Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

I made up this recipe for super good low calorie hummus from a variety of different recipes, and it doesn't take that many ingredients! Throw 1 can of chickpeas (drained), 1/4 cup fat free plain yogurt, 1-2 cloves (or more if you are a garlic lover) garlic all chopped up, 2-3 pieces of roasted red peppers. Blend until smooth. If you like smoother hummus you can add some of the chickpea juice or a little more yogurt. Mine also thickened up some over night.

You can use this for dip with veggies, as a dressing on sandwhiches (coming soon!), or with some crackers or pita.

Also, *very* important I bought some chickpeas that had 3.5 grams of fat, which seems high, later I found some at Trader Joes that were 20 less calories and 2.5 grams of fat less.... so, just remember that all cans of chickpeas are not created equal.

And.... for anyone who doesn't know, garbanzo beans and chickpeas = same thing :)

Spanish Favorite with some Healthy Twists

As many of you (or maybe none of you...) know, i lived in Spain while in college. While there I discovered what can only be described as heaven on a plate. Its called Tortilla Espanola. Now, we're not talking a tortilla like what you use to make a burrito. In Spain "tortilla" is essentially like an omelette. This one in particular is filled with potato-y goodness. However, for us healthy eaters out there, the tortilla espanola is not our friend. You esentially cook cut up potatoes in about 2 or so cups of olive oil. now, olive oil is good for us... but not that much!! So, i've made some minor alterations to this delicious spanish staple and you cant tell the difference! This is a great appetizer at parties. eat it with some cut up baguette and cheese and you have a traditional spanish meal (and its ok to have some fun cheese since you've made the tortilla healthy!).

cut up about 2-3 cups worth of potatoes. you want them in cubes. put the potatoes into a pot of boiling water and cook until they are soft (almost to the point where a few of them are falling a part).

while the potatoes are bowling, saute 1 onion (medium size-i use golden onions) and 2 chopped up cloves of garlic until soft.

drain potatoes and put into a bowl along with the onion/garlic mixture. add salt (you'll want about 1-2 teaspoons). Then combine with 1/2 to 1 cup egg beaters. it should be enough egg to coat the potatoes, but they should not be swimming in it.

heat a skilled that has curved sides (it is VERY important that the skilled does not have straight up and down sides...they need to be a little curved so you can flip the tortilla). make sure you coat the skillet very well with cooking spray. pour the mixture into the skilled and shake it a few times to even everything out. (should be medium heat). cook until the eggs on top start to firm up a little bit.

now here comes the hard part...... in spain they are awesome (for lots of reasons, but this one is particuarlly good...) they can FLIP the tortilla in the pan!!! umm yeah... im not quite that awesome. so, i'll use a knife and loosen up around all the sides. then i'll slide the tortilla out onto a plate. get another plate, put it on top, and you turn it over. So, you have esentially flipped the tortilla. Then slide it back in (wet side down) to the skillet to finish cooking.

It should cook about 7 or so minutes on the first side about about 5ish on the second. after its done cooking, you slide it out onto the plate!

the picture i had of the finished product were not stellar, because i was at a friends house and he did not have a proper tortilla making skillet, so it got stuck, which is basically the saddest thing that can happen in the world of tortilla making. So, this picture comes to use from google images (thank you google).

broccoli casserole!

let's just start out by saying that this photo does no justice.  this blurry (bright!) picture in no way demonstrates the cheesy, ricey, broccoli goodness that this recipe creates.  

the recipe is originally from shadesofjaime.com (great website!) and i only made a few minor changes.

you will need:

-1 cup 2% sharp cheddar cheese

-1 cup cooked long grain rice (1/2 cup uncooked)

-1 cup fresh mushrooms, sliced

-around one smallish onion, chopped

-1/4 cup ff milk

-4 tsp reduced fat butter/margarine (i used 2ish instead, it was fine)

-1/4 tsp salt

-i added a can of chopped up water chestnuts to give this some extra crunch

-4 cups FRESH broccoli tops (not frozen!), chopped into tiny pieces (next time i make this, i will do a better job of chopping them TINY-- it will taste better this way.)

okay, so, heat your oven to 350, and put everything but the broccoli in a medium pot over medium heat until the cheese melts, then go ahead and add in the broccoli until it is heated and mixed in.  this whole process should take around 6-8 minutes.

spray a pan that it will fit in and cook this yumminess at 350 for around 30ish  minutes.

around one cup is about 3 pts.

i doubled the recipe and separated it into little throw-away tupperwares, which i froze into home-made lean cuisines!  they thaw out well in the microwave and are a great lunch treat!

yummy snack!

toasted chick peas (tastes like corn nuts, mmmm):

-drain two cans of chick peas, rinse

-spray pan and spread chick peas out

-spray chick peas with olive oil

-sprinkle with spices of your liking (i used garlic, cumin, and chili powder)

-bake at 350 for 50 minutes, shaking around every ten minutes.

-let cool

amazing food find!

after perusing through trader joes for quite some time, i came upon quite the exciting food find-- flax and honey flatbread!  three sheets of this filling flatbread rings in at only one pt!  it was quite delicious with some laughing cow cheese spread over the top and i would imagine would also be yummy with peanut butter (the salmonella free variety, of course!).