Fried pizza egg rolls!

This post is to let the new readers know the real me, and that health food is not 110% normal around here...giggle...

The other night for dinner we had deep fried pizza, haha! (sort of)

The "recipe" (instructions, really) was found HERE.
It really is just a string cheese, with a few pieces of pepperoni, rolled up in egg roll wrappers!

This time they were fried for 3 minutes each. The cheese was not melty like we hoped, so my husband decided that he would fry them less, and then put them in the oven under high heat to better melt the cheese.
He whipped up some pizza sauce, based on our spaghetti sauce recipe HERE, but with a bit of Worcestershire sauce and maybe a few other changes. He and I dipped our pizza sticks and the kids preferred it without the sauce. Also, with the salads, 3 sticks filled up my husband and I, and the kids could only finish 2 each.
Then we had salads and carrot sticks on the side to help round it out a bit, haha!

ETA: Fried 2 minutes, put in a 300* oven as they come out of the fryer, serve about 10 minutes after the last batch goes in the oven.

Hummus!

I really like hummus, but the cheapest way to get it is at Costco and I get tired of the one flavor over and over. I was excited when I saw this link on pinterest to try making our own! So here's our journey...

After trying 4 local stores, I couldn't find tahini anywhere, but we did finally find a bottle of sesame seeds...and my husband checked google and learned that tahini is just sesame seeds and olive oil!! We used our Blendtec to make it smooth and tada- that step was done!

fresh tahini!

If I can get it frozen or whole, I try not to buy canned foods, believe it or not. So I bought a bag of dry chickpeas for this. Chickpeas soaked for 13 hours, simmered on the stove about an hour, until tender. (can I just say how amusing it was to find myself sorting dry beans, late at night, to soak in my grandmother's pot...when she's the reason I remember sorting dry beans ever)
And then the mixing began! He used the food processor to make the different hummus blends.

Classic Hummus

First my husband made the CLASSIC variety on that link-
16 oz chickpeas
1/3 cup tahini
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 scoop minced garlic
 It came out really thick, so he just drizzled more olive oil while it mixed til it was smooth. Then he still added more lemon and some salt and pepper. Pretty good- but the tahini was really strong, so next time we'll use less. Maybe because it was fresh?

Guaca-Hummus

Next up- the GUACA-HUMMUS!
16 oz chickpeas
1 avocado
1 jalapeno
1/4 cup cilantro
2 tbsp. lime juice
salt
pepper
ok, I absolutely love guac, and this was UH-mazing!! It was like a lighter, clean guac, if that makes any sense at all... it is SO good with tortilla chips or pita chips! YUM!

Southwestern Hummus

Then, he was going to make the tapenade variety, but I was raving about the guaca-hummus so much that he said he could just make that again. Since I only bought one jalapeno, he swapped out that for the roasted red peppers (shown below). So here's a different SOUTHWESTERN HUMMUS and um, it might be the winner!!!
1 avocado
2 cups chickpeas
1/4 cup cilantro
1/2 bottle roasted red peppers (about 6oz)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp chili powder
2 tbsp. lime juice
drizzled olive oil to make it a smooth paste
 It has a kick, but it's a good one!

 

Classic, Southwestern & Guaca-Hummus, ready to be enjoyed!

and incase you have as much "fun" looking for the roasted red peppers as I did- they're by the pickles, (not the vegetables, nor the Mexican, nor the Italian) and this is the bottle I grabbed.

*Hummus, as far as I know, is used in two basic ways- as a dip or as a sandwich spread. I'm allergic to the fresh vegetables I've heard of dipping into it, so I usually eat it with Keebler Townhouse Flatbread crisps, or Keebler Pita crackers. The Bagel Chips are really good with it too, and I am absolutely going to use tortilla chips with the other flavors we made tonight! I'm also considering sandwichy ideas to use it in!

Let me know if you make your own hummus and what you think! :) I am looking forward to meals this week!

**Edited:
1/27: Tonight he made the Tapenade variety in the same link. We were very low on parsley so he threw in some dried oregano, and some onion powder and it too is fantastic! Have you tried these yet??

Shakes for 2014

I haven't posted here in a long time! But actually I have a dozen or so draft posts (41 actually...!), haha, that I should really get back to! We'll see how it goes...

In the meantime, we got a Blendtec blender for Christmas from my parents which means that all smoothies now come out smooth. This makes breakfast easy so we bought a bunch of fresh produce to combine with frozen produce and put together some baggies inspired by this link HERE that keeps showing up on facebook. Once we got it done, I posted this pic on facebook and got some questions, so here's the place to answer them!

What's that? Oh, just 16 bags ready to be thrown into smoothies! Spinach, pomegranate, apple, banana, pineapple, peach, strawberry, blackberry, raspberry, blueberry, ginger just waiting for oj, yogurt, coconut oil and milk! Yeay breakfast!

So! What's our plan?
On a {recent} typical day, I throw in:
- some frozen berries,
- a couple handfuls of spinach,
- two spoonfuls of yogurt (plain or vanilla),
- a tbsp. of coconut oil,
- half a chocolate instant breakfast packet (kills any bitterness or hint of spinach taste),
- pour on some milk and tada- breakfast!

We had frozen strawberries and peaches, and then we bought fresh spinach, a pineapple, a pomegranate, bananas, some gingerroot and some apples, and then more frozen berries (blackberries, blueberries and raspberries). We peeled and chopped and otherwise prepped things, and then just started tossing them into baggies! Every bag got some spinach and a slice of ginger. I made some pineapple/pomegranate bags for the Orange Shake, and some bags were just berry mixes.

Today, for example, I had the updated Orange Shake. I threw in my bag of pineapple, pomegranate and ginger, 1/3 cup frozen oj concentrate and the milk and there it was!
I plan to throw in the yogurt and milk every day and on berry days add the instant breakfast. And yes, I've also been putting about a tbsp. of coconut oil into my smoothies because that's supposed to help with thyroid issues and apparently I need that. With the Blendtec, at least, it comes out totally smooth, and I was concerned about that- I don't want a chunk of oil while I'm sipping my fruit, lol!

Happy healthy mornings to you!