Wordless Wednesday - A White Christmas

Wordless Wednesday

(About time since it's been THREE MONTHS since my last post!)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Top 10 Tuesday

It seems I don't really have time to blog these days, but I thought posting a video with my "Top 10" favorite pictures from Hawaii might be a good start. :-)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Foodie Friday

We've been making our own fat free pudding and sugar free jello from the box/mix at home for lunches lately. A neat variation on the jello recipe is to add 1 cup of boiling water (as instructed), and then instead of adding 1 cup of cold water, use 1 cup of your favorite soda (diet or regular should work). It adds some pizzaz to the jello, and it's fun to mix and match the flavors.

So far, we've tried combinations like lime jello with gingerale and orange jello with sierra mist cranberry splash, both of which were good. The combinations are (practically) limitless, so give it a try, and let me know what fun and tasty mixtures you create!

Foodie Friday

I reeeeally like the oatmeal raisin cookies at Starbucks and was super stoked when I was able to find their recipe online. I made a batch last week, and they are oh-so-yummy!

I used my new cookie scoop, and it worked like a charm. The only thing I will probably do differently next time is to flatten the dough balls a bit before baking so that I can bake them for a shorter time (to keep them chewy), but they will cook evenly throughout.

Wordless Wednesday

Foodie Friday

I'm a big fan of chickpeas, a.k.a. garbanzo beans. I mean, I really love them...on a salad, in chili, on pita chips in the form of hummus, and the list goes on. Except...well, the list doesn't go on because I haven't found all that many different ways to enjoy my beloved beans. So, when I heard about ROASTED chickpeas, I was quite excited.

The especially good news about this recipe is that, not only are garbanzo beans very good for you, but the roasted ones are oh-so-easy to make. Plus, when making/eating these, you get to feel multi-cultural, as roasted, spiced chickpeas are a popular snack in Turkey called leblebi. :)

Here's what you do:

• Rise and pat dry one can of chickpeas
• Toss the beans in a little bit of oil (I used olive)
• Season to taste (the options are endless, but I tried garlic salt for my first attempt)
• Spread the seasoned and oiled chickpeas on a cookie sheet
• Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, shaking the beans around every 10-15 minutes
• Increase the oven temperature to 400, and bake for an additional 15-20 minutes
• Remove roasted chickpeas when crunchy

Viola! Roasted garbanzo beans!

My roasted chickpeas were crunchy and good! However, if you don't love these beans as much as I do, I think you'll want some more seasoning, as I did feel they were a bit bland. Some ideas I'd like to try in the future are cajun seasoning, chili powder, and garam masala.

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday