Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘chickpeas’

Artichoke Chicken and Chickpea Pasta

Posted by terrepruitt on April 2, 2018

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitI have been out of town the last two weekends.  So our fridge is looking pretty bare.  I didn’t know what to cook for dinner tonight.  I didn’t want to go out to get something from the store.  I was thinking I could use chicken and add it to rice or pasta.  I was thinking I had a jar of sauce, but when I looked in the pantry I didn’t see one.  But I did see a jar of artichoke hearts.  I was thinking I would add them to the chicken.  Then I thought I would also use a can of chickpeas.  I love the richness that chickpeas adds.  So sometimes out of necessity you come up with an easy recipe of things you have on hand.

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Artichoke Chicken and Chickpea Pasta

1 can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans
1 can of chicken
1 1/2 cups chopped artichoke hearts
3/4 teaspoon Nutritional yeast
Salt
Pepper
Garlic salt
Cheese*
Butter
Pasta

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitDrain the chickpeas.  Rinse off the chickpeas.  Put the chickpeas in a large pan.  Turn the heat up somewhat high and let the chickpeas start to dry off.  When they start cooking sprinkle them with salt. Keep the chickpeas moving so that they start to get evenly toasted.  Add a teaspoon of butter.  Keep cooking the chickpeas.  Add a little more salt.  Let them cook more.  Then add some butter.  The chickpeas should be browning a little bit.  Cook the chickpeas to your desired doneness . . . I like them browned and starting to get a crunch.

Drain the chicken, then add it to the pan.  Sprinkle the chicken with garlic salt. Stir up the mixture and cook the chicken a bit.  Canned chicken is already cooked so it doesn’t need that long in the pan, or that high of a heat.  At this point I turned the heat down.

Add the chopped artichoke hearts.  Cook everything until it is hot.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFitWhile the chicken is cooking boil the water for the pasta.  Cook the pasta.  I used linguine because that is what I like.

Once the pasta is cooked to your liking, drain it, then put it on a plate with some butter.  Sprinkle 3/4 of a teaspoon of Nutritional yeast on the pasta.  Then put the chicken mixture on top of the pasta.  Add pepper if you would like and more garlic salt if you feel it needs it.  Grate a small amount of cheese on top.

*I would have liked to have used Parmesan, but all I had was a Cheddar Monterey Jack blend.

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I think this was pretty good.  It is very rich with the beans and the artichokes.  It is super easy.  It was nice because the artichokes gave it a flavor that we don’t always have.  So it was a bit different for us.  I really liked it.

I was going to add some Kalamata olives, but I decided not to.  What do you think?  What kind of pasta would you use?  Now what do I do with the rest of the jar of artichoke hearts?

Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Quick Soak Beans

Posted by terrepruitt on May 11, 2013

As you might know, I purchased some dried garbanzo beans.  I thought I would go the dried bean route and try to avoid the canned because of the stuff they say is in the can that you should avoid.  But then I didn’t know how to process them.  A quick search on the internet said I needed to soak them for at least 4 hours or that I could do a “Quick” Soak Method.  Well, I did the soaking method a few weeks ago and I have been meaning to do the “Quick” Soak Method but I have not had time.  I mean, honestly, putting beans in a bowl and letting them soak for however long—until I am ready to use them—seems so much easier than boiling them on the stove.  Well when I finally went to do the “Quick” Soak Method I looked it up again and one blog said to boil them, rinse them, let them set for an hour, then boil them again, rinse them, let them set for an hour . . . . I was failing to see the QUICK in that method at all.  Then I found one that said boil them until they had little bubbles then let them set for an hour then rinse them. Ok, that is more like it, but still, I had to be in the kitchen to watch for the bubbles.  In the “long” soak method, I left them to soak unsupervised.  I am thinking that the “Quick” Soak Method might be quicker, but to me it is not easier.

So I followed the directions I found on About.com:

Rinse beans in cold water. Put them in a large pot and cover with about 3 inches of cold water. Bring almost to a boil (small bubbles appear around the edges of the pot), cover, and remove from heat. Let sit for 1 hour. Drain. The beans will be “soaked” and ready to cook.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaI actually let them sit for TWO hours because when I poked them they didn’t seem very soft.  What I have been seeing articles say is that if the beans looked shriveled to begin with they will not get soft.  Well, one of the reasons I don’t like beans is because of the texture.  I don’t like soft and mushy.  So I really think I like the dried beans because they don’t get that soft.

This time I managed to NOT burn them when I cooked them.  I like the roasted chickpeas crunchy.  So I really like this dried bean route.  I think I will use them from now on.  I will have a few cans on hand in case I don’t remember to soak them in advance, but really if I don’t remember to soak my beans in advance the “Quick Soak Method” is not going to help me.  It doesn’t really save that much time.  I mean, if the “long” soak method only requires four hours and most “Quick” soaks require at least 90 minutes . . . . I think I can plan ahead.  I might even try freezing some that I have soaked.

Anyway . . . the end result to me, is that either soaking method results in about the same type of textured bean and the “Quick” Soak is not quick or easier enough for me.  I like the put-them-in-a-bowl-full-of-water-and forget-about-them-method better.

Now I need to try it with other beans, right?  Since the only other bean I eat is kidney beans, I will try it with them . . . . eventually.  But I will skip the “Quick Soak Method” and just use the overnight one.

How about you?  Do you have a preferred method for soaking your beans?   

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Dried Garbanzo Beans

Posted by terrepruitt on April 27, 2013

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaYou might have gathered from my posts that I am not a fan of beans.  Beans are great for fiber and protein, but I just don’t like them all that much.  I was sometimes ok with garbanzo beans/chickpeas, but that was it.  I didn’t like any other type of bean, but I went to a friend’s house and she had this yummy two bean salad.  So I decided that I am ok with red kidney beans and garbanzo beans in this salad.  Then I came across a recipe that had kidney beans it in and I decided to use half kidney beans and half garbanzo beans.  This recipe is one of my husband’s and mine favorites.  I also like roasted garbanzo beans.  Recently I was in the area – after teaching a Nia class as a sub in south San Jose –  of a store that I have been hearing a lot about.  It is called Sprouts.  The name is “Sprouts Farmers Market: Healthy, Natural & Organic Grocery Stores”, which I don’t really understand, as it is NOT a farmer’s market and not everything is natural nor organic.  They have the produce section kind of set up like you might imagine a market on an actual farm in that nothing is in nice neat rows and it seems kinda hodgey-podgely put together . . . but that is it.  Their organic section of fruits and vegetables was no larger than the one at my “regular” grocery store.  But whatever, I digress (WHAT? ME?  NO!) . . . my post is actually about that fact that I bought some dried garbanzo beans.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaWhen I first discovered the Red Beans and Rice recipe my friend and I were talking about dried beans and we wondered if we could buy dried garbanzo beans.  Later she reported back that she had seen some in the store.  I had asked my chef friend about them and she gave me some advice on how to process them.  And of course I forgot what she said.  But anyway . . . I finally was in a store that had them when I remembered to look.  So I bought some.

When you look up how to process dried beans on the internet you will probably come across two different methods.  There is the long soak and then the quick soak.  My idea was to do both and then report the results on my blog in one post.  But funny as it sounds, I have not had time — more accurately, I have not made time — to do the quick soak method.  I know, you would think that would be the easiest and fastest one to do.  But to me it was much easier to throw the beans in a bowl and let them soak for 13 hours and 45 minutes.  I’ve read they should soak for at least 4 hours.  Mine just turned into 13 hours plus.

Since I have not yet gotten around to doing the quick soak method I will report on what I found with the long soak method and then when I do the other one I will post about that.

The “long soak” method has no cooking involved.  I was interested in not cooking the beans.  Everything I read said that they double in size.  I don’t recall that happening.  NOTHING I read told me they would pop!  I kept hearing this odd sound and wondering what it was.  If you have a pet you might do as I do and the first thing I do when I hear something unfamiliar is I blame my pet and find her first to see if she was responsible.  But when I heard the pop she was right next to me.  So, I kept thinking it was coming from outside. Finally it dawned on me that it might be the beans and I stood by the bowl until I heard one!

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaI had decided to split the bag in between the two methods.  So I got a huge bowl and put half of my beans in it.  Then I filled it with water.  I did this at 11:00 am on a Friday.  I changed the water twice.  I rinsed the beans both times.  My report is that beans themselves have gas.  My kitchen smelled gassy the whole time the beans were soaking.  I kept lighting a candle.  I drained the beans at 12:45 pm on Saturday.  I decided I was going to roast them.  So I drained them to let them start to dry out.

I roasted them.  They were gorgeous.  I like them because they seem less “mushy” than the canned beans.  And for me “mushy” is part of the reason I don’t like beans.  So I really liked this dried/soaking method.  I left the beans in the oven a tad bit too long.  I was doing too many things at once and when I took them out to check them I forgot to put the timer on when I put them back in.  I realized my error when I smelled burning beans.  So . . . . they are ok, but not as I would have liked them.

The verdict in regards to soaking beans is good.  I am going to do that.  I have a feeling that soaking them will turn out to be easier than the quick soak method.  We will see.

The questions I have been thinking about though is . . . . the canned beans I buy say “Organic” whereas the dried ones I bought did not.  So really which are better?  I will look for organic dried beans, but I am not sure where to find them.  I know I didn’t see them at the “Farmers Market” that claims to have healthy, natural, and organic food.  🙂  Well, at least I didn’t see a sign that claimed the dried beans were organic.

Do you used canned beans or dried?

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Dinner Desperation

Posted by terrepruitt on March 2, 2013

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaFor those of you that cook dinner every night you might understand what I am about to say, “Cooking dinner is difficult.”  Ok, more accurately coming up with ideas of what to cook for dinner is difficult.  I actually have it very easy because my husband would be fine eating the same thing all week then switching to something else the next week.  As long as it was not a vegetarian dish three days in a row.  But I am not happy with that.  As you know if you have read any of my posts about food, I love left overs because they keep me from having to cook or at least keep me from having to start from scratch.  The other night I was really at a loss as to what to prepare for dinner.  It was a Wednesday so I really should have been thinking in terms of cooking for Wednesday so that I could have enough left over for Thursday when I have a late Nia class.  But I couldn’t think “two nights” I just wanted to get through the one night and use the portion of a piece of chicken I had from the night before.  I came up with something that I didn’t even think about being enough for leftovers but it was.  It carried us through two nights.  Asparagus, beans, rice, and chicken.

Another thing you might know about me if you have a read a few of my posts, I LOVE asparagus.  I mean, love, love, love, love.  Once I was asked what food I would want to have given to me free every day and I said asparagus.  But even though I love it, I won’t buy it when it is $8.99 a pound.  I don’t even like to buy it when it is $4.99 a pound.  I might buy it when it is $2.99 a pound, but I like the $1.99 range.  But knowing how much I love it my hubby bought me some recently.  I didn’t ask how much it was.  I just had five pounds of asparagus to eat.  🙂

I often use three servings of meat to make four servings of dinner.  Usually my husband has a serving and I have a good portion of one.  The next night I will use the third serving along with my smaller portion to make another meal.  Well on this night I was using just my left over portion because we had only cooked two servings the night before.  So to me it would be a vegetarian-ish dish.  As it would have way more veggies than meat.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaSo here is my “recipe”

Asparagus, beans, rice, and chicken

—1 tablespoon olive oil
—1/2 of an onion, chopped
—asparagus (2.25 pounds) chopped
—2 teaspoons minced garlic
—1 3/4 cup cooked rice
—2 tablespoons of butter
—3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
—1 15 1/2-ounce can garbanzo beans/chickpeas, drained and rinsed
—3/4th of a LARGE chicken breast, cooked and chopped
—Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
—Garlic Salt, to taste

Heat the olive oil and the chopped onion.  Add the asparagus.  Cook only slightly (because the rice takes a while to heat up).  Sprinkle garlic over asparagus.  Stirring it and allowing it to cook.  Add the rice breaking it up and letting it get soft.  Use the butter to help the rice get moist (might need to use a bit of liquid too).  And the cumin.  When the rice is soft, add the can of garbanzo beans.  Then add the chopped up chicken.  Add pepper and garlic salt to taste.

Since asparagus doesn’t take that long to cook and everything else is ok to eat as is, it is really the rice that needs the most amount of time.  If you are using freshly cooked rice then this would take minutes.  As a note the chicken I used had been seasoned when cooked the night before so that is something to keep in mind when flavoring your dish.

For me it is the beans and the cumin that is “new”.  I have done dishes like this before using other meat.  I think this would also be good with left over pork.

I was thinking of the Red Beans and Rice recipe when I did this, using the beans and the cumin.

We liked it.  What do you think?  Sound easy?  Sound like something you would like?

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A New Recipe To Love – Red Beans and Rice

Posted by terrepruitt on January 15, 2013

For two weeks we didn’t have a working stove or oven.  The oven started beeping one night.  We turned off the circuit breaker and it stopped beeping.  I used it the following night.  But then the day following that it started beeping again.  It beeped and displayed a code.  The code indicated a part was broken.  My husband concluded via internet research and taking the control panel off the appliance that he could order it and replace it himself.  Part of the reason it took two weeks to get fixed was that there was a holiday and a weekend in there.  The part being shipped was delayed because of the Holiday.  By the time we got the part and he was able to put it in, it was the weekend.  The part didn’t clear the error.  Then there were issues in securing a repairman. For those of you that know how much I love my roasted vegetables you might understand having no oven was really difficult for me.  Roasted veggies are not only yummy, but so easy to make.  A few minutes prep then in the oven until they are done leaving you time to do other things.  That is why I love my oven.  During the two weeks we ate take out.  We ordered Chinese Food, which for us equates to a few nights of Chinese Food.  I also used my toaster oven, my electric skillet, my crock pot, and my Cuisinart Grill.  So it was not as if I had no way to cook, it just put a cramp in my cooking a bit.  On the nights I have a Nia class I like to put our dinner in the oven and have it turn on about the time that class is over.  Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaBy the time I get home whatever is cooking is either done or on its way to being done.  Without that I had to come home and start cooking.  But alas I have a stove and oven again.  YAY!  I missed them.  While I was not being able to use my stove and oven I tortured myself by looking at a cooking magazine.  As soon as my stove was fixed I decided to try a new recipe.

The recipe is from Bobby Deen.  I got it out of the Food Network Magazine.   The name of the recipe is Monday-Night Red Beans and Rice and is on the Food Network website.

Not your typical Red Beans and Rice recipe. I made some adjustments, of course!  I am posting it here as I did made it.  I am calling it something different too!

Sausage, Beans, and Rice

Ingredients:

—Three turns of the pan Olive oil
—3/4 medium onion, finely chopped
—8 turkey sausage patties
—1 large green bell pepper, finely chopped
—2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
—1 15 1/2-ounce can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
—1 15 1/2-ounce can garbanzo beans/chickpeas, drained and rinsed
—1/2 cup chicken broth
—1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
—1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
—1 bay leaf
—Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
—Salt, to taste
—Cooked brown rice
—Chopped scallions, for serving

Directions

Cook the onion in the olive oil over medium-high heat.  Add the sausage, chopping it up and separating it as it cooks.  Stirring it and moving it around as necessary.  Cook until almost cooked through.  Add the garlic.  Mix the garlic into the onions and meat.  Cook for about 1 minute.  Add the beans, chicken broth, cumin, thyme, bay leaf, green pepper, salt to taste, and pepper to taste.  Stir the ingredients until it is all mixed well.  Reduce heat and cover.  Let cook about 10 minutes.

Serve the mixture over rice.  Top with the scallions.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaThis was so good.  I used my beloved 14 inch pan that I missed for two whole weeks.  Once the beans were added my stirring was gentle as I didn’t want to end up with smashed beans, but I also wanted to make sure the spices were distributed and the bay leaf touched a lot of the ingredients.  So I stirred a lot, but not vigorously.

My typical spices consist of garlic and onions.  I didn’t even have cumin.  I had to buy it with the sausage and onion.  Yeah, I was out of onion.  I have a stock of kidney beans and garbanzo bean.  I have them both for the bean salad I like.  Plus I love to roast the garbanzos.

I actually DID put pepper in this while I was cooking it.  For those of you that know me (either in person or through my blog) you know I don’t like pepper/spicy hot, but the pepper my friend gave me (SMOKED PEPPER) I can handle a little bit of.  So I put a little in the pan while I was cooking.  When I served it to my husband I put a lot of pepper on his.  While he was eating it he kept saying he was surprised I could eat it.  He thought it was too hot for me.  I had him taste mine . . . . which had NO extra pepper and he said the flavor was a little different.  So maybe the pepper brings out a different flavor.

Either way, we both loved it and I can see this becoming one of those meals I cook often.  I can see experiments with different sausages and no meat at all.

I can also see me cooking more with cumin.

Do you like red kidney beans?  Do you like garbanzo beans?  Doesn’t this sound tasty?

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Birthday Puts Me In The Green

Posted by terrepruitt on September 25, 2012

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaThis year my husband was really on the ball.  In July he started asking me what I wanted for my birthday.  Since going out of town isn’t something we have in our budget, I thought about it for a bit, then decided that is what I wanted to do for my birthday.  I wanted to go to a bed a breakfast place on the coast that we both love.  So I got my heart set on a weekend at THAT particular bed and breakfast. When I looked it up on the internet I was happy to see it is still there, however, it is no longer a bed and breakfast establishment.  The house is for rent as a vacation rental, but it is no longer a place to rent a room for the weekend.  I was sad.  I was so bummed that one of our places is gone.  Plus I was bummed because I had to come up with something else for my birthday.  He asked me every month.  I thought I had found something, but then circumstances changed and so that didn’t work out.  Then I remembered there was a time when I entertained the thought of one of those super blenders.  But really, to me that is an outrageous purchase unless you are really going to use it.  Having it sit in my cupboard would be a waste.  In my opinion there are a lot of things that are outrageous if they just sit and not get used, but when I use things often I feel I get my money’s worth.  I would like to include more vegetables in my diet.  I like to serve a green salad every night and a vegetable, so I was thinking another way to add fruits and vegetables would be to make green smoothies.  I don’t drink fruit smoothies so I really wanted to TRY a green one before I had my hubby make the investment.  I hear that green smoothies are an acquired taste and I don’t just want to blend fruit.  I want more veggies than fruit.  But then I started looking at some recipes online of other things I could make in a “super blender”.  I think I have posted about how my hummus is not smooth.  I made a joke about being the inventor of “whole bean” hummus — which is basically just chickpeas.  So I thought I could use the power of a super blender to make hummus.  So I decided to ask for a blender for my birthday.

When I received my blender I didn’t have any greens, but I was going to get some delivered the very next day.  In my box I received a new-to-me veggie.  The box contained Rainbow Chard and so I thought I could put that in my first smoothie.  I think of it as a fruit smoothie with some green since it really didn’t have that much green.  I am breaking myself in slowly — as has been suggested.

Another suggestion that I have seen on various website is that if it is an “ugly” green smoothie put it in a mug and if it is a “pretty” green smoothie use a pretty glass.  I think that is just the type of silly suggestion I can follow.  It makes an odd kind of sense.

Well so far I have used my blender four times.  I am sure you are going to hear about each time in future posts.  Well, perhaps not all four times . . . but maybe, we will see.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaSo my first fruit/”green” smoothie was:

1 Cup water
1/2 of apple chopped
1 banana (sliced)
1 leaf of rainbow chard (cut up)

My blender has a smoothie button so I just used that and it worked great.  There were NO chunks at all.  What I really love and was somewhat surprised to see is, it comes out frothy!

I think my first “green” smoothie was pretty good.  Although, I think that one leaf of green and 1.5 “fruits” is a larger fruit ratio than I want to stick with.  I am going to work my way up to more greens and less fruit.  My idea is to like and drink the more-veggie-than-fruit smoothies, but also enjoy the more-fruit-than-veggie smoothies when I feel the desire.

I am thinking I might have a smoothie before Nia, but I am not sure.  I usually try not to drink so much liquid before class.  🙂

Have you heard of these blenders that blend SMOOTH smoothies?

Posted in "Recipes", Food, Smoothies, Vegetables | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments »

Tahini Makes The Hummus

Posted by terrepruitt on June 14, 2012

dance exercise, Nia, Nia teacher, Nia class, Nia San JoseI recently tried my hand at making hummus.  I have made it a few times and I keep adjusting the recipe.  The first time it seemed a bit too bitter and sour so I decided the next time I would put in less tahini and lemon.  So I put in less tahini, lemon, and salt and I put in a lot of raw garlic.  Woooeeeee!  That made it kind of spicy and really strong.  Our refrigerator smelled of such strong garlic.  I was thinking that if I cooked the garlic before putting it in the hummus it would make it more mellow.  I was making it in a kitchen other than my own and I forgot my garlic press so I really felt I needed to cook the garlic before putting it in.  This third batch was the best so far.  In addition to the sauteed garlic I was able to use a food processor.  The food processor really made a big difference.  The time before when I used my blender there were many whole beans left.  The blender does not get the beans as well as the food processor.  But I do believe the key ingredient is the tahini.  Despite the fact that it really bitter it has the flavor that makes hummus taste like hummus to me.

dance exercise, Nia, Nia class, Nia teacher, San Jose NiaTahini is ground sesame seeds.  The jar states this tahini is made of roasted then ground sesame seeds.  I am not usually a fan of sesame seeds.  If given a choice I would not eat them, but I do believe they are an important ingredient in hummus.  As I said, I think tahini is the ingredient that gives the hummus that familiar-to-me flavor.dance exercise, Nia, Nia class, Nia Teacher, Nia San Jose

I also think the tahini is the main reason why hummus is a bit high in fat.  The beans themselves have fat, garbanzo beans have 2 grams of fat per half of a cup.  The tahini has 19 grams of fat per 2 tablespoons.  That is a lot of fat.  There is a lot of protein in both the beans and the tahini.  The beans have 7 grams per 1/2 cup and the tahini has 6 grams of protein per 2 tablespoons.  Hummus is a great source of protein.

There is hardly any sodium in the tahini which I think is a good thing because it allows for control of the sodium content in the hummus.  The first batch I made seemed very salty to me so I was able to adjust it with each successive batch.

The marketing on the jar of tahini states that it is a good source of iron and calcium, but it is only 4% of the recommended daily value.  Combined with the beans I think hummus is a good source of iron, but I don’t feel it is high in calcium.

I like to eat hummus as a dip.  I dip veggies in it.  I also like to eat it with pita bread or even corn chips.  I also like to use it as a mayonnaise replacement.  I put it on sandwiches instead of using mayo.  It helps to add a bit of protein and fiber to a sandwich.  Also having the hummus with the tahini in it really adds an additional layer of flavor to a sandwich.  I really think that the tahini is the key to a flavorful hummus.

Are you familiar with tahini?  Do you make your hummus with or without tahini? 

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Homemade Hummus – Needs Some Work

Posted by terrepruitt on May 15, 2012

You know I started this blog to share things with you.  I wanted to share about Nia, exercises, things I think are healthy, and stuff I learn.  I don’t think I had thought about posting recipes, but I probably didn’t think I would limit myself from doing so.  It is funny that food posts get the most views and even more fun spark the most conversations.  (I love the bloggey conversations.)  We love our food, huh?  It is universal.  Everyone eats.  Not everyone works out, not everyone dances, not everyone goes to exercise classes, and not everyone does Nia, but everyone eats.  Even though we all eat different things it is still something that we all have in common.

Dance Exercies, Nia, Nia Campbell, Campbell Nia, Nia classes in Campbell, evening Nia, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia,As you might have noticed, when I try a new recipe, or just try making something I sometimes like to share.   Even if the recipe still needs some adjustments I have to start somewhere.  I like to post my recipes because I find myself using my blog when I am going to make something.  I can even be at the store and get the idea that I want to make a certain recipe then I think, “Shoot I don’t know what it is in . . . . ahhhh, but I posted it on my blog!”  So I use my blog at the store to grocery shop sometimes.   Here is a recipe of something that I made that I need to work on.

I haven’t always liked hummus, but once I started eating it.  I really liked it.  There is a brand that my husband found that is really good.  It is smooth and creamy.  We used to eat it often.  But it has Canola Oil in it.  I prefer not to eat Canola oil.  I have always wanted to make my own hummus so I thought not eating our favorite brand would inspire me.  It did not.  My issue was tahini.  I don’t think of tahini.  So when I go to the store I am not thinking, “Oh yeah, I need tahini.”  I know you can make hummus without it.  I believe my friend makes hummus all the time and she never used tahini.  I haven’t tasted her hummus that I can remember so I don’t know if it is good without tahini or not.

The other day I was online and I actually bought tahini.  I decided on wanted to finally make some hummus.  There are a lot of recipes out there for hummus so I took some ideas from several of them.  I need to work on it.

Dance Exercies, Nia, Nia Campbell, Campbell Nia, Nia classes in Campbell, evening Nia, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia,I used:

2 cups canned garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained
3 teaspoons liquid from the beans
1/3 cup tahini
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 tablespoon garlic flavored olive oil

I put everything in the blender and blended until smooth.

I prefer my hummus a little more smooth and actually creamy, but the blender was making odd noises so I didn’t want to push it too far.

First of all I think it is too salty.  Next time I am going to use less salt and less tahini.  I am also going to use less lemon juice.  I am also going to use fresh garlic.  I used some we have from a jar.

Not too bad for my first try, but not so great.  But sometimes I just need to get in there and do it — make the recipe — so I can see it is easy to do so then I can play with it and make adjustments.

Do you like hummus?  Do you make your own?

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