Hummus: A Great Snack

Hummus makes a great snack. I like to eat hummus with baked pita chips. It is also good on sandwiches in place of mayonnaise. Or you can use fresh vegetables to scoop up the hummus. Homemade hummus is much better than what you can buy in the store. Plus it is supper easy to make.

Hummus
1 lemon, juiced
2 tablespoon tahini (sesame seed paste—usually with the peanut butter)
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 (15.5 ounce) can chickpeas/garbanzo beans, drained
¼ cup olive oil

Combine ingredients except olive oil in a food processor, and process until smooth. With the machine running, slowly add ¼ cup olive oil.

Preparing the Perfect Pizza: The Search for the Best Pizza Crust

Like most American families, pizza is an important part of our diet. I prefer to make my own—it tastes better and isn’t so greasy (and its cheap). But I have yet to find the perfect pizza crust recipe. The recipe I normally use is OK but it needs more flavor. So I have begun my quest for the perfect pizza dough.

And I might have found a winner already. The following recipe creates a great pizza crust that is flavorful and light. I used the pizza dough to create two, thin crust, 16 inch pizzas. Or you could use the dough to create one pan pizza and still have enough pizza dough left over for a small personal pizza.

1 package active dry or fresh yeast
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup warm water, 105 to 115 degrees
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus additional for brushing
Toppings of your choice

In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast and honey in 1/4-cup warm water. In a mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine the flour and the salt. Add the oil, the yeast mixture, and the remaining 3/4 cup of water and mix on low speed until the dough comes cleanly away from the sides of the bowl and clusters around the dough hook, about 5 minutes.

Knead the dough in the mixer (or by hand if you prefer) until the dough is smooth and firm (about 2-3 minutes in mixer). Cover the dough with a clean, damp towel and let it rise in a warm spot for about 45 minutes. (When ready, the dough will stretch as it is lightly pulled).

Divide the dough into 2 balls. Work each ball by pulling down the sides and tucking under the bottom of the ball. Repeat 4 or 5 times. Then on a smooth, unfloured surface, roll the ball under the palm of your hand until the top of the dough is smooth and firm, about 1 minute. Cover the dough with a damp towel and let rest 15 to 20 minutes. At this point, the balls can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 days.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. To prepare each pizza crust, dip the ball of pizza dough into flour, shake off the excess flour, place the dough on a clean, lightly floured surface, and start to stretch the dough. Press down on the center, spreading the dough into a 16 inch circle. Place the crust on your pizza pan. Lightly brush the inner circle of the dough with oil. Place the pizza crust in the oven for 7 minutes (until it starts to lightly brown). Note: At this point, when you remove the crust from the oven, you could then freeze the crust of future use.

Remove the crust from the oven. Spread your pizza sauce on the crust and arrange the toppings of your choice over the sauce. Return to oven for an additional 7 minutes or until crust is browned and toppings are bubbly. Remove from oven, and cut into slices with a pizza cutter or very sharp knife. Serve immediately.

Pizza Sauce: Quick, Easy, and Chunky

2 cloves garlic, minced
½ Tablespoon olive oil
1 can diced Italian style tomatoes
Pinch of red pepper flakes
2 Teaspoons sugar
Salt to taste
1 Tbsp tomato paste

Saute garlic in olive oil until it begins to brown. To the pan, add diced tomatoes, red pepper, sugar, and salt. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add the tomato paste. Simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from heat.

Note: If you like a lot of sauce on your pizzas, this recipe will not make enough. You will need to add ½ a small can of tomato sauce to the recipe. If you add additional sauce, you may want to add more seasonings.

Stir Fry: My Secret Dinner Weapon

One of my secret weapons for weeknight dinners is stir fries. They are quick, tasty, healthy, and relatively cheap. Plus you can easily customize a stir fry with the vegetables that your family will eat.

The key to quick stir fries is precut veggies and meat. If you spend 15 minutes slicing and dicing, then a stir fry isn’t quick. In my grocery store’s meat department, I can find small trays of “stir fry” beef that is precut (I can get enough for 4 servings for about $2.50). They also have similar packages of chicken and pork.

You can use a bag of frozen veggies but I prefer fresh (frozen veggies aren’t as crisp). And you can get just about all the fresh veggies you need precut—broccoli, chopped cabbage (coleslaw mix), cauliflower, carrots, bell peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Also, don’t feel constrained by what the recipe calls for; use the veggies that your family likes.

Asian Seasonings
Most stir fries include a few basic ingredients that many of us don’t normally have in our pantry. But you can easily find these ingredients at the supermarket. If you want to cook stir fries frequently, you will need the following items in your pantry/refrigerator (these are used in almost all stir fry recipes): soy sauce, sesame oil, fresh garlic (I buy the jars of preminced garlic), and fresh ginger (you can use dried but fresh is best). There are also a few other ingredients that are frequently used: stir fry sauce, teriyaki sauce, hoisin sauce, and black bean sauce.

Making Stir Fries Healthier
Stir fries are pretty healthy but you can make them even healthier. Instead of stir frying the vegetables, steam them and add them to the dish after you cook the meat and sauce. If you aren’t stir frying the vegetables with the meat, you can sometimes reduce the amount of oil you use or just use non-stick spray.

Suggested Stir Fry Recipes
I typically make stir fry once a week. In order to keep from getting bored with it, I have several different recipes that I like each with a different flavor. Also, I don’t always use rice. Instead I often use noodles. You can use Chinese noodles, but I use multigrain spaghetti. Here are a few of my favorite recipes. For variety, you can substitute any combination of meat and veggies.

Broccoli Beef

2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons fat-free Italian dressing
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon ground ginger (or use fresh ginger)
3/4 pound round steak, cut into strips
6 cups water
5 cubes beef bouillon
4 ounces pasta*
1/2 cup fat free beef broth
1/2 cup sliced green onion
1 pound broccoli, separated into florets
1 cup small fresh mushrooms

In a shallow glass dish or bowl, stir together the soy sauce, Italian dressing, cornstarch, garlic and ginger. Place steak strips in the mixture to marinate for 15 minutes.

While the beef is marinating, combine the bouillon cubes and water in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, and add pasta. Cook for about 8 minutes, or until al dente. Drain.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place beef and marinade in the hot skillet. Cook beef, stirring constantly for 2 to 3 minutes, or until mostly browned (be careful not to overcook or it will become tough). Stir in the beef broth (I just use ½ cup of the water from the pasta), mushrooms, and green onions. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for about 5 minutes. Remove lid, add broccoli, and cook until broccoli is bright green and tender but still crisp. Add drained pasta, toss, and serve.
*Either use Chinese noodles, spaghetti, or linguine. But you could also leave the noodles out and serve it over rice.

Orange Teriyaki Beef with Noodles

Spicy Peanut Chicken

Pork and Black Bean Sauce

Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips

As I have said earlier, I loooove cookies and this is the best recipe for oatmeal cookie with chocolate chips that I have found (it is especially good for people who don't like raisins or oatmeal raisin cookies).

The cookies come out fairly flat and crispy. Usually I am not a fan of crispy cookies, but these were fantastic. And the chopped nuts just made it even better. The flavor, the texture, ohhh I am hungry just thinking about them.

Oatmeal Cookies with Chocolate Chips

1 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Beat together the butter and the sugars until creamy. Mix in the egg, milk, and vanilla and mix well. Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt; stir until well blended. Mix in oatmeal. Add in chocolate chips and nuts. Drop spoonfuls of dough onto greased cookies sheet. Bake for 9-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on pan for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack.

Barilla Plus Pasta

In my attempts to eat healthy and, therefore, eat more fiber, I have tried every whole wheat pasta out there. But, until now, I haven't liked any pasta that promises to be higher in fiber. But the Barilla Plus pasta is EXCELLENT. Barilla Plus is actually an "enriched multigrain pasta." It contains a "grain and legume flour blend" that contributes to its higher fiber content (2 oz contains 4g of fiber, 200 calories, and 1g fat).

I bought the thin spaghetti (thinner high fiber pasta is usually more palatable). I think that the flavor is better than regular pasta. I used it with regular spaghetti sauce, vodka sauce, and Alfredo sauce. The flavor was good with all of them (I never thought that whole wheat pasta tasted good with Alfredo sauce). I will definitely be buying this exclusively in the future.

PS–This is also a great product for women who are about to be or are pregnant because it contains 30% of the RDA of folic acid.