2/16/15

Edamame Hummus Crostini

I know it has been some time since my last post. I recently was hired by a weight management company to work as a weight loss coach. In that I had to travel for training and work with others to get the center up and running as well as assist with business development. 

On top of my personal training work, recruiting, my personal life had come to a standstill.  I have only been cooking on the few days I have had off, IF I had the energy.



Excited to have a 2 day weekend, my first order was to get my home in order and to make some room in my freezer. I also wanted to eat as my diet has been less than interesting lately. Most of the time my lunch has been a small can of tuna and some crackers eaten in my car while making recruiting calls.

I had a bag of edamame in the freezer, so I decided to make some edamame hummus. Having perused the internet for recipes, I managed to combine them into a recipe that turned out pretty darn tasty.  Admittedly, I was surprised. I wasn’t really sure edamame and hummus were a good match. It is!

I had planned on eating the hummus with some vegies and some Naan bread. Once made, I used the slices of ciabatta bread I had in the fridge, instead and some avocado slices to make edamame crostini. I didn’t have it for lunch. I also didn’t have if for a snack or for dinner. I had it for breakfast! What a great, healthy way to start the day.

With St. Patrick ’s Day coming up, you might want to save the recipe and have it with some green tea (or green beer I suppose) to celebrate. Of course, it is really too good to wait that long for.  Maybe that will be your second batch.

I hope you will try this. Enjoy.

Edamame Hummus

Yield: 1 cups

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen shelled edamame
1 garlic clove, peeled
Juice from 1/2 fresh lemon
1/8 cup tahini (stir well before measuring) More if needed.
1 tbsp extra virgin cold pressed Greek olive oil
2-4 tbsp water,as needed
1/4 to 1/2 pink sea salt, or to taste
1/8 tsp each ground cumin and smoked paprika
Dash cayenne pepper
Olive oil for drizzle

For crostini:
Ciabatta bread slices
Avocado slices
Smoked salt, optional

1. Rinse the edamame and place in a microwave safe bowl with about 1/8 cup of water. Cover with a paper towel. Microwave 4-6 minutes, until just cooked.
2. With the motor running on a food processor, drop in 1 garlic clove to mince. Scrape down bowl.
3. Next, add edamame to the processor and process until smooth, stopping to scrape down the side of the bowl as necessary.
4. Add in the lemon juice, tahini, olive oil  and process again until smooth. Add water to get it to your preferred consistency (soft but not runny) Add the salt, pepper, cumin and smoked paprika. Pulse to combine.

5. Remove hummus to a lidded bowl. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil on top. Cover and refrigerate until needed.

9/21/14

Know your passion

 
I didn’t start out as a “Foodie”.  In fact, I paid no attention to cooking until I was in my mid-teens. I mentioned this in a previous post, but what started this lifelong interest began with a pineapple upside down cake.
I was about 15 if I recall. Kevin was my “heart throb”.  As teenage relationships go, we started our relationship when I was 13 with a ring from a Cracker Jack box. I can still recall the green ring around my finger it left.
 
In any case, Kevin loved pineapple upside down cake.  Being the adventurous type (not), I  wanted to make him one for his birthday.  Armed with a package of Betty Crocker (or was it Duncan Hines?...Who is Duncan Hines anyway?) pineapple upside down cake mix and an older brother that was happy to teach me how to break an egg. I baked my first cake.
 
Kevin never did eat the cake. He went  AWOL for a year….but that is another story.  Somehow in spite of my lack of knowledge, I managed to hook him and we moved in together when we were in college.
 
Hamburger Helper was my friend along with several recipes from my grandmother (take a little bit of this and a little bit of that) and some from my mom.   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Well that wasn't enough for me so I started cutting out recipes and I haven’t stopped since.  I have been cutting them out for 40 years now.
Have I cooked them all? Not a chance. So why do I do it? As I grow the collection, I often ask myself that same question.
I have a healthy imagination and thinking about food nurtures my creative side. Food isn’t just about taste. It includes all our senses, touch, sight, sound (snap crackle pop) smell all come together to form our taste preferences.
So how do you know your passion? Well, all I have to do is look around my home to figure that out. Years ago a guy I was dating came over and said “Sheila, Sheila, Sheila what is it you want to do in life?”
He looked around my place and commented, “you want to be the best darn cook ever!”   Of course
he missed the closet full of fitness books and exercise equipment. Now that would really have confused him!
 
What is your passion?
This is what my passion looks like to me:

These are recipes I have cooked
These I haven't yet tried.







Just a few of my magazines
And books
and more books
and then there are the recipes on my computer...