Monday after work I met my good friend Robyn for Happy Hour over in NE Portland (Alberta).
I’d gone to NE Alberta a few weeks ago for dinner with another friend and had disappointing Greek food. This time? Much better!
I met Robyn at The Blue Olive. I have to say that I love my new work schedule. Getting off at 4:30 means I don’t miss happy hour times! We both arrived at 5 and had an hour left of the happy hour pricing.
The place was cute and small. Before I even arrived I’d decided to skip the alcohol as part of the Sugar Detox. Not that I plan on giving up all alcohol while I kick my candy habit, but I really didn’t want anything to drink! I ordered Persian Tea instead.
Robyn and I split an order of hummus and freshly made pita bread (YUM). The bread was piping hot. The hummus was delicious too–it could have used a tad more garlic or something but it was much better than a few weeks ago when I went to The Hilt.
For dinner I ordered the Greek Salad off the happy hour menu. It was delicious and filling. I love Greek Salads. Robyn’s Greek Salad had grilled chicken in it and that looked good too.
I had a wonderful evening chatting with my friend. The salad and hummus filled my belly and I didn’t feel like I needed to order anything more. Although, I saw several other diners with yummy looking rice and kebobs…I would definitely return to eat those someday!
We parted ways a few hours later and went into a nearby head shop to browse. I ended up buying myself a new pendant.
Ganesha
I got home from happy hour and wasn’t really hungry but I was craving dessert. I really wanted to have a little something. But I resisted and did not have any dessert. I did munch on a few tortilla chips but no dessert!
SUGAR DETOX- DAY TWO
Today is Tuesday and so far I’ve been successful once again with not eating candy. And today was a challenge! Tuesday morning the bosses hosted a breakfast thing for Administrative Professionals. There were scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, yogurt, granola, coffee, juice…Bagels:
I REALLY wanted a bagel and cream cheese. It looks so tasty…I did not eat one. There were also DONUTS!
They looked so good. I really wanted a bite of the donuts. But I resisted. Day two I’m holding strong! Instead, I had some fruit:
I’m happy it’s now the second day and I’m still not giving into cravings or temptations to eat candy. My hope is that I can get it out of my system this week and next week when Michael and I try the low-carb diet the transition will be easier for me than stopping all carbs and sugar cold-turkey.
QUESTION: What’s your favorite homemade hummus recipe? I’m really looking forward to trying to make my own.
jaki
i dont know how you resisted the bfast. wow. i couldnt have done it. yay you!
Lisa Eirene
It was HARD. I won’t lie. I was eyeing those bagels and trying to justify the calories in my mind!
Michelle
I have an interesting hummus recipe at home that calls for Sesame Oil in place of some of the olive oil. Definitely gives it a stronger sesame flavor. I’ll dig it up tonight and post it in the comments for you. I’m interested to see what others post for recipes, too. I really need to get a food processor, though…neither my mini-processor nor blender work very well for hummus.
Lisa Eirene
Thanks! I would love the recipe!
Julie
My husband makes great hummus. I think he just uses a standard easy recipe but he gets it really really smooth the way I like it! YUM! He’ll make a huge batch but it usually lasts less than a day because the wee girl and I have no control around hummus.
Lisa Eirene
The ONE time I made hummus at home it was dry, lumpy and gross!
Julie
He uses the food processor and lets it run quite a long time. He must use extra lemon juice or olive oil to help it smooth out as it’s spinning.
FYI – we set a date for Dog Mountain. I know you said midweek wouldn’t work for you guys, but I thought I would put it out there if you are looking for a group to go with. We are going on Tues May 17th if the weather is nice. If it is not nice, we will move it to the following Tuesday and will go whether the weather cooperates or not. Everyone is meeting at the Kmart on HWY 224 at 8:30am to carpool or will meet people at Dog Mtn parking lot (requires a forest pass or $5) at approx 9:30-9:45am.
If you can get up there in late May or June – the flowers are fantastic!
Lisa Eirene
It sounds like fun and I’d like to but the week days just won’t work. 🙁 I’ll look forward to reading about your hike though! And I hope that we can do it some weekend in May when everything is blooming.
Lisa
I made my own hummus and it was delish! I followed a recipe, but found that I made adjustments by tasting. I made mine in the Oster blender and I would use the blender again. I like my hummus smooth.
If you can get the tahini, oil and chickpea proportion correct you can make any flavor you want by changing the add-ins.
Here is the recipe that I used. It’s from All Recipes and is Hummus III:
2 cups canned garbanzo beans, drained
1/3 cup tahini
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, halved
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pinch paprika
1 teaspoon minced fresh parsley
Directions
1.Place the garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, salt and garlic in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Transfer mixture to a serving bowl.
2.Drizzle olive oil over the garbanzo bean mixture. Sprinkle with paprika and parsley.
I used 2 cans of chickpeas, added extra garlic, blended the olive oil to the mixture in the blender and didn’t use the paprika or parsley to pretty it up. I’d like to try it with roasted red peppers.
Kelly
I actually made my own hummus today! I followed the recipe on the back of the Bob Red Mill’s Garbanzo flour package. (I actually didn’t know that you could make hummus from garbanzo bean flour) I added in my own roasted red bell pepper..so amazing!!
Lisa Eirene
Interesting! There’s a Bob’s Red Mill right near our house. I’ll have to check it out.
Devon
What a cute little cafe! That hummus & pita looks incredible!
Lisa Eirene
It was delicious!