25 June 2013

Tasty Foods: Zucchini Hummus

I'm tempted to run upstairs and whip up a batch of zucchini hummus just so I can take some photos for this post, but I'm out of avocados and there are no grocery stores open after 10 PM in SOMA (don't get me started on the EBAY Now ads that make ZERO sense to me.  Who goes to the park, thinks they are starting to burn and orders sun screen for delivery in about an hour????? By the time your sun screen arrives you WILL have a sunburn, I'm sorry to say.). 

Rod and Judy were awesome enough to share the recipe they served for zucchini hummus when we went over for dinner at their place the first time. I have to say, I like it more than "standard" hummus, and I really like hummus. 

Zucchini hummus is amazingly light and doesn't have the same heaviness that a bean based hummus has (though I guess you may be okay with that fullness). It's raw, it's vegan and it's delicious.  

I made two batches for our wedding. Originally I was going to make a double batch using the recipe from ibreatheimhungry, which is pretty darn delicious on it's own. It was the morning before the wedding and I had a couple of avocados that needed to be used so I decided to throw them in the mix.  

Zucchini hummus + Avocados = AMAZING!  

The original recipe is as follows.  I made it the first few times using my Ninja and it took a while to really break everything down and get it smooth.  We got a BlendTec (of Will it Blend? fame) and it made short work of the hummus (about 45 seconds).  Play with what you've got to find out how awesome this recipe is.  

It's amazing as a dip but I've also discovered how rad it goes with just about everything. Top a steak with it. Top a chicken breast with it.  Breakfast sausage?  It's delicious. 

ORIGINAL LOW CARB HUMMUS (from ibreatheimhungry.com)


Ingredients:
4 cups peeled & chopped raw zucchini
3/4 cups tahini (sesame paste)
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 teaspoons kosher salt (or to taste)
1 Tbl ground cumin
Combine all ingredients in a blender and puree until thick and smooth.  Taste and adjust seasonings to your preference.  Pour into a shallow bowl and garnish with parsley, paprika and a drizzle of olive oil if desired.  

My modified version of this recipe swaps out the 1/4 cup of olive oil for 2 avocados.  The remaining ingredients remain the same as do the instructions.  
 
This was one of the first non-AIP foods I tried eating and it appears I can tolerate seeds (sesame paste), which made me really happy.  Cumin is technically not AIP friendly, but I was going a bit nuts and just wanted "regular" food. I haven't had any sort of noticeable reaction to this recipe, so it's in regular rotation. 
 
Speaking of AIP, I think I need to get back to being super serious about it. For days now, my sinuses have been swollen (they feel like they "pop") and I've had terrible headaches. I'm not sure if it's the pressure changes due to the rain or what, but I'm pretty miserable. Loosening up made getting through the wedding a bit easier, but I really need to isolate foods to find out what is tolerable and what is not (the sunbutter cookies I came up with last week were amazing. Hopefully they weren't the issue). 

15 June 2013

Going Camping!

I had grandiose plans of taking a month off of work this summer to work on projects, camp, get stuff done around the house, etc.  I'm not taking the month off after all, but we did manage to book our camping trip for the summer.

We're headed back to Yosemite!

We went on the most comical trip ever with AAU a few semesters ago, but only got one day in the park (and I think it was only like 7 hours). The cast of characters was AMAZING. Three Stripes, Squirrel Girl and the lot were far more entertaining that I could have asked for.

We're going to stay at the Yosemite Bug Hostel for two nights and camp in the park for two nights. I'm pretty excited. We can take Pi with us to both locations and they have kennels at the park in the event you want to hike a trail that doesn't allow dogs!

We were talking about Half Dome until we found out about the lottery for permit system.  Every permit application requires a $4.50 "application" fee ($6.50 if you apply by phone), which is applied to your permit fee of $8 if you get chosen.  If you don't get chosen, they keep your $4.50. Best scam ever. They only allow 300 permits per day but get like 3500 applicants for each day during the summer season. It's not like $4.50 is a lot of money but with that sort of volume, that's quite the haul.

I was eaten alive by bugs at work today (not exactly sure how, but hey, it happens). My arm is all itchy and swollen, which reminded me of something I need to pack for our trip.

In the last few years, I have been reacting terribly to bug bites to the point of having to go to urgent care because my leg was so swollen and red. It happens every 6 months or so. I'm not sure if they are some sort of mutant man eating bugs or what, but it's utterly miserable when it happens.

The first time it happened was at my brother's apartment. The second time, at Justin's. The third time, at Yosemite.  The last couple of times it has happened, I thought to put Aztec Secret Healing Clay on it.

Night and day difference.

Before, I'd spend a week or two all puffy and itchy and burning.  Using the Aztec Secret, the itching, swelling and burning went down in a matter of days.

I will definitely be taking some (along with apple cider vinegar) on our camping trip.  As much as I loved an excuse to barefoot at Yosemite (my ankle was so swollen that I couldn't wear my boot or having my pant leg touch my skin), I've become a bit of a tenderfoot living in San Francisco. It's far too dirty to barefoot here.



Aside from wicked, nasty bug bites it's also great for a bunch of other uses as well.  The first (and most obvious) is a facial mask (or any body part that needs a mask).  It really draws out the impurities.  The label exclaims "feel your face pulsate!"  I'm not entirely sure that's how I want my face to feel, but my skin looks fantastic most of the time. It's also supposed to help tighten and tone your skin. It could be placebo effect, but my skin looks and feels tighter to me after using it. 

Another use I found for it is making my own toothpaste or tooth powder. I stopped using commercial toothpaste quite some time ago.  Even Tom's of Maine because it was too hard to find a fluoride free toothpaste (Check out FAN for information on the negative impact of fluoride). I originally started making my own toothpaste for my brother to try to help remineralize his teeth.  My teeth felt pretty clean and I was happy not having to put more fluoride in my body. 

The toothpaste recipe I was using was a bit weird tasting (it featured Dr. Bronner's castile soap), so I started making tooth powder using baking soda, cinnamon, ground sage and Aztec Secret Indian Healing Clay.  Sage has whitening properties and cinnamon just tastes good :)

It's a little weird brushing with a powder, but once you get used to it, it's not that bad. My teeth feel clean pretty much all of the time. 

Aztec Secret Healing Indian Healing clay is super economical and has a variety of uses. I purchased the 2 lb container more than a year ago and still have about half the container. I use it as a mask about once a week and on itchy scratchy skin when it's needed. 

12 June 2013

We Are Finally Married!

I've been married a full week as of today!

Justin and I managed to pull together our wonderful wedding (with some help from some wonderful people!). We hit a few bumps along the way, but it ended up being a WONDERFUL time enjoyed by all.

We got married on Blind Beach (which may look familiar - it's the beach from the final scene of The Goonies).

The Goonies!
Our Wedding! 
I've always loved this beach, even before I realized it was the same beach as The Goonies. My family has been coming here for 20 years when we go on family camp outs.  We always stayed at Cassini Ranch, my brothers and I all had our first coffee at Gold Coast Coffee (I still drive there to buy my beans and my mom drives 3 hours each way to get hers!) and we go out here to remember my brother, Jesse, each year.

Justin and Cody went to the beach the day before the wedding to create a path that was more easily accessible so our grandfathers could make down to the beach (my gramps is 90!).  The morning of the wedding, Justin, Cody, Tre, and Nick went out and moved drift wood to make "pews".

Do Work!
It all went by so fast!  We made it through the ceremony and were taking pictures when the ranger showed up. Not sure what they said, but they bought us a bit of time to take more pictures before we needed to break it up.

Kerry (r) and Tre (l) handling things. 
As if the beautiful beach wasn't enough, this is where we had our reception.

The Raford Inn - Healdsburg, CA
Our wedding party and reception were hosted by The Raford Inn and I can't say enough about how awesome everything was. Dane and Rita are amazing hosts and their staff were delightful and so helpful. The property is immaculately maintained and the rooms are charming and comfortable. We had a wonderful time with our friends and families

Ultimately, I think I overplanned a bit (made some wonderful signs and decorations that didn't get used), but I'd rather over plan then under plan.

I'm going to do a post on The HeART of the Rogue Rabbit featuring the full stationary suite we developed for the event, including the super awesome 3D printed Save The Dates. I'm almost done with the Thank You cards that complete the full suite.

Thanks to everyone that came out and celebrated with us (and extra special thanks to those whose help was indispensable).