an adventure in hummus making

As I mentioned in my last post I decided to try to make my own hummus. This was partly due to the fact that it's insanely overpriced, and also because I'm trying to choose cleaner foods with less processing.

I decided to use dry chick peas rather than canned (again to decrease preservatives) so it was difficult to find an exact recipe. Most recipes called for one can of chickpeas, or a specific amount of ounces. And being Canadian I was like 'ounces?!? what!??' so I ended up looking at a bunch of recipes and just kind of winging it. Will it taste good, will it be bad... who knows!!

For my recipe I used dry chick peas, tahini, juice from a lemon, fresh garlic, salt, cumin, olive oil and water.

Nuts to You Nut Butter - made in Canada! cost, aprox $6.50 for  500g

I started by soaking 1 cup of dry chick peas over night. I then cooked the chick peas on the stove, by boiling  chick peas in water, then letting them simmer for an hour, then letting them cool. Some recipes said that by removing the skins of the chickpeas will lead to a smoother end product. I thought this would decrease the amount of fiber and who really wants to peel chick peas?!

I then used a magic bullet blender to mash the chick peas. I had originally thought I'd be able to mash them with a fork... definitely not. It would have been really difficult and would have taken forever. Most recipes call for a food processor but some type of blender would definitely work!

After this was definitely a bit of a guessing game. In the end I ended up adding approx 1 cup of water, 2 tbsp of cumin, 1/8-1/4 cup of olive oil, the juice from one lemon, three cloves of garlic and 1 tsp of salt. I ended up putting it back in the magic bullet with the liquids added in order to get it as smooth as possible.

It tastes great but... different. I am just so used to the taste of canned chick peas that even the plain, cooked chick peas tasted pretty different to me. I will definitely make it again... especially since I have an entire bag of chick peas left haha. AND 1 cup of dried peas made about 3 cups of hummus! WAY cheaper than the store made version.  So cheaper and healthy gets two thumbs up from me.

Have you ever tried to make anything from scratch that you usually purchase?

hello again!

I have not disappeared! I promise! I have still been here, thinking about updating. MEANING to update, but then it just didn't happen. Until now!

I have been maintaining my gym routine; however have become more relaxed than I have been in the past. I've been attending Zumba, Body Combat and Body Pump on a regular basis. AND I even went running this week... MIRACLE! It has been quite awhile. I was definitely sore the next day but it was a lot easier than I thought it would be, which I was very thankful about. I went at the KC Irving Center in Bathurst, which I have posted about previously. And for extra motivation it was a gorgeous day here in Halifax. Hoping that this continues so I can start to feel comfortable running outside again.

I wanted to update all of you with some food I've been eating lately. I recently did some experimenting with a sweet potato burrito:

I boiled and mashed a large sweet potato, adding to it both cumin and cinnamon. I put it in a tortilla wrap, topped with black beans, salsa and spinach. And it was FANTASTIC!! It was super filling and delicious. You definitely need salsa with this wrap, as the beans and sweet potato can be a little dry together. Sassy salsa is a locally made salsa that I discovered at the local market, and I am in love. Going to pick up more this weekend. It has a spicy sweet flavor that it just perfect.


I will be updating more soon with more recipes, food I've been eating, and upcoming races! And stay tuned, I'm going to try to make my own hummus this weekend. Should be exciting!