Lemon Chickpea Salad With Roasted Red Peppers

I love Sprouts.  Or actually any place that has bulk isles, but Sprouts in particular.  A few weeks ago, on a whim, I bought about 1 lb of dry chick peas and have been meaning to make something with them.  Of course, there is always yummy Indian food, but since summer is closing in, I wanted something light and summery.  I found this recipe online and decided to try it out.

Chickpeas are treated just like any dry bean, you have to soak them for a few hours (I soaked them overnight) and them cook them for about 2 hours.  Watch out for high boil, or you wind up with a marshmallow monster trying to get you:

The recipe is super simple, and the flavors are amazing.  The one complaint is that I was not able to slice the lemon thin enough for my taste.  When I make this again, I may just use the zest and lemon juice, not the slices.  

Lemon Chickpea Salad With Roasted Red Peppers
from Honest Cooking: Jessica Smith

INGREDIENTS
2 large red peppers
1/2 a lemon, halved lengthwise
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
1/3 cup fresh basil, chopped
3 cups cooked chickpeas (rinsed and drained if using canned)
salt and pepper


INSTRUCTIONS

1. Turn on the oven’s broiler and line a baking sheet with foil. Cut red peppers in half and discard core and seeds. Place red pepper halves, skin-side up, on the baking sheet, brush a small amount of olive oil and cook under the broiler until the skins blister and blacken, 5-10 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and fold and seal the foil around the peppers, allowing them to steam while preparing the remaining ingredients.
2. Cut the lemon into very thin slices (the thinner the better, as these will be added directly to the salad), discarding the seeds. Combine the lemon slices, olive oil, garlic, parsley and basil in a large bowl and stir well.
3. Remove the blackened skins from the red peppers and cut the peppers into long, thin slices. Add the peppers and chickpeas to the dressing and toss to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately or refrigerate up to 24 hours before serving

We had this , plus the Tex-Mex Tabbouleh and some nice bread sticks for a very fulfilling vegetarian dinner :)  Too filling, as hubby couldn't finish (no worries, I did though!)

Nutrition Facts

6 Servings
Weight Watchers PP: 10

Calories 432

Calories from Fat 116

Total Fat 12.9g

Saturated Fat 1.6g

Cholesterol 0mg

Sodium 27mg

Total Carbohydrates 62.3g

Dietary Fiber 17.7g

Sugars 11.5g

Protein 19.7g

Vitamin A 10%

Vitamin C 49%

Calcium 11%

Iron 37%

Orange-Cranberry-Banana-everything I can think of Muffins

I have discovered there are a million and one recipes for muffins on the internet. For a beginner like me, its a little overwhelming. So, what the logical thing to do? Add one more of course!

I honestly don't know that much about baking. My husband, who spent some years in the restaurant biz a few years back, does. Obviously he was going to play a roll in this recipe :) I know that everyone tells me that baking is exact, and the measurements must be correct or nothing good will come about, so that always makes me a bit nervous because I forgot lots of stuff a lot of the time.

My base recipe was adapted from Serious Eats: Orange Cranberry Muffins (so I could get the basics ratios!)

FYI: This makes 16 muffins - I didn't realize that until I was ready to pour. Oops :)

After adding a little of this, and a little of that, this is what we finally came up with:

Orange-Cranberry-Banana Muffins

2 cups flour

1 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon, divided

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup orange juice

8 oz can mandarin oranges (save the juice for a later step)

1/4 cup canola oil

1 large egg, lightly beaten (we used 1/4 cup egg beaters)

1 cup dried cranberries

1 ripe banana

Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. Pour juice from mandarin oranges over the dried cranberries and let sit until ready to mix. (or you could do this overnight).

3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 2 cups flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Make an indentation in the middle.

4. In a large glass measuring cup, mix orange juice***, oil and egg. Pour mixture into flour indentation and stir until everything is just combined.

4. In a small bowl mash banana and mandarin oranges, stir in cranberries. Stir into batter.

5. Divide batter evenly among muffin tins. Sprinkle with reserved 1 tablespoon sugar. Bake 15 minutes. Remove from tins and cool on a wire rack.

***We actually thought that the little bit of juice left over from mandarin oranges would be enough, but it wasn't and we added about 3/4 cup water. I'm going to add 3/4 cup orange juice to this recipe, as the original had, that would probably work much better, haha!

These turned out really good. Our daughter, who doesn't really like fruity muffins, loved it! Not bad for my first time I think :) Thanks to the hubby I'm sure!

They definitely have my mind rolling about different items to toss into the batter :) I just happen to have some blackberries and ripe banana left...hmmm... ;)

Nutrition Facts(from caloriecount.com)

Serving Size: 1 muffin

Amount Per Serving

Calories

164

Total Fat

3.9g

Cholesterol

13mg

Sodium

192mg

Carbohydrates

30.5g

Sugars

16.8g

New Discoveries

Today was a beautiful day in the North Texas area and we just HAD to get out of the house. My hubby and I decided to take a trip to Central Market. One thing about this place, is that even though its an amazing place to explore, its WAY too easy to load your cart and leave $100+ poorer. So before going in, we decided we had a $40 limit, and pulled out that amount and no more!

Its amazing how a cash budget will put things into perspective for you. A person becomes much more picky on purchases. Although there were so many samples that were sooo yummy (Oyster Po-boys for goodness sakes!) we held strong!

One item item that peaked our interest, mainly because the loud POP the machine was making as it spit the fluffy bits of crispiness out, was something called Kim's Magic Pop.



Maybe we live in a cave, but we had never heard of these. So we took a sample, with some artichoke spinach hummus, and knew right away that these items were some of the chosen ones. And just by chance, they had a sell buy the POPs and get the hummus free :) Like that!



Amazingly, with these items and just a few more, we got out of Central Market only spending just under $14.00. Definitely a first for us!

On our way home, we decided to stop by one of our favorite places for fresh Samosas, a place called Royals Sweets. Samosas for $1.25/ea Yes indeed.

So for lunch we had a light and oh so yummy meal of Samosa, and hummus covered POP.


15 Cals per POP
70 Cals for 2 Tbsp Hummus

I don't know what the cals on the Samosa are, but considering the POP/Hummus is less that 100 I think we are ok :)