Pita- Hummus's BFF

My daughter eats hummus with a spoon. There I said it. So glad I got that off my chest. The triplets love hummus, which is great, but they eat it by the spoonful. I tried giving them carrots, but all they did was double dip. I tried store bought pita bread, but ug that stuff is like cardboard. Have you ever been to a restaurant that actually makes there own pita bread? I am reminded of a restaurant in my hometown that had its own wood burning stove and would make the pita fresh for your order. So, here is my try. Um, next time I need to make a double batch, this was delish.....

PITA

3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 packet instant yeast
1 1/2 cups water at room temperature
2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the olive oil and 1 1/4 cup water all to your mixer. I mixed it all with my paddle attachment for about 2 minutes. Once it was all mixed together, I switched to my dough hook attachment and let it go on medium speed for 5 minutes. place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with oil. Form a ball out of the dough and place it into the bowl, rolling the ball of dough around in the bowl so that it has a light coat of oil on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size. This took about an hour.

Now, punch down the dough (gosh, I love doing that). Now divide the dough into 8 or 10 different pieces (depending on how big you want your pitas). Cover, and let the balls rest for about 20 minutes.

After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough. You should be able to roll it out to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick – 6 inches in diameter.

Place discs on a lightly greased baking sheet and let rise, until barely doubled in thickness, about 30-45 minutes.
Now, bake each tray at 450 degrees. My pitas took about 5 minutes per tray. Um, 8 giant pitas.
I had mine with hummus and tabbouleh (must work on making my own hummus)
But, baby B (the muffin) was happy just to munch on some plain pita warm out of the oven, yum.
Enjoy.

Potty training the trio....

I have some great recipe to post, but since I have been spending a better part of the day sitting on the bathroom floor, I am unable to get to it. Seriously, why din't anyone tell me that if you are potty training multiples, then most of your time will be spent sitting on the bathroom floor. Now, Baby A (the Biscuit) seems to think that our digital bathroom scale is some-type of ipad/email device. After he goes potty, he insists on pressing the buttons on it and saying "i check e-mails", so if you need to reach him it is biscuit@ourdigitalbathroomscale,net.

Hey, maybe I should try updating the blog from there...... maybe he is on to something......

Chocolate Dipped Banana Cupcakes - 2nd place cupcakes

We are taking a break from our regular scheduled healthy eating to bring you a little indulgence. My husband's office has been doing all sort of fun stuff for their United Way Campaign. All the events had a cooking theme this year, super fun! On Monday, they had there own Cupcake Wars! So, I had to enter. I am told that my cupcakes came in a very close second place. Although, I have to say, I tasted the first place cupcake and it was AMAZING.....even though it did not contain chocolate.

So, here is my recipe for Chocolate Dipped Banana Cupcakes.

Here is what you need. Yes, the blacker the banana the better.

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Ghiradelli)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 ripe banana
• 1/2 cu
• 3/4 cup of milk
• 1/4 cup oil
• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350° and line muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners
2. Using a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside
3. In mixer combined: egg, banana (no needed to mash it ahead of time, just throw it in), water, milk, oil, vanilla.
4. Slowly add dry ingredients and mix until smooth
5. pour batter into cupcake liners 3/4 full.
6. Bake for 20 minuets or until toothpick inserted comes out

Oh, and if you are making a double batch, I highly recommend using my special cupcake tin filling method. I put a zip-lock into a Tupperware and fold the edges over. Then a pour the batter in.

Now, just snip a corner and pour into the cups. Less spills and easy clean up this way.

So, after the cupcakes are cooled, frost with your favorite butter-cream. I thought my cupcakes needed an extra something, I mean this was for a contest after all.

So, I dipped some dried bananas in a little melted dark chocolate for that extra bit of pizzazz.

Baby B (the Biscuit) din't seem to mind that these came in second place. He ate 2 of them!

What is Hidden in that Valley? Real Ranch for me

First off, I have been meaning to update this blog forever. Since I find myself alone currently with a flat tire and waiting on service, I figure now would be the perfect time. The triplets have reached the phase where dipping food is like super cool. In fact, they have been asking for Ranch dressing with everything! Even pancakes, yikes. But, I figure hey Ranch could be a good healthy source of fat for my skinny kids and it might even get them to eat their carrots. So Ranch it is.

That was until I saw what was hidden in that Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing we have been lapping up.

Here what they are hiding in the Valley-

Vegetable oil, egg yolk, sugar, salt, buttermilk, spices, garlic, onion, vinegar, phosphoric acid, xanthan gum, modified food starch, MSG, artificial flavors, disodium phosphate, sorbic acid, calcium disodium EDTA, disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate.

First few ingrediats are not too bad. And I was actually happy to see sugar instead of HFCS. But MSG and Artifical flavors, no thanks.

So I found a fabulous ranch recipe and told the hubby to go ahead and make it. We adapted this recipe from Claire Robinson of the food network. Gosh, I love recipes with only 4 ingredients.

• 2 scallions, trimmed
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/3 cup buttermilk

Chop the scallions and garlic as fine as possible, A food processor would come in handy here, but I killed our a few years back, oops. Then wisk together with the buttermilk and and mayo. That is it folks.

4 Ingredients Vs. 18. I have no idea why the Hidden Valley Ranch needs artificial flavors. The flavors on the real ranch was so much better. Of course you could use low-fat mayo and buttermilk if you want. Also, since this is missing all those lovely preservatives it is only good for about a week after you make it. But, if you are like us, no way there will be a drop left. 7 days after making