Motivation

While my absences from blogging have very often been a result of feeling bad, the latest absence was nothing of the sort.  I’m feeling so energized these days – kind of like I could take on the world.  I haven’t been eating perfectly “on track” but I also haven’t been eating garbage or binging – that’s success in my books! Eight pounds down, and…well….lots to go – but I’m okay with that.

I’m already eagerly anticipating spring’s arrival, and plan to start my seeds for the garden this weekend, and get started on raised beds for the garden in the next couple of weeks.  This time of year you’ll find me dreaming about home improvement projects, things to do around the yard, and spending copious amounts of money on vegetable seeds and garden gadgets I don’t really need.  We have a huge yard, and I while I sometimes I wish we had a small postage stamp lawn that could be perfectly kept, that would mean no room for the kids to play, and no room for sandboxes and wood swing sets.

Am I the only one who’s officially done with winter? This afternoon’s sunshine was so invigorating, and the whole house ended up clean – imagine that! I’m actually OFF tomorrow, and I have plans to make chocolate chip cookies with Mimi and I want to tackle a new recipe tomorrow.  I’m not sure yet what that will be, but I am in the mood to experiment! Any suggestions for something fun to cook or bake? Nothing’s off limits!

When Motivation Returns

While my absences from blogging have very often been a result of feeling bad, the latest absence was nothing of the sort.  I’m feeling so energized these days – kind of like I could take on the world.  I haven’t been eating perfectly “on track” but I also haven’t been eating garbage or binging – that’s success in my books! Eight pounds down, and…well….lots to go – but I’m okay with that.

I’m already eagerly anticipating spring’s arrival, and plan to start my seeds for the garden this weekend, and get started on raised beds for the garden in the next couple of weeks.  This time of year you’ll find me dreaming about home improvement projects, things to do around the yard, and spending copious amounts of money on vegetable seeds and garden gadgets I don’t really need.  We have a huge yard, and I while I sometimes I wish we had a small postage stamp lawn that could be perfectly kept, that would mean no room for the kids to play, and no room for sandboxes and wood swing sets.

Am I the only one who’s officially done with winter? This afternoon’s sunshine was so invigorating, and the whole house ended up clean – imagine that! I’m actually OFF tomorrow, and I have plans to make chocolate chip cookies with Mimi and I want to tackle a new recipe tomorrow.  I’m not sure yet what that will be, but I am in the mood to experiment! Any suggestions for something fun to cook or bake? Nothing’s off limits!

Two Pies for the Price of One

One of the joys of having a three year old is the need for “dip” with everything you serve.  If she’s in one of those moods, she’ll ask for dip for her oatmeal. Don’t ask. 

Dip around here doesn’t have to be anything fancy, in fact, her favourite thing to dip veggies in is homemade guacamole or hummus.  You can’t complain about that!

The last week I decided to try an experiment and eat only vegan foods.  My first thought was that I would die without yogurt, but Liane and Sarah responded to my frightened tweets and insisted they too were yogurt addicts and didn’t miss it at all. Hmmmm….

I figured the easiest way to not eat yogurt was to not have it in the house, which was a problem for Mimi who suddenly decided this was one of those weeks where she needed fruit “dip”.  Without yogurt I had to think outside the box, but didn’t have to look far for the perfect solution!

Jessica, who is now off getting hitched in Mexico (congratulations!) posted a recipe from Evan’s blog and it got me thinking.  I had made his delicious Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Dessert Hummus back in August when he first posted it, and had forgotten all about it.  It was well received around here, so I thought I’d try it again.

Once again, everyone loved it. The ingredients are simple, the process is easy, and as soon as that batch was gone, my brain was thinking about how to adapt this recipe to make some new, fun flavours.  I had a giant container of homemade apple sauce in the fridge, so the decision was easy – Apple Pie Dessert Hummus it was!

  I made my apple sauce in the crockpot, and all that I used as frozen chopped apples, juice from one lemon, 2 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of nutmeg.  Cooked it on high for about 8 hours, and stirred it about once an hour.  I like my apple sauce more like thin apple butter, and it works perfectly for this recipe!

The base of this recipe is, obviously, chickpeas – 2 cups to be exact.

I did mine in my Blendtec, but you could use a food processor if you have one kickin’ around.

Start to puree the chickpeas, and add 1 1/4 cup of thick apple sauce (you can use apple butter if you have it on hand, and the flavour it much  more intense).  If you don’t have any, you can put your regular ol’ apple sauce in a sauce pan and simmer, stirring frequently, until it reaches the consistency you’re looking for.  It’s that easy.

I added 2 tsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp of nutmeg, a pinch of salt, and 1/8 tsp of all spice.  At this point, you can add 2 tbsp of maple syrup for some sweetness, and 1 tsp of vanilla and puree away.  If it’s too thick, you can add some apple juice 1 tbsp at a time.

If you’re still with me, I commend you.  So far this sounds and looks kind of awful, but trust me, it’s not.

The result is not pretty, but oh my, it’s tasty!

Mimi happily dipped her fruit in this….and her fingers…..and her spoon.

I mentioned earlier that you need 2 cups of chickpeas for this recipe, and just for the record, you can get 2 cups from 1 can of chickpeas….so don’t open two.  Not that I did or anything.  Okay, you caught me, I did.  So, to use up the other 2 cups, I grabbed some pumpkin butter out of the freezer to see if I could make some Pumpkin Pie Dessert Hummus.

By the way, I made the pumpkin butter exactly the same way I made the apple sauce/butter.  Slow cooker style.

I substituted the pumpkin butter for the apple sauce, and made something I can only describe as amazing.

I liked the Apple Pie version, but I am in L.O.V.E. with the Pumpkin Pie variety.Next time I’m going to try adding slightly less liquid, but these are still fantastic.  I would sit down and eat this with a spoon, no joke.  It’s so delicious!

And I might just have to.  This is only half of the hummus I made yesterday.  Yum.

A good book, and a great snack = Saturday night at my place.  I live an exciting life.

A Serendipitous Life

Hi again!

Just another reminder that my little ol' blog has moved! New URL is http://www.aserendipitouslifeblog.com/ !

Come check it out!

Ali