There must be Fifty Ways to Serve a Bagel........

I was thinking about it.
Seriously, there must be Fifty Ways to Serve a Bagel.
(You will now have that old Paul Simon tune stuck in your head----at least it's catchy!  Grin)
I am ruling out the Classic: toasted bagel and cream cheese----that's a given.
So I thought it might be fun to challenge myself to post a different way to serve a bagel, every Monday-----if you stay tuned, by the end of the year you'll have an amazing repertoire of bagel possibilities.   And I'll have a cookbook!  Ha!  Win-win!

So today I want to share what I packed for the Childrens Festival in Jacksonville to share with my grandkids.  I was out of just about everything----it  was my shopping day.  But I still had some apples, peanut butter, and the ever available bagels. (I always keep a stash in the freezer----how handy)   Here's what I dreamed up:

First I defrosted the bagel----it takes about an hour for one of our big bagels to defrost.  You can speed it up in the microwave, but I prefer the old-fashioned way.

While the bagel was quietly thawing, I pulled together the other elements.  My concept was to offer grilled wholewheat bagel wedges and cinnamon apples with my killer, healthy P-Nutella Dip.
P-nutella Dip
 Measure into a small bowl:
4 tbsp. chunky peanut butter (I prefer Adams)
  2 tbsp. dark cocoa
  2 tbsp. honey
  2 tsp. vanilla
approx. 2 tbsp. water, to thin it-----up to you how thin you want it.
Mix all the ingredients in the small bowl----very simple.
Cinnamon Apples:   Core apples and cut into wedges.  Toss with cinnamon (approx. 1 tsp. per apple)
These are a little messy as finger food, but you don't have to worry about them turning brown, and the combination of cinnamon apples and p-nutella dip is-----yummy!
Grilled Bagel Wedges:  Slice bagel in half horizontally.  Spread liberally with butter.  Grill cut side down in a skillet.  Give it a couple of minutes, so it gets brown and crispy.  You can flip it over and let the other side get brown, too-----I did.  I was aiming for some crunch.  Let cool, then cut into bite size wedges.  These also pair nicely with hummus, ranch dressing.  What would you choose?  Let me know!  .

I packed the dip in cute little individual glass containers with lids, the apples went into ziploc bags, and so did the bagel wedges.  I also packed plenty of napkins and wipes!  It was fun, convenient, and quick to prepare. 

This post needs some pictures----but we ate the evidence :-)  Let me know if you try any of these recipes, and how you liked them, I'd love to hear your comments!