Homemade Tahini

& Day 3, Week 3 
*Homemade Tahini recipe below

Happy hump day to everyone!  I feel like this week has been going by rather slowly.  Probably because we have such a fun weekend coming up.  On Friday, our good friend Marley is coming into Spokane from our college town of Pullman to go out for her 21st Birthday.  Then, on Saturday, our couple friends, Ian and Danielle are having a BBQ at their new house and a party through the evening for Dannielles Birthday.  One other thing that is quite eventful this weekend is.... Arrested Development coming out on Netflix!!!!!  Kevin and I will, probably spend any second we get watching all of the new episodes.

Tonight for dinner, I ended up going to my parents house to catch up with my mom and help her make dinner since she has been working all week.  We ended up making a sweet Thai curry with a bunch of veggies and a spice mix I got this weekend from this great local spice store.  All I can say is, YUM!  Check out the picture in my daily log below. 

Food log:

• Breakfast: 2 bananas, 1 apple
• Lunch: mixed greens with broccoli and chive hummus, 1 apple
• Dinner: sweet Thai curry over brown rice, sugar snap peas
• Extras: my Moms homemade guacamole with whole grain chips as an afternoon snack, (1-2) beers in the evening at trivia

Exercise log: Walk with my parents dog around the neighborhood

 How I feel:  I weighed myself this morning to find that I was one pound down from last week. That makes 9 lbs total since I started the 6-week Eat to Live plan.  Im happy with this progress, but I think what shows even more of my success is my appearance. I feel like I can feel the fat melting off the many places it has been hanging on to, and the muscle underneath developing and showing through with each trip to the gym.  My husband Kevin even has said that, while he always thought I was skinny (thanks dear), he is noticing that I seem "smaller", like somehow my bones are shrinking me to be leaner.  Im hoping that is not the case, and that my fat I have been holding on to for too long is coming off.  That reminds me of this picture I saw the other day (source unknown):

So, over the next week I have two BBQs that I am going to.  One tomorrow for work, and another for our friend Dannielle as I mentioned above.  For BBQs my go-to food to bring is always my hummus (recipe here).  It is great because it is healthy, but on the "approachable healthy-side" for most people.  Since a large part of hummus is tahini (sesame seed butter), and buying it in the jar generally costs up the ying yang, I decided to try to make my own.  Here is how I did it:

Homemade Tahini

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups unhulled sesame seeds
• 1-3 TBSP sesame or other oil

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.  Place the sesame seeds on a cookie sheet and shake to evenly spread.  No need to stray your pan, the sesame seeds produce their own oil. (In a toaster oven, toast at 400 and do 1 cup at a time). 
2. Toast for 8-12 minutes until the some of the seeds turn a very light brown.  During toasting, make sure to take out the pan and lightly shake to move the seeds around.
3. Once toasted, immediately scoop into a food processor with a small amount of oil.  Process and scrape the sides periodically.  It will take a few minutes to go from seeds, to crumbles, to liquid-y tahini.  Be patient!
4. Store the tahini in an airtight container in the fridge and use for dressings, hummus, or spreads. Yum!

Amys Notes:  Like I said above: be patient with the tahini!  It will come together.  I dont have too heavy duty of processor (although it is quite loud and I was worried the neighbors might come knocking to see who was running a chain saw), and mine was able to get the job done with about 8 minutes of processing.  This recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups of tahini, which is about how much comes in a jar at my local grocery store (for nearly $7 a jar!).  When buying the sesame seeds in the bulk section, I was able to get 2 cups of seeds for about $2.  Thats over a 70% savings!  

What sorts of foods do you make at home to save money, or avoid preservatives and other additives?

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Flavorful Tahini and Grain Salad

I hope everyones hump day is going well.  Last night after prepping my breakfast, lunch and dinner for today, I went to yoga at my gym.  It was the perfect way to relax and get quite a sweat going... I just may be becoming a yogi!  Dont worry, this is first and foremost a recipe blog, but I thought I would share with you my experiences practicing yoga.

Over last fall I found that I was beginning to have some tightness and pain in my right hip.  It would have a light pop when I made certain movements and be sorest when I first got up in the morning and when I found myself sitting or standing for longer periods of time.  Since Kevin and I have started going to the gym more in the last month, the hip pain has become more noticeable.  So, I have been desperate to find some relief that didnt involve pain medicine.

I met a friend of a friend this weekend who went to school to be a sports physical therapist, and he suggested that I do a pigeon stretch (in yoga) at least three times a day for 35 seconds each, as well as do more lunges to build up the muscles surrounding my hip and buttocks.

Then, yesterday in yoga I also asked my instructor what she would suggest I do.  She felt my hip bones and noticed that my right hip is 1 inch shorter than the other and that it would take building my core muscles and stretching to fix the popping problem and pain.  She too suggested the pigeon pose and to consciously throughout the day try to lift my core to create space in that hip bone.  Hopefully a combination of both the sports trainer and yoga instructors advice will get me back into shape.  On top of that, losing a bit of weight to not have so much strain on all of my joints is sure to help.

Last night I prepped a salad for lunch today that is one of my new favorite recipes I have made in a long time!  It is delicious, gets me to eat my greens, and can be versatile to whatever grain and bean ingredients I have prepped on hand.

Flavorful Tahini and Grain Salad
Servings: 4-6
Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of cooked grain (I used brown rice, but would love to try it with bulgar, barley, farro, quinoa, cous cous, etc.)
• 1-1/2 cups cooked beans or legumes (I used 1 can of chickpeas, but I would love to try it with brown lentils or even green peas.)
• 1/3 cup raisins
• 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1/4 red onion, finely chopped
• Tahini Dressing
• Juice from 1 lemon
• 1/2 cup tahini (sesame seed paste)
• 2 Tbsp sweetener (I used brown rice syrup, but you could also use date paste or agave syrup.)
• 2 Tbsp dijon mustard
• 2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp cumin
• water to thin to consistency
• black pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Place all of the dressing ingredients into a small bowl and whisk until well combined, adding water as needed to achieve a thinner creamy dressing.
2. Place all of the other salad ingredients into a large bowl and stir until well mixed.
3. Pour all of the dressing on top of the rice mixture, and mix until all of the salad is well coated.  Add pepper to taste.
4. Serve chilled by itself or on top of your choice of green.

Amys Notes:

As I said earlier, this rice salad can be very versatile depending on the type of grain or bean/lentil that you use.  Next time I would like to make it with farrow and lentils.  Mmmm!  This time I made it with brown rice and chickpeas because that is what I had on hand.  I served mine over a bed of well chopped green leaf lettuce.

Last night I returned to my Mom a container of Tupperware I had borrowed, and in it I gave her the rest of this salad that I did not use for my side salad for dinner and lunch today.... all I can think now is, "Why didnt I keep it?!"  Enjoy it this time, Mom <3, because next time I make this, Im not sure if I will be so willing to share ;).

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ROAST CARROTS WITH CRISP CHICKPEAS AND TAHINI

To round off my husband Pascals birthday week we had his favourite roast pork belly on Sunday - he wanted potatoes as a side but I vetoed that idea and chose a vegetable dish as my jeans were starting to feel super tight after all our recent pigletting!

This is a recipe I ripped out from Olive magazine and it took about 45 minutes to make.

Ingredients for 4 people (as a side):

1 tin of chickpeas (410g), drained and rinsed
olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chilli powder (optional - we left it out)
1 tsp smoked paprika (I used normal as that is all I had)
1 kg carrots, halved lengthways and widthways
2 tbsp runny honey
2 tbsp parsley, chopped

Tahini Sauce
2 tbsp tahini (stir the jar really well before measuring)
1/2 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 lemon, zested and juiced
1 tbsp olive oil
Water (amount depends on how thick you want your sauce)
Salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 200 C / 180 C fan / gas mark 6.

In a roasting tin, add together the chickpeas, a good slug of olive oil (2 tbsp), the cumin, paprika, chilli powder and salt. Give it all a good stir so it is completely mixed. Bake for 40 minutes, shaking the tin every now and then until the chickpeas are crisp (I did this about 3 times).

Peel and cut the carrots lengthways and widthways and then roll them in a tablespoon of olive oil and the honey and season well. Lay in a roasting tin and put them in the oven on a shelf under the chickpeas (if possible) and roast for 30 minutes.

To make the sauce, mix together the tahini, garlic, lemon juice and zest, salt, pepper, olive oil and enough water to make it spoonable. I added about 3 tbsp of water I reckon - I did it bit by bit and tasted it as I went. I was surprised at how much I had to stir the tahini to start with - it was very stiff.

Once the carrots and chickpeas are ready, combine together with some parsley and spoon over the sauce.

I was a bit dubious about this to start as the chickpeas are very very crispy (I didnt expect that despite the recipe title) and my sauce originally didnt come together - I had to season it well. However it definitely grew on me after a few mouthfuls and Pascal and I decided we really liked it. It would actually work well as a veggie main with some feta or halloumi or also as a side to some lamb. A good fusion of flavours and very simple and easy to make.

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