Cumin. I don't know why it took me this long to figure it out. It's not in a lot of recipes, so I'd make hummus and it just didn't taste quite right. I'd add more garlic, more lemon, more tahini, more salt, and it still tasted, as James put it, like canned garbanzo beans. Edible, but not great.
Then, when I was following the Ornish super-low-fat-reverse-heart-disease diet, I followed his recipe for hummus, which had no tahini and no oil but had a healthy amount of cumin. And even James liked it, which is saying a lot. Ok, so I added a touch of tahini--just enough to add that smoky slightly bitter tinge that makes hummus so wonderful. And now I add cumin to hummus even when the recipe doesn't call for it, and it makes all the difference.
And today I used my fresh hummus in a very tasty dish: Mediterranean pita "pizza" (a slightly modified version of a recipe from my friend Heidi Herway). Toasted pita, hummus, chopped tomatoes tossed with s&p and dried basil, and feta. Then put under the broiler until the tomatoes warm up a little and the cheese melts. YUM!! Holy cow, this was just what I wanted today. Warm and creamy and tomato-y and very satisfying.
In Atty news, he's figured out how to pull a chair over to the counter to get things previously out of reach. Which brings on that motherly mix of feelings--pride and thrill at his accomplishments, and dread that now nothing will be out of reach.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Lunch!
Lunch today was so tasty I just had to share. I guess you could call it a Southwest chicken salad, but I just threw it together: baby spinach, black beans, chicken breast, red peppers, avocado, and a dressing of sour cream and salsa. YUM!! I enjoyed every bite.
And it was just 450 calories! Even with full-fat sour cream!
I've started a new diet. Yes, I know, diets don't work long-term, but I'm going for a short-term fix here. See, I'll be baring my tummy in a belly dancing festival in 4 1/2 weeks, and my tummy isn't ready to be bared. So I'm hoping to lose about 10 lbs before then.
Which means I'm working out more and eating more carefully. I'm following the Prevention "Flat Belly Diet," which can be summed up as four 400-calorie meals a day, each of which must contain a "MUFA", or monounsaturated fatty acid rich food (nuts, avocado, olives, olive or canola oil, dark chocolate).
Limiting my calories to 1600 per day is doable but more challenging than I expected. Getting to eat foods I love (nuts, avocado, olives, and dark chocolate) makes it much easier than it would be otherwise.
So far the pounds aren't melting off as quickly as I'd like them to, but I am moving incrementally in the direction I want to go. Wish me luck!
And it was just 450 calories! Even with full-fat sour cream!
I've started a new diet. Yes, I know, diets don't work long-term, but I'm going for a short-term fix here. See, I'll be baring my tummy in a belly dancing festival in 4 1/2 weeks, and my tummy isn't ready to be bared. So I'm hoping to lose about 10 lbs before then.
Which means I'm working out more and eating more carefully. I'm following the Prevention "Flat Belly Diet," which can be summed up as four 400-calorie meals a day, each of which must contain a "MUFA", or monounsaturated fatty acid rich food (nuts, avocado, olives, olive or canola oil, dark chocolate).
Limiting my calories to 1600 per day is doable but more challenging than I expected. Getting to eat foods I love (nuts, avocado, olives, and dark chocolate) makes it much easier than it would be otherwise.
So far the pounds aren't melting off as quickly as I'd like them to, but I am moving incrementally in the direction I want to go. Wish me luck!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
He's a Lefty!
I swear I didn't just put the pen in his left hand. James accuses me of tying Atty's right hand down during the day, but that's also a lie. He comes by this gift naturally. :)
But it would also be a lie to say I'm not a little proud, even though it's a random genetic trait I have no control over. I'm a little weird that way.
But it would also be a lie to say I'm not a little proud, even though it's a random genetic trait I have no control over. I'm a little weird that way.Monday, January 25, 2010
His Latest Tricks
Take one....
Take two...success!
He didn't do it in this video, but on previous successes he'd do this little happy dance on the bed, then throw himself onto his back.
And finally some more love for Mama.
The Many Faces of Atty
Here are some recent pictures you might enjoy.
I don't remember why he's upset, but how can you resist that face?
I have croup. Pity me.
I don't remember why he's upset, but how can you resist that face?
I'm back
After almost four months hiatus, I've decided to start posting stuff here again. Atty is just too dang cute to contain. And he's growing so fast, I need to document it somewhere and share it with anyone who cares. So there.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Food Hoarder
Please forgive the long post. This has been on my mind and writing usually helps me figure things out. I welcome your input as well. :)
I'm trying to figure out my relationship with food. I don't mean in a diet way, like food for comfort or food as the enemy. I've got that figured out and feel that I have a pretty healthy diet psyche, thank you very much.
No, it's food storage and gardening and home canning that I'm trying to figure out. Sure, I'm Mormon, so all those things have been important my whole life. But the mystery is why I have such an emotional connection to it all. I mean, nothing makes me happier and feel more secure than a full pantry and a full fridge. It's a deep, to-the-core thrill, yet somehow it never feels like enough.
My sister introduced me to a book that totally feeds that need: How to Grow More Vegetables... Sure there are lots of chapters on soil prep and composting and all that, but the chapter that takes my breath away is the one with sample garden plans for a year-round garden that will supply all of your food needs for a year. I study those diagrams with glee and fantasize about the mini farm I'll have one day, when I add chickens and beehives and maybe a few goats to the mix. It really wouldn't take that much land, except for the goats. It thrills me to think of buying and filling a chest freezer and basement shelves with summer produce and using it all winter.
Yes, I know that this plan requires a great deal of dirty work, both in the gardening and the canning and freezing. But it's work I want to do, and it's the kind of work that makes me feel competent and human and alive.
But gardening and canning aside, I'm also feeling more urgent about a basic year's supply of staples and a three-month supply of standard meals. I get the same feeling about my savings accounts, and I'm having major conflict at the thought of pulling money from savings to buy food storage. Which is more important right now? Which will make me feel more secure--the food or the money?
What I'm trying to figure out is my motivation for all this. Several people I know who have a lot of food storage are preparing for "the big one," a major disaster or food shortage or political uprising. I'm not really concerned about those things. I mean, if the fault line we're sitting on goes active, our foundationless 100-year-old house and all the food storage in it will be reduced to a pile of sticks and rubble in two seconds flat. And I have no desire to move out to the middle of nowhere and start stockpiling guns to keep marauders at bay.
And it's not like I ever went hungry growing up. There were a lot of us, and there were never enough mashed potatoes no matter how huge a bowl of them my mom brought to the table (we really like mashed potatoes), but we always had enough to eat. So that's not it.
What do you think it is?
I'm trying to figure out my relationship with food. I don't mean in a diet way, like food for comfort or food as the enemy. I've got that figured out and feel that I have a pretty healthy diet psyche, thank you very much.
No, it's food storage and gardening and home canning that I'm trying to figure out. Sure, I'm Mormon, so all those things have been important my whole life. But the mystery is why I have such an emotional connection to it all. I mean, nothing makes me happier and feel more secure than a full pantry and a full fridge. It's a deep, to-the-core thrill, yet somehow it never feels like enough.
My sister introduced me to a book that totally feeds that need: How to Grow More Vegetables... Sure there are lots of chapters on soil prep and composting and all that, but the chapter that takes my breath away is the one with sample garden plans for a year-round garden that will supply all of your food needs for a year. I study those diagrams with glee and fantasize about the mini farm I'll have one day, when I add chickens and beehives and maybe a few goats to the mix. It really wouldn't take that much land, except for the goats. It thrills me to think of buying and filling a chest freezer and basement shelves with summer produce and using it all winter.
Yes, I know that this plan requires a great deal of dirty work, both in the gardening and the canning and freezing. But it's work I want to do, and it's the kind of work that makes me feel competent and human and alive.
But gardening and canning aside, I'm also feeling more urgent about a basic year's supply of staples and a three-month supply of standard meals. I get the same feeling about my savings accounts, and I'm having major conflict at the thought of pulling money from savings to buy food storage. Which is more important right now? Which will make me feel more secure--the food or the money?
What I'm trying to figure out is my motivation for all this. Several people I know who have a lot of food storage are preparing for "the big one," a major disaster or food shortage or political uprising. I'm not really concerned about those things. I mean, if the fault line we're sitting on goes active, our foundationless 100-year-old house and all the food storage in it will be reduced to a pile of sticks and rubble in two seconds flat. And I have no desire to move out to the middle of nowhere and start stockpiling guns to keep marauders at bay.
And it's not like I ever went hungry growing up. There were a lot of us, and there were never enough mashed potatoes no matter how huge a bowl of them my mom brought to the table (we really like mashed potatoes), but we always had enough to eat. So that's not it.
What do you think it is?
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