Hummus!

Good news everyone! I got the recipe from my nutrition teacher for her hummus, which I have been craving lately. Here is the recipe, courtesy of Janet Anderson.

2 16-oz cans garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1 clove garlic, peeled
1/3 c. tahini
1 tsp salt
Juice of 1 lemon
¼ tsp cayenne pepper, ground
¼ tsp cumin, ground
¼ tsp black pepper, ground
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 handful parsley
¾ green onions, cut into 1” pieces
Water as needed (about 1/3 cup)

Place all ingredients in food processor or blender. Add water as needed to form a smooth paste. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Chocolate Cookies

These cookies are from Bon Appetit Magazine. They are my favorite chocolate cookies so far. They have a little almond extract and it gives them a wonderful flavor, different than most other chocolate cookies. Plus they are soft all the time, even after being pulled right out of the fridge. We like to use these as sandwich cookies with frosting in the middle, but I think they would be great alone, maybe with some white chocolate chips added in with the semi-sweet chips.

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (or 1 cup semi sweet, 1 cup white)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Beat butter until fluffy. Beat in both sugars, then eggs, 1 at a time. Beat in extracts then dry ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips.

Drop batter by heaping tablespoonfuls onto prepared sheets, spacing dough 2 to 3 inches apart. Bake 2 sheets together for 5 minutes, then switch sheets and cook for another 5 minutes. I cook these for exactly 10 minutes switching the sheets and they are perfect every time.

I made these for Ryan's work party last night and used them as sandwich cookies. For frosting I used:

1/4 cup butter
4 oz. cream cheese
about 3 cups powdered sugar (sorry, I didnt measure, I just used all that was in my container and dumped it in)
vanilla
milk
beat until smooth and blended, then add 1 jar marshmallow cream. I let the cookies cool then spread the frosting and put the sandwiches in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Leave any extra cookies in the fridge. Adios!

My New Favorite Burritos

So I decided that I better contribute something to this blog since I was the only one who hasn't posted anything. I haven't really made anything spectacular lately, or even really exciting enough to post, plus I don't have a camera so I can't post pictures. However, we did have burritos the other night and I am kind of obsessed with them. They were very delicious, nutritious, easy, and equally fabulous with meat or without (Im kind of into being vegetarian right now). I used some ideas from other people, and put in my own little changes, so here they are!

Cilantro Lime Rice
1 can chicken broth
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsn lime juice (plus a little more cause I like it stronger)
1 tsp grated lime zest
2 tsp sugar
2 Tbsn chopped fresh cilantro
dash of minced garlic (or however much you want)
1 cup uncooked white rice

Bring water, chicken broth, and lime juice to a boil. Add rice and garlic and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until rice is soft and the water is absorbed. Stir in lime zest, sugar, and cilantro.

Black Beans and Corn
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 to 1 full can of corn (I only used a half can and I thought it was perfect, but full would be fine too I think)
1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce plus enough water added to equal 1 1/4 cups
cumin
chile powder
garlic salt to taste

Mix all ingredients together. This needs to be simmered for a little bit because it is a little runny. I let it cook down for probably 10 minutes and it was perfect.

Burritos:
Tortilla shells of your choice
Cilantro lime rice
Black beans and corn
Any shredded beef, pork, or chicken, if desired (we used Mom's mexican meat mix, cause we had some in the freezer and it was delicious)
Avocado cut into chunks (we opted to use chunks instead of guac, and I strongly recommend it; it was great)
Fresh tomatos
Sour cream
Cheese
Whatever else you want-olives, lettuce, salsa... I didn't use these things, but it would probably be good. I also am thinking about adding some mild (green) enchilada sauce. I think it would be great.

Anyway, these were way easy and very affordable, and they were very fresh and light. You should try them! And if not I will make them as one of our Christmas meals. Ciao!

Sweet Potato Bake

This was a huge hit at our Thanksgiving dinner. Mike, who can't stand sweet potatoes accually had seconds, and Lynzee couldn't stop eating them, she actually licked the pan clean. I was pretty impressed myself. I got the original recipie from Paula Deen's web site and made a couple of changes.

Ingredients:

3 C mashed sweet potatoes

1 C white sugar

1/3 C butter, melted

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 C half and half

pinch of salt

Topping:

1 C brown sugar

3 Tbsp butter, chilled

1/3 C all-purpose flour

1 C pecans chopped

1/2 C coconut

Mix together with a pastry cutter or fork and sprinkle on top of the casserole. I actually 1 1/2 this part cause I love the topping.

Preheat oven to 325. Mix all the ingredients together except for the cream. Beat together with a mixer (I just used my hand mixer) until smooth. Add cream, mix well. Pour into a greased casserole dish, add topping. Bake for 25-30 min.

Baked Pesto Alfredo Pasta

Last night I was trying to be creative and use up some of the things I had in the fridge. I am not one who loves pasta, but it is what I ended up making and my family really liked the end result.

Low-fat Alfredo Sauce:

2 C Low fat Milk

1/3 C - 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

2 Tbsp Flour

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp Butter

Fresh Garlic

1 C Grated Parmesan Cheese

Put milk, cream cheese, flour and salt in blender, process until smooth, set aside.

Melt butter in sauce pan, add garlic cook for a min. Don't burn garlic just cook raw taste out. Add milk mixture to pan bring to a simmer (3-4 minutes). Keep stirring until mixture thickens up then remove the pan from heat - add cheese, stir and cover, let sit for 10 minutes before using.

Pasta of your choice

Cooked chicken breasts (I only had one and I cut it up small it went really far)

Button mushrooms - quartered

Artichokes - chopped (some of mine were marinated some were not)

Tomato - diced

1/2 C - 3/4 C pesto

1 cup shredded cheese (I used the italian mix - the low fat Kraft kind)

I just used the things that I had in the fridge you could use anything that you had or your family would like.

Preheat oven to 350. Cook pasta a little less than al dente, while pasta is cooking cut up veggies of choice. Drain pasta. Place in a greased 9x13 pan put chicken and veggies on top of pasta. Pour alfredo sauce on top and put pesto on top of that. Mix together, top with cheese. Cook for 20 - 25 min or until hot and bubbly.