WIAW – What I ate Wednesday – successes and fails
| April 25, 2012 | Posted by Carrie under food, recipes, What I Ate Wednesday |
No super huge burgers this week for What I Ate Wednesday.
First the good. I mentioned the other day how Dude and I got to have a dinner out together. We went to the local salad bar place and I had my favorite creation. Talk about getting in my extra veggies. Then there was the pizza the kids had for dinner the other night. Ok, so maybe not a lot of veggies (olives for Dude, plain for Dancing Girl aka Miss Picky).
More good: I am continuously inspired by Lindsay at The Lean Green Bean Blog (and host of Foodie Pen Pals) and Jen at Peas and Crayons (host of WIAW) for meal ideas. These are both inspired by them. Jen’s inspiration led me to a baked sweet potato topped with white kidney beans and a splash of olive oil (dinner the other night and again for lunch the next day). Then Lindsay inspired the roasted chickpeas. Super easy and yummy. I think I should have cooked them longer. They were good and crunchy fresh out of the oven, but then they got soggy stored in a Tupperware overnight. Bummer.
Cooking fails this week: 1) homemade almond butter. I have no idea what happened. I’ve made peanut butter in my Cuisinart before. Maybe it’s not a strong enough blade/mixer to do almonds properly. But, it initially just chopped it all. I added a splash of oil (what I was trying to avoid) and that didn’t help. Then, I added water and it just became a big lump. Ugh.
And, after my whole Chia/Flax post yesterday, I decided to try my hand at a chia pudding. The picture below isn’t mine (source). It was ok. An acquired taste, it was almost like the flavor was good, the texture was weird. At least it was filling. I couldn’t finish the whole serving. Maybe it’d be better mixed with fruit and then it would be easier to deal with the crunch.
Judging from all the comments yesterday, there are so many uses for these two seeds. I usually put them in my oats in the mornings, but just before I cook them. Last night, I put them in the oats overnight. We’ll see how breakfast goes today.
Thank you Jen for hosting WIAW. I do love the inspiration from other people’s kitchens.
Edited (May 2013) – I have since become much more successful at making almond butter. Thankfully, as I love the stuff.
Sounds like some fun experimenting! That’s strange about the almond butter… I only made it once, but I do remember it taking way longer than I expected, like more than 15 minutes of processing in the food processor.
the sweet potato and roasted chickpeas sound yummy! love all the new things you are trying!
I’ve only recently learned to love sweet potato. I can’t believe what I was missing.
I love olive pizza…now you got me craving it!
Chia seeds are great in oatmeal. I’ve also made pancakes and strawberry jam using them!
Olives are yummy. Wednesdays always make me hungry. Chia in pancakes. That sounds good.
I have chick-peas in the oven as I write this! I love flax and chia seeds. When I’m doing my long runs in the summer I drink chia seeds with a little fruit juice, does wonders!
Yay for chickpeas! Do you have a problem with them getting soggy the next day?
I definitely want to try the roasted chick peas, as I’ve seen them on many blogs. However, I doubt I will ever try to make my own nut butter. I’m fine with just buying that