Spicy Roasted Chickpeas

Time to discuss healthy eating once again.  I'll be the first to admit that I'm struggling this time around with my battle for weight loss.  Everyone knows that losing weight requires two key elements: diet and exercise.  Unfortunately, I'm having a difficult time sticking with both.  Exercising after work sounds like no fun at all once I've sat through 45 minutes of bumper to bumper traffic and I know I have a million other things to accomplish that evening.  This problem, though easier said than done, should be easy to solve.  It's all about my own personal motivation.  I just have to make myself "do it".  I need to find that will that makes me crawl out of bed at 6 am to go for an early morning run or drive straight to the gym after work instead of going home with the intentions of working out that quickly fade into a thought of "I'll workout tomorrow instead..." Like I said, easier said than done.

Diet is the element of weight loss that I think requires much more planning and proactive commitment.  It's much more difficult to stick with a diet when you're grabbing lunch on the go, fighting mid afternoon hunger pangs with a bag of Gardetto's from the vending machine (as I did yesterday) or eating out for dinner because you didn't have time to go to the grocery store that week.  Being able to enjoy a healthy lunch, afternoon snack and dinner (assuming that each of these have been made in your own kitchen) is much more demanding than it sounds.  It requires plenty of thinking ahead with menu planning, grocery shopping and food prep.

Of course it's always easier to prep tomorrow's breakfast and lunch the night before (that gives me at least 20 extra minutes to hit the snooze button), but I still don't want to spend hours in the kitchen, after a long day at work, slicing and dicing things to get into place for the next day.  I want meals and snacks that can be made in a snap so that I can't give myself an excuse for not hitting the gym after work.

So I'm beginning a search for healthy quick fix foods that will keep me satisfied throughout the day.  These Spicy Roasted Chickpeas are my lasted find, which I discovered via Pinterest. (Side note: are you on Pinterest?  If you're not, you should be! It's definitely my new favorite way to waste time, but it's also fun and, I think, quite useful- especially for people like me who are constantly bookmarking or ripping pages out of magazines for things I want to remember or save for later).  Anyways, these chickpeas are incredibly easy, require very little prep and almost no clean up.  I get bored sitting in front of my computer all day at work, which makes me want to constantly snack.  I don't feel guilty munching on these throughout the day though and the added bonus is that they're actually quite delicious and flavorful.  So, healthy eating...?  I'm getting there.  Now, I just have to start hitting the gym.

Spicy Roasted Chickpeas

Recipe Adapted from Willow Bird Baking

Ingredients:

2, 15 oz cans low sodium garbanzo beans

3 tsp chili powder

1 tsp ancho chili powder

2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 tbsp lime juice

3/4 tsp fine sea salt

1 tsp cumin

1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Drain garbanzo beans of their liquid and rinse under cold water in a colander.  Lay out on paper towels to dry completely.  

2. Preheat the oven to 400º F.  Line a baking sheet with non-stick aluminum foil.  Spread the garbanzo beans out in a single layer on the foil. Bake for 40 minutes, stirring about every 15 minutes.

3. While the chickpeas are cooking, combine the chili powders, olive oil, lime juice, sea salt, cumin and cilantro in a small bowl and set aside. After the chickpeas are done cooking, let them cool for a minute, then pour them into a large Ziplock bag. Pour the oil mixture into the bag, seal and then shake to evenly coat the chickpeas. 

4. Pour the chickpeas back onto the baking sheet and continue to bake for 10 minutes longer or until the chickpeas are really crunchy. Enjoy and store in an air tight container.

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

Black-Eyed Pea and Ham Soup with Collard Greens

It's time to usher in a New Year, yet again (I could have sworn I just celebrated this holiday...).  It really is true that the older you get, the faster the years fly by.  Surely, someone can figure out how to slow time, even a little bit?  Just wishful thinking...

Anyways, this was Jon and I's first time ringing in the New Year together, so I thought it would be the perfect time to begin some new traditions.  Jon's mother shared with me a few months ago that every Christmas Eve, their family would come together to share a rich and delectable lobster bisque and toast one another with a glass (or three) of champagne.  I loved the idea so much that I thought Jon and I should pick up the tradition for New Year's Eve.

A few problems have since blossomed.  And as I'm sure you have now guessed, the lobster bisque didn't happen.  First of all, I needed a dish that required much less attention than a labor intensive lobster bisque, as I spent New Years weekend recovering from a respiratory infection.  Second, Jon and I have had to buckle down; we are hence forward following a strict budget.  Therefore, a 3 lb live lobster seemed a little impractical and much too frivolous.

So I thought back to a tradition I grew up with, one that had its roots in the South- and you should all know that I'm utterly eager to make Jon as Southern as I possibly can.  My mother encouraged my family to eat a healthy serving of black eyed peas every New Year's Day growing up.  Whether the black eyed peas were canned, dried or frozen and served either in a dip, casserole or soup- no matter what form you ate them in, they were meant to bring you good luck during the upcoming year.

Now, I've never really been a big fan of black eyed peas, but year after year I ate my share of them, because I could never afford to turn my cheek on the opportunity for a little extra luck.  2012 brings about the same predicament.  I'm in desperate need of little luck as I enter this new year, meaning that once again, I feel I can't abandon this old Southern tradition.  Hopefully this year's helping of black eyed peas will bring me enough luck that by this time next year, just maybe, I'll be able to have my lobster bisque... and eat it too.

Black-Eyed Pea and Ham Soup with Collard Greens

Recipe adapted from Epicurious.com

Ingredients: 

16 oz bag dried black-eyed peas

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp unsalted butter

1 1/2 medium sweet onions, diced

2 ribs celery, diced

1 large green bell pepper, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

4 cups chicken stock

2 cups water

8-10 oz cooked ham, shredded or diced

3/4 lb collard greens

2 small bay leaves

2 tsp herbs de provence

2 tsp red pepper flakes (or more to suite your taste)

2 sprigs fresh thyme

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Fill a large saucepan with 8 cups cold water.  Add black-eyed peas and set over medium to medium low heat.  Let simmer for 1 hour, but do not let it come to a boil.  Once black-eyed peas are tender, drain, reserving cooking liquid.  Set both liquid and black-eyed peas aside. 

2. In a 3-qt sauce pan or small stock pot, heat 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat.  Add onions, celery and bell pepper and saute until tender, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.  Add garlic, season with salt and pepper and saute 2 minutes longer.

3. While onion mixture is cooking, remove and discard stems and center ribs from collard greens and cut leaves into 1-inch ribbons.  Add chicken stock, 2 cups of cooking liquid from black-eyed peas, 2 cups water, ham, collard greens, bay leaves, herbs de provence, red pepper flakes and thyme to onion mixture and simmer 20 minutes, until collard greens are tender.

4. Move a quarter of the black-eyed peas to a small bowl and mash with a fork.  Stir mashed black-eyed peas and another quarter of whole black-eyed peas into the soup.  (Reserve remaining black-eyed peas for another use).  Continue to simmer soup for 5 minutes.  Stir in cider vinegar and season soup to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve and enjoy!

Makes 8-10 servings