize their shelf life.
Let your pretzels cool completely, before attempting to store the pretzels. Otherwise, your pretzels will become stale quickly and or could become “soggy” from the container’s condensation. Store your seasoned pretzels in a sealed gallon-sized plastic bag or container.
More Easy Snack Recipes
Looking for more easy, snacky recipes for your upcoming party or board game night?
We have got you covered! Check out these deliciously, simple recipes that will make you the real winner of board game night. š
- Sausage Pizza Stuffed Zucchini Boats (Easy Clean-up)
- How to Make Crispy Buffalo Cauliflower Wing Bowls
- The Best Ever Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies
Seasoned Pretzels with Italian Dressing and Lemon
Ingredients
- 1 lb of mini twist pretzels
- 1/3 cup of vegetable oil
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp lemon pepper seasoning
- 1 packet of Italian dressing seasoning
- 1 lemon juiced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 250ā.
- Add the pretzels and all the ingredients except for the lemon juice to a large bowl. Toss the bowl until all the pretzels are evenly coated in oil and seasoning.
- Spread the pretzels into a single layer on a sheet pan. Place the pretzels in the oven and cook for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, juice one lemon.
- After 10 minutes, remove the pretzels pour the lemon juice on top of the hot pretzels, and toss the pretzels on the pan until evenly coated. Place the pretzels back into the oven and bake for 5 more minutes at 250ā.
