Hummus is good stuff and other thoughts on food (Hummus Recipe)

I've been thinking about food, and food waste. 

I was watching a documentary on food waste last night, called, "DIVE!".  It was a very powerful look at the amount of food being thrown away every day.  Good food, edible food, at, or just prior to, its suggested expiration date.  Billions of tons of food are thrown away in America each year, almost half of that during the production process.  Stunning 52 minutes, really.  Amazing.

It is available on Netflix on demand for free. 

 I need to find out what's being done in my area to capture that food before it hits the dumpster, and work to get it into the mouths of the hungry, via shelters. or the Food Bank, or other hunger/homeless services.  Wasting food while so many are unemployed and hungry, is criminal.

 I live in the California Central Valley, Clovis, California, specifically, Just outside of Fresno, California, the county seat of Fresno County, the largest agriculture producing county in the nation.  We produce a lot of food here.  Ironically, I live in one of those planned communities, with no backyard, and, consequently, no place to grow a damn thing.

Recently, I came across a couple of pictures online that are worthy of consideration.  Both are repurposing regular items found around the house, or easily purchased, to make an herb garden.

Check them out.  Aren't they great?

Well, around here you can grow almost all year long, but I'll probably wait until the fall to try these.

Onto food, my favorite subject. :)

Yesterday, I decided to make Hummus.  Now I've had a favorite Hummus recipe (see below) that I've been eating for years (I'll post the recipe over in the recipe section).  Everyone loves it.  It is a little higher in calories than the store bought stuff, but infinitely better, IMHO.  It makes 23, 2 Tbs servings, at 120 calories a serving.

The reason I made Hummus, was that, 1, I wanted something good to snack on, and, 2, I wanted something other than Best Foods Mayo to use as a base for my lunch sandwich.  It worked spectacularly!

After I made it though, all I had around was some left over hamburger buns (I really need to bake some bread).  So, I put a TBS on the top and bottom, added fresh spinach, 2 sliced of tomato, and some red onion.  Simply delicious.

For dinner, since it went so well with the kids the other night, Kasi and I decided to make another pizza.  We used the same ingredients, the Olive Oil Dough (see the recipe at the bottom of the post, here) we had remaining, more of the Big Sur Bakery & Restaurant Pasta sauce (see the recipe at the bottom of the post, here), more of the roasted veggies, and fresh spinach.

Here are the before and after shots.

When dinner was over, I decided that I needed a better bit of bread for my lunch sandwich the next couple of days.  So, I took the last quarter of the Olive Oil Dough (see the recipe at the bottom of the post, here) I had made Saturday afternoon, and formed it into a small loaf.

This bread recipe was designed to be used for pizza dough and other flat breads like focaccia.  This was a slightly different use for it, but it worked out great.  Here it is, finished, and sliced in half.  I'll use it for sandwiches the next two days.

Finally, today is Tuesday, one week since I started the 1800 calorie diet, and 10 days since the beginning of the juiceapalooza.  All in all, I've lost 10 pounds.  Most of that from the juice, but I did loose about 2 pounds, while sticking to the 1800 calories a day.

I really like the myfitnesspal.com website and app.  It makes it feel like I'm playing a game, and that I can win.

I'm still a big guy, but 262 is better than 272, and I am positive I can continue to lose.  I will win this game.  :)

Take care, and remember, "Eat to Live, don't Live to Eat!"

Hummus

An old recipe that I created. 

2 Cans             Chick Peas (Garbanzo beans)

1/3 Cup            Lemon Juice

1                      Sweet Onion (Vidalia), roughly chopped

1 Tsp               Salt

2/3 Cup           Tahini Paste

1 Tsp               Cumin

1/4 Cup           Olive Oil

6 Cloves          Garlic, smashed

Combine all ingredients in a food processor with the steel blade and process until fairly smooth.  Serve in a nice bowl and drizzle additional Olive Oil over the top.  Sprinkle with Paprika and serve with pita triangles.