Emily Bites!

I feel like I talk about Pinterest a lot.  Do I? 

 

I apologize if that's the direction my blog has gone.  I'm just in love with how easy it is to find recipes (and DIY crafts for that matter) there.  A while ago, I stumbled upon a great site called Emily Bites.  She basically takes recipes that she's either found in other places, or created herself, and makes them a little lighter (sometimes a lot lighter).  For those of us tracking P+ with WW, it's quite helpful because she's got it all laid out nicely.  

 

Emily, you rock.  I just think you should know that.  I've also been sort of stalking your site lately.  I hope you don't mind! 

 

Here are a few recipes I've made from her site recently.  I have plans to try many more.  :-) 

 

Mac & Cheese Muffins

I didn't use elbow macaroni for these, as you can probably tell.  I used Ditalini pasta!  First, because I didn't have any elbow macaroni and I figured any pasta might work.  Second, I wanted to make some Ditalini pasta for my little one to try (it's perfect for baby fingers). 

On that note, I would strongly recommend NOT using Ditalini pasta for this recipe.  I think using another kind might get the muffins to stick together a little better.  Don't get me wrong... these were delicious, just a little messy!




Bacon Cheeseburger Wraps

 

I know what you're thinking... 'That's not a wrap, Alissa!'  You're right.  It's not.  I didn't have any in the house the first time I made these.  They actually were more like Bacon Cheeseburger Sloppy Joes.  Not too shabby!  I was sure to get some for the second time (see below).  :-)  I didn't toast them because I'm generally not a fan of toasting... is that weird?  I do think that when I make them again I may try toasting just for fun. 

 

Actual Bacon Cheeseburger Wraps

Cheeseburger Pizza

You may also have noticed a theme... we were kind of on a little bit of a cheeseburger kick.  Cheeseburgers might be one of my all-time favorite foods.  A friend of ours suggested putting a fried egg right on top of that pizza.  So, I guess you could do that.  It would certainly add to the points, though!  ;-) 

Here are a few other recipes that caught my eye:
Cincinnati Chili - If you follow my blog at all, you already know this is my favorite chili of all time... I'm interested to try this version and see how it is!
Banana Pancake Bites - Uh... yum?
Buffalo Wing Hummus - Yeah... I might try this really soon.

Seriously, folks... Emily Bites just looks delicious every time I go there. 

Lick the bowl...

I'm about to blog like a fool because I cooked so much today... I thought you should know about some hummus I made today:

Lick-the-Bowl-Clean Hummus

Yes, that's really what it's called!  ...and Jimmy really did lick the bowl clean!  Well, he didn't lick the bowl... and I may have put it in two small containers because I misjudged how much hummus was in the food processor... but he ate all of the hummus in the smaller container (I'm assuming because it was delicious!).  :-)  I remain amazed at the amount of onion that goes into this recipe.  The hummus even retains that onion burn as you eat it.  Or maybe it's the garlic.

I ran out of chickpeas *gasp*, so I substituted black beans instead.  I think chickpeas are still my favorite.  I didn't realize you could use various beans interchangeably.  You can! 

Oh Garbanzo!

I just realized that this is my 51st blog entry!  That means that I've actually blogged 50 times?!  That's a little insane.  Insane maybe, but it sure has been scrumptious. 

I was lucky enough to have another snow day today... I wasn't nearly as lazy as yesterday.  Played some wordfeud with my brother, got some work done that's due tomorrow, watched some Ellen, and even Jazzercised tonight!  I heart Jazzercise.  <3

Anyway, in the midst of all that I made some more hummus.  Here it is in the food processor:

Alissa's Green Olive Hummus (1st attempt!)

Now, I've decided that I'm not going to give you the recipe until I perfect it.  I basically added a bunch of stuff in there today just to see how it would turn out.  Pretty good, but it could be better.  Wouldn't you rather have a recipe that's perfected?  Yep, I thought so. 

I also made Turkey Tetrazzini tonight for dinner.  Mmmm... and I may have made this, too:

Garbanzo and Avocado Salad (WW recipe)

Wow.  Just wow.  Oh glorious garbanzo beans!  This was soooooooooo fabulous.  Jimmy and I ate the whole bowl of it between us and barely touched the tetrazzini!  Can you believe that?!  Awesome.  I will definitely make this again.  The bright side?  We have leftover tetrazzini... which I personally think is even better than fresh tetrazzini.  Yum!

*Side note: For some reason, all of the recipes that I get out of this one WW magazine that I have I cannot find links for the recipes.  I'll give you the gist of what's included in the salad... I eyeballed the amounts based on what I had available and the fact that I wasn't making this for a small army. 

You need: 
-1/2 c. grape tomatoes, halved
-2 cans of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
-1 avocado, pitted and chopped
-1 small can of diced green chiles
-1/4 c. feta cheese
-1 clove garlic, chopped
-salt and pepper to taste
-2 T. fresh lemon juice

Throw it all in a bowl, stir, and eat!  Easy!  If you plan to save some of it for a later date, add the avocado separately so it doesn't brown.  You'll have to add new avocado when next you eat... that is, if there's any left!

Here's hoping for 50 more blogs of delicious food!  Thanks for reading, readers... if you're out there... :-)

Fluffy White Stuff :-)

Snow day!

It was a surprise snow day, too!  That made it even better than a normal snow day.  As far as we knew, it was supposed to snow anywhere from not-at-all to holy-cow-that's-a-lot-of-snow.  That's just how specific the meteorologists were being.  Waking up to a few inches of that fluffy white stuff was pretty sweet.  Below is a picture of where my husband threw a snowball at me from outside as he was leaving for work.  Good aim, honey... but I still got to crawl back into bed.  :-)

I wasn't completely lazy today...

I tried two new recipes (surprisingly, both were fluffy and white!):

White Bean Hummus

We've been on a crazy hummus kick lately.  I say "lately", but I really mean since we've discovered the awesomeness that is hummus.  We love hummus.  My favorite lately has been greek olive hummus... Jim's has been supremely spicy hummus.  Today, I made white bean hummus.  Please keep in mind that there are bunches of recipes for white bean hummus.  All I put in mine was cannellini beans, tahini, and lemon juice (fresh citrus!).  You could add any number of seasonings to the hummus and make it your own.  Cumin, oregano, green onions, rosemary, garlic, etc. 

I think the next time I make hummus I'm going to put green olives in it.  Mmm.  I'll keep you posted!  :-)

I also made this today:

Creamy Cauliflower and Bacon Soup

You could easily make this vegetarian by not putting any bacon in it.  I do have to tell you that Jimmy came home from work and asked why the house smelled so awful.  (He hates broccoli... and cauliflower isn't far off.)  This might be the worst smelling soup ever, but it tasted really good!  Jimmy even said so!  Does that even make sense?!  Cauliflower just doesn't smell good.  Sorry cauliflower.  I still love you.

The Chickpea Invasion...

I'm gonna need some good chickpea recipes.  Send them my way if you have some!  :-)  I think they might be my new favorite thing.  Quite by accident, mind you.  I don't even know what they really are... are they peas?  Beans?  Garbanzos?  Chicks?  They better not be ground up chicks.  Chickpeas.  Go.  Whatever they are, they're delicious.

Look what I made:


Yes, that is indeed White Chicken Chili... but it has chickpeas in it!  I may have accidentally opened a can of chickpeas instead of cannellini beans.  Then I proceeded to freak out about whether or not I should use the chickpeas in the chili or not... and then I tried one.  Yum! 

So, in went the can of chickpeas as well as the cannellini beans.  It made for some awesome chili.  fyi. 

Since then, I've been eating chickpeas in lettuce wraps.  Here's one such creation:

Besides the chickpeas, there may be some Roasted Pine Nut Hummus, light sour cream, RF cheddar cheese, and mushrooms on that wrap.  It may sound a little weird, but don't knock it til you try it. 



I added chickpeas to my fish tacos tonight. 

I may have a problem.

In the meantime... what else can I add chickpeas to?  Hmm.  :-)

(Chickpeas Continued...)
Okay, so I wrote this chickpea blog a few days ago.  I thought I'd add on some other things that I added chickpeas to tonight!  Did I mention how delicious chickpeas are?  How did I not know about them?!  I linked the captions back to my original blog about them... just add chickpeas! 

Chili Cheese Chickpea Corn

Guacamole Chickpea Burgers

Here's my latest concotion:

Chickpea Breakfast Mess

1/2 c. Egg substitute
Shredded cheese
Mushrooms
Spinach
Chickpeas
Garlic
Pepper
Old Bay
*You can add just about anything to this combo, so I figured why not chickpeas? 


Check back often for more chickpea updates!  :-)