Veggies and Dip

I realize that I have been MIA lately. It's summer. We've been doing play dates, going to the park and all sorts of things. By the time I sit down in the evening, I'm pooped. I have found a few recipes that I wanted to share here because there were so yummy!

We love veggies and dip. My hubby would eat this all of the time. He LOVES veggie trays at parties. My oldest loves carrots and ranch as a snack even for breakfast now and then. I am always on the search for healthier dips. One of our faves is hummus so when I stumbled on this recipe I knew I had to try it. I found it on the Weelicious site which I am a huge fan on. Catherine is amazing!

The recipe is White Bean Basil Hummus. OH MY GOODNESS! I have found my favorite dip ever. It is so easy and so cheap! I do not have tahini because I use a dab of peanut butter instead in my regular hummus recipe so I just left that out altogether in this and it is marvelous. The Weelicous recipe is HERE. The following is my adaptation.

White Bean Basil Hummus (Makes 1 1/2 Cups)

1 Can Cannelini or Northern White Beans, rinsed and drained (Reserve the liquid.)
1 Cup Fresh Basil, chopped
1 Small Garlic Clove
1 T. lemon juice
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/4 Cup Olive Oil

Place all ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth. Add some of the bean liquid to blender if extra liquid is needed to completely blend. Dip your veggies and pita and be prepared for a taste sensation!

Banana Oat Smoothie

Three quarters of my family love smoothies. My oldest daughter does not. She thinks she does but when I offer her one, she will rarely finish it. I can't figure this out because really a smoothie is like a milkshake! My youngest daughter LOVES them and I know it is one way I can get good, healthy things in her as she is my pickier eater.

I tried a smoothie recipe that I found in an Everyday Food magazine a while back. This was a winner! I was interested in how the oats would taste in it and they were so good.

Banana Oat Smoothie
1/2 c. old fashioned rolled oats
1 c. plain yogurt
2 ripe bananas, cut into thirds
1 c. milk
4 t. honey
1/2 t. cinnamon

Add all ingredients to blender and blend until smooth.

Banana Bites

I stumbled on the coolest website a few weeks ago. A friend of mine became a fan of the site on Facebook so I checked it out. It is a fabulous site filled with recipes for kids of all ages. The creator focuses on healthy foods and all types of them. If you have a school aged child and need some creative, healthy ideas for lunches to pack she has TONS!

The website is Weelicious. I am so excited to dig through her posts and try some of the things for my family especially snacks. Snacks are a hard thing. It's so easy to pop open a bag of goldfish crackers and call it a snack. I desperately want to give my kids a foundation of healthy eating habits and Weelicious offers some excellent ideas for these.

My girls LOVE pancakes so yesterday I tried making Banana Bites. I have to admit that I only made them for Pumpkin, the toddler. The reason being was the toddler having a fit at my feet and Daddy was on the couch suffering from a bad case of Gout so I had to HURRY. I made a banana's worth of Banana Bites and then just plain pancakes.

I will definitely be making these again. They were warm and gooey and YUMMY! Pumpkin scarfed them down and begged for more. Ha! Make sure you slice the bananas thinly or the pancake batter won't cook on the edges.

Be sure to stop by and check out the Weelicious site. I know you will find some great, healthy ideas!