Roasted Garlic Hummus

When my mom was over yesterday, I brought out a plate of Triscuits and Sun Chips with hummus on them for her to try.  As she was eating one, she had to stop and make sure I knew hummus was made from chickpeas...because it's pretty well known that I am not a chickpea/garbanzo bean fan.  She was surprised when I told her I actually liked it!

A few weeks ago, when we were at our local (and favorite) farmer's market I picked up some pitas and a little tub of roasted garlic hummus.  I decided I was going to brave and try it.  It's healthy, right?  I'm all about healthy lately.  The woman at the booth recommended the roasted garlic because most people like that one.  Turns out, I loved it!

Earlier this week, Chad and I had lunch at a cute little cafe where I had a veggie sandwich that had hummus on it instead of any other kind of condiment and it was awesome!  I was so excited.  I knew I had to try and make hummus myself!

Looking online led me to this awesome new-to-me blog that I found!  Food Loves Writing features tons of recipes and they're all made with healthy ingredients.  It's not a vegan site so everyone should check it out!  I followed her recipe for roasted garlic hummus and it turned out so great!  My mom even commented that she wanted the recipe because it tasted way better than any store-bought hummus she's ever had.  This time I used canned chickpeas but I'll try dried chickpeas next time!

Let me know if you try this recipe or if you have a favorite hummus recipe.  Or if you are scared to even try hummus...which you shouldn't be, especially if you try this recipe!  Sorry I don't have any pictures!

The Green Monster!!!!!

My friend Emily from Canada was talking about Green Monsters and I finally decided to see what it was all about.  We are already a smoothie family and have been making smoothies since before Jordan was born...but we've never made GREEN smoothies!  Basically, Green Monsters are smoothies made with spinach or kale.  Chad made a Target run last night and this morning we whipped up our first Green Monsters!

Chad made me the virgin and then made his with strawberries and blueberries.  We were kind of scared to see what the spinach would taste like but it was really good!  It tasted like banana milk to me.  Super yum!  I could totally see myself drinking one of them every morning.  So far today I have felt great and I do feel like I have extra energy - that's something considering I was up twice in the middle of the night to feed Danny! 

Jordan had his with banana bread from Gramma!

Spaghetti Spaghetti Squash

OMG, I am so excited about a new meal we are so going to be eating more often in our house. I have been on a completely healthy kick lately after reading Fat Cat and watching this interview on Ellen. I already put his book, Eating Animals, on hold at the library and am anxiously awaiting it's arrival.

Anyway, yesterday at the store I was looking for whole foods - any kind of fruit and veggie was complete game for going home with us. I was so excited to see a huge spaghetti squash sitting there...all lonesome, it totally needed be in our cart. I cooked it up today and then Chad suggested putting some spaghetti sauce on it...hello! It's awesome! Chad even liked it.

Here's what you do:

Cut the spaghetti squash in half (I put mine in the microwave for a few minutes to make it easier to cut). Scoop out all the seeds and little stringy things in the middle, it's like scooping clean a pumpkin. Place on a pan, cut-side down for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. I pulled them out and rotated them every 10-15 minutes. Take out and scrape the squash off the sides of the halves, it just automatically becomes little strings like spaghetti. Pour your favorite spaghetti sauce over it. Voila! Enjoy!

Here's what it looks like when you scrape it off the sides...it really looks like spaghetti!!!

And here's what it looked like with the spaghetti sauce...I realized before I polished it off I should take a picture so there's not much left. I'm so happy with how good it tasted for how easy and healthy it is! Yippee!!

Success! or I Didn't Burn All the Cookies

When Jordan woke up from nap this afternoon I just had to use my new apron from Kathy so we made come chocolate crackle cookies! Jordan was a great little helper! I set this picture up on the counter and I'm not happy with how it turned out, but Jordan looks so cute...ignore my face...look at his...and my awesome apron! Isn't it cool!!!!???

Here's the recipe for these awesome, super easy cookies!

ingredients

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 large egg, beaten lightly
• 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar plus additional for dusting hands

In a bowl (preferably metal) stir together flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking powder, and salt and, using finger, blend in butter. Stir in egg until mixture is blended. Spread dough in a thin layer in bowl and freeze 10 minutes, or until firm.

Preheat oven to 400°F. and lightly grease 2 baking sheets.

Spoon level teaspoons of dough onto a sheet of wax paper. Put 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar in a small bowl and dust hands with additional. Roll each piece of dough into a ball and then in confectioners' sugar in bowl. Arrange balls 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching sheets halfway through baking time, 8 to 10 minutes, or until cookies are just set. Cool cookies on racks.

We even had some extra that we didn't devour to put into our Christmas cookie jar!Yum! I love these cookies! My mom used to make them for Christmas when we were kids AND they are super easy AND I didn't burn them AND they don't involve cookie cutters! My kind of cookies!

Garlic Bread

Here's the recipe for probably the yummiest, easiest, cheapest garlic bread!!! It's from Simply Recipes. I do "method 2" which is the soft version of garlic bread. I kind of adjusted the recipe. I taken softened butter and mix in an Italian seasoning mix called parmesan basil. I use Jimmy John's day-old bread that you can get for 50 cents and cut inch slices without going all the way through. I take a spoon and spread the butter mixture in between the slices...I would recommend using a generous amount of butter. You wrap it up in foil, stick it in the oven for 15 minutes at 350 and you are set! Yum!!!!

Ham and Scalloped Potatoes Crockpot Creation!

I have been a little crockpot crazy lately! I requested this book from the library: Fix-It and Forget-It Lightly. I asked Chad to go through and see if he found anything that looked good to him. Right away he found the following recipe. I mixed it up this morning and then we had it for dinner. It was really good...except I think I cooked it too long not realizing after it goes through the timer it will automatically go to the "Keep Warm" setting. Now I know I'll just set it for the right time and then it'll turn itself down. I 'm learning!

I didn't take a picture just because it didn't turn out looking all that pretty...it kind of ended up a big mixed up mess. And even though it says "undiluted" soup I did do the can of soup and another can of milk. I used a lot more cheese than it called for...and I think next time maybe I would put in Velveeta cheese. It did taste delicious either way! I'll be making this again!

Ham and Scalloped Potatoes

Betty Chalker

Dalhart, TX

Makes 8 servings

(Ideal slow-cooker sze: 6-quart)

1 1/2 lbs. 98% fat-free ham, cut into 8 pieces

8-10 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

2 onions, peeled and thinly sliced

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. black pepper, or more, according to your taste

1 cup fat-free grated cheeddar or American cheese

10 3/4 oz. can 98% fat-free cream of celery soup

paprika

1. Layer half of ham, potatoes, and onions in slow cooker. Sprinkle with half the salt and pepper, and then half the grated cheese.

2. Repeat layers.

3. Spoon undiluted soup over ingredients.

4. Cook on low 8-10 hours or high 4 hours.

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

We have been eating pretty healthy around our house lately, but today I had a craving for chocolate chip cookies.  I love the recipe for chocolate chip cookies from Jessica Seinfeld's book Deceptively Delicious.  They are supposed to be healthy for you so I don't mind one bit making them.  (Shhh, don't tell, they have chickpeas in them!)

I had a mini-meltdown while trying to make these.  I accidentally put a whole egg in when I was supposed to put in egg whites...it just kind of slipped right out of the shell.  Next, I realized I didn't have any vanilla...so I added some peppermint extract.  Vanilla is just for flavor, right?  To top it off, I totally could not find the baking soda.  I know we have baking soda.  I kind of remembered running out of vanilla, but not baking soda.  It was nowhere to be found.  Online they said I could sub two times as much baking powder.  Thank goodness for the Internet.  

They actually taste good!  I like the freshness of the peppermint, although I have never had peppermint chocolate chip cookies.  They have a cake-ish texture which I kind of like.  We'll see how Jordan likes them! 

Muffni Man

Jordan is my little muffin man.  He loves muffins.  We hadn't made them in a while so when Chad suggested it this morning I whipped some up.  These were from a box, but I love the recipe for lemon-blueberry muffins and the applesauce muffins from the Jessica Seinfeld book so I may be making those later this week on my stay-at-home-mom spring break!

Stuffed Green Peppers

Thursday night I made stuffed green peppers for dinner.  I got the recipe from my friend, April, but I forgot I didn't have tomatoes so it didn't turn out as good as hers.  It was still yummy, though.  It's one of my favorite dishes.  Here's Jordan getting ready to eat!

Chad was getting his tray ready and Jordan was playing with this funky thing you look through that makes what you see into a ton of tiny versions so you see what a fly sees.  I've had at forever.  We bought it at this great toy store that used to be in downtown Lake Forest when I was growing up.  
And, here are our stuffed green peppers.  I kind of forgot to take the picture before I dug in just because I love these things...but you can still kind of guess what it looked like.  

BREAD!

I admit, I'm a little obsessed with this cheesy King Arthur bread recipe.  I made it again just now...I just took it out of the oven and it's cooling as we speak.  OMG!  It looks amazing.  The first time I made it it didn't quite look like the picture on the KA website, but this time it looks like it's supposed to.  I can't wait to actually try it.  I love love love this recipe.  Here are the pictures of my latest batch of what they call "grip it and rip it" bread. 

I think I can...I think I can...

Thank you King Arthur Flour...I have been dreaming about this fancy cheese bread from the King Arthur Flour website for about a week...maybe.  I have never ever made bread before.  Kathy assured me the worst that could happen would be that it wouldn't taste good...but, oh, did it taste good!  I followed the directions as best as I could, I think I was supposed to spritz with water at the end and I totally forgot...so I think it would look a little different around the outside, but it still tasted phenomenal.  If you look at the pictures of their starter and their dough...my dough was totally way thicker and wasn't at all goopy like theirs...maybe I didn't do the right amount of water?  Oh well, I didn't burn it (woo hoo!).  Chad agreed that it tasted pretty gosh darn good.  I will definitely be making this again.  I have to say, it wasn't all that hard either!  Go me!

Here were my 4 mini-loaves before they went into the oven.
Here's a close-up...isn't she beautiful?
The final product!  You can see it didn't quite turn out like the picture from their website, but I used an Italian blend of cheese, which included parmesan...so I think that's why it didn't burst out all over the place.  Maybe?  I used a garlic and onion oil and it tasted kind of like pizza bread.  I wonder if King Arthur has a recipe for pizza dough?  
This recipe was actually quite perfect considering I just finished reading that weird Meg Cabot book about a kid who is basically King Arthur reincarnate...interesting.  

Moral of the story: Do not be afraid.  If you try it, you will have great bread!