Avocado, garbanzo bean and feta cheese….oh my!!

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A perfect salad for a gorgeous spring evening!

Chickpea, Avocado, & Feta Salad

Yield: Serves 4

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

ingredients:

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2 avocados, pitted, and chopped
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons green onion
1/3 cup feta cheese
Juice of 1 lime
Salt and black pepper, to taste

directions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine chickpeas, avocado, cilantro, green onion, feta cheese, and lime juice. Stir until mixed well. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.

Greek Nachos!! A amazing variation on a favorite just in time for summer!

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Greek Nachos!!  A amazing variation on a favorite just in time for summer!

Here is the recipe:

Greek Nachos

Servings: 2 • Size: 1 pita with toppings • Old Points: 3 pts • Points+: 4 pts
Calories: 170 • Fat: 6 g • Carb: 20 g • Fiber: 4 g • Protein: 7.5 g • Sugar: 3.5 g
Sodium: 420 mg

Ingredients:

2 small 100% whole wheat pita rounds (about 70 – 80 calories each)
1/2 tomato (or 1/2 cup quartered grape tomatoes)
1/2 cucumber diced (about 3/4 cup)
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 tbsp hummus, prepared or homemade

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut the pita rounds into quarters and pull them apart so you have 8 triangles from each pita. Spread over a baking sheet and bake until toasted, about 8 to 10 minutes.

It’s bacon…and chocolate…in a cookie….oh my

Aside

I don’t know about you…but bacon in a cookie sounds like heaven!  (Ok….I love bacon so maybe that is a prerequisite to this recipe).  If it doesn’t sound like heaven-then think of it like this:  You will be the cool/hipster that posts bacon related recipes on people’s facebook/twitter feeds…you will be edgy…smart…progressive…oh the possibilities.  You will be a foodie genius.  Take over the world…charge on bacon lovers, charge on!

And did I mention they are grain/dairy/egg free?!

Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies 

(grain/dairy/egg free) Vegan, Paleo. GAPS. SCD

Ingredients:

2 cups fine ground blanched almond flour (such as Honeyville or Nuts.com)
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4-5 slices of bacon (about 1/2 cup cooked and broken into pieces, candied bacon would be great too)
1/4 cup chocolate chips (such as Enjoy)1/3 cup melted palm shortening/ghee or mild tasting coconut oil
1/4 cup honey or other liquid sweetener substitute (I like clover honey for its mild flavor)
1 tablespoon GF vanilla (such as Neilson & Masseys)
1 tablespoon canned full fat coconut milk

Fry the bacon until crispy. Cut or tear into small pieces. Let cool completely.

In a large bowl, combine the almond flour, baking soda and salt until well blended.

Note: Be sure to ‘scoop’ up the AF with the cup and sweep over the top with a flat edge. If you spoon it into the cup, you are likely to not have enough AF for the recipe. Don’t pack it either

Now add the bacon pieces and chocolate chips to the flour mixture. Toss to combine.

In a separate smaller bowl, combine and lightly beat together the oil, honey, vanilla and coconut oil

Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture, mixing till well combined. The dough might be wetter than your average cookie dough at first. Let it rest while you get the pan lined with parchment paper.

Scoop heaping  tablespoon amounts of cookie dough and tap it out of the spoon. ( I tap it on the bowl a few times,). Form a smooth, lightly packed ball with the dough. Place on the cookie sheet at least two inches apart. Using two fingers, just barely tap down on the tops of each ball of dough. REALLY, you barely have to press at all for the ‘pudgy’ style cookie, just enough to flatten the top a little.

Place another cookie sheet under the one with the cookies. (This will help keep the bottoms from browning too fast.)

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 11-12 min. Keep an eye on them though, as baking times will vary from oven to oven, as well as thickness and size of cookie. Do not over bake or the bottoms and the outsides of the cookie will become ‘tough’. They should be light in color as shown in the picture, with some amount of browning on the bottoms.

Remove from oven and let cool for at least 5 minutes before transferring.

Once cooled, eat at least 4 of them before alerting others that they are finished. Allow everyone to be impressed with how selfless and giving you are when you split the remaining cookies evenly.

But do this quickly because all chocolate chip cookies are best served warm and you don’t want to give away your secret!

When they are all gone, return to the top of this page and repeat!

Makes 12-15 small cookies. Image

The best 1 point soup recipe ever! You will thank me for it….I guarantee it!

We are getting some mighty cold weather already in the great upper midwest…and our first blanket of snow (thank god it’s already melting!!)  And I don’t know about you-but I CRAVE soup when the temperatures drop.  I hate eating soup from a can or from a restaurant because of the inevitable increased sodium content-and the water bloating that follows (yuck, fat finger syndrome!)  Anyway-I came across this recipe and it’s one of the best I have found for homemade soup.  It’s creamy and very satisfying for such a easy, low calorie soup.  I use the lower sodium content chicken broth-or you can use bouillon (‘better than bouillon’ brand is good)

In short-it’s AWESOME!  Serve it with a little parmesan cheese sprinkled on top and nice piece of crusty bread (because of all the calories saved you CAN afford it) and enjoy.  Cauliflower-Soup

Creamy Cauliflower Soup
Servings: 4 servings • Size: 1 1/2 cups • Old Points: 1 pt • Points+: 2 pts
Calories: 80 • Fat: 3 g • Carb: 11 g • Fiber: 4.0 g  • Protein: 4 g • Sugar: 0
Sodium: 494 mg (without salt) will vary by brand of broth • Choles: 8 mg

Ingredients:

  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1 tbsp unbleached flour (all purpose is fine too)
  • 1 medium head cauliflower – chopped
  • 1/2 cup chopped onions
  • 4 cups fat free chicken broth (vegetarians can use vegetable broth)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

In a medium saucepan, make a roux by melting the butter on low heat. Add the flour and stir about 2 minutes. Add the chicken broth, onions and cauliflower and set heat to medium. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer over medium-low heat until vegetables are tender (about 20 minutes.) Puree with an immersion blender until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.