The Hummus Chopper

I love hummus, eat it nearly every day. Well sometimes I get upset at the price if it’s not on sale or I do not have a coupon, so I broke down and made my own. One thing that helped me come to this breakdown was Chef Ramsey.

Over the holidays I was at Kmart’s and saw Chef on the box and thought I needed that stat, but I did not buy it. I was shopping for toys for my doggies and on a mission to stay in my Christmas budget. So I walked away from it/him.

Well, last week I realized that my doggies needed some new chew bones so off to Kmart’s I went and there he was staring at me again! Chef, please people will talk. Well something was different this time, he had a little red flag on the price tag! It was On Sale for $14.99. The original price was $22.99 so I thought that was a good enough deal to seal said deal. So needless to say I walked out with Chef Ramsey and some chew bones for the doggies!

My current chopper is super small and I never tried to make hummus because it seemed impossible with a tiny little prep chopper, but now I had no good excuse. I had Chef Ramsey by my side.

So My “To Do List” Went Like This.

# 1 Find a Recipe:

Note: I mixed and matched recipes to make this one, but it was Inspired by Ina’s Recipe.

Ingredients

• 4 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1  can of chickpeas, drained, 2 tablespoons of liquid reserved
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1/3 cup tahini (sesame paste)
• 6 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)
• Paprika to Garnish

Directions

1. In a blender, pour garbanzo beans, reserved garbanzo bean liquid, lemon juice, tahini sauce, olive oil, and salt, and . Blend until creamy and well mixed.
2. Transfer the mixture to a medium serving bowl. Sprinkle with paprika  and drizzle with olive oil over the top.

# 2 Pulled out the Chopper:

# 3 Gather the Ingredients:

#4 Make the Hummus:

and here’s the end result.

Hummus and Pita = Happiness.

#5 Eat the Hummus:

#6 Rate the Hummus:

Well I love Sabra Hummus, and in no way can I say this was like Sabra Hummus. There is just something about the smooth creamy texture of Sabra that I do not think I have ever found in any other brand or homemade hummus I have eaten. BUT. This was good and hearty. I liked that it was thick and still had little bits of chickpeas that were not 100% ground up. HOWEVER. When Sabra goes on sale or I have a coupon, I will stock up. I will continue to make my own and perfect it a bit, but Sabra stole my heart and until I can mimic it, I will continue to buy it.

P.S. Thanks Chef Ramsey. Your Cool.

Check Ya Later.

Question: Whats a recipe or food item that you just cannot seem to recreate?

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Snack Plate Rules!

Snack Plate Rules! I love them, and my typical snack plate looks like this. I have been addicted to hummus as long as I can remember. Recently I tried a new brand, I always thought I would never stray from my favorite brand Sabra, but the Kroger brand is just so amazing. I bought it for the first time on my last shopping trip, because the plain Sabra flavor was sold out. The texture and thickness of the Kroger’s brand is perfect.

So on my snack plate is the Kroger’s hummus, a string cheese stick, a whole wheat pita, carrot sticks and a hard-boiled egg. The combination of this snack plate kept me as full as a meal would. Loved it.

In other news, I never heard back from the Luna Bar Winner so I did a Redraw and the New Winner is: Meagan, who I have already notified. Meagan your package is on the way!

Boot Camp Update: 

Well this is the last and final week of Boot Camp, and I can truly say I will be walking away from it with New Friends, New Confidence and New Moves. I have said it before during these last 7 weeks and I will say it again, I love Boot Camp, I learned so much. I cannot think of a time where I pushed myself more to achieve a fitness goal.

Here’s My Fitness Confession: I am no longer a Cardio Junkie, I Love Lifting Weights. 

Blend Retreat News:  I have roommates. I am paired up with a non-blogger named Patricia, who I can not wait to meet. I also have two other roommates: Amanda at Diary of a Semi-Health Nut, and Katie at Talk Less, Say More. I am really excited to meet them all and have a great weekend.

Question for the Day: What is your current fitness goal?  

Here’s Mine:  To continue learning new exercises involving weight training.

Check Ya Later.

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Snack Attack

One thing I love is to snack. I do try to keep my snacks healthy and thought it would be fun to list a few of them.  Pretzels are my favorite, I love to dip them in Wholly Guacamole.

Roasted chick peas are great to keep on hand, they are packed with fiber and they have the nice salty bite.

Yogurt and cereal are a great combo.

English muffin with Peanut Butter and bananas are a must to satisfy a sweet tooth.  I used Peanut Butter on the left and Nutella on the right.

Dried fruit/fruit leather is a favorite of mine after dinner. I love this fig bar, it really has a great flavor and it is naturally sweetened.

Keeping this on hand is a must, I love to pack these for lunch, or snack on them after a workout.

These have white chocolate chunks in them and I cannot get enough of them, the crunch and the smooth chocolate make a great granola bar.

Near and dear to my heart is Hummus. I eat hummus nearly every single day. I love it with carrots, and pita bread. The key to my heart is Hummus.

Whole wheat tortilla with Peanut butter and chia seeds are a great snack option, popped in the microwave makes a nice warm tortilla and melted peanut butter.

Sometimes you just need a crispy and sweet apple.

I also try to keep hard-boiled eggs on hand, and I take one to work everyday. What an excellent source of protein. Hard boiled eggs pack 17 grams of protein in their perfect little shell.

I just love these little snack items, they all are healthy options.

Question of the Day? Whats your go to snack?

Check Ya Later.

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Lovely Ladies

My stockpile of Chobani and Sabra Hummus are getting low, I have enough to get me through the end of the week.  I love hummus, It’s always in my fridge. I got a great deal on some single servings 4 packs. I normally buy it in the large family size because it’s a better price, but these little single servings were kinda cool to have on hand.

Here’s Today’s Bag

Getting closer to the end of the week makes me very happy! I don’t have any commitments this weekend so I plan on doing things I want to do. My husband is low on coffee and that only means one thing. Sam’s Club Run. I need a few things also so this will work out well. We are also looking for a new stove since I smashed the glass top on mine the other night.

Ouch

I’ve been able to use the two right side burners, but the glass is slowly starting to crack up and across the entire stove. The stove top glass is supposed to be tampered glass, but the pieces of glass on my stove are sharp shards of glass. It really is not safe so I am not going to be using the stove top anymore, I am afraid that the entire top is gonna break and shatter all over my kitchen. Glass and food DO NOT MIX. So hopefully I will get a new stove within the next week, I don’t know how long I can go without using a stove, other than power outages and camping I’ve never been without a stove.

Guacamole Turkey Panini

This is a favorite sandwich of mine. Turkey breast lunch meat with a slice of deli cheese, smeared with guacamole and red peppers. Grilled on a panini maker for about 7 minutes.  Before I got my panini maker I use to just grill like a grilled cheese sandwich. I roasted some broccoli and cauliflower and dug in.

Roast broccoli and cauliflower on 400 degrees for 30 minutes. I tossed this batch with olive oil and some garlic, salt and pepper.

Panini

Keeping my veggie scraps is something I have done for a while. I compost and I feed my friends chickens. I love feeding the chickens, they are so fun to watch. So after cutting up the last weeks worth of veggies I have lots to give to the “Lovely Ladies”.

They also love bread, so I keep the end pieces in the freezer and when I get a bunch I break them up and they have a feast.

They love it when people come bearing gifts. When they see you they all stop what there doing and run to the fence. I call them my “Lovely Ladies”. They are right next store to where I work so on a nice day if I take a walk I always stop to see them. They do prefer if you have some thing for them, so if I don’t have any veggies or bread to give them, I know where their food is kept so I’ll grab a few handfuls and toss it in for them.

These are the eggs they produce. We call them Easter Eggs. The green and blue eggs are so beautiful. They all taste the same but they all come out different colors.

These are a batch from before Christmas, they don’t produce many eggs this time of year. I so look forward to getting some fresh eggs, but it probably won’t be until end of March.

Question on the day: How do you like to eat your eggs

Check Ya Later.

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Snow on Sunday

My work party is this evening. My boss likes to do the party in January after the holidays. It always seem to work better than during the busy holiday season. She always has really good drawings for prizes, and cute gift bags. One year I won an  Apple shuffle. So I am looking forward to what she has this year. Plus it’s always a really great meal.

This morning I almost made another smoothie, but changed my mind after I pulled out my frozen stash.

Frozen and Ready

If I can say one bad thing about bananas its that they don’t freeze as pretty as they really are, but they sure do taste good blended.

Bananas and Peaches

I opted for a bowl of fresh strawberries with yogurt and granola.

Look at all that crunch, and I love the dried raspberries in it, they really have a ton of flavor, and then being mixed with Chobani pineapple yogurt, I was so glad I changed my mind. My Kroger was running a 10 for 10 on Chobani. How can you pass up a deal like that.

Now that looks refreshing.

I also drank lots and lot of this. I have been so dry this week, my skin, my throat, even my cuticle’s are dry. I know I need to get a humidifier and get it going as soon as possible. I plan on doing some research on it this week. I did do a quick search on it and found this.

How a humidifier works and the benefits of running one in your home.

Winter is the season for humidifier’s in most areas of the country. Whether you use gas or electric heat, the air from your furnace will not only keep you warm, it will dry out the air in your home. The humidifier works, by sending small molecules of moisture into the air, that can help keep you healthier.

Well that’s all I needed to read and I was sold, but I want to look at brands and models to see what would work best for us.

There are not many days that go by that I don’t eat something with hummus on it, I have been an official addict for many, many years.

So for a light lunch I had a hummus sprout whole wheat pita with a side of grapes and Wheat thins. I also had a piece of string cheese and another glass of lemon water.

Hummus and Sprouts on Whole Wheat Pita

With us having my work party tonight and the dinner being family style, I wanted to leave plenty of room for a big meal.

Projects, projects, projects. Sometimes I laugh at all the craft projects I want to do, but this one is going to be fun. I love to sew and I am making a beach sarong from some material I found on the clearance rack at a fabric store. It’s my favorite color orange and it has palm trees on it. I can’t wait to get it going. I’m using a sarong that I already have as my pattern.

I have a trip planned to go to Miami to spend sometime with my best friend. She moved to Miami 3 years ago for a work opportunity. She has an amazing live there now, she lives in a beautiful high-rise apartment, she boats, she beaches it and she now loves to fish. She really enjoys everything Miami has to offer. I visited her in 2010 and had a great time, I did not get to see her in 2011, but I made a promise that I will never let a year pass without seeing her.

Workout Recap for the week:

Monday

Elliptical
Time: 45 minutes. With Lean Leg Pyramid and 10 Burpees

Tuesday

Treadmill Walk
Time: 60 minutes. With Lean Arm Pyramid, Leg Press 4 Set with 12 Reps,  and 10 Burpess

Wednesday

DVD Workout No More Trouble Zone, Jillian Michael’s
Time: 45 min.

Thursday

Elliptical
Time: 45 minutes. With 10 Burpees

Friday

5,4,3,2,1 Circuit
Time: 30 minutes. With 10 Burpees

Saturday

Elliptical
Time: 45 minutes. With Lean Arm Pyramid

Sunday

Rest Day

Really liked the way the weeks workout made me feel, I was not too sore, except of the ab portion in the No more Trouble Zone DVD, that was killer.

So I’m off to get ready for my work party.

Check ya later.

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Fitness Friday

Fridays are my favorite, well so are Sundays, and I do like Mondays, well I like them all but there is something about the work week ending and having some quality time at home to do what ever I want. I know I’m going to be watching my new Bridesmaids DVD this weekend! I also love Fridays because I start my planning and prepping process for next week, I like to look at recipes, review workouts and get a jump on planning out the next week. I also like to be lazy and sleep in, and I have the next 2 days to do just that.

Fitness Friday looks like this. I keep finding tons of workouts like this on Pintrest, and I want to try them all. So I’ll be experimenting with these over the next few weeks, I have already found a few that have become part of my training rotation.

Fitness Friday

Keeping things easy today was my plan, so I had a really taste hummus and sprout pita pocket for lunch.

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Hummus Sprout Pita

Pumpkin Millet Muffins with Chobani yogurt for breakfast. I had this batch of muffins in the freezer already. I store them in a large ziplock bag and whenever I want any I just pull some out and let them thaw, which really does not take long at all. They still look as good thawed as they did freshly baked. I have even taken them out frozen and put them in my lunch bag in the fridge over night to thaw and that worked out well also. They keep their texture and flavor.

Here’s the Recipe for the Pumpkin Millet Muffins that I found on the Whole Foods Website, I did adapt it a bit, I substituted unsweetened applesauce for butter.

Ingredients:

Makes 12

These muffins offer an intriguing crunch, thanks to the toasted millet. Savor them warm from the oven, or freeze a batch to have on hand.  Allow muffins to cool completely before transferring to freezer bags. Thawed muffins may be reheated in a 300°F oven for 10 minutes or microwaved for 15-20 seconds to give them a little warmth.

Ingredients

1/2 cup millet
1 egg
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1/2 cup soy or coconut milk
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (to replace butter)
1 cup canned pumpkin purée
8 Packs Splenda
1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Method

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place paper liners in a 12-cup muffin pan; set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add millet and toast, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and just beginning to pop, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer millet to a plate to cool.

In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, Greek yogurt, soy milk, applesauce (to replace butter), pumpkin, Splenda packets and brown sugar; set aside. Whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and cooled millet in a medium bowl, then gently fold into egg mixture until just combined. Spoon batter into lined muffin tins and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean, 22 to 25 minutes. Allow muffins to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Here’s some other Healthy Baking Substitutions you can bake with.

• 1 cup whole milk = 1 cup skim milk
• 1 cup buttermilk = 1 Tbsp vinegar OR 1 Tbsp lemon juice + enough skim milk to make 1 cup
• 1 cup heavy cream = 1 cup evaporated skim milk OR 1/2 cup low-fat yogurt + 1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
• 1 cup sour cream = 1 cup Greek Yogurt
• 1 cup cream cheese = 4 Tbsp margarine + 1 cup dry low-fat cottage cheese (+ a little skim milk if needed)
• 1 cup butter or oil = 2/3 cup applesauce
• 1 egg = 2 egg whites

Tonight’s dinner was easy, it is left over ingredients from Wednesdays dinner which was my version of a Deconstructed Enchilada. From that I made Quesadillas with guacamole and a side salad that I threw together using salsa as the dressing, I added a cubed avocado, black olives and some shredded cheese. Mix the salad well to blend and get ready for a really taste salad.

It has arrived. Today’s weather was cold here in the Mitt, we work up to 4 degrees this morning,  it got up to a high of 17 degrees, but now that the sun is down its gonna drop back down and its going to drop fast. It’s days like this I have to be on guard when letting my dogs out, they are little guys so they can’t be out for long and there are times I have to run out and pick them up and carry them in, the little pads on their paws start to freeze and it causes them pain and they just stop and stand. So I’m always at the door with my boots on in case I need to make a rescue. I always have a blanket ready to wrap them in, they really don’t have much hair to keep them warm.

Warm Blanket for Killian

Warm Blanket for Stuart

I’m hoping to try out a few new recipes this weekend.  I also have a really good recipe for a Skinny Cosmo I plan on making and enjoying while I watch the  Bridesmades DVD.

Check ya later

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