Money Saving Monday: make your own hummus

(I know it's a little late, so this is Money saving Tuesday.)

I make a lot of our foods from scratch. Not only do I feel that it's healthier for our family and that we're getting more whole foods in our diet, but it also saves us a lot of money. A lot of things you buy in the store can be made at home for less money.

We like to eat a lot of hummus in our family. It was one of the first foods that Dallin would eat.

Oddly enough, he hasn't really touched it in 2 years. But Connor loves hummus.

It's a great snack that's high in protein and fiber, and it encourages more healthy eating because my favorite foods to dip in hummus are vegetables and whole grain crackers like triscuits. The down side?

Hummus is $3 for a 10oz container, and this is a pretty good deal for store bought hummus.

So I often make my own. Especially with the way Connor eats it by the spoonfuls (just like Dallin did), it's a lot more cost effective to make it myself. And it uses ingredients I always have on hand, so I can whip up a quick batch for an afternoon snack.

If you haven't made hummus before, here are some good, kid-friendly basic recipes to get you started. Hummus usually has tahini paste in it. I don't use it because I don't have any, but we all like the taste of tahini. If you aren't a fan of tahini paste, this is one more reason you should make your own hummus. I don't really follow a recipe anymore, I just eyeball amounts and season to taste. Here's another recipe that sounds tasty and smooth.

My basic ingredients: 

a 15 oz can of chick peas (also called garbanzo beans), drained

minced garlic

lemon juice

olive oil

cumin

salt

For this particular batch, I added roasted red bell pepper. It gives the hummus a nice sweetness.

Step 1: Roast a bell pepper. (To roast: place a whole pepper under the broiler, rotating occasionally to roast all sides, for about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and wrap loosely in foil. Let sit til cool enough to handle. This sitting and "steaming" helps the skin come off easily.)

Skin and core the pepper. Blend in a food processor.

 Add the beans and seasonings, blend.

Then slowly drizzle in olive oil while processor is running. I also add a few tablespoons of warm water after the oil to thin out the consistency of the hummus. Once the hummus is blended and smooth, scoop into a bowl and serve.

 It's amazing how quickly a can of chick peas turns into yummy dip.

This made 1 3/4 cups of hummus.

Cost: 

$1 pepper + $0.69 chick peas + estimated $0.30 for other ingredients = 

$1.99 for 14 oz. (or 14.2 cents per ounce)

Compare to $3.00 for 10oz (or 30 cents per ounce)

It costs twice as much per ounce to buy hummus from the store. Granted, adding the price of tahini paste would up the cost of homemade hummus, but taking out the red pepper would also reduce the price.

Money Saved:

I make hummus about once a month, sometimes more, so we'll say 14 times a year.

196 ounces of hummus per year from the store: $60

196 ounces of hummus per year of homemade: $27.86

That saves you $32 a year!

 If that hasn't convinced you, look at how much your children will enjoy eating hummus.

 Connor's favorite lunch: cold leftover rice, hummus, apple slices. 

And sometimes a hot dog thrown in there.

Thanksgiving Leftovers

Part of the fun of making a Thanksgiving dinner is trying to figure out how to use up the leftovers. You can only have a leftover turkey sandwich so many times before it gets boring. I got pretty creative this year. I made Herb Turkey and Asparagus Risotto.

This was made with turkey stock that I made myself from the leftover turkey bones. It was so full of flavor and delicious.

I also made Turkey Enchiladas. I made them exactly like I would chicken enchiladas with a red sauce, but I used turkey instead of chicken. Easy!

I ran out of turkey a lot faster than I thought I would, but there is always one thing that I have leftover long after everything else is consumed: cranberry sauce. I love making my own fresh cranberry sauce and I keep it simple: cranberries, diced apple, sugar, water. Boil. Cool. Eat. I think I'm the only person that ever eats it, so I always have a ton leftover. I'm determined to use it up this year so I made some cranberry muffins.

These are really yummy. Connor is a muffin-fiend and has eaten two in the last hour. I mostly followed this recipe from Two Peas and their Pod, but I changed a few things. I used juice from an orange instead of orange zest. (My orange had already been zested for a previous dish.) The batter is REALLY thick (we're talking almost cookie dough consistency), so I would add more milk or orange juice to thin it out. The thick batter makes a dense hearty muffin, which may or may not be desirable to you, but it does make for quite a beautiful, rounded muffin top. I also cut the sugar back by a few tablespoons. I find myself doing that for most recipes and I can hardly tell the difference.

The muffins are delicious. I recommend you give them a try if you have some cranberry sauce to spare. I have a Christmas party to attend tomorrow, so next I want to try this Cranberry Orange bread recipe:

Mmmmmm......

Day 5: Beef Stew

For our dinner tonight, I tried out two new recipes. I made Beef Stew and buttermilk biscuits.

(from chindeep.com)

(from Simply So Good)

Ok, so I didn't take these pictures. Trust me, my food looked every bit as delicious, but was not photographing well in my dark kitchen at night. So I thought I'd let you see the yummy pictures that got me to try these recipes in the first place. That, and my sister Julie makes these biscuits so they must be good.

I was really excited to try this crock pot Beef Stew recipe. Mckay is not a big fan of soups and I'm mostly ok with that. But sometimes, on a cold, winter night, you just need to cozy up with a hot bowl of something and a delicious bread. I figured Mckay might like Beef Stew because it's essentially pot roast, with carrots and potatoes and gravy. What's not to love?! It's "manly" soup. The stew did not disappoint. The broth is rich and flavorful, the meat was tender and falling apart. Mckay said it's a winner that can enter the regular dinner line-up for winter. High praise.

The biscuits were fluffy and tall. Mine are usually flat and dense, so this one's a keeper too.

I am grateful for new recipes. I'm glad that I like to try new things. I'm glad I'm capable in the kitchen so that I feel confident to attempt new recipes.

I'm grateful for food bloggers who share their tasty recipes with me. I'm grateful for the chefs/cooks out there, whether trained professionally or on the "job," who experiment and test recipes so that I can enjoy the finished product.

I'm grateful for my Crockpot. We somehow never got a Crockpot as a wedding gift, so Mckay's parents gave us an old one that they didn't use anymore. This crock pot has got to be 20 years old. The crock does not remove from the heating base which makes it a pain to clean, and it takes a little longer to cook things in it. I keep hoping that something will happen to it so I can justify buying a new one, but this darn, wonderful crockpot just keeps on working.

Connor's Birthday

Connor's 2nd Birthday celebration was a big day of fun. We started with pancakes. Great days often start with pancakes. We went to the library. Dallin and Connor both love going to the library. Then we had lunch with Mckay at Taco Bell.

Taco Bell is one fast food place where I know I can get something the boys will eat. Traditional burger places are iffy with them.

 Next we went to the mall for Connor to choose his new birthday shoes. (To be revealed later...) After purchasing, Connor wanted to carry the bag himself, and insisted on walking by himself (no stroller ride for this big boy) through the mall.

He looked so grown up just walking around carrying a shopping bag, like he was there to shop all by himself.

Two of Connor's friends came over to play for the afternoon/evening. Coming up with Connor's birthday dinner menu with tricky since Connor's favorite tastes are interesting. The dishes weren't really cohesive, but he likes all the food I chose, so that's all that matters.

Dinner, was rice (he loves plain white rice, preferably cold), mashed sweet potatoes, apple slices, and and corn dogs.

These were homemade corn dogs, which were actually quite a bit easier to make than I thought they would be. And kids love to eat anything that's on a stick and comes with ketchup/mustard for dipping.

 Next it was time for presents.

Connor's new shoes have robots on them.

(The shoes might be hard to see in this picture.) Connor was so excited when he saw robot shoes, he had to have them.

 To continue the "tradition" of making something for his present, I made Connor a super hero cape and mask.

 He's always asking us to tie blankets around his neck (mostly to keep warm I think) so I made him his own satiny cape with a velcro enclosure.

He loves it and it may or may not make an appearance on Halloween. :)

Connor is really into cars/trains/anything with wheels right now. Grandparents knew this and gifted accordingly. This boy was in transportation heaven.

The Grandparents Easton got him a really cool looking track with Disney Cars cars. We had to take a break from opening presents for a while so he could build the track and play with it.

Mckay demonstrated how the cars worked for the kids.

And he also tried on the super hero cape.

Then Connor opened the present from the Grandparents Crapo.

So many things to love about this video: his first words when he realizes it's a train are "All aboard!", the paper ripping becomes more frantic, and you can't even get him to look away from the box. He loves the train set and is daily getting it out to play.

 Connor was uninterested in leaving his toys for dessert, so I helped the other kids. We decorated sugar cookies.

Dallin only wanted frosting on his.

Because he only wanted to lick the frosting off.

Lest you think I'm a mean mom for not giving my son a cake for his birthday, I fixed it a few days later. We went to Barnes and Noble, another one of Connor's favorites because of the train table in the kid's section. As part of the B&N kids club, he got to choose a free cupcake from the cafe.

I had them put it in a "to go" container and he carried it himself out of the store, and the whole way home in his car seat. He couldn't stop shaking it because he was so excited, so the frosting got a little messed up in transit.

He still loved every bit of it.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Connor!

Gluten Free Almond Cake

Mckay's birthday was at the beginning of September. I think he's 27. We've stopped counting.

His parents made their yearly visit to Indiana the same weekend as Mckay's birthday, so he had a birthday "week" celebration.

We chose one day (Sunday) to eat cake and open presents. For his birthday dinner, I made BBQ Beef brisket. I forgot how delicious this recipe is. I don't usually buy brisket because it's pricey, but I found a local restaurant supply store that sells huge 13 lb slabs of it for $30. That's still a lot of money, but only $2.30/lb. I cut it into quarters before cooking and froze most of it. Now I just need to remember to use it before that beautiful brisket gets freezer burn.

Mckay's requested cake was a Gluten-free Almond cake. 

Mckay's mom has Celiac disease. As much as I love her and happily make gluten free dinners when they visit, I've never attempted a gluten free cake or other baked goods. I made a delicious almond cake a month ago and we fell in love with it. So moist! So flavorful! And it only calls for 1/2 cup of flour. We figured it would be easy enough to alter and make it gluten free. And it was easy! And still so heavenly!

After talking it up so much, I guess I should share the recipe of deliciousness with you. Here is the original recipe, with a note at the end for how I made it gluten free.

Almond Cake with Strawberries

3/4 cup sugar

8 ounces almond paste

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened**

zest of 1 orange

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 large eggs

1/2 cup flour*

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups sliced strawberries

2 Tablespoons honey

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

powdered sugar for dusting

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 inch by 2 inch round cake pan. Line the pan with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit the bottom and butter and flour the paper.

2. Place the sugar and almond paste in a food processor and pulse until it's blended, about 40 seconds. Add the butter, zest, and vanilla extract and pulse until smooth, about 40 seconds. With the processor running, add the eggs one at a time. Remove the lid and add the flour, baking powder, and salt, then pulse a few more times, just until blended, about 15 seconds. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

3. Bake the cake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 45-50 minutes. Meanwhile, place the berries, honey, and vinegar in a medium bowl and stir to combine. Refrigerate at least one hour or until the berries are juicy.

4. Cool the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes, then loosen the cake's sides with a knife, invert it onto a serving plate, and peel off the parchment. Serve the cake dusted with powdered sugar and topped with berries.

*I used a slightly mounded 1/2 cup of Pamela's gluten free baking and pancake mix in place of the flour, baking powder and salt. It's essentially a self rising flour and can be found in most grocery store's gluten free sections. 

Also, if you're making the cake gluten-free, don't "flour" the cake pan. That would kill all your hard, gluten-free work. I just used lots of cooking spray. I suppose you could use a little of the baking mix. I haven't tried it though.

**I used salted butter and it was no big deal.

You must try this cake. Seriously. It's simple yet elegant. It comes together so quickly and looks like you spent hours on it. Make it. Eat it.

Grandpa

My Dad came to visit us this week. He had a one day business trip to Indiana, and his travel plans worked out just right that he could see us for a little bit. He came to our house Wednesday evening.

Dallin and Connor were SOOOO excited to see him. As soon as grandpa walked through our door, Dallin dragged him down the hall to show off his room, then went straight for the legos. Dallin had been asking all day if grandpa would "play lego game?" with him.

Connor and Dallin spent about 2 hours straight being tickled and wrestled by grandpa. And they loved every second of it.

Dallin has recently learned that our last name is Easton, so he asked if this was Grandpa Easton. When I told him it was Grandpa Crapo, him and Connor walked around the rest of the night saying "Capo. Capo. Capo." The boys definitely love their Grandpa.

(Connor has been sitting on my lap the whole time I've been writing this post, pointing at all the pictures and saying, "Grandpa Capo! Grandpa Capo!")

 After we put the kids in bed, dad and I ate some dessert.

I made a blueberry pie. I've never made one before, but it was a delicious experiment.

(the recipe was super simple)

Dad had to leave first thing in the morning for his meeting, so we ate breakfast with him before he left.

We had pancakes with fresh blueberry syrup. And another piece of blueberry pie. 

That's the best way to start a morning: pancakes, pie and Grandpa.

Homemade Ham and Swiss Cheese Hot Pocket

I know I'm not the only person with lots of leftover ham from Easter. I always have trouble coming up with ways to use up the extra ham. I've actually done pretty well this year. So far, I've already made a ham and white bean soup, ham and asparagus Risotto, and homemade ham stock. But there is still more ham!!! I was feeling a little creative last night and came up with another way to use up my ham: 

I made homemade Ham and Cheese Sandwich Pockets.

These tasted way better than microwavable hot pockets and were pretty easy to make. All you need is:

Sliced Ham

Sliced Swiss Cheese ( I also did some with cheddar)

Honey mustard sauce (This is totally optional, but a little mustard or something does help to moisten the filling.)

Dough -- I used my basic pizza dough/breadstick recipe, but you could use your favorite easy bread/pie/biscuit dough. My recipe is below:

Dough:
1/2 Tbsp. yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 t. salt
1 Tbsp. oil
1 1/4 cup flour

Mix yeast, water and sugar. Allow to sit for a few minutes until yeast begins to bubble. Add salt, oil and flour. Mix until dough comes together, and knead the dough for a minute. You may need to add a little more flour so the dough isn't too sticky. Let the dough sit for 30 minutes while you assemble the rest of the ingredients. You can use right away, but the dough will be a little dense.

Divide the dough into 4 balls. Flatten each ball into a circle of dough (about 6 or 7 inches in diameter). Spread a thin layer of honey mustard (or sauce of choice) on the dough. Leave space around the edge for exposed dough to seal it later.

Place ham and cheese on half of the circle. Try not to overfill the pocket. Fold the dough over so the circle is now folded in half. Press and seal the edges of the now semi-circle with your fingers to seal in the toppings. The shape will look a little something like this:

If you really wanted, you could try to make a more rectangular shape like a real "Hot Pocket," but this is much easier.

Cut a slit or two in the top of the dough with a sharp knife so the steam can escape. Otherwise, you'll have a pocket blowout.

Place on a greased baking sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until the top of the bread is golden brown.

Devour.

I use the same dough to make easy pizza calzones for dinner. In fact, when I made these last night, half were ham and cheese and half were pizza topping filled for my young boys. They were gobbled up.

Makes 4 pockets. A hungry man could eat two of these for dinner. I had one pocket with a small salad for dinner and that filled me up.

How do you use leftover ham? I'd love to hear more ideas.

July

July has been HOT. We're talking triple digits and no rain for weeks. So we've mostly been inside for the past few weeks. We've tried to keep busy with fun things like hide and seek.

Dallin can squeeze into the best hiding spots.

 But still, Dallin is getting bored from being inside all day, which makes him grumpy, which makes ME grumpy, plus being hot all day equals me not in the mood to take pictures or blog. Hence the lack of posts. 

We did venture outdoors a few times:

Staying cool by dipping feet in water and wearing no pants (at least for Dallin).

The weekend before the 4th of July, a church just behind our house does a big fireworks celebration. So we ate our dinner out on the back patio.

Connor had pureed peas... He loved them for some reason. (I hate peas, FYI.)

As part of the celebration, a parachuter flew in with a flag.

The view from our backyard.

We brought one of our couches outside so we could sit and enjoy the fireworks.

We had to wait a while for it to get dark though. 

It was a pretty good show. It was definitely a perk to be able to watch it from our own home. Tons of people come to watch every year and our neighborhood streets were lined with cars. People were parked right in front of our house watching from inside their cars. I think we had a better view. And we didn't have to deal with traffic after the show.

On the actual Independence Day, we went to a BBQ at a friends house, ate lots of yummy food and then went home. We didn't feel like staying out late to see the city's fireworks display.

We went to a church picnic and there was a dessert contest. I made a Peach Cobbler. It was amazingly delicious, the best peach cobbler I've ever had. I thought for sure I would win. The dessert that did win? It had a fudgy brownie like layer, chocolate pudding on that, and topped with cool whip. Are you kidding me? That beat my peach cobbler?! I do have to admit the winning dessert was very tasty (especially if the maker of the dessert reads this blog) and I can see why people liked it. But really?! Maybe I watch too many Food Network competitions. It's about more than just taste (and I still think mine had superior taste). You should get points for originality (buttermilk in the topping gave just the right tang paired with the sweet peaches, and almond extract gave the filling more depth and flavor), skill and effort (all from scratch! It took 30 minutes just to peel and cut the fresh peaches) and presentation (an egg wash and sugar sprinkled on top made the cobbler look perfectly golden brown and shiny. Mmmmmm...).  The same thing happened last year at the picnic/dessert competition. I made lemon bars (again from scratch, fresh lemons) and they lost out to brownies. BROWNIES!! I'm not sharing my delicious desserts anymore.

Moral of the story: I am bad at losing.

Father's Day

Who is that handsome man standing in my front yard?

 Why, it's Mckay wearing the new suit he got for Father's Day!

 Since Mckay got me a new dress for Mother's Day, I figured he should have something new to wear to church as well. It fits his slim figure very nicely.

 For dinner, I made Ribs covered in the most delicious rub.

 And for dessert we had lemon bars made with fresh California lemons straight from my parents backyard.

Mckay got to celebrate by going to Sunday School at church for the first time in over 18 months. He is no longer working in the nursery at church. While he will really miss being with those little kids each week, it is kind of nice to be able to sit with him again. The trade off is that his new calling in church is in the Boy Scout program, so he's gone on Wednesday nights each week.

I loved the Father's Day card that Dallin made at church for Mckay. This card had a spot for the children to write why they love their Dads. Since Dallin doesn't really talk or understand a lot of things yet, anything he makes is done mostly by the nursery workers. The card says, "I love my Daddy because he... throws me." It made me laugh. I know Dallin didn't suggest that, and I'm not sure who "helped" him write it, but Dallin does love it when Mckay throws him in the air. Every child should be so lucky to have a Dad who throws them.

Homemade Italian Dinner

Dinner was heavenly last night.

I made gnocchi with marinara sauce and french bread. All homemade.

First, the french bread. I've been on this kick recently of trying to make my own rolls, breads, etc. I haven't done french bread before. I just searched for french bread recipes, clicked on the first one with a good looking picture and went with it.

This bread is amazing.

 The crust was golden and slightly chewy while the inside was fluffy and soft. This was as good as or better than store bought french bread. And it made 3 huge loaves. One is in the freezer and one will be consumed later in the week. The recipe can be found here. It was pretty easy to make.

Next, the Gnocchi.

 We've had Gnocchi a few times before at restaurants and loved it, but I've never tried to make it myself. It never even occurred to me to make it myself until Mckay suggested it Saturday night. I figured it can't be that hard, right? (I think I've been watching too much Food Network again.)

It actually wasn't that hard to make. I had a few struggles, mostly because I was using an awesome little pasta maker we picked up last summer. I didn't add enough flour and it was a very hot, humid day which only made the dough stickier. I think it would be a little easier for me to do by hand. Time consuming, but easier.

The gnocchi were oddly shaped and non-uniform, but they tasted delicious. I used this recipe for the gnocchi.

For my marinara, I use Giada's Marinara recipe. I usually make up a big batch and then freeze smaller containers of it so I have it on hand for occasions like this.

And there is my tasty, inexpensive Italian dinner, all made from scratch.

Except for the asparagus.