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Supersmooth, Light-as-Air Hummus

Why is the best hummus always in restaurants, especially Middle Eastern ones? I think I make a delicious, flavorful hummus that has a great consistency and is better than the ones you find in the supermarket. But, it doesn’t compare to the silky, light and creamy hummus that I’ve had in restaurants. I want that kind. The kind that will drip, not plop, off your pita if you’re not careful. The kind you can suck up with a straw. You know what I mean.

I got into bed with a book the other night, because reading helps me wind down and relax from my typically crazy day. But of course, I read cookbooks in bed before I go to sleep which is an absolutely terrible idea because that does nothing to quiet my overactive brain which doesn’t stop thinking, thinking, thinking! Regardless, I was reading Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi’s not-so-new, but gorgeous book , “Jerusalem.” So many recipes, so little time, people. I turned to their recipe for “Basic Hummus” and I swear I almost flipped the page without so much as a glance, because like I said, I already have a perfectly great hummus recipe which I have actually turned into four different flavors. But then I thought “have some respect, you never know.”

The word “supersmooth” caught my attention immediately and then I knew I found it — the hummus of my dreams. Let me jump to the chase. The Ottolenghi hummus is the kind I love at restaurants and they tell me all their secrets. Most importantly, the chickpea skins are removed after cooking and before pureeing. I know!!! Why didn’t I think of that? But before you think I have the kind of time to sit around peeling chickpea skins, think again. After soaking and draining the chickpeas, they are cooked with a little baking soda and then water is added to boil the beans. Most of the skins float to the top of the pot and you just skim them away. I know!!! Brilliant. They also add a lot more tahini (sesame paste) than I do which makes the hummus so creamy. And water. I would never have thought to add water, but it really makes the hummus lighter and cleaner than adding the chickpea liquid which is how I do it. “Better late than never,” is what I was thinking.

I wouldn’t say that my first attempt came out quite as smooth as Ottolenghi’s primarily because not all the chickpeas lost their skins and I was not about to go peeling them, but it was really, really good and very smooth. You can see the image of that below. I also tasted the hummus after adding 2/3 cup of tahini instead of the recommended 1 cup + 2 Tbs. and I thought it was divine. I made it a second time and did take the time to pull off any skins that didn’t come off during the boiling process and the hummus was a tad bit creamier, but I’m not sure it was worth the extra 12 minutes it took me to do that. You should do whatever makes sense to you and if you have the time, feel free to pick out every last skin. For that matter, you can buy canned cooked chickpeas and pull off the skins and proceed from there.

This is the one I made first where I did not remove every single last chickpea skin.

I served this to friends the other night, friends who have had my hummus a million times and they all said “where did you get this? This is so good.” I know, a tad insulting since the implication was that I could not have made it, but I was totally fine with that. Since then, we’ve enjoyed this immensely with pita bread and raw veggies (wow, I could actually hear you yawn through the computer), slathered on a baguette with grilled veggies and slow roasted tomatoes (my recommendation), and dolloped on a Greek salad with chicken souvlaki (we had this for dinner the other night — major hit!). There is an insanely beautiful picture in the book of the hummus topped with whole cooked chickpeas, pine nuts, chopped parsley, cooked lamb and the whole thing drizzled with olive oil. A-mazing.

No matter how you make it, hummus is rather nutritious and especially high in protein and fiber. It’s one of the more healthful spreads and dips, provided you don’t go to crazy on the pita bread or chips. I have even used it in place of mayonnaise in chicken salad. I have even eaten it with a spoon. I have even dreamt about it. You will too, until you make it!

4.7 from 10 reviews

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Supersmooth, Light-as-Air Hummus

Author: adapted from "Jerusalem" by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

Ingredients

1 ¼ cups dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans)*
1 teaspoon baking soda
6 ½ cups water
1 cup light tahini paste (Ottolenghi recommends 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons, but I thought anywhere between ⅔ and 1 cup was great)
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
4 medium cloves garlic, crushed
1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
6 ½ Tablespoons ice cold water
Unrefined olive oil and sweet paprika for finishing, if desired

Instructions

Place the chickpeas in a large bowl and cover with at least 4 inches of cold water. Allow to soak 6-8 hours.
Drain the chickpeas. In a medium saucepan over high heat, add the drained chickpeas and the baking soda. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the water and bring to a boil. Make sure the water covers the chickpeas by at least 2 inches. Reduce heat and simmer, skimming off and foam and any skins that float to the surface. The chickpeas cook faster this way and may only need from 20-40 minutes to become tender, but possibly longer. You know they’re done if you can squish a chickpea in between your thumb and forefinger.
Drain the chickpeas. You will have about 3⅔ cups. Transfer the chickpeas to a food processor fitted with the metal blade and process until you get a stiff paste. With the machine running, add the tahini, lemon juice, garlic, and salt. Lastly, slowly drizzle in the ice water and allow it to mix for about 5 minutes until you get a really smooth and creamy paste. I actually set my timer for 5 minutes and washed the dishes in the meantime.
Transfer to a serving bowl and allow the hummus to rest for at least 30 minutes. If not serving right away, refrigerate until needed. Make sure to remove it from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before serving. If desired, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with paprika.

Notes

*Or you can use 2 15-ounce cans of cooked chickpeas, drained, and peel the skins manually. Place the peeled chickpeas in the food processor and proceed with Step 3.

Slow Cooker Pulled Barbecued Chicken

You’ve heard of Meatless Mondays and Taco Tuesdays, but in this house we’ve had “Slow Cooker Thursdays” for the last two months. It doesn’t have the same ring as the other two, but it has made my life way easier. Mr. Picky had baseball games every Thursday (and Sunday) since March and they were conveniently scheduled at dinnertime. Scrunchy face. Picture hubby and me sitting at a little league game until 7:00 or 7:30 (gotta love extra innings!) while my daughters were texting me from home “We r starving! When r u coming home? Can we eat without u?” Then of course I actually had to assemble dinner in record time once I finally returned home. That happened once, until I figured out that Thursdays would have to be “Slow Cooker Night” unless I wanted to let the girls eat acai bowls for dinner (because that’s about all they would take the time to make even when “starving”) or allow Mr. Picky to eat hot dogs or microwaved canned chili on top of Fritos from the snack stand at the field. Um, no.

I work really hard to make sure we eat together every night. It’s actually more important to me than what we eat. I’ve always said that breakfast might be the most important meal of the day from a nutritional perspective, but dinner is the most important from an emotional perspective. However, getting the five of us at the table at a reasonable time for dinner can be a challenge, especially during Little League season. And no matter how hard I tried to get Mr. Picky to find baseball boring, he just wouldn’t see it my way. So if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em and that’s where I found myself every single blessed Thursday night. Deciding to make something in the slow cooker on Thursdays was my ticket to freedom so I wasn’t stressed out every time a player was walked or someone got a hit, both of which keep the game going on and on and on.

When I first started using this slow cooker in December, so many people asked me for good slow cooker recipes. I was honestly surprised since one quick search on Foodily turned up thousands. But as I’ve experimented, I have realized what everyone else already knows — that not every slow cooker recipe is a good one, and certainly not a healthful one. Never said I was a quick learner!

I recently invested in the book, “Slow Cooker Revolution” by America’s Test Kitchen and it looks promising. I tried their recipe for barbecued chicken and we all loved it! I have been experimenting with making my own barbecue sauce and I’m super close to posting it, but not quite. I did use one of my homemade BBQ sauce experiments and the chicken turned out super tender and flavorful. We had it the first night on cracked wheat buns with homemade cole slaw — super delicious. And the next day I put it into quesadillas for the girls’ lunch. They asked for it again the day after that, but sadly it was all gone.

I thought to share this recipe with you this week for a possible Father’s Day menu item or for a July 4th party. It’s also a good time to remind you why grilled animal protein isn’t that good for you. Check out an earlier post on that here. Slow cooking with low heat cuts way down on carcinogens from forming. It’s a win-win! Even though Little League is over, my slow cooker is staying and so is this chicken!

5.0 from 2 reviews

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Slow Cooker Pulled Barbecued Chicken

Author: Pamela, adapted from "Slow Cooker Revolution"

Serves: 6

Ingredients

1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of fat
1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, trimmed of fat (or use all thighs)
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
¼ teaspoon ground chipotle powder or cayenne
½ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 ½ cups barbecue sauce

Instructions

Place chicken pieces in the slow cooker.
Mix together chili powder, paprika, chipotle powder, salt and pepper and rub all over chicken.
Pour ½ cup barbecue sauce over chicken and toss to coat. Cover and cook until chicken is tender 4-6 hours on LOW. (5 hours worked great for me.) The slow cooker can also go to the WARM setting if you are not ready to eat the chicken after cooking 4-6 hours.
Transfer chicken to a large bowl and allow to cool slightly. With two forks, shred meat into bite size pieces, but not too fine.
Pour the liquid that remains in the slow cooker into a fat separator (or leave the liquid in the slow cooker and try to skim the fat off the top with a large spoon.)
Heat the remaining 1 cup of barbecue sauce in a small saucepan until hot. Toss shredded chicken with hot barbecue sauce and 1 cup of braising liquid. You’ll have extra liquid if you need it. Serve warm either by itself or on toasted whole grain buns or in a quesadilla.

barbecue sauce chicken chili powder ground chipotle paprika

(A more healthful) chocolate chip cookie recipe

One of my students asked me the other day if I had a good chocolate chip cookie recipe and I instinctively said, “Sure, just check my website.” To which she replied, “I did. But all you have on there is your Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.” And then it hit me. I have neither taught in a class nor posted my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. Gasp! Coincidentally, Mr. Picky had been asking if we could make homemade ice cream sandwiches, so I got to work lickety split!

In my defense, there are good reasons I haven’t posted my chocolate chip cookie recipe. First of all, I do use refined white sugar because it just makes the best cookie. But it isn’t exactly clean and healthful and I want this site to be your destination for high quality recipes. However, even with the white and brown sugars, I use whole grain flours and everything is organic so these will be waaaaaaay better for you than bakery cookies or packaged (really now?) ones. It’s all about balance and moderation!

The other issue is that I keep changing my recipe when I learn something new to make them even better than the last time. And this has happened often. Many of you are so in the know about food trends that you might think my ah-ha chocolate chip moments are sooooo 2005, but I never said I was an early adopter. Let me first make it clear what kind of chocolate chip cookie I love, because that’s what you’re getting here — my favorite. If you love the thin and crispy kind, hmmmm, today’s not your day. Cakey? Yeah, not me. Milk chocolate? Don’t waste my time! Friends, I like a cookie with some heft and substance, something that you can sink your teeth into. But I also don’t want a greasy cookie which makes me feel like I’m sucking on butter. Slightly crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside with chunks of semisweet or dark chocolate is the way I roll. Sometimes I’m feeling fancy and I’ll add a pinch of flaky sea salt on on the tops and that is just heaven.

Something I learned to achieve my perfect cookie is to use cold butter instead of room temperature, which is a trick I learned from Mrs. Fields (not that I met her, but that’s how she makes her cookies.) The combination of cold butter and a low oven temperature help to keep the cookie from spreading out too thin and too fast. I also started adding a little oat flour after I saw this Neiman Marcus cookie recipe which I found out later was not the official recipe but the oat flour stayed in mine. The oat flour makes the cookie a little nuttier and dense. Ina Garten taught me (via television, of course) that a chocolate bar cut into pieces is much more satisfying than chocolate chips, although I do use those often. And every fancy restaurant in the last several years has added a pinch of flaky sea salt to the tops of their cookies — a smart and delicious move.

I grated some of the chocolate into the batter

It may have taken me a while to bring it to you, but I’m sure with certain special occasions coming up, like Father’s Day or end-of-the-year parties, it’s never too late to try a great chocolate chip cookie recipe. Of course, if you have the latest and greatest twist on chocolate chip cookies, I’m always open to improvement!

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Chocolate Chip Cookies

Author: Pamela

Serves: makes 48 2¾-inch cookies (cut the recipe in half to make 24 or refrigerate the dough for up to a week)

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter or organic Earth Balance, cut into ½-inch pieces
¾ cup cane sugar
1 cup brown sugar or Muscovado sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour
1 cup oat flour (you can take a cup of rolled oats and process them in the food processor to make your own oat flour)
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
18 ounces semi-sweet or dark chocolate bars, chopped coarsely or use chocolate chips
1 ½ cups chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
flaky sea salt (optional)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper or silicone mats.
Place the butter and sugars in the bowl of stand mixer and blend on medium speed until the mixture is smooth.
Add the baking soda, eggs and vanilla to the mixing bowl and mix until combined.
In a medium bowl whisk together the flours, baking powder and sea salt. Add to the butter mixture and blend on low speed until just combined.
Stir in the chocolate and nuts.
Scoop the dough with a 1 ¾ -inch ice cream scooper onto the prepared baking sheets or use a tablespoon. Space them evenly apart. I was able to get 12 on each sheet.
Bake 18-20 minutes or until just set. The cookies will be slightly soft in the center. If you like them crispier, bake them for up to 23 minutes. Allow to cool on the baking sheets 2 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Notes

Raw cookie dough can be frozen, but it’s a great idea to scoop the dough into balls first and freeze those so you can just pull out as many as you want to bake instead of having to defrost the whole batch of dough. I have even baked cookies in the toaster oven!

baking powder baking soda brown sugar butter cane sugar chocolate chips cookie eggs flaky salt oat flour vanilla extract whole wheat pastry flour

Feta and Cucumber Dip Recipe

To me, Memorial Day weekend signifies nearing the end of school/beginning of summer — an easier pace, a lighter workload, more time to relax with family and friends. I am especially relieved for Daughter #1, who is a junior in high school and is over most of the big hurdles for this year. I don’t know if you have or had or know kids in high school, but junior year is brutal. My daughter regularly goes to bed well after I do and she is often bit stressed out which I think is a real bummer for a 16 year old. These kids work so hard, often taking more than one AP class, which is basically at the college level. I consider myself a smart person and when my daughter asked for help with her AP History reading at the beginning of the year, I looked at her and said, “I can’t believe I am saying this, but I have no idea what I just read.” This stuff is tough! But she/we have gone through ACTs and AP exams and we’re in the home stretch until the end of the year. Group exhale…….

I am ready to focus more of my energy on entertaining at home, which we do much more often in the summer and one of my great pleasures is coming up with an assortment of great menus for the months ahead. Believe me, I still stay in my comfort zone of simple, fresh and tasty food. Even though I have more time in the summer, I’m not about to complicate my life with fancy recipes. I love to start a summer dinner with one or two light hors d’oeuvres or bites, preferably with a bottle of chilled rosé. There’s something about rosé that makes me feel like I’m in Capri or the South of France, even though I’m really just in little old Manhattan Beach!

One of my favorite super simple noshes is this Eqyptian feta and cucumber dip that my friend Cheryl made for me a few years ago. It’s fresh, salty and very cooling. Because the star of the show here is the feta, it is ultra-important that you buy a really good one. I much prefer fetas made from goat or sheep milk, or a blend of both. The fetas made from cow milk are too dry and rather flavorless. Also goat and sheep milks are much easier for us to digest than pasteurized cow dairy. You want a feta that is crumbly, but creamy and a little tangy. If you are vegan or dairy-free, I have seen vegan feta in my local natural foods markets, but I haven’t tried any yet. I’m very curious to know if they are any good since, except for a little ghee, I haven’t had any dairy in a few months. Let me know if you have a favorite brand.

The easiest way to serve this is just as a dip in a bowl with some great pita chips. If your friends like feta, they’ll love this no matter how you serve it. But if you have a few extra minutes, it’s always nice to include some washed endive spears or wide strips of sweet bell pepper, just for a nice, more healthful change from wheat/flour-based foods. And if you’re really feeling your inner-Martha (love her!), dollop a little of the dip inside a hollowed-out cherry tomato (place the stem side down and slice a bit off the top which is actually the bottom of the tomato, and hollow out with a grapefruit knife or something small) — fabulous!

Here’s to slowing down this summer, friends. Cheers!

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Feta and Cucumber Dip

Author: Pamela

Ingredients

12 ounces feta cheese, preferably sheep or goat, drained
4 Persian cucumbers, seeded and minced
½ cup finely chopped mild white onion, green onion or shallot
¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
¼ cup unrefined cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon fresh mint leaves (or more to taste), chopped
sea salt (if you need it) and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Pita Chips
Whole wheat pita bread
Unrefined cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil
Zhatar* or sea salt for sprinkling

Instructions

Crush cheese with a fork in a bowl. Add onion, lemon juice, olive oil and cucumber. Mix to combine.
Add mint, salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place pita on a large cutting board. Split pita in half so you have two large whole thin rounds.
Pour about ¼ cup olive oil in a small bowl. Brush olive oil on both sides of pita bread. Stack rounds and cut into eighths or sixths, as you like. Arrange in one layer on a large baking sheet or two.
Sprinkle with Zahtar* or sea salt and bake until crispy, about 10-20 minutes.
Serve dip with pita chips and/or raw veggies.

Notes

You can leave out the cucumber and serve the dip in hollowed out cucumber “cups.” You can also put some of the dip in seeded cherry tomatoes as shown above.
*DIY Zhatar: ¼ cup sesame seeds (raw or toasted), ¼ cup sumac, 2 Tbsp. dried thyme, 1 Tbsp. dried oregano

Raspberry chia seed jam

Poor Mr. Picky was crying a little when I put him to bed last Sunday night. I thought it was because his baseball team got walloped in their playoff game which then ended their season. That wasn’t it. I thought it might be because his pitching was lousy and he felt bad it. Nope, apparently he had forgotten about his performance already. Oh, wait. It’s because I forgot to pick him up from religious school. “No, Mom! And who cares? I only had to wait like 20 minutes.” Bless his heart. Then what’s the matter? “The weekends are too shoooooort,” he sobbed and buried his face in his pillow. Ahhhhh, you are quite right, Mr. Picky. Quite right indeed. That made me a little bummed out since I don’t think I felt time fly until I was much older than his 9 years. Is life more fast-paced now than it used to be or does my family have too much going on? I don’t know. But I have good news, Mr. Picky — it’s a 3-day weekend! Hooray! And not only do we get an extra day of leisure, there are no practices or tournaments or stuff like that. We’re on easy street.

I remember when I was a stay-at-home mom, I used to think, “Oy, the weekend!” Weekends were so much more work for me to coordinate the kids and naps and birthday parties and soccer games. I loved Mondays! Mama got some quiet time. But now, it’s a different life and even though I love my work, I also love a little break from a 5:30 am alarm clock and not having to face LA traffic in the morning, which has anyone noticed gets WORSE every year?

I’ve mentioned before that I so look forward to leisurely breakfasts on the weekends and vacations. I just made a double batch of this raspberry chia “jam” and I can’t stop day dreaming about all the ways I’m going to enjoy it this weekend! I have never made “real” jam in my life because it just seems like a bit too much work and sugar. But this is a raw jam that requires nothing more than a quick stir and some patience as it needs to sit a bit to thicken. And it’s so much better for you than the cooked sugary kind!

The secret ingredient here is chia seed, which is such a little miracle food. They’re naturally rich in Omega-3 fatty acids, which are super anti-inflammatory, as well as chock full of fiber and calcium. When chia seeds come into contact with liquid, they become very gelatinous and thick. So they make an awesome “pudding” when mixed with almond milk and help thicken up your morning smoothie. They have no taste at all which makes them very easy to use. They key is just knowing the right ratios of chia to liquid so your pudding or smoothie doesn’t get too thick or too thin and giving the chia seeds a little time to work their magic.

All you do here is defrost some frozen raspberries, which are good and mushy and already a little seedy, and mix with the chia seeds and a little maple syrup to sweeten. Feel free to use a couple drops of stevia if you prefer. After at least 6 hours in the fridge, you have a lovely, spreadable jam which is perfect for nut butter sandwiches (excuse the not-whole-grain bread here), pancakes or stirred into yogurt. You could even do a yogurt-granola parfait with a layer of this raspberry -chia jam. It’s always a nice idea to start your day off with a healthful breakfast during a holiday weekend, especially if you’re going to a BBQ later and you want to indulge a little. Here’s hoping your Memorial weekend is a restful and restorative one!

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Raspberry Chia Seed Jam

Author: Pamela, adapted from eatgood4life.com

Serves: makes about 1 cup

Ingredients

2 Tablespoons + 2 teaspoons chia seeds
10 ounce package frozen organic raspberries, thawed (drain the raspberries if you want a very thick jam)
2 Tablespoons pure maple syrup or more to taste

Instructions

Place all the ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir to mix, making sure all the chia seeds have been moistened with the juice from the berries.
Cover and allow jam to thicken in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours. Lasts for 2-3 weeks in the refrigerator.

chia seed maple syrup raspberries

Roasted smashed potatoes recipe

Everyone thinks it’s so funny when I whine that I don’t get invited much to peoples’ houses for dinner. There is an assumption that I’m an accomplished chef and I must have such high standards for eating therefore it’s too intimidating to have me over for dinner. Ha! Nothing could be farther from the truth. I’m a home cook who never went to culinary school and I don’t ever make recipes with three sauces. I could never work in a restaurant or hotel or be on one of those shows where you have to figure out what to do with octopus and cornflakes in 20 minutes. Just for the record, I love simple food. I don’t need anything fancy or chef-y. I am very easy to please as long as it’s fresh and natural. And I’ll bet that you are as good a cook, if not better than I am. Anyone can have a food blog, friends!

What I do love is sharing recipes that work for me, because I think we’re a lot alike. And it makes me happy if more people are cooking at home, even if I’m not invited. Wink, wink. These roasted smashed potatoes are my favorite kind of recipe — uncomplicated, tasty, easy and healthful. They go with whatever I’m serving and every single person in my family loves them. If you’ve never made smashed potatoes, you are totally missing out. They’re both fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside and if you add enough salt, damn delicious. I could just eat a half dozen of these and some scrambled eggs and call it a night. If you invited me over for dinner and made these potatoes with scrambled eggs, I would be in heaven. Yep, that’s all it takes.

The other night at our dinner table, there were several ways to eat these. My husband makes up for my dairy abstinence by melting cheese on everything, including these potatoes. Mr. Picky dipped his in mustard and Daughter #2 topped hers with guacamole, salsa and sour cream. Daughter #1 and I ate these plain and simple. I’m going to start teaching the little miss how to make easy recipes like this because she’ll be off to college before I know it. Sigh. Wait, what am I talking about? Yippee!

These are divine out of the oven, but I don’t love potatoes reheated. To do some of the work ahead of time, boil the potatoes and refrigerate them. Then, smash them and roast them to crispy perfection. What is great is that you’ll use the whole potato, since most of the nutrients are in the skin or just underneath the skin. And if you follow the Body Ecology Diet, red new potatoes are the only potatoes permitted since they have the fewest sugars of any potato. Just an FYI. Of course, most of you are not on the Body Ecology Diet, so use whatever baby potatoes you can get your hands on, like Yukon Golds.

When I taught in France last year, I did some roasted potatoes in duck fat, which I know doesn’t sound healthful, but to be honest, I think animal fats can be good to cook with at high temperatures, unless you’re a vegetarian. Unsaturated fats (vegetable oils) can oxidize at high temperatures (above 350 degrees) which create free radicals. Yuck! Those are pro-inflammatory compounds that will age you from the inside out. Saturated fats don’t do that. Listen, I use olive oil at higher temperatures sometimes if it’s the only fat that works, but you’re better off with coconut oil, ghee or duck fat, in this case. Do what you’re comfortable with because you’ll love these no matter what!

4.5 from 2 reviews

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Roasted Smashed Potatoes

Author: Pamela

Serves: 6

Ingredients

2 pounds baby potatoes, such as red-skinned or Yukon Gold (about 15-18)
1 Tablespoon kosher salt for boiling the potatoes
4 Tablespoons fat of choice, divided (e.g. olive oil, duck fat, or ghee)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or rosemary
½ teaspoon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
Scrub the potatoes and place them in a large pot with 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. Fill the pot three-fourths with cold water. Place the pot on the stove over high heat. Bring the water to a boil, lower to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender, about 20-25 minutes. You should be able to insert the tip of a paring knife easily into the center of a potato.
Drain the potatoes in a colander and shake to get off as much moisture as possible. Place the potatoes back into the pot and drizzle with 2 tablespoons of oil. Roll them around to coat with the oil.
Arrange the potatoes on the prepared baking sheet and evenly space them apart from each other. Take another large rimmed baking sheet and position it right on top of the potatoes and press down, smashing the potatoes to about a half inch thick. Remove the top baking sheet.
Drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil on top of the potatoes and sprinkle with the chopped thyme and salt and pepper.
Bake until potatoes are golden and crisp. I took them out after 30 minutes, but you can go much longer if you want them really crispy. Serve hot or warm.

duck fat olive oil pepper potatoes rosemary salt thyme

Tuna patties recipe

Everyone this week was asking about my Mother’s Day and I realized I completely forgot to recount the day for my dear readers! After all, it has been tradition the last couple of years that my husband and bother-in-law and sometimes my father-in-law too, plan and execute Mother’s Day lunch for the ladies. They even do the dishes! The whole day feels like such a treat since I can even workout in the morning AND wash AND blow dry my hair. Before noon! Now that doesn’t happen very often. But I also really look forward to trying some new eats, like the bulgur-feta burgers they made last year from Maria Speck’s cookbook. Yummers! Eating food that’s not for a class or my blog is a fun experience for me.

This year, the boys were a little behind on their planning and were deciding the menu on Sunday morning. On their way to the grocery store. I guess they figured the easiest place to go for recipes with which they were familiar was my website. Yep. More of my food. Whatever. It’s all fine. They did a great job even though it took them about 5 hours to make 2 salads and strawberry shortcakes. And my husband put his own (unintentional) spin on my avocado, jicama and mango salad when he substituted curry powder for cumin. The first two letters are the same — easy mistake! Nonetheless, it was a perfect Mother’s Day.

I was working at home the other day with my assistant and normally we throw together leftovers from a class for lunch or make a kale salad with quinoa and whatever is in the vegetable drawer, but yesterday I had a craving for NOT MY FOOD. I was feeling spontaneous and decided to look through my Foodily faves and Pinterest pins. I came upon these tuna patties and nothing could stop me. They reminded me of ones that my mom used to make, except I am fairly certain she used Ritz Crackers as the binder. Gotta love the 70’s.

I had all the ingredients handy and we threw these together in no time. They were so delicious and reminded me a little of crab cakes, but much easier on the wallet. Next time I make them, and there will be a next time, I’m going to make a sauce to go with them. I’m thinking something creamy with lemon and capers. I think these could also be great as a mini version for an hors d’oeuvre. We ate them with a mixed green salad and it was a really satisfying lunch.

By the way, I have a terrific source for very high quality tuna. I buy it from vitalchoice.com and although it might be one of the more expensive tunas, it’s also the absolute best and Vital Choice doesn’t use BPA in their can liners. Thank you, Vital Choice! This tuna has minimal mercury and is the freshest-tasting I’ve come across. If you have a canned tuna that you love, please share!

Let’s think ahead here. If you want to put the patties together before you leave for the day, or before you start driving everyone to sports practices and music lessons, you can do that and then just saute them right before dinner. You can add some oven fries and a salad or grilled vegetables for a very quick, easy and healthful dinner. Or next year’s Mother’s Day lunch. Hint, hint.

Tuna Patties

Author: Pamela, adapted from simplyrecipes.com

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Serves: makes 4 large patties or 7-8 smaller patties

Ingredients

2 6-ounce cans tuna (if you use 5-ounce cans of tuna, decrease lemon juice and water to 2 teaspoons)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
½ cup panko bread crumbs (or crumbled crackers or mashed potatoes)
1 teaspoon lemon zest (lemon your lemon before juicing it)
1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon water (or liquid from the cans of tuna) - omit if your tuna is very wet like some chunk light varieties
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (measure after it’s chopped)
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh green onions, shallots or chives
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste (I used ½ tsp. salt and a few grinds of pepper)
A couple dashes of hot sauce or tabasco
1 large egg (I imagine you can substitute 1 Tablespoon ground flax meal mixed with 3 Tablespoons warm water. Just let it sit for 15 minutes before you add it to the tuna mixture.)
3 Tablespoons unrefined olive oil or ghee
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter or ghee

Instructions

Drain the liquid from the tuna cans. If the tuna is packed in water, reserve a tablespoon of the tuna water and also add a teaspoon of olive oil to the tuna mixture in the next step. If your tuna is soggy and not dry, do not add water.
In a medium bowl, mix together the tuna, mustard, bread crumbs, lemon zest, lemon juice, water, parsley, onions, and hot sauce. Add salt and pepper and taste for seasoning before adding in the egg. Add egg to mixture and combine.
Line a baking sheet or a tray with parchment or waxed paper. To make a patty, shape some of the mixture into a ball and then flatten between your hands. Place all the patties on the prepared tray and refrigerate for an hour so they don’t fall apart when you cook them. If you’re in a hurry, you can stick them in the freezer for 15 minutes.
Heat the oil and butter or ghee in a large skillet over medium heat. Use less fat if you use a smaller skillet. You want the oil and butter to be warm enough so that the patties sizzle when they hit the pan, but you don’t want them to be smoking. Gently transfer the tuna patties to the pan and sauté until browned, about 3-4 minutes on each side.

egg green onion mustard panko crumbs parsley tabasco tuna

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothie Recipe

Most of the time we just call this the Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie. Mr. Picky says it’s his new favorite and he is usually the one to make it. You should see how many bananas I have to buy to keep up with the acai bowls, banana “ice cream” and the new favorite CPBBO Smoothie. Most cashiers at the grocery store either look at me funny or can’t resist asking me what I am going to do with 6 bunches of bananas.

I was going to wait a while before I posted another banana recipe, but Mr. Picky asked if I would put up this smoothie so his friends’ moms could have it, too. Cute. Smoothies and acai bowls are his favorite after-school snack. I taught him how to safely work the blender and the Vitamix and as long as I’m in close proximity, he’s welcome to give it a go. As opposed to his teenage sisters, who think making a smoothie is too much work. Yawn. I told my daughter who is a junior in high school that she needs to change her attitude that spending 5 minutes to make a snack is hard labor. What is she going to do when she’s (we hope) living away from home in college? And then I said those awful words that made me sound like my parents. C’mon, all together now, “when I was your age…” Yeah, anything that comes after that is going to get the big old eye roll. But really, wouldn’t you have DIED to have a Vitamix when you were a teenager?? Or frozen acai puree?? Or an iPad which pulled up thousands of recipes AND videos? Can we just talk about smart phones for a second? What about the fact that I went to college with a typewriter. A typewriter.

Yep, and that’s why it’s usually just Mr. Picky and myself in the kitchen making smoothies and acai bowls. Which is fine, because I’m soooooo annoying. OMG.

What’s cool about smoothies is that you really don’t need a recipe. We completely eyeball it every time. And Mr. Picky has no idea that I am so on to him that he uses chocolate syrup instead of cacao powder in this smoothie when he thinks I’m not looking. I’m annoying and flexible at the same time. I really don’t care if he squirts a little chocolate syrup in his smoothie if it’s for an after school snack, although we all know that the same antioxidants in raw chocolate don’t apply to Hershey bars or chocolate syrup. Just saying.

But if you did want this for breakfast, I think it’s a perfectly good way to start the day, provided that it’s not the middle of winter. I have a thing about not giving the kids or me really cold stuff first thing in the morning, especially if the weather is cold. It’s just too hard on the digestive system and kids have weaker digestion than adults. But back to nutrients, there’s great protein, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates in this smoothie so you could use this as a meal replacement. Feel free to adjust the flavors to your liking or add protein powder or spinach or ground flax seeds. This is just a guideline. Normally, Mr. Picky and I taste whatever is in the blender and then add a little extra peanut butter or sweetener or chocolate.

Also awesome if you like to plan ahead, make this smoothie the night before and you’ll be sitting pretty come morning!

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Smoothie

Author: Pamela

Serves: makes 1 large or 2 medium smoothies

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas, peeled, cut into large chunks and frozen (click here for how to freeze fruit)
½ cup almond milk or milk of choice*
3 Tablespoons creamy, natural peanut butter (or raw almond butter for a more neutral flavor)
¼ cup old fashioned rolled oats (use oats labeled “gluten-free” for a gluten-free smoothie)
2 Tablespoons raw cacao powder or unsweetened cocoa powder or chocolate syrup
Sweetener: add your preferred sweetener to taste, such as honey, dates or coconut palm sugar. With unsweetened almond milk and natural cacao powder, 3 pitted dates seems to be perfect for us.
½ cup - 1 cup ice, depending on how icy you want it

Instructions

Add all ingredients to a blender with the ice on top. Blend until very smooth. Smoothie may be refrigerated overnight or frozen.

Notes

*If you use sweetened almond milk, you may not need additional sweetener.

If it's not too obvious, omit the chocolate for a Peanut Butter and Banana Smoothie. Omit the peanut butter or substitute raw almond butter for a Chocolate Banana Smoothie. Omit the banana for a Chocolate Peanut Butter Smoothie.

almond milk banana dates peanut butter raw cacao