I had been meaning to clean out the freezer for awhile. And one day during the holidays I just had to make it happen. I was wearing our sweet baby Ellie in the Baby Bjorn and Braden was eating lunch at the table. I opened the freezer and frozen waffles and turkey sausage and a bag of frozen tropical fruit came flying out. And I decided it was time. I got rid of all the opened items with frostbite (some of which was embarrassingly old). And then reorganized the shelves into frozen meats, frozen fruits & veggies, and everything else.
It was so liberating to organize it! And so my January goal was to do the same for my pantry for a few reasons. Reason number one is that the pantry had the same issue as the freezer. Things were just falling out every time I opened it. A few weeks ago, one of my favorite spice jars fell out and I literally yelped in despair when it broke on the floor. Reason number two is I despise the feeling of wasting food. It irks me when I have no idea what is in my pantry and then have to throw things out because I’ve lost track of their expiration dates. And reason number three is that even though spices and grains and canned food can have long expiration dates, I’m really trying to be better about using that stuff within a year (same goes for the freezer). I just feel that it can’t be healthy to be eating things that sit there over a year.
The pantry cleanup has been a fantastic activity. I feel so much more organized. And as an added bonus, it was another avenue of encouragement to explore recipes from this beautiful food community. I also created some of my own from the hodgepodge of ingredients I found.
One of the recipes I created through this process was a result of finding nine cans of chickpeas in my pantry. Hahaha. I realized that when I buy black beans for tacos, I almost always pick up another kind of bean in the same section just to have. For some reason I’ve been buying canned chickpeas without using them. Now I love love hummus (which is made with chickpeas in case you didn’t know), but I never make hummus because we have a beyond amazing hummus vendor at our local farmer’s market. My favorite is their lemon hummus. It’s so smooth and creamy with just a hint of lemon.
Also, I really like the texture of the chickpea, especially in pasta salads and chana masala. My hubby feels the opposite, but I find the texture super appealing. And so I wanted to create a spread with some of the hummus flavors, but leaving some of the chickpea in tact. I ended up with a super simple Chickpea-Avo Spread. It has just a few ingredients, including the brightness of fresh lemon juice and some warmth from ground cumin.
To make this spread, I started by mashing the chickpeas. I used a potato masher and a fork to keep some of the chickpeas whole, some halved, and some smushed. Then I mashed in a whole avocado followed by lemon juice, cumin, freshly ground salt & pepper, and a healthy glug of olive oil.
Now I know the color might not be the most exciting. But the taste is great! I’m loving this spread on toast and crackers.
And it was a fantastic addition to this BLT. I mean, Y-U-M-M-Y, am I right?!
I hope you enjoy this recipe and please keep reading to hear more about my pantry cleanup and a couple other great recipes I found.
- 1 can chickpeas
- 1 ripe avocado
- ¼ teaspoon ground cumin
- Juice and zest of half a lemon (I used a Meyer lemon)
- 1 glug (or teaspoon) of extra virgin olive oil
- Freshly ground salt & pepper
- Drain and rinse the canned chickpeas.
- Place the chickpeas in a bowl and mash using a fork (or potato masher or pastry blender)
- Once mashed to your liking, add in the avocado and mash together.
- Then add in the lemon juice, olive oil, cumin, salt & pepper. Mix well with a fork to combine.
- Enjoy on toast, on crackers, on sandwiches or however you like!
Note: All of the photos below are my own. And I’ve provided the direct link to the recipes I made. 😉
When I first started cleaning out the pantry, I chose something really simple to get through. Several months ago I bought a HUGE canister of oats. I was using Amazonfresh and just completely misread how large it was. Haha. Braden’s not really into just standard oatmeal right now so it’s been a little tougher to get through.
During the holidays I came across a recipe for Baked Oatmeal by skinnytaste.com and added to my must make list. I love when breakfast comes in one dish. And the recipe includes so many of my favorite breakfast things: bananas, blueberries, oats, cinnamon…so yum!
I loved that this baked oatmeal was a little chewy, a little crunchy, and not overly sweet. One of my goals is to eat less sugar so I loved that the subtle sweetness comes from the bananas and just a bit of honey.
A slice or two of this baked oatmeal makes the best weekday breakfast! Click here for the full recipe. I made one substitution by using pecans instead of walnuts (because I had 5 bags of pecans in my pantry too).
Next up, I looked at all my baking stuff and found an unopened bag of tapioca flour. I honestly cannot remember why I purchased it. I’ve never cooked with it before so I’m sure I had something very specific in mind. But since whatever that was had completely left my memory, I searched for tapioca recipes online and found this terrific Gluten-free Brazilian Cheese Buns recipe on the King Arthur Flour site.
Now, I’m sure I’ve said this in posts before, but I am not the best baker. I mean, basic cookie and cake recipes I can do. But when it comes to breads and pie crusts, I usually end up a little frustrated. There’s something I find daunting about kneading dough and rolling out crust. I mean, I’ve had some successes, but it’s definitely the area I feel the least comfortable with. I hope to take a series of bread making and baking classes someday soon.
These didn’t turn out perfectly for me, but one of my other goals is to share more of my process and kitchen mishaps. I make loads of mistakes in the kitchen (especially with baking) before I even get to my food photos. So…I thought this recipe was great overall. The flavor was cheesy, garlicky and the buns had the soft, chewy texture they were supposed to. But I only ended up with one cute little bun that puffed up, while the rest looked more like discs. And I was hoping to see all the pretty flecks of cheese on the outside.
When I made the dough, I did feel like the first few steps went well. I was able to get the elastic dough you see below. Something seemed to go awry when I added the eggs. I’m definitely going to try again because they were super tasty and would be great with tomato soup!
If you want to give them a try, click here for the full recipe.
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