Make My Own: Hummus

I’ve been trying to eat foods that are a bit more pure lately… and by pure, I mean less processed, whole foods… Ultimately, I’d love to convert to an entirely whole foods kind of diet, but taking baby steps is my best bet… One of the easiest things I’ve done to accomplish this is to start making my own versions of foods that I love to buy already made… an example of this is hummus…

I LOVE making my own hummus because it takes literally 10 minutes including prep and clean-up!  I know I’ve blogged about this before, but I want to remind you all how easy it is to make your own!

To start, I take a can of chickpeas, rinse them well, and then pour them into my Vitamix.  I add in a variety of spices including cumin, black pepper, a dash of red pepper flakes, and lots of crushed garlic (I use 2 T!).  Then I pour in 2-3 T of olive oil.  I turn on the Vitamix on a low setting for a good 10-15 seconds and then run it on high until well combined.  I use a tamper to make sure everything is blended well during the mixing :)

I transfer the hummus to a reusable container and top with fresh ground pepper and pop it in the fridge.  Clean up your blender and then make yourself a hummus + spinach sammie on an Thomas’ ww english muffin (my favorite way to enjoy hummus!) and enjoy…

Stay tuned later in the week when I’ll have another item that I like to “Make My Own” of…

Discovering…

Hi Everyone!!!  I’m back :)   Slowly, but surely I will return to my old blogging ways, but lately I’ve been occupied with all the joys of moving, having appliances delivered, cleaning, unpacking, organizing, and discovering all the quirks of our new house!

Our house is a little chaotic and we have been nonstop from the moment we moved in until last night… Bill returned back to work today but I have off today and tomorrow in an effort to unpack our clothes and get somewhat organized but it isn’t looking promising.  Although we had a condo before, we are both discovering that there is a lot more involved with owning a large house :)

I plan on sharing little projects with you all and of course our before/after pictures, but I did want to show you my lovely new oven that I was super excited for, as Erin knew well…

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However, we learned that one of the burners is not working so sadly I can’t even use it yet because they are coming out tomorrow to replace it.  Fantastic :/  Oh well… what can ya do, right?

Anyway, we have lots of windows and natural light that flow into our kitchen so I can almost guarantee that my pictures will be 10000 times better than what they were.  Today was a cloudy day for the most part, but look how gorgeous my pictures turned out…

Breakfast

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Lunch

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Snack

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My mom and I both had doctors’ appointments for tonight, so we decided to have an early dinner beforehand… I really wanted to go back to Blue Sage and take her there but they aren’t open on Mondays so I did some googling and found another really cute veggie cafe called “Allways Cafe“…

The verdict?  Well, I was skeptical because I thought nothing could top Blue Sage but upon walking in my mom and I both remarked about how awesome the inside was… it was very cozy, but had an ecletic feel… plus we loved how the paintings on the walls all were to benefit families and children dealing with Autism.  The menu was purely amazing – numerous delicious veggie choices, I had no idea what to choose, but seeing as how I have been lacking serious veggies over the last few days I selected the veggie wrap which was asparagus, roasted peppers, grilled onions, mixed greens, hummus, and feta in a whole wheat wrap.  It was served with a pesto and zuchini pasta salad.  I don’t even know how to tell you how fresh and delicious all of the ingredients were and how yummy everything was! 

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My mom ordered the Fresh Mozarella Panini which was spinach, tomato, mozarella and basil on multigrain bread all toasted up…

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Instead of eating my other half, I split the second half of my mom’s with her… so warm & comforting!

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Then, because we were feeling in a sweet mood, we decided to split a chocolate cookie!  It was firm on the outside but warm and chewy on the inside filled with nuts & chocolate chips!

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All in all, I LOVED this restaurant and so did my mom.  For sure, we will be back!

Ok, now time to take a break from housework and watch 24!

PS.  And just so you know I haven’t gone for a run since last Wednesday!!!!!!!!  I’ve literally had no time, but I’m making it a major priority tomorrow to get back on track :)