Hummus Recipes

I love hummus and with the restrictions of my diet it is one of the pleasures that is easy for me.   Here are a few places where I have found amazing recipes for hummus:

Hummus - A fairly basic recipe.  I tried a couple of recipes and this is my fav so far.  I did make one change to the recipe.  I used 3 tbsp tahini instead of the 1 1/2.

Sweet Potato Hummus -  from My New Roots Blog ( I love the lemon zest in this!)


Lemon Ginger Hummus* - Same recipe as the basic hummus, but add zest of a lemon  and 1" piece of ginger grated.


Artichoke Hummus* - Same recipe as the basic hummus
 - add 1 can artichoke hearts (14-16oz) (drained and rinsed)
 - extra 1/2 tbsp tahini
 - extra 1 tbsp olive oil
 - reduce lemon juice to 2 tbsp


* I haven't tried these yet, but I am looking forward to it!

Mexican Pizza

Today it is quite cold where I live so I decided a pizza would be nice. I was doing some research about healthy pizzas and I found a recipe that sounded good. Here is what I made and the changes I made. :)

Yields: 5 servings
Ingredients:
1/4 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp. olive oil
8 oz can refried beans (used vegetarian organic refried beans)
7 oz jar taco sauce
8 oz can tomato sauce (used no salt added tomato sauce)
1/2 tbs chili powder (used 1/2 tsp)
1/2 tsp cumin
2 oz. can green chilies, drained (optional, I didn't use)
1 large Boboli Pizza Crust (used wheat version)
1 can sliced black olives
1/2 tomato, diced
2 cups 2% shredded mexican cheese mix

Preparation:
Saute onion and garlic in olive oil until tender. Add beans, taco sauce, tomato sauce, chili powder, and cumin. Stir well, and heat through.

Spread sauce evenly over pizza crust. Top with sliced olives, diced tomato, and shredded cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes until cheese is melted, bubbly, and begins to brown.

I will start this paragraph off by telling you that I am a bit of a light weight when it comes to hot/spicy food. This is very close to being too spicy for me and I used a mild taco sauce. I suggest you mix it up a bit depending on what your tolerance is. The original recipe that I created this from asked for 9 oz jar of taco sauce and 4 oz of tomato sauce, so if you do like really spicy food you could change it back to that and add jalapenos instead of chillies, and up the chilli powder back to half a tablespoon. The ingredients that make this good for the heart are: beans, onion, olive oil, olives, garlic, tomatoes.

Tuna Salad

This weekend with temperature over 90 I decided to make something that didn't need to be cooked and would be refreshing in this hot weather. I found this recipe for a tuna salad sandwich from tasteofhome.com. I have included changes and notes which are green.

Simon's Famous Tuna Salad
Yields 5 servings
3 cans (6 oz each) light water-packed tuna, drained and flaked (3 cans (5 oz each) water-packed low sodium tuna, drained and flaked)
3/4 cup fat-free mayonnaise (3/4 cup light mayonnaise)
1/4 cup chopped celery (about 1 stalk)
1/4 cup chopped carrot (about 1 medium carrot)
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp dill weed (I used fresh)
10 slices whole wheat bread, toasted (I used quinoa bread, not toasted)
5 lettuce leaves

In a small bowl, combine the first seven ingredients. For each sandwich, layer a slice of toast with a lettuce leaf and 1/2 cup tuna salad. Top with a second slice of toast.

This is quite tasty and it is quite tasty. The only fat-free mayo that I have been able to find is Miracle Whip which personally I think tastes way to sweet which is why I used light mayo. For those who don't like whole wheat bread the quinoa might be a good option. It is a bit unique in flavour, but I think it doesn't have as much flavour as the whole wheat. The ingredients that makes this good for the heart are: tuna, onion, garlic, whole wheat or quinoa bread, and carrots.