Over the summer I planted a little garden in my backyard. Most of the plants did great this year, and my jalapeno plant was no exception. I harvested about 20 jalapenos from my lil plant today.

This of course poses the question- just what does one do with 20 jalapenos? I wasn't really in the mood for poppers- I wanted to do something more creative. After some time searching the web I ended up on my favorite recipe website again- allrecipes.com, and found this recipe for jalapeno hot sauce.

WOO WEE this stuff was HOT! I only used 8 jalapenos too! I'm thinking that it's because I let them ripen to the point of getting red. I'm so glad I wore gloves while I was cutting them. I gobbled this up tonight with some enchiladas that I made and it was awesome!

Add a comment »

I've been home sick all week. I've never missed this much work before, and I'm starting to go a bit stir crazy. One thing keeping me sane is making meals from my new Hungry Girl cookbooks. Here's what I've had so far today:

Breakfast:

Eggs Bene-Chick

Ingredients

Cooking Directions

To make sauce, combine mayo, Dijonnaise, butter, and yogurt. Set aside.

Crack egg gently into a small dish and set aside.

Fill a medium pot with 2 inches of water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower temperature until a steady (but very low) boil is reached.

Gently pour egg into the pot and allow to cook for 3 to 5 minutes (3 for a runnier egg, 5 for a very firm one), or until egg white is mostly opaque. Carefully remove and plate egg with a spatula. Use a paper towel to soak up any excess water.

Heat ham and muffin (toast muffin, if desired). Microwave sauce for about 20 seconds and stir (add more water for thinner sauce).

Top muffin with ham and egg.

Cover with sauce and enjoy!

Eggs Bene-chick

183 calories and 8g fat

Eggs Benedict, Average

Calories: 892 | Total Fat: 71.9g (HOLY CRAP!)

Okay, I just had to look into this further. Here's some more nutritional info for the tradional eggs benedict recipe on the link above:

Amount Per Serving
Calories	892
Calories from Fat	647
	% Daily Value *
Total Fat 71.9g	111 %
Saturated Fat 38.3g	192 %
Cholesterol 805mg	268 %

AGGGG Factor A Jillion%


And for Lunch:

Big Bad Burger Wrap


1 large La Tortilla Factory Smart & Delicious Low Carb/High Fiber tortilla (I used a Flat-Out Multi-Grain wrap - still has 100 calories as the tortilla does but more fiber & nutrients)
1 Boca Original Meatless Burger (I used Morningstar Farms brand)
1 wedge The Laughing Cow Light Original Swiss cheese
1 pickle spear, chopped
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp ketchup
2 dashes Franks Red Hot original cayenne pepper sauce

Prepare Boca patty according to box directions. Chop patty into bite sized pieces. Set aside.

To make sauce, combine mustard, ketchup and hot sauce in small dish; stir well and set aside.

Warm tortilla in microwave for 10 seconds. Lay tortilla flat and spread cheese wedge on top.

Place chopped burger and pickle in the center of tortilla. Top with sauce. Fold the sides of the tortilla in, and then then roll it up from the bottom.

makes 1 serving.

This recipe is from the Hungry Girl 200 Under 200 Cookbook.
I made a few changes when I made mine; didn't use the pickle or hot sauce, and instead of mustard and ketchup I used a squirt of Dijionnasse (just 5 calories per serving!), and left out the pepper sauce. This was very good! Definitely one that I'll make again.

I served this with a simple greek salad- lettuce, a couple of tablespoons of reduced-fat feta, and cherry tomates splashed with some red wine vinegar- yum!

199 calories, 5.5g fat, 27.5g carbs, 16.5g fiber, 23,5g protein

McDonalds Mac Snack Wrap- 330 Calories, 19 g Fat, 26g Carbs, 1g Fiber, 15g Protein

(Keep in mind that the nutritional info is for the original recipe, not for my version of it. )

Add a comment »

Hummus is one of those things that everybody just loves, but at around $4 for 12 ounces is quite expensive! I rarely find it on sale, either so I decided to try out a recipe I found on allrecipes.com. (modified slightly)


Ingredients

* 2 cloves of garlic
* 1 (19 ounce) can garbanzo beans, half the liquid reserved
* 4 tablespoons lemon juice
* 2 tablespoons tahini
* 1 teaspoon salt
* black pepper to taste
* 2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

1. In a blender, chop the garlic. Pour garbanzo beans into blender, reserving about a tablespoon for garnish. Place lemon juice, tahini, chopped garlic and salt in blender. Blend until creamy and well mixed.
2. Transfer the mixture to a medium serving bowl. Sprinkle with pepper and pour olive oil over the top.

To go with this I simply warmed 3 pita breads I had on hand in the freezer at 350 for about 5 minutes, then sliced them into eighths. I have to say, this hummus was fresher and more delicious then any store bought hummus I have ever had!



Homemade Hummus Savings

Now, since this about saving money, it's time to look at the price of the recipe. Many of these are well-known, common ingredients. Since I didn't have the prices of these handy, I simply decided to estimate the prices. The one rare product was the Tahini which was about $7 for 15 ounces.

* Chick Peas - Total: $0.75? per can - Cost Per Recipe: $.75?
* Tahini - Total: $7 for 15 ounces - Cost Per Recipe: $1?
* Lemon Juice - Total: $2.00? - Cost Per Serving: $0.50?
* Garlic - Total: $2.00? - Cost Per Serving: $0.20?
* Salt - Total: $0.75 - Cost Per Serving: fractions of pennies
* Total for the recipe: $2.45

This savings between $3.99 and $2.45 may not seem like much, but you get an extra four ounces when you make it at home. Also this hummus is extremely easy and can be made in about 3 minutes using many ingredients that you have around the kitchen. For a lot of people, that's not bad return for the time spent.

Add a comment »