Here is the recipe I use to make our own hummus. My wife loves to take this for her lunch. If you pair it with some Naan Bread, you have yourself a delicious meal.
What you need:
1/3 Cup of Tahini (follow this link for the easy recipe)
Food Processor (note: if you do not have one, you can use a blender instead. Although, it will be a little more difficult making sure all the ingredients get blended smoothly)
While there are a variety of uses for tahini, I usually just use it as a base in my hummus recipe. While you can spend $6.50 or more to get 16 ounces of if from the store, you can make your own and customize it to your taste. The recipe that follows is a basic tahini recipe and you can add other flavors to get the taste you desire. for just a fraction of the cost. As with my Lipton Onion Soup Mix recipe, I used items I got from the bulk bin at our grocery store (Winco). The cost of one pound of sesame seeds at Winco was $3.83. For this price, you get a massive amount, since sesame seeds weight next to nothing. You can easily make this recipe 3 or more times. In addition, if you make your own hamburger buns, the sesame seeds make a great topper to them. Well, enough talk.
Here is a recipe for making Lipton Onion Soup Mix.
Lipton Onion Soup Mix
While you can always go to the store and spend anywhere from $1.50 to $3.00 for a few ounces of the original, this recipe can save you a bunch of money without sacrificing taste. I use this in my Chicken with Rice recipe and also in my hummus, soups, and dips, just to name a few. Now, while there are many styles of this recipe out there, this is the one that I found that tastes the best .This makes quite a lot, so you'll need to store it in an airtight container. The following recipe was made using ingredients from the bulk bin of our supermarket.
Ingredients needed to make the mix (direct from the bulk bin)
What you need:
3/4 Cup: Minced onion (onion flakes)
1/3 Cup: Beef bullion
4 tsp: Onion Powder
1/4 tsp: Celery seeds (crushed)
1/4 tsp: Sugar
What to do:
Add all the ingredients into a bowl
Ingredients before being mixed
Mix using a whisk or your fingers
Ingredients after being mixed
Transfer to a jar
Lipton Onion Soup Mix in a jar
Since the ingredients have a tendency to settle, be sure to give the jar a good shake before using.
Enjoy.
I made some French bread today, but instead of just using the active sour dough starter, I added yeast as well. It came out pretty good, with the added bonus of a much shorter rise time of 2 hours instead of 6.
What you need:
1 cup of active sour dough starter
2 1/2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup of warm water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1 egg
2-3 cups of flour (you may need more or less depending on humidity)
Putting it together:
In a bowl, add the sour dough starter
Add 1/2 cup of flour and mix until combined
Allow to sit for about 30 minutes
Put yeast and sugar in small bowl and add water
Once yeast has bloomed, add to sour dough starter
Mix to combine
Add salt and egg, mixing to combine
Begin adding flour 1/2 cup at a time
Continue adding until well mixed. Dough should be somewhat sticky, but not TOO sticky.
Once kneading is complete, cover and let rise until doubled in size: 60-90 minutes.
After first rise, take out, punch down gently, and shape into loaf(s)
Cover and let rise an additional 30 minutes
Preheat oven to 425
Bake for 18 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 200 degrees
Remove and let cool at least 30 minutes before slicing
This is my first week back exercising after a week off and for the next 6-8 weeks, I have decided to switch from strength training to straight cardio. Because of this switch and to have a good way of judging my progress, I am starting to keep track of my heart rate (beats per minute-bpm's). I am going for a goal of reducing my immediate post exercise bpm's by 50+ within 1 minute. This is a very lofty goal, but something that I can strive for. This 50+ rate is what athletes are expected to achieve, not just regular folks like me. However, it is a goal and while I may not be able to attain it within the next several weeks, it will be interesting to see how close I can get.
This week, my immediate post exercise bpm was 149bpm's, after 1 minute, the average was 124bpm's...difference of 25. This falls into the normal catagory, but now I have a goal and, since I was stupid enough to post this, I also have motivation to continue :) Oh, I do not have a fitbit, so I'm doing it the old fashioned way...OH NO, MATH!!! :0
