To that I add a heaping scoop of tahini, salt, fresh lemon juice (from about 1/2 a lemon) and paprika. Most people would also include garlic, but I'm not always in the mood for garlic-y hummus, so lately I've been leaving it out. I put all the ingredients in the Cuisinart and slowly add olive oil until the consistency is smooth and creamy. I then sprinkle paprika on top to make it look nice. And that's it. I dip vegetables in hummus, I use it as a spread on sandwiches, and of course pita chips are wonderful dipped in hummus. Because hummus is made of garbanzo beans, it's packed with fiber and protein, which tend to give it staying power.

What I was most delighted to discover this weekend was that my daughter enjoyed it too. On Sunday she asked me for hummus and sugar snap peas, and I just about fainted on the spot. She didn't love the sugar snap peas, but she certainly had fun with the hummus!

Unfortunately, eating a muffin or cookie every day mid-afternoon is not particularly nutritious, satisfying, economical or efficient: all things I value. And a string cheese just wasn't cutting it for me recently. Don't love the aftertaste.

When I was talking about this with my husband--yes, we discuss things like which snacks are most satisfying in the afternoon--he mentioned that he'd been eating raw almonds because they are healthy and tide him over until dinner.

Unfortunately, raw almonds didn't sound appealing to me.  I don't find them particularly satisfying, and with all the dental work I've endured, I don't love the idea of eating such a crunchy food so often. 

And then it hit me: almond butter (which I love)! That would be a great snack to try!

Sure, people may think it a bit odd to see me eating almond butter with a spoon, but I have to say, it has been a very satisfying snack this week. It gives me an energy boost, it tastes good, and it tides me over until dinner. Kablamo!

You could certainly spread almond butter on crackers, a banana or an apple, but I've been eating it straight from my tupperware. It's easy, efficient, nutritious and satisfying.

What are your favorite snacks and why?

So I thought I'd share one little technique that I find useful to help me remember to stop eating when I'm full. Yes, I even need reminders sometimes too. A setting where I need some help is at one of my favorite burger joints: The Stand. Eating just half a burger usually leaves me feeling a bit hungry, and yet eating a whole burger generally leaves me feeling too full.

So when I'm really mindful while eating a meal at The Stand, I will cut my burger in half, eat the first half, and then cut the second half in half again. Doing so reminds me midway through the second half to put my fork (or burger) down and check in with my fullness signals. Unless I've arrived at the restaurant absolutely ravenous, I generally find that 3/4 of the burger is just right for me. I'm no longer hungry, yet not too full. I feel just about right.

I'm not sure why cutting the burger helps me out in this setting, but it does. Somehow it just forces me to check in with myself so I don't mindlessly eat that last 1/4 of the burger just because it's there. PLEASE NOTE: this technique is all about helping me stop eating when I'm comfortably full. It's not a diet-y mechanism (please, I hope you know that about me by now), but rather a way to help me end my meal at just the right spot.

When we were at The Stand a few weeks ago, I took this picture to show you what I left on the table at the end of the meal. It was just right, and I was so glad I cut that second half in half.

So I decided, with the agreement of my husband, to conduct an experiment with the goal of helping teach our daughter that it's okay to taste new foods. That she'll like some of them, and she won't like some of them. And even if she doesn't like a food, that's okay. We now have a chart (we call it a chart, though there is no order to it whatsoever) hanging on our refrigerator where our daughter is collecting stickers. She gets one sticker for every new-to-her food that she tastes. We're also trying to require a two-bite rule with these tastings, because oftentimes the first bite gets spit out and labeled yucky, but the second bite is more tolerable, sometimes even enjoyable. 

The first food we tested this system on was our New Year's Eve Potatoes Au Gratin, which were delicious, and frankly, aren't that far off from two foods she already likes: macaroni and cheese, and french fries. E sat on my lap for a good 10 minutes saying she didn't want to taste the food, but she wanted a sticker, and then a "snack," because she was still hungry (and didn't like what was served for dinner). I told her if she just took two teeny-tiny (smaller than a pea sized) bites of the potatoes, she could get a sticker for her chart and have a snack.

My husband asked if she was scared to taste the potatoes (an important question that I'm so glad he asked), and the answer was yes. So I told her to squeeze my finger if it tasted bad. She took a bite and spit it out. "Yucky," she said. She didn't want anymore. But I told her in order to get her sticker and have a snack, she needed to taste one more (smaller-than-a-pea-sized) bite. I also reminded her that she didn't have to taste it--she only had to do so if she wanted the sticker (and snack that wasn't part of what mom cooked for dinner). Finally, after about 3-5 more minutes, she took a second bite, and we asked, "What did you think?" "Good," she said. She even told my parents about it the next day and said the potatoes were yummy.

The next night we went out to Chinese food (with cantaloupe and graham crackers stashed in a purse) and she surprised us by diving into an egg roll and Chow Fun noodles before any of us realized what had happened (she tried two new foods). The next day, E's cousins came over for lunch, and ate some cuties (clementines) with the meal. At first E didn't want one, but I reminded her that she could have a sticker on her chart if she tasted two bites. Instantly, she asked her cousin for a bite. During the first bite you could tell she was evaluating whether or not she liked it. After the second bite, she asked for more, and ended up splitting another two cuties with her cousins, juice running down her chin and arms all the while.

Just two weeks into this experiment, our daughter discovered that she likes dim sum, tortilla soup and green beans!! In fact, when I asked her about the green beans, the conversation went like this:

Me: "What do you think? Do you like the green beans?"

E:   "Good."

Me: "Are the green beans crunchy?"

E:   "No, they're yummy!"

Me: "Do you want another one?"

E:    "No."

End of conversation. After three bites of a brand new food--green beans--she'd decided she liked them, but didn't want more. And that's OK! What I'm finding is that the more and more comfortable she gets with a new food, the more (quantity) she is inclined to eat of it, but not on the first night. And there is never any pushing from mom and dad to have more. Tortilla soup is a great example of this. In a period of about one week, she went from eating two bites of soup with a "what is this" scrunched up look on her face, to eating about a 1/4 of a bowl of it three nights ago.

So while I don't think we should make the dinner table a battlefield for our children, I do think we need to know our own kids. I was sensing our daughter was putting up a wall with food because she was scared. But I also sensed that if we could break through that wall, a whole new world of food would open up for her (to her delight). This experiment is still new, but so far, so good. Our daughter is much more inclined to taste a new food, and I'm finding that by the third or so night of tasting a new food, she's starting to like it.

She also seems to be "getting" that what mom and dad make for dinner, is what's for dinner. The ability to earn a sticker through tasting something new has somehow lessened her urge to walk to the refrigerator and get something that's not being served for dinner. Hence the "transforming" nature of mealtime at home. What a delight!

Have you had similar experiences with your kids?

I've heard from a few people who tried the Tortilla Soup I posted about a few weeks ago (and loved it!), so I want to share a lnik to this Cauliflower Soup recipe from Smitten Kitchen that I discovered about a year ago. It is so easy and so good! I really don't think you can mess it up. This recipe taught me that restaurant-quality soup can be made at home without slaving over the stove all day. If you're in the mood for soup, try this. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

We made chocolate and peanut-butter chip cookies a few weeks ago (Santa needed something to eat while delivering our gifts!). Our daughter enjoyed dumping flour into the bowl and helping us mix all the ingredients together. When it came time to sample the cookies, she ate about a half of a cookie and then wanted to play. 

The next morning, when I asked her what she wanted for breakfast, she said, "Cheerios." When she saw the tupperware filled with homemade cookies a moment later, she said, "and a small cookie." (No idea why she wanted a small one.)

"Okay, Cheerios and a cookie it is," I said.

I got out the cookie for her as I poured Cheerios and milk in a bowl, and she took a bite immediately. A teeny-tiny bite. She then sat down at the table and took another bite. A teeny-tiny-nother-bite. Then she began eating Cheerios and milk. She kept her cookie by her side throughout breakfast, and eventually declared "All done," with her entire cookie-minus-two-teeny-tiny-bites still intact. That was the end of her interest in cookies for the rest of the week.

Don't get me wrong -- my daughter has her fair share of toddler-inspired "preferences" with food, and while most of the time she doesn't want to try new foods, sometimes the excitement of a new and yummy food gets the best of her, especially when it's wrapped in a shiny gold package such as Hanukkah gelt wrappers!

At a Hanukkah dinner last month at which my daughter ate next to nothing at the actual dinner table, she discovered gelt with the older kids after the meal. She ate probably 8+ pieces of it, which resulted in a tummy-ache at bedtime. The next morning we had a conversation about how eating a lot of chocolate all at once can give us tummy-aches, especially when we have nothing else in our tummies. About a week later, at another Hanukkah party, she ate one bite of one piece of gelt and that was it. I sense that she learned--by listening to her body--that too much gelt gave her a tummy-ache, though she did want to at least unwrap one of those shiny coins.

My daughter is also in a phase of declaring all foods unfamiliar to her as "YUCKY!" Like many parents, I find these preferences highly frustrating at times, mainly due to the unpredictability of them. 

And while I'm grappling with how I might help her discover the joys of trying new foods, I do firmly believe that allowing her to choose her own foods--even if that means Hanukkah gelt for dinner--is sort of a game-changer. Sometimes she wants only bread for dinner, sometimes she wants broccoli for dinner, or cantaloupe and yogurt for lunch. That's what toddlers do.

And while I can't predict what my child will want to eat at any given meal, I can tell quite clearly that she views a homemade cookie and Cheerios with exactly the same emotional pull. Why did she choose the Cheerios over the cookie for breakfast (when given both)? I have no idea, but I do think it's probably because her two-year-old intuition told her that Cheerios would be most satisfying to her body first thing in the morning.

Toddlers really do know a thing or two. Can you imagine taking these two teeny-tiny bites out of a cookie and leaving the rest on your plate? How come?

We started with one of our tried and true favorites: pork cutlets with mustard cream sauce. While we've made it many times before, this time we used much thicker loin chops and, without being too boastful, we cooked them to perfection. I don't know if we can do that again, but we did it on new year's eve. They were tender and delicious. 

Next came a new recipe for us, courtesy of Ellie Krieger's new book, Comfort Food Fix. Scalloped Potatoes Au Gratin. The potatoes stole the show (until dessert). Tender, creamy and delicious. Garlic and thyme infused the dish and added a touch of elegance. We cut the potatoes in our Cuisinart using a blade we'd never used before, decreasing the prep time immensely. We think part of the reason the dish was so great--aside from the recipe--was that the potatoes were cut so evenly. 

Asparagus rounded out the meal, simply roasted with olive oil, salt and pepper.

The pièce de résistance, that I'm still patting myself on the back for, was our key lime pie. I'd never tasted key lime pie until about a year ago, but it was love at first bite. The tanginess of the lime is so refreshing after a meal. Add to that the comfort of a creamy filling that's wrapped into a graham cracker crust, and you've got yourself a dessert worthy of recognition. Having never made a graham cracker crust before (it's so easy!), let alone an entire key lime pie, this was a gamble on new years, and it turned out amazingly well. I truly felt like an accomplished home cook after this meal, and the dessert was half the reason why. 

Homemade whipped cream.

Wishing you a happy, healthy new year!!

**The only recipe I can link to online is for the key lime pie. Here it is. Enjoy.**

So when a friend of mine sent me this recipe from Martha Stewart, I decided to try it. Much to my delight, I love it and so does my husband. In fact, he made a pot of it this afternoon for lunch, and added a bit more lime juice than suggested, which resulted in the best batch we've made to date. The recipe calls for a cup of crushed tortilla chips, which basically disolve in the soup--especially if you leave it in the fridge overnight to let the flavors marry, like we do--which sounds gross but is actually wonderful. It makes the soup a bit thicker and heartier.

I will say that what makes this soup really sing are the garnishes. A hefty dollop of guacamole and sour cream plus some shredded cheese make this soup ever so delicious and comforting on a cold night. I can't emphasize enough how easy this is to make. Serve it with warm crusty bread and butter and you've got yourself a meal.

Stranger: You should stop reading that thing (iphone). It's not good for you.

Rather than take you through the dialogue that flew through my head about what I actually wanted to say to this person giving me unsolicited advice in a public elevator, I'm going to fast forward to the part where I realized the experience might inspire a blog post about the food police, who are kind of similar to the smartphone police. And let's just say I didn't react to the smartphone police (internally) all that gracefully.

Because I was given unsolicited advise--by a stranger, mind you--my initial reaction was to become defensive and to show the stranger that he was wrong. I was going to show him he was wrong by continuing to do the very thing he accused me of: checking my email. Because to stop checking my email in front of him would have been to somehow admit that he was right: I was addicted to email (which I may or may not be, but that's not the point).

I share this story with you to give you a glimpse into the way it feels to receive citations from the food police. We've all received them in one way or another--or watched someone else receive them. A food police citation might manifest as a sigh at the dinner table upon taking second servings of mashed potatoes, or it might be so blatant as a comment: "Honey, stop! Come on, you've had enough to eat." If you've ever been on the receiving end of the food police, I'm sure you know how awful it feels to have someone tell you what to put into--or remove from--your mouth.

What the food police somehow haven't figured out yet is that their unsolicited advice generally leads to continuation of the very thing that is clearly irritating them: eating.

The smartphone police accomplished nothing with me in the elevator, and the food police don't generally accomplish anything either, other than creating guilt around eating. They often also contribute to overeating because recipients of their citations will continue eating (past fullness) just to say, screw you, food police. I'm not listening.

So please, take a moment to acknowledge that we're all adults here. We eat when we're hungry, we stop when we're full, and we don't comment on other people's food choices. We also check email when we want to (as long as we're not driving, or missing out on precious time with our kids).

"But what if my husband doesn't stop when he's full????" asks the food police.

"It's not in your control, food police. Let. It. Go."