I love to bake. It’ so relaxing and satisfying that I don’t even care if I eat what I bake, which I sometimes don’t if I make it with conventional ingredients. When I do eat the healthier things that I bake, I’m rarely disappointed, because to me they taste great.

I do have just one little complaint, though. Sometimes, when I substitute my sprouted spelt flour, the brownies can be a little… dry. I’ve tried increasing the oils, the liquids, everything, and it doesn’t seem to matter with some recipes. It’s brownies and blondies that tend to be the problem; cookies come out fine.

Since last Tuesday, my friend Michelle holds a place nearer and dearer to my heart than she already did, for she baked Whole Food’s moist and decadent dark chocolate brownies — and she used spelt flour and organic sugar — and they were perfect.

You have to understand that no matter what Michelle bakes, it tastes better than the most swanky wedding cake, the most la-de-da chocolate truffle, better than almost anything baked you’ve ever eaten. Keith has often said after a get-together that we should just hire her as our personal pastry chef. In fact, I think that sometimes Michelle passes on her recipes with an ingredient or two missing, because somehow it never tastes as good as when she bakes it. Sneaky….

This time, she gave me a link to the brownie recipe, so I know she couldn’t leave anything out … although she may have added something she didn’t tell me about. Regardless, this was a perfect brownie. And it came to my taste buds — and my psyche — just when I needed it most. That’s another think about Michelle; she’s got hormone radar or something.

Michelle, I don’t just love you for your baking, but it sure does make me love you more!

I know, I know, I’ve really got to write about something other than chocolate for breakfast. It’s a little embarrassing actually. Would it help if I said that the chocolate chip mini muffins I baked weren’t for me? I thought not, but it’s true. I promise I’ll write about something breakfast-y next week, that doesn’t involve chocolate, if you just bear with me through this post.

This weekend my moms’ group had a bake sale that started in the morning, so I thought we needed an offering that wasn’t purely a dessert. I was wrong, but that’s neither here nor there. I still made a mean mini muffin.

This recipe was great for the masses; that might even include you. There are a million things I would change about this recipe to suit my family, starting with cutting back the absurd amount of sugar in it. These muffins really were too sweet. I’d change other things too, because they can actually be a healthy treat — really!

Chocolate Chip Mini Muffins (my version)

Ingredients:

• 1/4 – 1/3 cup sucanat
• 1/4 cup organic unsalted butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk (I use unsweetened vanilla almond milk, but any will work)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sprouted spelt flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips or grain-sweetened chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, cream sucanat and butter until fluffy. Add egg, milk and vanilla; mix well. Combine dry ingredients. Gradually add to creamed mixture; mix well. Fold in chocolate chips. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of batter into each greased or paper-lined mini-muffin cup. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-13 minutes (I found 11 minutes to be just perfect) or until muffins test done. Cool in pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack.

Next week, I really, really won’t write about chocolate … for this column anyway.

Yes, it’s that good. I’ve been making hummus from scratch for years and years, never using a recipe and never measuring ingredients. Me and hummus, we’ve come to a certain understanding, the understanding that no matter what I dump into that food processor that it will come out tasting amazing.

Or should I say perfect….

OK, now that my hummus ego has let loose all over this post, I’ll say that it is my perfect hummus recipe, exactly the way I like hummus. Consider it your basic recipe (of course I’ll provide variations) and alter it to make it your perfect hummus recipe.

Perfect Hummus

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Ingredients:

• 1 15-oz can organic chick peas, rinsed and drained
• 1/3 cup tahini (it’s great with any brand, roasted or raw)
• 1-2 cloves raw garlic
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• water to taste

Dump the chick peas and garlic into the food processor and run until chopped. Add tahini, lemon juice, and olive oil. Blend until smooth. Slowly add water as the processor is running until you reach your desired consistency. One thing to remember: if you refrigerate before serving, the olive oil will cause the hummus to thicken, so add just a little more water than you’d like if you’re not serving the hummus right away.

For serving, I like to spoon the hummus into a shallow dish, sprinkle with paprika and garnish with a drizzle of olive oil, chopped fresh parsley and Kalamata olives. Pita is the traditional accompaniment, but I like raw veggies (carrots, snap peas, broccoli, red pepper) and rice crackers (gluten-free).

Variations

• Roasted Garlic Hummus: Roast 2-4 cloves of garlic and omit the raw.
• Black Bean Hummus: Use black beans instead of chick peas and add a dash of cumin and some chopped cilantro.
• Substitute 2 – 3 tablespoons of flavored vinegar for a different taste … try raspberry, champagne, or herbed.
• Blend in any fresh herb, about 2 -4 tablespoons.

Obviously, I like my hummus lemony with just enough garlic. If even one clove of raw garlic is too much for you, try mincing the garlic and microwaving it in a bit of olive oil for 30 seconds. It takes the edge off.

How do you like your hummus? Share your favorite recipe or serving suggestion with us.

UPDATE: I tried it and I’m hooked. Don’t use water in your hummus recipe — use the gooey can juices as Bob recommended in the comments. Or you could always just add more lemon, as I seem to be doing there days.

I am bound and determined to stick to my low-carb diet, but I’m also highly motivated to enjoy every bite of food that enters my mouth. To tell you the truth, it hasn’t been that difficult. I can eat chocolate and drink wine, and as long as I stick to one or two grainy carbs a day (one if I can) then I don’t bloat, and I can pretend I’m the skinny bitch of my dreams.

I feel my best if I eat my carb in the morning, so I usually have half an Ezekiel English muffin and an egg and some fruit, a salad with some sort of protein for lunch and meat and veggies for dinner. And plenty of healthy snacks, I’m not fasting, for crying out loud. Yeah, I make exceptions, but our regular pasta dinners have become few and far between.

We miss them — just a little — so we did a little experiment tonight to see if we could re-create one of our favorite pasta dishes, sans pasta. It was so successful, I think it may have tasted even better than our pasta dish and … carb-less!

Pasta-less Pasta

Ingredients:

• 1 bag baby spinach
• 3 chicken breasts, seasoned, grilled and thinly sliced
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• about 1-2 pounds broccoli, in bite-sized pieces
• about 1/2 pound of green beans
• 1 summer squash, chopped
• 1 cup grape tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Roast the red pepper through the summer squash at 400 degrees convection roast for 20 minutes or so (or 425 degrees, flipping halfway through). Meanwhile, whisk together last five ingredients.

Toss everything together and serve. Yum!

I know what you’re thinking: What’s with all the dried herbs, Deb? Don’t you know that fresh are superior? Well, I do, but here’s the thing. I didn’t have fresh herbs, so I went with what I had, and it tasted so good that I didn’t want to substitute the fresh herbs and have you miss out on the experience of what I ate.

Feel free to add  plenty of chopped fresh basil or parsley; I’m sure it could only enhance the recipe. And feel free to roast up some halved garlic cloves with the other veggies, too.

This little ol’ recipe I found ages ago on Recipezaar has become one of my all-time favorites… with a few quick changes, of course. In fact, with one quick switcharoo, you’ve got yourself a meal fit for company — and it’s so easy you will definitely feel like you’re cheating.

Onto the Lentil, squash and feta salad recipe….

There’s actually nothing wrong with the original at all, and I tip my hat to Sackville, the poster at Recipezaar. Combining butternut squash, lentils, cumin, rosemary and feta cheese is a thing of beauty and flavor, I tell ya.

I choose to chop the butternut squash and toss it as part of the salad, roasting it with the same seasonings as Sackville suggests. Also, instead of tossing in the greens, I just serve the lentil mixture over them. It works better for leftovers and there’s plenty of dressing that seeps down and flavors the greens.

Speaking of the greens, I embrace the arugala from the original recipe, but I’ve tried just about every green there is and they all work great. Tonight’s was baby spinach.

Finally, don’t serve this dish with sausages and onions as suggested in the original recipe. Instead, head to your local BJ’s Wholesale Club, snag the pre-cooked whole duck, pop those babies into the oven for 15 minutes and you’ve got yourself a gourmet meal.

Being eternally hungry and all, I decided to peruse the internet this afternoon and vicariously experience a gooey piece of pizza. I could have gone with the traditional pizza Margherita, or the pizza-joint pepperoni special. Instead, this bacon and asparagus pizza recipe caught my eye.

Maybe it’s because I actually have these ingredients in my house right this very minute (I know, I’m wondering why I’m not making it instead of writing about it too), or perhaps simply because you don’t see asparagus on pizza everyday. But you all know the real truth: it’s because I wanted to re-write it.

As usual, there are a few things I’d change about this recipe that would elevate it to new heights of yum. Instead of bacon, I’d use prosciutto, and not because I’m a food snob, but because prosciutto is just better, in this instance anyway. What do you mean, I’m being a food snob? Follow along, if you will: prosciutto provides a salty delicateness that bacon simply doesn’t have. Where bacon could overpower the asparagus, prosciutto will accent it.

I’m also a little unimpressed with a sauce-less pizza. It doesn’t always have to be a red sauce, but there has to be something there. This recipe’s got nothing. I’d use a traditional red pizza sauce in this case, but a balsamic vinaigrette would taste lovely. Oh, I’ve just created the perfect sauce in mind. You’ll see when we get the the recipe….

A few more tweaks here and there and we’ve got it… ready?

Prosciutto Asparagus Pizza
enough for 2 12-inch pizzas

Ingredients:

• dough of your choice (my choice is my sprouted spelt flour dough)
• sauce: mix together 8 ounces tomato sauce, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, 2 – 4 tablespoons olive oil and garlic to taste
• caramelized onions (slow-cook 2 thinly-sliced large onions until soft and golden)
• 1 package prosciutto, torn into small strips
• 1 bunch asparagus, chopped
• 4-cheese blend (Trader Joe’s Quattro Formaggio)
• 1 package of goat cheese crumbles
• fresh chopped thyme, parsley and sage to taste
• red pepper flakes to taste

Layer ingredients onto your dough: sauce, a bit of 4-cheese blend, all the other toppings, then the goat cheese and more 4-cheese blend. Cook according to your dough’s directions, then enjoy.

We’ve just taken a so-so pizza recipe, tricked it up and made it appropriate for the classiest brunch or the quickest family dinner. All it took was a few easy switches, a bunch of fresh herbs, a souped-up sauce and some caramelized onions added to the mix.