Homemade Hummus

I love hummus and, lately I’ve been craving it like crazy. Now, normally, we buy it at Costco and we’re very happy with it. Like everything you purchase there, it comes in massive quantities and it tastes great. But just the other day, I thought about trying to make it at home. Would it taste any better?

I used this recipe from Oh She Glows because that woman’s recipes are flawless, culinary art. But I omitted the red peppers. And I got this:

I should add that I doubled the ingredients to make this much hummus.

It was sublime. Really, really amazing. Good enough to eat on its own. And I made enough to last a week.

In reality, this container is pretty large.

Yum! Hummus.

One last thing, if you are thinking of trying this, you do need a blender to get it mixed well. And, if you do try it, let me know how it went!

On veganism

Well, turns out, being vegan didn’t agree with me. About a month ago, I wasn’t feeling quite well and, after some bloodwork, it turns out I am anemic. So, I now take iron supplements and have to eat meat like a lion in the jungle.

Now, I’m not saying that being vegan is unhealthy. I am sure there are vegans out there who are thriving on the regime. It just seems to not work for me. And it’s a shame, because I was sort of into it.

Now, after hearing that we’re back to eating animals, my cooking ideas sort of dried up. I didn’t know how to cook (and still have no idea) meat. I stared at chicken breasts with dread fearing salmonella and other unseen dangers. What I have finally come up with is buying cooked chickens or cooked hams or cooked meat and doing a side dish.

My side dishes don’t have to be vegan but this one is. It’s a macaroni and cheese side dish that goes well with any meat and is to die for. I got it from Oh She Glows, of course, and the cheese sauce alone made my husband give me a glare.

“Why haven’t you made this before!” he asked through a mouthful.

Obviously, it was a hit.

Stuck at home…but having a great day

Well, today has been a beautiful day. Yes, I’m stuck at home. Yes, I can’t really leave. But I still managed to have a great day.

I walked our two pooches around our mostly-empty streets until we were all breathless and then headed home for a lovely cup of tea.

Then I decided to bake.

Yum! Banana bread! And have a healthy smoothy!

If you’re interested in the recipes, here they are: banana bread, the smoothy is a concoction that I created made with 2 green apples, coconut water, O.J, baby spinach, parsley and some frozen mango. It was actually so yummy!

Soup. Really, really good soup

This comes from Oh She Glows. I can’t take any responsibility for the awesomeness of this dish. It’s so good and it’s super good for you. What a combo.

You start with veggies. Cleaned and chopped.

Then you sauté some onions.

Add garlic, then the veggies.

Finally, add some broth.

Get it to a boil and let it simmer until the veggies are soft.

By then, it’s a matter of adding some salt, pepper, some nutritional yeast and a little bit of white vinegar to give it an awesome zap. Then blend it for that smooth yummy taste.

And it’s ready to eat.

So good and super good for you. If you’re into trying it, let me know what you think.

This is us

We’re in the middle of packing our house. We’re moving in 3 weeks and we didn’t want to leave things to the last minute. So, instead, we started packing weeks ago. As a result, everything we need is usually now in the depths of a box, somewhere.

This is us right now. Boxes everywhere.

Just in case you’re wondering, both our dogs are helping us move by blowing their coats at the same time. Yeap. They’re shedding like their lives depended on it and adding balls of fluff all around the house.

This was so yummy!

I did manage to cook something today. It’s a slightly different version of the cauliflower Alfredo from Oh She Glows. I added broccoli to the recipe instead of mushrooms simply because they were the vegetable I had around. It was super yummy.

I also tried this other vegan recipe for a rose sauce and my hubby declared it one of his favourites. I did add lentils to the recipe which I think add a certain something to it. It was super good. We ate it all week and loved it.

 

Yum!

I’ve never, ever made risotto before but this one is super yummy. It’s pretty labour intensive, because it basically asks you to be stirring the rice for 45 minutes but it’s so worth the work. The taste was unbelievable! Even my meat-loving hubby loved it.

Here are some pictures and the recipe comes from Oh She Glows.

Oh, I did cheat at the end a put a dab of real butter into the dish. Just to be completely honest. Still, man alive, it was good!

Cooking…

So, I’m making up recipes…and we’ll see what comes out. It’s not that I know a lot about cooking or that I have any gift in this area, I was just messing around.

This was the stuffing I made for a lasagna. I actually added cottage cheese as a layer, so this recipe was only vegetarian but it turned out very yummy.

That was the lasagna before it went into the oven.

Then I made banana bread…because we had some really old bananas that needed help. The wax paper is a trick I learned somewhere so that I don’t have to smear butter on the pan to keep it from sticking. It saves calories and keeps the desert healthy. This recipe, I changed from the one on Oh She Glows, I just added chocolate chips. So yummy!

This is my own recipe for a lentil stew. I use green lentils, rinse them, add two large onions chopped up, some garlic diced (probably about two tablespoons; so quite a bit), I chopped up some sweet potatoes, added a few bay leaves and cooked it. After it came to a boil, I let it simmer for about 20-30 minutes and got this.

It’s actually super-good for you, because lentils are amazing, full of protein, fibre, iron and magnesium and the sweet potatoes are really good food as well. It has no oil or fat in the recipe, so it’s super healthy. Oh, add some salt. I can’t tell you how much I added because I did it bits at a time and completely lost track of the amount. Probably 2 teaspoons? But it depends on taste and amount.

So that’s what’s been cooking in my kitchen lately. What are you up to?

 

Baking…

Hm…yummy for my tummy!!

If you’re wondering where I get this recipe…well, it’s Oh She Glows. Oh and these are not for my doggies! 😀

Sunday biz

I usually spend Sunday cooking. Eating mostly plant-based requires a little prepping and time that I just simply don’t have during the busy work week. My Day Job is of the type that I can continue to work at home and, unfortunately, that has had to happen the last week and this weekend. There has been barely any time for petting our beloved akitas and certainly no time for fancy cooking.

But today, I had to get busy with the veggies and beans or we’d be eating peanut butter sandwiches all week.

I chopped some onions

Added some chopped spinach (I had already cooked it) and mushrooms.

So far…nothing very exciting, right?

This is my veggie meat of choice

And these pasta are super healthy

I cheated and got sauce from Costco

And I got this.

Final product. Hubby loved it!

Hubby did love it and, in our house, that’s all it takes to declare it a success. But there was  more.

These aren’t that good for you…but they’re so yummy!!!

I made potato rings that are sooo good. They were right out of the oven and crunchy to boot! And we ate them with home-made refried beans and felt like we were in heaven.

Now for the week, I’ve made this salad:

I got all these recipes from Oh She Glows. It’s my go-to for something that’s healthy yet yummy. Love it!

Supper last night

This was supper last night.

If you want the entire recipe, it’s here. Now, I did substitute spinach for the kale and I added mushrooms but the rest of the recipe, I followed to the letter.