Monday, March 26, 2012
Soup's On
I have a love/hate relationship with cooking food while my husband is TDY (Air Force business trip); I love it because I can make things that I know he would normally not be so excited about...such as things with kale, flax, and/or bulgar and I hate it because whatever I make, since I'm a party of one, I will be eating for the next 8 days. So, this past week I lined myself up to make dinners to share with some friends because I had just recently gotten my Cooking Light and Clean Eating mags and I was itching to try out some recipes. The recipe I am sharing today was the hit of the week! It is an Italian wedding soup recipe that comes to together in less than 30 minutes and makes for a complete meal with the combination of orzo pasta, veggies, and meatballs. This recipe makes 6 generous servings, but we (3 women, 2 kiddos, and a baby) polished off that whole pot of soup in one sitting! Combined with whole wheat dinner rolls this soup filled our bellies and I was even a little sad about not taking home some leftovers! Oh well, I'll just have to make it again. :)
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Hummus love
In the spirit of my new hobby, this is another post about making sauces and condiments from scratch. I want to pass along my own concocted recipe for an easy hummus. Hummus is one item that I will no longer buy pre-made from grocery stores because it's so simple. Jon and I really got into hummus when I gave up dairy because hummus was a good swap in a sandwich for cheese or as a dairy-free snack. The hummus we used to buy from one of the British grocers was so good; creamy and flavorful and it became a household staple for us. So, when we moved to Las Vegas, I picked up a container of your average pre-made hummus and we were sorely disappointed! It was drier and a lot less tasty. This is when I looked up the ingredients for basic hummus and made my own. Here's my own version of hummus and really it can be altered or tailored to suit how you like it best:
Chipotle-Cilantro Hummus
2 cans garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 c. tahini butter (sesame seed butter, usually found near peanut or almond butters)
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tsp. salt
1 lemon, juiced
1-2 chipotle peppers canned in adobe sauce (depending on your spice preference)
1/3 c. chopped fresh
Olive oil
1. Blend all ingredients in a food processor and then add olive oil to desired creaminess. This is isn't an exact science, but if I had to guess I'd say about 1/4-1/3c. olive oil. See, simple. :)
This recipe makes about 18 servings (2 tbsp per. serving)
If you want to make variations on this, omit the peppers and cilantro and add your flavors such as kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, or fresh herbs.
Ok, so that's the hummus recipe but I also want to share this page from this month's, Cooking Light, which featured 4 delicious sandwich recipes that all require....hummus! My favorite is the "Grilled Veggie and Hummus Wraps".
Chipotle-Cilantro Hummus
2 cans garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1/3 c. tahini butter (sesame seed butter, usually found near peanut or almond butters)
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tsp. salt
1 lemon, juiced
1-2 chipotle peppers canned in adobe sauce (depending on your spice preference)
1/3 c. chopped fresh
Olive oil
1. Blend all ingredients in a food processor and then add olive oil to desired creaminess. This is isn't an exact science, but if I had to guess I'd say about 1/4-1/3c. olive oil. See, simple. :)
This recipe makes about 18 servings (2 tbsp per. serving)
If you want to make variations on this, omit the peppers and cilantro and add your flavors such as kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, or fresh herbs.
Ok, so that's the hummus recipe but I also want to share this page from this month's, Cooking Light, which featured 4 delicious sandwich recipes that all require....hummus! My favorite is the "Grilled Veggie and Hummus Wraps".
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Getting Saucy
Finally, back up and running after a major computer transition and I've got two really great sauce recipes to share. I've made both in the past couple of weeks and although the ingredients lists on these recipes is a little on the long side, they are so worth it. Both of these recipes come from a cookbook called Rebar, Modern Food Cookbook. More than half of the recipes are vegetarian and can be altered to be vegan, so that's another reason why I love this cookbook. Rebar is a hip restaurant in Vancouver, BC and I imagine most of the clientele who eat there are all very concerned if whether beef they are about to enjoy comes from a happy, grass-fed existence or whether the flax to granola ratio in the oatmeal cookies is 80/20. I joke about this, but I'm not going to deny that this type of new-age organic-conscious food revolution isn't a wonderful thing, however, what I love most about the recipes from their cookbook is the fusion of flavors, and whole, interesting ingredients.
One of my new favorite things to do in the kitchen lately, is to take on making things that we normally buy from the grocery store that are processed and chock full of preservatives. So pulling the peanut sauce and barbecue sauce recipes from this book got me excited to try making sauces that Jon and I both love, but usually I grab the convenient pre-made versions at the grocery store. Now, I'm not saying that convenience isn't a good thing, but there is a certain satisfaction is making something yourself and some of those sauces can be expensive when you probably already have 90% of what you need to make them at home already! I made the peanut sauce to have with chicken-vegetable skewers and the barbecue sauce went on pretty much everything for the week and half that it lasted in my fridge...I poured that delicious sauce on my sweet potatoes, burgers, baked beans, chicken, broccoli.... Enjoy and get sauced!
One of my new favorite things to do in the kitchen lately, is to take on making things that we normally buy from the grocery store that are processed and chock full of preservatives. So pulling the peanut sauce and barbecue sauce recipes from this book got me excited to try making sauces that Jon and I both love, but usually I grab the convenient pre-made versions at the grocery store. Now, I'm not saying that convenience isn't a good thing, but there is a certain satisfaction is making something yourself and some of those sauces can be expensive when you probably already have 90% of what you need to make them at home already! I made the peanut sauce to have with chicken-vegetable skewers and the barbecue sauce went on pretty much everything for the week and half that it lasted in my fridge...I poured that delicious sauce on my sweet potatoes, burgers, baked beans, chicken, broccoli.... Enjoy and get sauced!
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