Chocolate Pudding

With no milk in my diet I miss occassional treats like chocolate pudding. I saw this recipe on tv the other day. It's a great use for avocado! It's also a good way to make chocolate pudding without any milk.

Chocolate Pudding
1 avocado
1c cocoa
1c liquid honey

Purée avocado with cocoa and honey. I'm going to put in less honey next time, because this was actually too sweet. To lessen the sweetness, I added more cocoa. My picture shows that I need to stir it up a bit more to mix in the extra cocoa.

This dessert is very thick and rich, so you only need a small serving. Avocados may have healthy fat, but you don't want to have too much.

Who would have thought?  ....avocados!!

Popovers

Here's a recipe I recently tried. I've done some reading and have discovered that many believe that popovers are the same as yorkshire pudding. This may be so. However, I actually made lemon popovers...I don't know if that constitutes yorkshire pudding!

Popovers more than double in size, and when cooked right have a crisp exterior with a soft and hollow interior.

The directions for lemon popovers are found in the 'variations' section at the bottom.

Popovers
2 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk (I substitute almond, rice or soy milk)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Grease and flour six 6-ounce custard cups.

In a medium bowl beat room temperature eggs slightly, Beat in flour, room temperature milk, baking powder and salt until just smooth; being careful not to overbeat. Fill custard cups, muffin tins, or ramekins 1/2 full.

Bake at 450 degrees F for 20 minutes. Decrease oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) and bake for 20 minutes more. 

Remove popovers from the oven, and unmold onto a rack. Pierce the sides with the tip of a sharp knife to let steam escape (this will keep the exterior crisp, the interior moist, and prevent the popovers from collapsing), and serve immediately with lots of butter.
Variations:
Exchange the milk for lemon juice and top with lemon honey butter. (lemon honey butter can be made with equal parts lemon juice and honey and butter...or use half of the amount of lemon juice if you don't enjoy the tartness)

Lemon Squares

Like most kids who grew up before the 80s, my mom belonged to many clubs, including a bridge club. That also meant that at least once a month our house would host an evening bridge night.

Invariably, this also meant that along with helping to do some extra cleaning there was often baking cooling on the counter when we got home from school the night of the event. Baking that we were to keep our hands off of. 

One of my favourite desserts...or squares, or dainties as they were often called was a Lemon Square. The lemon square was that perfect combination of mouth puckering tartness and lovely sweetness.

I really like to cook with lemons and recently I decided I'd make this old standby.

Lemon Squares

1 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup confectioners'/icing sugar

2 cups all-purpose flour

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 lemons, juiced
4 Tbsp lemon zest


in the oven, ready to cook


Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In a medium bowl, blend together softened butter, 2 cups flour, confectioners' sugar and 2 Tbsp of the lemon zest. Press into the bottom of an ungreased 9x13 inch pan.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm and golden. In another bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 1/2 cups sugar, lemon zest and 1/4 cup flour. Whisk in the eggs and lemon juice. Pour over the baked crust.

4.Bake for an additional 20 minutes in the preheated oven.

The squares will firm up as they cool.

After pan has cooled, cut into uniform 2 inch squares and serve.

Optional, sprinkle confectioners' sugar over the squares after cutting


Lemony goodness.

Protein Snacks

A few days ago a friend was telling me about protein balls that she makes. I never seem to eat enough protein, or fiber in the day, so I thought I'd try a version of my own.

I don't know the calorie count, but they're just snacks not full meals.

Protein Snacks
1 cup almond butter
1 cup cashew butter
1 cup peanut butter (organic, unsweetened)
1 cup sesame seeds

1 cup pumpkin seeds
2 cups shredded coconut
1 cup sliced almonds
1 cup pine nuts
1 cup hemp seeds
1 cup nutella
(add more sesame and pumpkin seeds and almonds if desired)
(optional, more hemp seeds to coat balls)
Mix all ingredients together. Chill for one hour or more. Scoop out small balls (1 inch diamater) and roll in hemp seeds. Refrigerate and use them for that mid afternoon snack/energy boost.

I'm enjoying them, almost too much!

Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup

Since cold season has hit we've been eating even more soup than usual.


One favourite is Chicken Noodle Soup. It's not too salty and definitely not spicy, but it still warms you up; it's comforting and yummy.


The following recipe is one that I've put together over the last few years. I tend to make a huge pot so that I can freeze some for later.


Chicken Noodle Soup:


Cooking the chicken and preparing the broth:


Place 2 stewing or frying chickens in a large pot and add enough water to cover them. Add large chunks of carrot, celery, onion and garlic. If necessary add some more water to cover.


Allow to cook on medium heat until the chicken has cooked.

Reserve the broth, discard the vegetables and allow the chicken to cool. 

Making the Soup:

Debone the chicken and cut it up. Put the cut up chicken into the broth.

Add newly diced carrots, onions, celery (about 2 cups each) and minced garlic (I add about 4 large cloves)

Add more water to cover the vegetables and chicken. I like a hearty soup, so I don't measure the water. I add according to the pot, with a bit extra for cooking the noodles and to factor in the water that will evaporate.

Add about 1 - 2 tbsp chopped parsley, 2 tsp chopped basil, 1 tsp tarragon. Stir in 3 - 4 tbsp pesto sauce

Cook on medium heat for at least 1 hour, until vegetables are tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.


Add 1 pkg fine egg noodles or thin egg noodles that look like angel hair pasta. Allow to cook until al dente.


Serve with crusty buns, or on its own.

This soup freezes and reheats well.

Quick Baked Beans with Apples

This recipe has been adapted from a recent Best Recipes show. (The show's picture is featured here)

Ingredients

1 cup apple cider
4 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves of  crushed garlic
2 Tbsp molasses
1 Tbsp dry mustard
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of pepper

Cook ingredients on medium in saucepan to combine the flavours and cook down the onions and garlic

Add:
2 cans Navy Beans that have been rinsed (until there are no more bubbles coming off of the beans) and drained
2 large apples cut into 1" chunks (they'll cook down)
Place in a casserole baking dish.
Place the slices of 2 large apples over the top of the beans mixture, overlap slightly.
Bake for 2 hours at 300 degrees

This recipe is called "Quick" because it uses canned beans. You can replace the canned beans with beans that have been soaked overnight.

Optional:
Some people prefer to have ham, bacon, or another type of pork in their beans. You can add chopped up meat in this dish, but there is also lots of protein in the beans.

Mini Almond Cakes - Jacques Pépin

On Saturdays I usually catch a couple of cooking shows on PBS. I've seen Jacques Pépin cooking with Julia Child in reruns, but he has also had his own show for a number of years.

This week the show began with mini almond cakes. Talk about easy and fast! I made a couple of tiny changes to the recipe and made some for our dessert.

Mini Almond Cakes
¼ cup flour

¼ cup sugar

¼ cup whole almonds

1 egg
¼ tsp baking powder

2 tablespoons butter

1 tsp almond extract or a dash of rum

Put the flour, sugar, and almonds in a food processor. Blend until smooth. Add the egg, butter (melted), and almond extract. Blend until mixed.

Pour mixture into muffin/cupcake papers. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes at 350. (toothpick should come out clean)

Topping:

Fresh berries

Or

1 cup frozen berries and 2 tbsp sugar. Place in sauce pan and bring to a boil. Let cool. It can be spooned on to the cakes when serving as is, or puréed first. (or watch the video below and follow Jacques' directions

Or

Any type of frosting that you'd like

(makes about 6)

It was a quick recipe and the size of the cakes was perfect.

Here's a link to the show:

Dinner Party Special (219): Jacques Pépin: More Fast Food My Way

Cooking Sites and Funny Recipes

I like to check out various cooking web sites to find good recipe and ideas.

I happened upon a site recently: Serious Eats. Serious Eats has lots of different recipes and they seem pretty good. I guess the people who run this site also have a great sense of humour. One recipe I found was for Boiled Water. Yep, that's right, BOILED WATER

I don't know what is funnier, the instructions or the readers' comments.

Here's a copy of the post: (The title will link you directly to the site)

Boiled Water Recipe

Posted by Adam Kuban, July 28, 2010 at 11:17 AM

Boiling water is essential to many recipes. If you have never cooked before, don't worry. It is not as difficult as it may appear. This recipe will guide you through the process, even if you have never set foot in a kitchen.

Special equipment: 12-quart stockpot. Serves 48, cooking time 5 minutes, total time varies

Ingredients
Water

Procedure:

Open your cupboard or wherever it is you store your cookware.

Locate a 12-quart stockpot. If you do not have a 12-quart stockpot, you may use whatever size pot you have; in that event, keep in mind that serving size here is 1 cup and there are 4 cups in a quart. Do the math.

Place your pot in the sink under the tap. If you have never used a sink before, it is the large depression in your counter top. (If you live with someone else, they may have filled it with dirty dishes; in this case, wash them or simply remove them from the sink and place them in the oven — someone else will eventually discover them there and wash them.)

Turn the cold-water knob to the "on" position. Some people (like my dad) prefer to let the water run a little bit. This is optional but encouraged — if it's a hot day or someone has previously used the "hot" water knob, the warmer water will eventually be replaced by truly cold water.

Fill stockpot to within a couple inches of the rim.

Lift stockpot from sink and transfer to stove. (Although appearances may vary, the stove is the thing with 4 or more circular metal bands on top of it; alternately, it may be a completely flat black glass surface. If you are unsure, ask your family, roommate, or neighbor for guidance.)

Find knob on stove that corresponds to the "burner" you have placed your pot on. In addition to words like "Right Front" or "Left Rear," there are usually little pictures near the knobs to indicate position.

Turn knob to "High" and wait until water boils. Depending on strength of your stove and amount of water, the boiling time may vary.

Note: DO NOT WATCH THE POT; it will never boil in the event that you do.

Boiled water may be used for any number of applications. Serve hot, but do not drink.

Alternate methods:

Depending on water application, you may want to salt the water. Do this after the water has come to a boil.

Placing a lid on the pot will help it boil faster, with the additional benefit of blocking water from your line of sight, which, as stated above, inhibits the boiling process.

As I mentioned, above, some of the comments are priceless. I've copied a couple, but really you need to read the post and comments on Serious Eats to truly get the whole picture!

I do a gourmet version of this recipe, with filtered water.

This sounds like too much work. Where can I find some that has already been prepared and packaged?

I have a question: I was making this recipe when the power went out. The water was steaming but not yet "boiling". It's been two hours now; how long will it keep out of the fridge? Do I have to throw this water away and start all over, or do I risk poisoning my guests/family?

I accidentally dropped a tea bag into the water as it "boiled", and immediately it turned the water dark amber! On a whim I poured some into a mug, and tasted it. OMG, it's amazing! It was so good it should be, like, a country's national drink. My mom, a great cook, suggested I try it another time with honey and lemon, I am SO going to try that.

I'm intrigued by the esoteric "lid on the pot" variation as a means to avoid the "watching" phenomenon. I never realized that was a valid workaround! I always thought the prohibition was against watching the POT itself. I guess I took the old saw too literally. This tip really saves prep time; I don't have to keep leaving the kitchen to avoid accidental glances at the pot... Thanks!

Well, I followed the reciped exactly, but, after the water started boiling, I got confused! It wasn't until then that I noticed there was a time listed for how long you let it boil. I thought, "better safe than sorry", so I boiled it for approx.6 hours. Now it's GONE--HELP! What did I do? Was that too long to boil it? Where did it go?

I made this a week ago and put the leftovers in the freezer. It made it very tough and stale... I think I broke a tooth trying to eat it!!

This is a great recipe! Since I have high blood pressure I made it without salt and it was still very good. I am going to add this to my recipe file as I don't want to forget how to do it. Can you saute with it?

Can't I just buy it frozen and cook in the microwave? I think that would be so much more convenient than all that complicated stuff with water faucets, cookware and stoves.

 I see that the lid should be added to prevent seeing the water, and it will speed up prep time. However, my lids are glass. HELP!!!

Tomato Soup

Here's a tomato soup recipe that I found this week and made...in 20 minutes!

1 large diced onion

2 cloves minced garlic

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 small can tomato paste

3 c chicken broth

freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp oregano

Sauté the onion and garlic in a tiny bit of vegetable oil. When the onion is translucent add the tomatoes, tomato paste and chicken broth.

Stir together and cook at medium heat for 15 minutes. Add freshly ground pepper and oregano.

Purée the soup and serve. I used my immersion mixer. (way easier than a blender!)

For some variety: sprinkle on croutons, add some barley (increase the chicken broth accordingly - just follow package directions), add rice and extra broth.You can also add some diced red peppers, put them in with the onions to sauté .

I love tomato soup but haven't eaten it for years because the canned stuff has milk. I found this recipe and tried it with some reluctance, I had no idea that the soup would be so easy to make. It was rich and creamy. One day I'm going to try it with fresh tomatoes.

In the Kitchen: Deceptively Delicious

I watched Oprah the other day. Her guest was Jessica Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld's wife, who has just published her second cookbook.

A couple of years ago, I watched her on Oprah when she published her first book. The first book had a number of unique recipes in which she hid all sorts of vegetables. She often purées vegetables and places them in soups, cookies, muffins, etc. and all sorts of other dishes where you wouldn't necessary expect them.

For example, here is a recipe found in her first cookbook Deceptively Delicious. It's for brownies and includes carrot and spinach purée.


Deceptively Delicious Brownies
Cooking spray
3 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
1/2 c. carrot purée (approx. 1 cup cooked)
1/2 c. spinach purée (approx. 1 packed cup, cooked)
1/2 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
2 TBSP soft tub trans-fat free margarine spread
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large egg whites
3/4 c. flour (oat flour is best - adds another gram of fiber)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat an 8X8 pan with cooking spray.
Melt chocolate in double boiler or over a low flame.
In large bowl, combine melted chocolate, vegetable purees, sugar, cocoa powder, margarine and vanilla and whisk about two minutes until smooth and creamy.
Whisk in egg whites.
Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt with a wooden spoon.
Pour batter into pan and bake 35-40 minutes. Cool COMPLETELY in the pan before cutting into 12 bars.


Her new book, Double Delicious, was featured on Oprah this week.

These recipes are easy and family friendly. She has a great presence on camera and it is fun to watch her cook. Here is one recipe from her new book, that I found on her website do it delicious


Grilled Chicken Breasts
Ingredients
4 6-ounceboneless, skinless chicken breasts
1  tsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1lemon, quartered


Directions
Heat a panini press or grill pan over medium-high heat. Wash and pat dry the chicken. One at a time, place the chicken in a plastic bag and pound to an even 1/4-inch thickness. Remove from the bag and coat both sides of the chicken with the herbs, oil, salt and pepper. Place the chicken in the press (you may be able to cook several at once depending on your press) and cook until cooked through, about 3 minutes. If you use a grill pan your cooking time will be longer.



Helpful Hints:
•Pound with skin-side down; start with thickest part of chicken and move down
•Remove thyme leaves by pulling them off the sprig in the opposite direction they grow
•When chopping you always want to look down and see the top of the knife. Move your pile of herbs close to you for ease, safety and precision


Both of these recipes are from her cookbooks.
 
It was a good show and I have to say the combination of ease and healthy choices in these recipes makes me hungry and want to cook some good food!

Roasted Garlic and Wild Rice Mushroom Soup

Roasted Garlic and Wild Rice Mushroom Soup

I really like mushroom soup, but most recipes have cream or milk added, which I can't have. Rather than substituting the milk with Soy, Rice, or Oat milk, I've been experimenting to make my own recipe. I start by roasting garlic.

I like using roasted garlic in recipes because it tastes buttery and smooth. When I roasted the garlic for my soup, I followed the directions that I saw on a recent Rachel Ray show.

• Peel off most of the outer layers on the garlic bulb (not all)
• Cut the top off of a bulb of garlic and put it on a piece of foil.
• Drizzle olive oil over the garlic
• Sprinkle on salt and freshly ground pepper.
• Wrap the garlic in the foil
• Place in the oven at 425 degrees for 1 hour

For my soup recipe I actually used two bulbs of garlic. The garlic will be browned and softened when cooked enough. Wait for the garlic to cool and then squeeze out the cloves. Mash the garlic into a paste and add to recipes as needed.

Roasted garlic is not as strong as raw garlic, so you tend to use more in a recipe. It still tastes delicious.

The SOUP

• Put 1 - 2 tsp of olive oil in a large skillet
• Throw in one large diced onion and
• 2c diced celery.
• Add about 6c chopped mushrooms
• Cook the vegetables on a medium high heat.
• Let them sweat and release their juices and begin to brown. Once they have reduced and cooked through,
• Add the roasted cloves of garlic,
• Add 2 cups of red wine,
• Stir to pick up the bits of vegetables that may have browned on to the pan.
• Simmer to reduce the red wine.
• Once the wine has reduced, place the mixture into a large stock pot on high heat.
• Add 12 cups of chicken, beef or vegetable stock.
• Add 2 cups of wild rice
• Allow the soup to reach a boil, then cover and simmer for 1/2 to 3/4 hour.
• Stir in fresh chopped basil and parsley to taste.

This soup freezes and reheats well. It is really hearty and nutritious, with lots of yummy goodness.

Enjoy.

A Healthy Breakfast To Go

I've been eating an organic granola from Highwood Crossing that's really good. It has oats, sunflower seeds, flax seeds and it's lightly sweetened with raw maple syrup and agave. I usually have fresh strawberries and raspberries or blueberries on my granola. Since I'm lactose intolerant, I generally use soy, rice, or almond milk. I alternate between the three to have variety and to ensure I don't develop an allergy. Some of them have a few calories, but I only have it at breakfast; all of the milks are a good source of calcium and I get the fibre of the granola.

Highland Crossing also has a great porridge. You have to soak it for a few hours before you make it. I often put it into a slow cooker overnight so it's ready first thing in the morning, a trick I learned from a friend and fellow blogger.

Another way I enjoy my granola is in a wrap.

On an open tortilla spread on some peanut butter, sprinkle on some granola and top with sliced apples. Then it gets rolled up just like you would any other wrap. It's a good way to make a breakfast to go. It's best with a granola that isn't too sugary, which my favourite granola isn't, so it's ok.

I know that some people stay away from peanut butter because of the calories, but we use an organic peanut butter. It's just ground up peanuts, no sugar added and it provides lots of protein and fibre to start the day.

You can always substitute bananas for apples and yogurt or cream cheese for peanut butter. I like the crunch of the apples the best.

To write this post, I went looking for pictures. Well, I discovered I wasn't the first to come up with this idea! Food.com also has some great recipes for this kind of breakfast to go. The wrap picture comes from their site.

Chicken Stuffed with Pesto Mushrooms

This recipe is one that I pulled together after watching a couple of cooking shows...

 

1 large diced onion

2 cloves garlic diced

2 cups of chopped celery

4 cups sliced mushrooms

2 chicken breasts

3 slices bacon (optional)

2 tbsp pesto

Heat a non-stick skillet to medium high. Spray with cooking spray, or put add a tsp of cooking oil.

Toss in all of the vegetables (first four ingredients) and let them begin to cook. Vegetables will sweat, so just let them cook in their own juices. You want them to get nice and brown. Resist the urge to stir them for at least a few minutes!

Once they are starting to really sizzle, you can stir them and get them nice and brown on the other side. Once browned, add pesto sauce and continue to cook until the juices they have released have evaporated.

In the meantime take each chicken breast, place it between saran wrap and pound with a mallet until a quarter of an inch thick or less. Take the top layer of saran off of the chicken. Spoon a thin layer of the mushroom mixture on to the chicken. Roll the chicken around the mushroom stuffing. Take a half slice of bacon and wrap around the top of each roll. I made a special roll for me, withoug bacon. In the end they were all moist, so the bacon isn't that necessary.  If you do use bacon, you will need to drain this, after it is cooked, before serving.

Spoon the rest of the mushroom mixture over the chicken and place into the oven at 350 degrees for 1/2 to 3/4 hour.

Another time I might chop up the filling, so it is easier to put in the chicken. This worked, though, and it allowed for some left over filling to place on top of the chicken while it baked.

Serve up sliced and hot. It was yummy.You'll notice that this recipe doesn't have any sauce, that's one more thing I'm trying to stay away from.

This is my husband's plate. You might notice the avocado, cucumber and tomato salad from last post. Baked sweet potatoes with a bit of garlic on them rounded out our meal. The sweet potatoes were cooked in the same way I posted about asparagus a couple of posts ago, except that I used oven roasted garlic.

Avocado, Cucumber and Tomato Salad

Here's a light salad that is great any time of the year. We had it tonight on a spectacularly hot summer evening.

I use one English cucumber, one or two nice sized ripe tomatoes, (tonight's salad had lots of cherry tomatoes cut into quarters) one ripe avocado for a nice sized salad for the two of us, but then we don't have other vegetables with it. If there are more than the two of us eating this, we just have more vegetables and/or another salad.

Dice the cucumber, tomato, and avocado into bite-sized pieces. Toss them in a bowl with one of the following:

A dash of salt and pepper

Balsamic vinegar

or a dressing of your choice.

I prefer just a bit of salt. It keeps it plain and simple and brings out the taste of the vegetables.

If you're a weight watcher...the salad is 2 points for the avocado, THAT'S IT!

Asparagus

Here's a healthy way to cook asparagus.

1 bunch asparagus
1/2  - 1 tsp olive oil
2 pinches coarse sea salt (sometimes referred to as rock salt)
1 - 3 cloves garlic finely sliced

Take a nice firm bunch of asparagus.
Break or cut off the woody bottoms.
Wash and pat dry.
Toss in 1/2 - 1 tsp of olive oil.
Spread on a cookie sheet, or if it is barbeque season, put it on a sheet you can put on the grill
Spread the sliced garlic over the asparagus
Sprinkle on the coarse salt (don't overdo it)

Bake in oven at 350 F for about 10 - 15 minutes until tender, but not overcooked.

This particular recipe is great for someone looking for a great high alkaline recipe. It is also great if you're counting weight watcher points! And it is YUMMY. We've also cooked our sweet potatoes this way, sliced very thinly, which by the way, are also low alkaline and yummy.

Sorbet

I need some summer warmth for this treat, but maybe if I write about it, the weather will cooperate?
Raspberry Sorbet

Heat 1/4 cup water, 3/4 cup sugar and 1c grape juice
stir until sugar disolves
add 1lb frozen raspberries
add 2 tbsp lemon juice and a pinch of salt
pour mixture into a shallow dish and cool
freeze for 6 hours
break into chunks
put into a food processor and puree until smooth
freeze until ready to serve
You can dress it up with a sprig of mint, and a few fresh raspberries. You can also change up the fruit and the juice.
Try bartlet pears and red wine, or strawberries
I like sorbet because it doesn't have milk in it. It probably has too much sugar, but the real fruit helps to balance that out!
I don't have my own picture for this blog, yet, but will put one in as soon as I can!

Tomatoes

We ate a light supper at a tiny Italian restaurant last night. It was in the basement of a building along W. 49th St. just off of Times Square in New York. Our supper was light, because we were off to see Catherine Zeta Jones and Angela Lansbury in "A Little Night Music." (Which I will write about on the Life is a Highway page)

What I want to talk about is the food, as this is a post about tomatoes. I had a tomato salad. It was so yummy. The tomatoes were fresh and perfectly ripe, none were over ripe. I think they used nice round tomatoes about the size of a baseball, or smaller, they didn't have much pulp. In fact, I believe these tomatoes had been skinned, and then the seeds had been removed, as well as any white parts. They were then cut into big chunks (1") and tossed in a bit of olive oil, raw garlic slices, some salt and pepper, and maybe a tiny bit of oregano. They were served in a big dish, with a sprig of mint on top. Normally, I would think you would share such a dish amongst two to four people. However, I ate the whole thing. It was so good. It wasn't too acidic, instead it was just right. I couldn't get over how yummy it was. The garlic was raw, so I didn't end up eating it, but otherwise, it was terrific. It would be a good dish to make at home, and I think you could add cucumer, or diced onion, (cooked or raw) and the onion could be green, red or yellow...lots of ways to do this dish. Simple but yummy. Very light for a meal before going to the theater, and I think it probably had a low caloric content, too!

Wish I had a picture of the actual salad! 

A New Look at Hummus

I'd never been interested in, nor enjoyed, dips whether for fruits, vegetables, chips, or anything else people dip, until I tried hummus. 

Hummus originates from the middle east and is traditionally a mix of cooked, mashed chickpeas, blended with tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic. 
The main ingredients, chickpeas, are also known as garbanzo beans. Chickpeas are low fat, high protein and fiber. They also have lots of zinc and other good nutrients.
Usually we purchase hummus ready made at the grocery store, and usually I end up dipping low fat tortilla chips, pita chips, or pita slices in the hummus. 
In my quest to lose some weight and be healthier I've been changing my eating habits. Hummus is still good for me in terms of content, and as long as I remember everything in moderation. 
I've also decided to have less carbs and have switched the chips for carrots, snap peas, cucumber slices, etc. A pretty obvious move for most, but since I've never been a 'big dipper' it wasn't a logical leap for me. 
Recently, I had an avocado that needed to be used, but a strong urge for hummus. I made a compromise. Soon the avocado was smashed into the hummus. I set aside some for my husband and then I pulled out some veggies to dip. Avocados are also a high source of protein, and their fats are the healthy mono-unsaturated type. 
This weekend, while doing some work at home I got hungry and decided to actually make the hummus.
The following recipe is adapted from one I found online. It didn't call for tahini (sesame seed paste), which I really wanted to include. I also smashed in an avocado. I put a quarter of it into a small bowl, dipped some veggies, and put the rest in the fridge.  It is supposed to stay good in the fridge for up to 3 days, or can be frozen. We'll use it up sooner, because I'm not sure how long the avocado will last.
Ingredients:

• 1 can (15oz/540ml) garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained 
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1½ Tbsp of Tahini
• 2 cloves of crushed garlic
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 ripe avocado (optional)
• 1 - 2 Tbsp of water
• salt, pepper, and cumin to taste

Preparation:

Place all of the ingredients into a food processor. Mix it until it is creamy and smooth.

* I reserved some of the lemon juice and water, then added it according to taste and to thin out the paste.

* I also prefer cooked garlic, to raw, so I crushed the garlic and put it in a small dish with the olive oil. I microwaved it for about 30 seconds, to sweeten it up. Then I added it to the processor ingredients. 

You can also make hummus without the tahini. You use more olive oil. The recipe I found suggested 1/4 of a cup. That seems like a lot, to me, so I think I would probably add only a bit at a time until I get the texture I want.

Some recipes I've found also suggest that when serving humus you can dish it into a bowl and then make a small well in the middle of the hummus. In the well you put a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Then you can garnish it with parsley. I think I would just use the garnish and not add more oil, even if it is a healthy one.

As I mentioned above, most people dip pita chips or slices in their hummus. If you want to do that, you can warm your pita slices, first. 

Other options:

• Add a bit of cayenne pepper, finely chopped roasted or raw red pepper, or other spicy tasting roasted vegetables.

I recognize that hummus isn't the first thing people might choose when they are trying to lose weight, but it is healthy and a little bit goes a long way to filling you up. Hummus with avocado has double the protein and filling fiber.