Last weeks cooking adventure was with hummus. I'm a big fan of hummus but it took a while to search for the healthiest variation that I could find; much as I love olive oil, I wanted to find a recipe that wasn't too oily. I believe that I found this one on Recipezaar. It wasn't too difficult to make, has
tons of flavour, and is also very healthy! I added an extra 3 tbsp of yogurt to make it more smooth and creamy, which I prefer. There's a lot of garlic in this hummus so you might not want to go out on a date or something right after eating this. I like my hummus with lots of garlic but you could probably get away with 2 cloves if you prefer a less intense taste.
Hummus
3 cloves of minced garlic
1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt, plus 3 more tbsp (gives it a really creamy consistency)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp pepper
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1. Rinse off the chickpeas really well, as usually they've got tons of sodium in the can along with them. Rinsing them off can get rid of a lot of that sodium.
2. Blend everything together in a food processor (I tried using a blender the first time and it was a very frustrating process that simply did
not work).
3. Refrigerate and eat with veggies, pitas, or whatever else you like dipped in hummus! I am looking forward to having some of this hummus spread on one of my
whole wheat tortillas with some canned tuna:)
And this weeks experiment? Applesauce! I use applesauce when I make my banana bread and pumpkin bread recipes, and pretty much any time that I can substitute applesauce for part of (or all) the butter and sugar in baking. I used the recipe taken from
The Apple Cookboo k (yes, I really do love apples enough to have a cookbook
entirely devoted to them!), but there are plenty of applesauce recipes in lots of different cookbooks as well as all over the Internet.
To make my applesauce, I used 10 Braeburn apples (
The Apple Cookbook suggests these as a good type of apple to use in making sauces- and you'll definitely want to do your research before choosing any old apple. For instance, if you've ever tried baking McIntosh apples, you'll realize that these apples just collapse on themselves and are very bad for trying to bake in the microwave with a bit of cinnamon and sugar. As I have learned many a time:)). Peel and core them, then cut them up into smaller chunks (ie. quarters), add 1 tbsp of water and some nutmeg, and let them simmer on the stove for about half an hour. Then put the softened apples in the food processor and blend until smooth! It makes about 5 cups of applesauce. I have yet to use my applesauce in baking but I will be sure to report back on my results.
Pictures!
Note the use of organic chickpeas:
I usually use a knife to chop up my garlic, but this time I decided to try my hand at using the garlic press. Every time I've used it in the past, I've been too weak to squeeze it and get the garlic out (not even kidding). Just look at what my super muscles can do now, thanks to boot camp!
A very crunchy sort of hummus, as per the result from the blender:
...and the smooth finished production after using the food processor:
Last but not least, the partially frozen applesauce (it's been jammed into my freezer, hence the lopsided appearance... the tub was tilted as it started to freeze!):
Happy Monday, everyone!
Hummus
3 cloves of minced garlic
1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt, plus 3 more tbsp (gives it a really creamy consistency)
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1/8 tsp pepper
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1. Rinse off the chickpeas really well, as usually they've got tons of sodium in the can along with them. Rinsing them off can get rid of a lot of that sodium.
2. Blend everything together in a food processor (I tried using a blender the first time and it was a very frustrating process that simply did not work).
3. Refrigerate and eat with veggies, pitas, or whatever else you like dipped in hummus! I am looking forward to having some of this hummus spread on one of my whole wheat tortillas with some canned tuna:)
And this weeks experiment? Applesauce! I use applesauce when I make my banana bread and pumpkin bread recipes, and pretty much any time that I can substitute applesauce for part of (or all) the butter and sugar in baking. I used the recipe taken from The Apple Cookboo k (yes, I really do love apples enough to have a cookbook entirely devoted to them!), but there are plenty of applesauce recipes in lots of different cookbooks as well as all over the Internet.
To make my applesauce, I used 10 Braeburn apples ( The Apple Cookbook suggests these as a good type of apple to use in making sauces- and you'll definitely want to do your research before choosing any old apple. For instance, if you've ever tried baking McIntosh apples, you'll realize that these apples just collapse on themselves and are very bad for trying to bake in the microwave with a bit of cinnamon and sugar. As I have learned many a time:)). Peel and core them, then cut them up into smaller chunks (ie. quarters), add 1 tbsp of water and some nutmeg, and let them simmer on the stove for about half an hour. Then put the softened apples in the food processor and blend until smooth! It makes about 5 cups of applesauce. I have yet to use my applesauce in baking but I will be sure to report back on my results.
Pictures!
Note the use of organic chickpeas:
I usually use a knife to chop up my garlic, but this time I decided to try my hand at using the garlic press. Every time I've used it in the past, I've been too weak to squeeze it and get the garlic out (not even kidding). Just look at what my super muscles can do now, thanks to boot camp!
A very crunchy sort of hummus, as per the result from the blender:
...and the smooth finished production after using the food processor:
Last but not least, the partially frozen applesauce (it's been jammed into my freezer, hence the lopsided appearance... the tub was tilted as it started to freeze!):
Happy Monday, everyone!