Chive Hummus

& Days 1 & 2, Week 4

Hello my lovely readers!  Are you getting a bit tired of my daily logs?  Honestly, I am too.  While I have been taking less time to edit photos (and proof read, sorry!), it still takes a good chunk of time out of my day to write them.  As of right now, I am halfway through my 6-week Eat to Live Challenge.  I'll be blogging a bit less after it is over.  Have I done perfectly on my challenge?  No, but I am getting better and better at making the right choices, and resisting my old ways.  I'd say an improvement is better than nothing.  Anyways, thanks to anyone who is following along, and remember to check out the new recipe that I have been promising, below my daily logs....

Monday, Day 1 of Week 4
Food Log:

• Breakfast: 1 apple
• Lunch: black bean mexican stir fry with peppers and onions in lettuce wraps, 5 small apricots
• Dinner: side salad, corn on the cob, sauted potatoes and onion
• Extras: afternoon snack of crackers and hummus, dessert after dinner of Dr. Fuhrman's no-bake Key Lime Pie (recipe here if you have a membership)

Exercise Log:  Engine 2 beginner/intermediate work out with my mom, walk to a nearby cemetery with my family to see my grandparent's graves for Memorial Day

How I felt:  This day I still felt like I was detoxing from my bad choices of the weekend (not eating enough food, not having enough fruits and vegetables, and drinking too much), but I'm happy my mom was able to get me to get my heart pumping with some exercises from the Engine 2 book I had "let her borrow" by sharing my Kindle password.  Overall, it was a fun day, but I was ready to get back to work and back to my regular eating routine (weird, I know).

Tuesday, Day 2 of Week 4

Food Log:

• Breakfast: 1 apple, 2 bananas
• Lunch: curry red lentils with kale and onion over brown rice, 1 apple
• Dinner: homemade bean burger on a thin bun with fixins, side salad
• Extras: 1 beer with dinner, 1 beer with friends watching the Mariner's game

I think this is my best bean burger yet!

Exercise Log: Stretching before bedtime

How I felt:  I felt happy to get back to work today and have a more structured eating schedule.  I feel like my eating schedule is often something to worry about on the weekends.  I find that if I am going out in the evening and want to look and feel good in my outfit, I tend to eat less throughout the day.  I know that is a no-no, but it stems from my days in college when I paid more attention to calories and would do the same thing.  Now I know that eating the right foods is never going to make me gain weight, and acquiring the right nutrients during the day is key to my health on the cellular level.  Tonight I made bean burgers (one to eat, the others to freeze) out of the mexican black bean mix I had yesterday with lettuce wraps.  I have been making bean based dishes into bean burgers more and more often lately.  Since I am the only one in my household that eats the Nutritarian way, this is a great way to use up too many leftovers, and to be able to save them for way longer in the freezer.

Now on to my promised recipe that I have been raving about:

Chive Hummus

Amy's Notes:  I made this hummus for the first time a few weeks ago when I had gone to the farmer's market (first one of the season, yay!) with my friend Stephanie before she was to host a BBQ at her house.  At the farmer's market, there were a plethora of seed starts and baked goods, but not too much in the fresh produce department.  I did find some fresh herbs that looked divine, so I decided to get a big bunch of chives for $1.  After putting them in the nutritarian potato salad I had made for the party and barely made a dent in my supply, I decided to make a hummus with it.  After all, I don't think it's a real party until hummus is involved!

Ingredients: 

• 1 can chickpeas (or 1 1/2 cups cooked) drained and rinsed
• 1/2 cup tahini (homemade tahini recipe here)
• 1/2 cup fresh chives, chopped (extra to top)
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 2-4+ Tbsp water
• 2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients except for water in a food processor, and process until smooth, but there will still be whole chive pieces.
2. Add in water and process, tablespoon by tablespoon until you have reached the desired consistency.
3. Top with extra chives and serve with chips, crackers, and veggies.  Enjoy!

Have farmer's markets in your area started for the season yet?