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She Says: Goodbye Weekend, Hello Monday
In my old Lawyer Life Sunday was seriously the absolute worst day of the week. I was miserable with dread and fear. Now I have more normal feelings about Sunday: sad the weekend is over, wondering where the time went, but looking forward to Monday. Life is so much better now. I had lots of fun things to eat this weekend. Let’s review, shall we?
Pizza, Pizza!
I really wanted pizza last night, so I made some. I even made my own dough! Yeah yeah. I found the recipe at Happy Herbivore’s site. I will definitely be using this recipe again! It was simple and worked well as a blank canvas for my toppings. I didn’t use sugar (I got plenty of that later) or oil, and it was still tasty. Much more subtle than some pre-made wheat dough balls I’ve used. The only change I would make next time is to pre-cook the dough a little before adding the toppings because I really enjoy crispy thin dough.
I made two small pizzas. The first was hummus, spinach, caramelized onions, chickpeas and feta cheese. The second was sauteed spinach, tomatoes, parmesan cheese, garlic powder and lots of feta.
Up close and personal with hummus pizza.
With the leftover chickpeas I did one of my favorite things. I baked them with a little but of garlic and chili powder. I bake them for awhile because I like them crunchy! They make a perfect salty snack. Ya know what I realized? Now that I eat unsalted beans I cannot imagine eating the salty version. Why is there salt in those cans? Why?
Hummus Taste Taste
I conducted an informal hummus taste test yesterday.
Left: Cedar’s Original Hummus Tahini - on sale at Whole Foods
Right: Simply Enjoy Original Hummus – on sale at Stop & Shop.
I love bean dips, including hummus. I ate so much of it this weekend! Anyway, I’m here to give my humble opinion that the Simply Enjoy Original Hummus is da bomb (oh yes, I just said that). As you can see, it’s a little lighter in color than the Cedar’s brand. I am guessing it has less Tahini in it and that’s why? I say that because you can’t taste the Tahini as much in the Simply Enjoy brand. Both are tasty, but the Cedar’s is a little more powerful, a little tangier than the Simply Enjoy. Where Simply Enjoy really excels is texture. It’s thick and creamy, whereas as Cedar’s is a little runny and grainy. Mmmmm hummus.
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Chip Pumpkin Cookies
I also baked some cookies for my grandparents. They’re Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Pumpkin Cookies. I followed my favorite Toll House Cookie recipe, but added 1 cup of canned pumpkin, an extra cup or so of flour and 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. Also, my grandpa can’t eat chocolate anymore, so I used carob chips. I am going to use these more in baking. I love how they get crunchy when baked!
Because Back to Basics Month is a personal challenge and not one of absolutes, I do not feel badly about eating a few. I was inspired by Michael Pollan and in In Defense of Food he speaks about not being afraid of food. I was certainly not afraid of these little cookies! Anyway, I do want to try my best for the rest of the month to remain on track with the Back to Basics challenge, but a couple of homemade cookies never hurt anyone, right? Also it’s much much harder to eat “clean” on the weekends! I am looking forward to Monday for a restart.
Some other things to look forward to this week:
ProBar give away contest starts tomorrow!
Mark is coming on Thursday for some Halloween fun!
Trader Joe’s opens in Rhode Island on Friday.
My mom has eaten and reviewed several flavors of Rachel’s yogurt and is going to share her opinion on all flavors! Yeah yeah.
Ok, I am so hyper right now. Bye.
I just bought a can of chickpeas, I should check the sodium! I never tried chickpeas before, so this will be something I am looking forward to!
Oh, and I am still reading In Defense of Food! So far, it has been a great read! Cheers!
i feel the way about mondays like you did sundays
i dread ‘em!
your pizza looks divine – so fresh!
WOW – ummm where to start. Pizza looks awesome… not too mention I almost licked my screen for the cookies… I never noticed you were hyper
Have a great Night
zesty
Everyone is baking something today~~~~ yeah~~~
I can’t believe that you’re doing pizza dough by yourself. You’re such a great chef!!! I wish I could make it too!
Im so glad you liked it
your pizza looks great!
Your cookies sound amazing… Chocolate chip cookies can only get better with pumpkin!
Pizza is one of my absolute fav foods and both of yours look amazing!! Great combinations!
I’ve never even thought of baking chickpeas until they are crispy – you’re brilliant!!
Mind sharing the temp and time??
Ah, you’re such an inspiration! Such yummy food from scratch, way to go girl
P.S. By any chance that the cookies do start to scare you, please feel free to send ‘em my way!
nice job on the pizza! looks great. And I love Cedar’s hummus – my fav. But I have never tried the Simple brand. so nice to not completely DREAD mondays…glad you are in a career you enjoy – makes all the difference.
Great Hummus pizza, such a great idea and those cookies look great
I can’t wait to see what your contest is tomorrow.
I love, love, love baked chickpeas. I can never stop at just two spices, though. I’m always adding my whole spice cabinet…cumin, cardamom, chili powder, paprika, garlic…whatever I can get my hands on. I hear they are great with tamari, too, although I haven’t tried that yet.
Thanks for the hummus review!
Holy moly, that pizza and the cookies look sooo good. *drool*
I have NEVER seen probars anywhere, and I’m really interested in trying the banana and superfood ones because of your reviews =P
I love hummus on a pizza. Isn’t homemade dough so easy to make. Those cookies look fantastic as well, very cakey. Yay on getting your own trader joes. Also, semi-dumb question…why is carob okay when chocolate is not? Lower sugar content? Just curious.
Chickpeas on pizza? Brilliant! And the baked ones look like a great snack too – I must try that!
great hummus review and love the cookies. i’ll have to try those on my dad…he’s a sucker for the regular toll house chocolate chip cookies! I’ll have to trick him and tell him they’re normal, then see if he notices…i’m evil like that.
yummy food! love the hummus pizza:) two things I gotta try!
This was a great post. I share your outlook on the end of weekend.
Nice job with the homemade crust! I’ve never done that before, but it looks and sounds like it would taste amazing.
Great face-off between the two types of hummus. I enjoyed your review!
And yummy cookies! I definitely think you can taste your own creations
Plus you used the “basic” Toll House recipe…that has to count for something, right?
Looking forward to this week’s excitement!
chocolate pumpkin cookies, great idea…i’m gonna be doing some baking this week and i was planning on making pumpkin muffins…maybe ill incorporate some chocolate into it!
great job with the homemade pizza crust. looks delicious!
heather i am so glad you were honest with yourself and made the change in your life that now makes you happy. it’s so fantastic.
and homemade pizza dough!!! have only done it once, with the boyfriend and it turned out SO good, i’m going to persuade him to do it again
those cookies look so plump and delicious.
Hummus pizza?? Cookies?? Yes, please!!
Monday came way too fast. I want to cry.
Those pizzas look amazing – and I love the idea of your hummus taste test! I’ve made baked chick peas before, but they never came out crunchy enough for me!
I totally understand your comment about the way sundays used to feel for you. When I used to teach, that is how I felt, full of fear and dread. Now – I’m happy about the week I had, and excited to start the work week. It takes a very very very special person to teach. You are a saint!
Your pizzas look fantastic!! I love the toasted chickpeas too… when I lived in spain they used to have little bowls of baked corn kernals, chickpeas, lima beans and peanuts all covered in spices at every bar. It was soooo tasty!!
Ah! Look at those pizzas! Heaven on earth!
Kelly: Not a stupid question at all. It’s not the sweetness, it’s the actual chocolate, so that’s why he can have carob.
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