Hummus!
-Makes a great breakfast on toast with lettuce! Goes with chips and other stuff, too!
1 can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas) drained
1/2 lemon juiced
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (or 1 teaspoon regular table salt)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 dash of cayenne pepper )optional)
1 clove carlic (that little section of the garlic bulb) without the outter skin wrapper
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 to 3/4 cups water (adding a little at a time)
1 roasted or raw red pepper washed and with no seeds or stem
1/2 cup of tahini paste or 1 cup of hulled sesame seeds that have soaked in warm water for about 15 minutes to soften them up
Swizzle it all in the blender until very smooth and pastey. Add more salt if you need to. Add dill and parseley, too for more zip.
Another variation: Swizzle a can of drained cannelinni Italian white beans into the mix!
Using dry garbanzo beans? Sprout them for 5 days changing the water and rinsing them daily in non-direct tap water. (Boil water, let it sit for a while, then use it. Or use bottled water. The beans will grow little tails.
On day 5 boil some water, then add the beans. Let them sit in that hot water for about 30 minutes while you do something else. Pour off the water. Then follow the recipe above. Sprouted hummus tastes a little different from cooked bean hummus. It won't let you make a pig of yourself eating the hummus. But pretty close to it! -Enjoy! ZMaleki
Hot Weather Cooler with a Berry Slushy Slurpy Woopie! -ZMaleki
Plan A Tools: blender, ice, fruit
Grind up some ice in the blender, then add a piece of fruit (take the seed core out if it is a nectarine or related; take the caps off the strawberries. Plop it into the blender, add a little yogurt if you like creamy slushies, sit back and relax! ........or do this:
Plan B
Tools list:
berries,
banana (not overly ripe but just right),
plain yogurt (7 Stars Farm or that greek yogurt. If you get a soy yogurt, remember it has an extra twang to it. )
Add some maple syrup if you like your berry woopie very sweet.
Swizzle it all into the blender! You have your very own berry slushy slurpy woopie drink!
Got some old popsicles in the freezer that have developed a strange freezer burn flavor? Add it to the mix!
Dairy Free Ice Cream (Unleash the Vegan in you!) The resulting ice cream is similar to the old fashioned texture and flavor of old fashioned hand cranked frozen custard.
1 carton of mimiccreme or 1 can of coconut milk/juice (the Thai brand has no particulates to worry about. If you are not sure, strain the coconut juice milk before using.
3/4 cup of turbanado sugar heated and turned to syrrup in 1/2 cup water... or 1/2 cup madjool dates soaked in 1/2 cup of warm water and pits removed
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup fresh fruit (apples don't do so good, here)-save a little for the thawing
Swizzle it up in the blender or Ninja until it is smooth... try not to taste too much of it or you won't have any left to freeze.
Freeze it in a shallow container or ice 2 cube trays.
After it is frozen, put the cubes back into the blender, add the rest of the fresh fruit (or frozen fruit); and a little water, juice, or almond milk (or whatever dairy free milk you use). Swizzle it up again, and you have an ice cream ! It's creamy an iceyfied!
Vegetarian style (dairy allowed)
Use the same recipe above except use a quality old fashioned yogurt such as 7 Stars Farm Plain Yogurt or Smiling Hill Farm Plain Yogurt. A soy yogurt has too much twang and needs a creamier rescue. The other brands not mentioned do not behave the same way as the mentined brands, and the other brands have gelatin along with other additives in them. Remember to read the labels! The ingredients should be a simple listing. Organic ingredients tend to be more flavorful and fulfilling. Which means you don't need to eat as much to feel satisfied.
//About the sugars: avoid the artificial sweetners. The turbanado and demarara sugars are byproducts of the first press of the sugarcane juice. White sugars are bleached, highly processed, and require more in order for the sugar sweet flavor to come forth. Artificial sweetners have track records in lab test animals of attacking the nervous system in various ways. Do some research to find out the latest. Stevia is extracted from the stevia plant leaves, extremely sweet, so use sparingly Overly ripe bananas are highly sugarous forms. When you see ripe bananas on sale in the store, catch that sale! Let them ripen some more, freeze them; thaw them later to use for smoothie and baking recipes that require sugar!//-ZMaleki
Puff Pastry Finger Sandwiches (-Gail Stevens and Zanada Maleki)
Get the frozen premade puff pastry.
Thaw it out.Use your cookie cutter and cut out pairs of shapes.
Bake in the oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes, until browned, unless the package says differently. Optional: brush with whiped egg white and bake for another 5 minutes.
Let it cool, spread your favorite filling on top of one and create the sandwich by putting the other of the shape pair on top of that.
The filling can be anything you want it to be. Lots of fillers are prepackaged in the cold sections of the food stores. Lobster salad crab salad, spinach creme cheese filler...(add more spinach if you want); olive tempinade; egg salad! If your premade filler stuff is too salty, add ricotta or lite cream cheese or lite tofu or cashew cheese to the mixture.
Butter Bean/Lima Bean Soup
Short cut:
1 package of frozen lima beans (any variety), cooked for 15 minutes.
Stir fry in ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil:
1 medium onion sliced and diced
4 stalks of celery
4-5 cloves of garlic sliced, diced.
3-4 leaves of fresh kale
8 oz baby bella mushrooms sliced and diced
8 oz. some other type of mushroom sliced and diced.
2 carrots shredded- Dump it all into a larger pot, veggies, beans, everything.
Add: 3 cups water, 1 tablespoon organic apple cider vinegar, scallions and herbs.
Simmer on medium-low heat for 1 hour.
I use a covered cast iron Dutch oven, so that one hour cuts down to ½ hour for me.
If you use a crock pot, you will need that 1 hour and maybe a little longer. Remember to keep the soup covered while it is sitting and doing.
For the long cut: use 2 cups dry butter beans (richer in flavor than limas) that you soak for 8 hours, slow cook for 3 hours on the stove top in the cook pot of your choice. (My cast iron Dutch oven takes the time down to 2 hours). Then add the other stuff just as described.
For extra zipp: add some squirts of Louisiana style cayenne hot sauce.
Change your eating habits and have soup for breakfast! You'll be glad you did!
2 green onions (scallions) sliced and diced saved for later
Greek oregano, parsley, rosemary, thyme, majorem saved for later
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