Not Your Momma's Hummus

Despite terrible nausea last night, I buckled down to a goal I set for myself: try something completely new in the kitchen. Which was easy to do given the plethora of new things I've bought in the past several weeks to make accommodations for vegetarianism and a blog... Over here Heather asked about what everyone's pantry looks like: well, mine is kind of a mess. (Today's mission...organize it!) I have beans strewn over several shelves, the flour and sugar are way in the back and I have to push through boxes of crackers to access them, there are duplicate open packages of things (arggghhh), the nut butters are in disarray... it's a train wreck.

Plus, it leads to those feelings where you walk up looking for a good snack, can't immediately see anything you like, and maybe end up heading over to Dairy Queen for a blizzard. Maybe. (My freezer's not working...no banana ice cream could be made D:  )

NEVER FEAR! Sarah is on the job! Or maybe I should say... Beanie is. I've already had a rant about his superpowers here, so I won't repeat, but let's just say that he's magical. Maybe even more so than Harry Potter. (Not than Hermione, however. That would be stretching it. Sorry, sorry, geek reference!)

My first new creation looked something like this:

HUMMUS!

Or, because we had nothing I could dip into it, like this:

A PARFAIT!

TO START, YOU NEED CHICKPEA FLOUR

HOMEMADE CHICKPEA 'FLOUR'

(Makes 3/4 cup of flour)...And WAYYY economical- half the price of store-bought!

*1/2 Cup Dried Chickpeas, rinsed and cleaned

*3 cups water

1. Cook the chickpeas! What was once 1/2 cup dried should now give you about 1+1/3 cups. Drain off all excess water and transfer chickpeas to small bowl.
2. Here's the annoying part... and probably the reason that most people would just BUY flour. Pop each chickpea out of its little skin and put in separate bowl. Throw skins away. Don't get too frustrated if you can't get every little piece of the skin off or if you slaughter smoosh the chickpeas when doing so. You'll have a chance to get skin off again later, and chickpeas need to get smooshed anyway.

Little Demons Chickpea Skins

3. After you've gotten off all or nearly all of the skins, mash up your chickpeas with a fork or the back of a spoon. Or even use a food processer (like everything else I own, mine seems to be broken). HOWEVER, I think the little chunky texture is good especially if you prefer a beany taste so I do recommend the fork/spoon method.

4. At this point, my 'flour' was fairly dry so I called it good. Remove any other visible skins you see. If you are really a perfectionist, however, or if for some reason your bean mash is still pretty wet, use paper towels to squeeze out the excess moisture.Makes about 3/4 cup flour. AND YOU'RE DONE!

*Note, you could just prepare an entire package of dried chickpeas (1 lb) to make more all at once. I didn't because, as I said, this was an experiment, and my Dad didn't want any waste in case it didn't turn out! 

*Homemade Flour (3/4 cup) - about 25 cents

*Store-bought Chickpea Flour (3/4 cup) - about 45-60 cents

Okay, so now I had that all set. Time to actually get to the creating! As you saw before, first was:

(Low-fat) APPLE CINNAMON HUMMUS

(Makes 1 serving)

1/4 cup Homemade Chickpea Flour (or store-bought)

2 Tablespoons Unsweetened Applesauce

1 Tablespoon Almond Milk

Sprinkle of Apple Pie Spice

1 Packet Sweetener or 1-2 tsp. Brown Sugar

Optional: 1/4 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1-2 Tablespoons Chopped Nuts (Pecans or Walnuts)

OR

1-2 Tablespoons Raisins

OR

1-2 Tablespoons Chopped Apples

(I say 'or' because if you want it to still be kind of hummus-y and use it as a dip, the more chunks you put in the thicker it will be and harder to dip. But if you like it that way, be my guest!)

Mix everything together and refrigerate overnight, or at least 1 hour. Serve with some sort of dipping object. I really wanted Stacy's Cinnamon Pita Chips, or even some Apple Chips, but we has NO good chips to use, so I made a little Hummus Parfait (note...you should use yogurt or pudding with the hummus in a parfait to get the creaminess. It wasn't bad...but I think my tastebuds were expecting PARFAIT and it was not much like your average parfait at all. Still QUITE beany, which I like, just not in my parfaits. But it was pretty, so I posted it anyway)

Entire Recipe: (w/o nuts, apples, or raisins) 150 calories, 2 grams fat, 8 grams protein, 5g fiber

Cranberry-Orange Vanilla Microwave Protein Cakeookies

(Makes 2 Large Cakeookies. I couldn't decide if they were cookies or cakes, sooo...)

Pre- Microwaving

  1/4 cup Homemade Chickpea Flour (or store-bought) 

1/4 cup Rolled Oats

1/2 Scoop Vanilla Whey Protein Powder

1/4 cup Water

1.5 Tablespoons Dried Cranberries

2-3 tsp. Fresh Orange Juice

1/2 tsp. Orange Zest

1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

*For a sweeter, more dessert-like option, add some sweetener or more OJ. Since I didn't, I still got a slight beany flavor, but I liked that. It's up to you*

*If you want a denser, chewier cakeookie, omit baking soda.*

Combine all ingredients. To get orange juice, actually squeeze it out of the orange right there. I resorted to some unconditional orange mutilation techniques:

Divide batter in half and place each gooey bit on a small microwaveable plate. Spread out with the back of a spoon or a fork. (won't stick together very well at this point. Don't be concerned.) Microwave on high for 1 minute, then open up and flip over with a fork. Place back inside microwave and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Remove, let cool, and then can be enjoyed!

NUTRITION (PER CAKEOOKIE): 140 calories, 2.5g fat, 9 g protein, 4.5g fiber

The plate left a cute little ring when I flipped over my cakeookie!

For those of you who like math (like me!!!) you'll realize that I STILL HAVE 1/4 cup of flour left. Since it was 11:00PM when I was making all of these things, I decided to just leave it for later. What will I be doing with the mystery powder? Come back later and see! (Or comment and give me a suggestion- burgers? Brownies? Wraps? Bread? Or should I surprise you all?)

HAPPY RUNNING. HAPPY MUNCHING. ENJOY!