Out for a Bit!

It's time to hunker down and get to even more intense studying.  When I get back in August, expect updates on the budget, tips on preventing waste in the kitchen, navigating and getting the most from Craigslist, moving tips and price comparisons, recipes, and more!

Miss you already!  Wish us luck please!

With love,
R

99¢ Hummus

Good news!  I've fallen in love.  I know I kind of pledged my soul to that gourmet, roasted-carrot hummus I mentioned a few posts ago (and then again last post), but we broke up and now I have found my soul mate.  It's the hummus I made this afternoon.

By making it completely from scratch my inner control-freak was absolutely singing!  Nothing went in it that I didn't want!  This stuff is healthy, tasty, simple, and cheap cheap cheap.

Also, this stuff only cost me 99¢ per 8 oz.  Boom. 

This was adapted from Steve, who also embraced using dried chickpeas rather than the canned stuff, at The Black Peppercorn.

I started by soaking the chickpeas (Garbonzo beans) for two days--by accident.  I soaked them all day yesterday and then didn't get the chance to make the hummus, so I just swapped out the water and left them overnight.

Then I brought the chickpeas to boil in a pot with water, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of Salt and a splash of baking soda.  Once boiling, I reduced the heat and simmered them for an hour.

Next, I drained the chickpeas and left them to cool to about room temperature.

I came back and put about 3 and 1/2 Cups of chickpeas into my little blender that I got for free, added one clove of garlic, 1 Tablespoon of Tahini, and the juice of half a lemon.  I also added about 1/2 Cup of water and about a Tablespoon of Olive Oil.

I only added one clove of garlic because recently, I have been over-garlic-ing.  It ended up being a good call!

TIP: If you don't feel like buying Tahini (I fought it for a long time), you can use toasted sesame seeds.  If you have a relatively nice blender or food processor, they will disappear leaving nothing but that touch of flavor.

I blended that stuff up until it was creamy with just a little chunky, rustic texture.

Then, I stirred in one teaspoon of mild Harissa.  This stuff adds such a great flavor and a beautiful pop of color!

Finally, I put the hummus into little containers and placed them in the fridge.  To tidy up, I licked clean every spoon, utensil, and even the blender pitcher as if I had just made cookie dough. 

This hummus is exactly what I needed to get through this week.  I can't wait to stuff it into my lunch-time wraps, to dollop it on top of dinner dishes, and to scoop it up with home-chopped carrot sticks for the next week.

TIP: As you make your hummus, keep tasting it!  You may want to add a dash of salt or a couple shakes of paprika instead of the Harissa.  Or you may want more lemon.  Or you might add too much garlic and need to toss in some more chickpeas to balance it out.  Just keep tasting, and you will end up with hummus that you want to cuddle with in bed because it so fresh and smooth.


XOXO,
R

The Dang-Blasted Budget

Last night, my husband and I had a very sweet and romantic talk.  We even broke out the calculator and Excel sheet.  Basically, we realized we only have $90 per week to live on for the next two months.  That's after rent and bills (Dear Lord, please don't let it get too hot here).  We are living off of sweet, generous wedding-gift money; some fatherly donations; some scratch I made by selling some of my super cute but non-necessity clothes; and the remnants of our student loans.

This has inspired us to CUT OUT EVERYTHING!  No more Starbucks (we were just doing the bring-your-own-mug refills, but even that is too fancy for us right now), no more taco truck, no more gourmet roasted carrot hummus, and no more Blizzards from Dairy Queen.

Ha, as I write what we have to cut out, I am laughing at us. We are fine and still ridiculously fortunate, but it was definitely a wake-up call to do the math.

This has inspired me to try to encourage others who are just trying to stay out of the hole.  We are going to do our best--we are determined to not take on any credit card debt.  Ever.

I'll be mapping out every penny we spend here:

This way we can see it and can both stay on the same page.  Also, by telling you about it, I really have to stick to it--accountability is no joke.

My first project is replacing that beautiful, angel-kissed, gourmet hummus with some homemade hummus from yours truly!

Here is why it will be so great:

Gourmet Hummus = $6.50 for la petite container

Homemade Hummus =  $0.64 (1/2 of a $1.28 bag of dried chickpeas) + $0.70 (the portion of the $3.99 Tahini) + $0.48 (the portion of the $5.59 Harissa) + $0.30 (1 Lemon) + $0.07 (1 Cloves of Garlic) + $0.80 (a dash of Olive Oil) = $2.99 / 3 (because my homemade batch makes over three times as much as what came in the other kind = $0.99!!!!!

Awww yeah!!!

Seriously, $0.99 compared to $6.50--that's a big stinkin deal.

I'll be sharing the hummus recipe and will be keeping this budget in mind as I continue to cook, study, eat, study, and take pictures of the foods I'm making on my phone.  (I would buy a real camera but that is NOT in the budget.  Sorry bout it.)


With love,
R 

America Party!

This year, I will be studying more than celebrating on the Fourth, but it is usually one of my favorite celebrations!

I wanted to share some things I made for a related, but different celebration.  A couple of years ago, a friend officially became a United States citizen.  After she was finally able to take the exam, which she passed with flying colors, we threw what came to be an annual "America Party."  We really wanted to celebrate her accomplishment and welcome her to this fine country.  It ended up that red, white, and blue themed parties are kind of addicting, so it became a sort of annual Second-Fourth-of-July.

Luckily I still have a few photos of the treats I made for one of the America Parties.  There were many more and a whole lot of American-flag toothpicks and tank tops, but these three treats were BIG hits!

America Strawberries

America Cupcakes

A Healthy America

Lunch To-Go: Veggie Wraps

My sweet husband and I had to do quite a bit of adjusting when it came time to smash our lives and our budgets together.  Turns out that two small bank accounts = two small bank accounts.  To make things work and to stay on the we-still-find-each-other-attractive track, we had to find a sack lunch option that we could assemble in the morning and that didn't make us even more miserable in the middle of a day of studying.  The PB&J's were getting too sad.

The solution?  Almost Lettuce Wraps.  I put lettuce in them, but they are really just regular wraps.  Like "lentils," "lettuce wraps" just sound so much slimmer I think.

That Chocolate Fix

Today I whipped up some of the simplest and most creative cookies.  I was needing some dark chocolate in a bad way, and boy, did these fit the bill!

The original recipe is from Josefine at The Smoothie Lover, and she must have a special place in heaven for coming up with the idea of using avocado and eliminating the flour!

These are very chocolatey and are like a soft, cake-cookie hybrid. Yum!

World Cup BBQ Salad Bowl

I am writing this at half-time of the U.S. vs. Belgium game.*

Today, my handsome husband picked up some local barbeque for our futbol-based lunchbreak.  It smells heavenly.  I was almost angry because, after growing up in Texas, BBQ is the one smell that makes me question all of my dietary decisions.  I smell that smokey goodness, and all I can think is, "I want that. Now."

See, I did not switch to a vegetarian lifestyle for a lack of desire to eat meat.  I still crave it all the time, but usually just remembering a few of the reasons I chose to avoid it is enough to overcome a craving. For BBQ, it takes a little something extra, a little taste from home if you will.

Here's my trick that keeps me from hangry fits.

Fancy Lettuce Wraps that Make Your Wallet Sing

As promised, here are the yumtastic wraps that we had for dinner!  These were oh so tasty and hearty enough for us to feel happy-full.

How to Cook that Crazy Patty Pan Squash

And use up some of those zucchinis and yellow squashes that you went bananas for at the farmers' market...

Holy wow!  There is a Farmers Market happening in my town three times a week.  The one on Saturdays is the biggest and fanciest (live music, hipster coffee, etc.), but they are all awesome!  I feel so spoiled.  

We brought home a great haul this past weekend!  

Lentils are what all of the cool kids are eating.

My main inspirations for my cooking are also my main limitations: time, money, and a need for real nutrients.  My husband and I are both studying for the Bar Exam right now.  Yes, it was a ridiculous thing to do to ourselves.  This means that it has never been so important that we both stay healthy and so imossible to actually take the time to be healthy.  In order to maximize our health, minimize our "footprint," and stay efficient, we eat a whole lot of fruits and veggies and have to do a little extra planning (and chopping).  I stick to a vegetarian diet (confession: I just ended a pescatarian phase) and my husband only eats meat when we aren't at home (by choice of course).  But this kind of a diet can easily become very time-consuming and expensive if we aren't careful.

I really couldn't compromise our health or the opportunity we have to be good humans today rather than when we are richer and wiser, so we try really hard to eat sustainable, local foods whenever we can afford to.  Did I mention we are broke?  Funny, we haven't been able to convince anyone to pay us to study yet.

More importantly for you, this lentil recipe is probably the easiest thing I have ever made in my life, except maybe for a bowl of cereal.  It is also terribly budget-friendly and will make you sound cool when you tell people what you eat.  Also, all of the ingredients can stay in your pantry for weeks until you decide to cook this.

(Only $0.87??!  Hello!!!)

&eating it too

I think there are many, simple ways we can maximize the joy that we experience and the joy that we spread.  This blog will be one of the ways I attempt to do both of those.  Life is too short to treat a new day as anything but a gift, especially a rainy day.  

The blog is coming soon!

Thank you for your patience!  I'll see you starting July 2014.
Let's have our cake and eat it too!