It took me ages to make my own hummus but now there’s no going back! The commercial brands I used to love now taste salty and sloppy. Hummus is really healthy and really easy – so long as you have a food processor. Even blokes will eat it with crackers or instead of butter on bread. I love it with tuna and tomato in a grainy bread roll – yum!!!

This recipe is adapted from my friend Sarah who is a food stylist and cook extraordinaire.  We used to do cooking demos together (she did the cooking, I did the nutrition). At one of our demos to around 150 women we made this recipe and everyone loved it.

All you have to do is put these ingredients into a food processor – and blend! Drizzle in the oil last.

1 x 400g can chick peas

A fantastic food for fibre, folate, iron and protein.

2 tablespoons tahini

Tahini is ground up sesame seeds. It tastes awful on its own but tastes great in hummus. It provides lots of healthy unsaturated and essential fats. ‘Essential fats’ are essential for our body and the only way to get them is to eat them! Keep tahini in the fridge so all that healthy fat doesn’t go rancid.

4-5 cloves roasted garlic

I know this sounds like hard work but it’s not. Put a whole garlic head on a tray, drizzle with olive oil and bake for 10-15 minutes at 180C (350F). I often do it when I’m cooking something else. If you’re not making hummus immediately, you can store the roasted garlic in the fridge for a couple of days.

Juice of 1 lemon

I like plenty of lemon juice

3-4 tablespoons chopped parsley, basil or coriander

If you have herbs growing in your garden use more than this – I do!

Salt and pepper to taste

You shouldn’t need much. If you live in New Zealand use iodised salt – we need the iodine. Commercial foods usually use non-iodised salt so there’s another plus for making your own.

3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

The oil makes the hummus more creamy. I actually like it with less oil and more texture. I always use a really good quality (expensive) olive oil for foods that don’t need cooking. It really makes a difference to the flavour and nutritional value.

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Final photo of it, click here …

… continued from yesterday’s post

4. Eat Breakfast

Eating breakfast is one of the most important habits to develop. Even if it is just a banana and a glass of milk, teach your children that some food in their stomach kick-starts the body for the day making it easier to control weight and giving them energy for work, study and play.

5. Listen to your tummy

“If you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding.” Children are born with the ability to stop eating when they are full. But we sometimes unintentionally over-ride this natural regulating mechanism when we make them finish their meal. I do encourage kids to take a few extra bites of the nutritious bits of the meal if they have left too much. If they insist they are full, I let them off – but they don’t get dessert.

Teach older children to listen to their tummy and ask themselves both quantity and quality questions: “Is my tummy full? Will I feel sick if I eat those extra biscuits? Is this what my body really needs right now?” You are training children to be aware of the many cues around them enticing them to eat, even if they are not hungry. Just because they are at the movies or passing the food hall at the shopping centre, do they really need to eat? If an advertisment shows a gorgeous model eating chocolate biscuits or a famous sportsman eating fast food, ask them if they think eating that food will really help them look like that model or be as fast as that sportsman. Do they eat that stuff in real life? What else do they do to look or perform like that? Will eating a certain food or drink give them the same lifestyle and friends as on the advert? If the answer is yes, are they the type of friends they really want?

6. Sit at the table to eat

There’s a time to play, a time to work, a time to rest and a time to eat. All too often the ‘time to eat’ is all the time! We balance dinner on our lap in front of TV, we stuff in a sandwich while continuing to work, and we grab snacks on the run. Train your children to focus on food when it’s meal time and then forget it until the next meal time. This means eating regular meals, sitting at the table – with no distractions. It not only reduces snacking, grazing and the risk of choking as you run around with food in your mouth, it also teaches social skills such as table manners, how to use a knife and fork, how to talk over a meal and patience to wait while others finish.

7. Eat Slowly

I spend my professional life telling people to slow down and enjoy their food, then find myself at home telling the kids to “hurry up and eat!” As much as we would love our children to finish their meal in minutes rather than hours, it won’t be too many years before we will be nagging those same kids to slow down and chew their food ‘properly’ rather than inhaling it. This is a good time to remind them that it takes about 20 minutes for the message to get from their stomach to their brain that they are full. So eating slowly is great for weight control. It also gives them time to chat – preferably without their mouth full!

8. Enjoy Cooking

Children are more likely to become discerning, adventurous eaters if they know how to cook. OK, we all know of overweight chefs but at the very least your future son or daughter-in-law will thank you! Give children their own apron – it’s half the fun of cooking – and let them help you in the kitchen. Buy a kids cook-book for inspiration and as they become more confident let them cook dinner once a week.

9. No routine visits to fast food outlets

As a child I used to think the kids who had fish and chips every Friday night were so lucky. As an adult I am glad this wasn’t part of my childhood training. If kids are trained to associate fast food with good feelings – as a reward for winning Saturday morning sport or as a fun family outing – what are the chances they will go to the sushi bar as adults?

10. Be a role model

Actions speak louder than words. What we teach should be what we do. Like any elite athlete, put the effort into training your children now and you are sure to reap the rewards later.

Digging around, I found these … some might interest you:

Fast food| junk food| bowel cancer … an alarming rise in bowel cancer, and a diet of too much meat and fast food may be to blame, cancer experts in the …

Cindy: Maybe it’s the sausages and chips, not the folic acid fortified bread that’s causing all the problems?

Big fat lies and damned statistics | Duncan Fine …  Labor MP who chaired the latest House of Representatives inquiry into obesity in Australia, called Weighing It Up: Obesity In Australia. He opens the report …

Cindy: Very funny and a good explanation of how having lots of muscle can put you in the ‘over-weight’ BMI category. But carrying too much fat, especially around your tummy, does cause health problems and even if he thinks there is no ‘obesity epidemic’, I’ve sure noticed a lot more ‘chubbies’ around.

Healthy Airplane Snacks – How to Choose or Pack Healthy Airplane Snacks

Cindy: Healthy airplane snacks? I haven’t seen any recently on NZ domestic flights. It’s usually lollies, salty crispy things and rich biscuits. Mind you, flights in NZ are relatively short so you don’t really need to eat. For long flights or for hungry kids I take Vita Wheat crackers, nuts and raisins, dried fruit, small cartons of fruit salad with a plastic spoon and some mints.

Successful Weight Loss With Dieting Is Linked To Vitamin D Levels… vitamin D levels in the body at the start of a low-calorie diet predict weight loss success, a new study found. The results, which suggest a possible role for vitamin D in weight loss, were presented at The Endocrine Society’s 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C …

Cindy: Every vitamin has its day – and in nutrition circles at the moment it’s vitamin D-day! So when the sun shines in between the clouds and rain, get outside to give yourself a dose of vitamin D. Us Kiwis really need it in the winter – especially those who have dark skin. And remember, you have to be outside – sun shining through glass won’t stimulate your skin to make vitamin D.

The more fast-food surrounds you – the higher your stroke risk: study | The National Business Review – New Zealand… risk of having a stroke is related to the number of fast-food restaurants near your residence according to a new study…

Cindy: Another cause and effect question. Are you more likely to eat fast food if there are lots around you or do fast food chains deliberately put more stores in areas where the people already like to eat fast food?

FT.com / Food & Drink – Carrots are the new caviar … deep in the website of El Bulli, Ferran Adrià’s legendary restaurant in Spain, is a revolutionary declaration: “All products have the same gastronomic value, regardless of their price…

Cindy: It’s great to see some top line restaurants elevating vegetables to star status. It’s every dietitian’s dream that we all eat – and enjoy eating – more veges!