Best Hummus Recipe

Best Hummus Recipe

I love this recipe because its super easy to whip together, it’s very affordable, and it gives you a huge amount of hummus; I usually find that this recipe can last me a week of snacks, though that changes when the family starts enjoying it!

Here’s my basic recipe, there’s also a ton of room for enhancements, I’ll provide my favourite suggestions. The basic recipe includes Za’atar, a classic Middle Eastern spice mixture, and let me tell you, when I first started using this stuff, it really upped my hummus game. Just know that when the hummus sits for a bit, it has this interesting greenish colour that almost looks like mold, but worry not, it’s safe…and delicious!  

Materials Needed

• Good blender with a tamper (I use a Vitamix and find it works really well)
• OR a food processor (I’ve used these before and it works, but I find the blender produces a nicer consistency) --> if you use a food processor, ensure to periodically use the spatula to scrape down the sides and get everything blended together
• Flexible spatula
• Citrus press/juicer

Ingredients

• 1 small can of low-sodium chickpeas (drained) and 1 small can of low-sodium with liquid
• Juice of 1 large lemon
• ½ cup well-stirred tahini
• ¼ cup minced garlic (you can use fresh garlic, but I find the extra liquid from a jar of minced garlic tastes well and helps with texture)
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for mixing and serving
• Sea salt to taste
• Ground paprika for serving
• Za’atar for serving

Recipe

1. Pour the chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic and 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the blender. Start on low speed and ramp up to medium-high while pressing with the tamper. (If using a food processor, use the pulse function and watch the hummus in order to prevent over-processing)
2. Slowly pour extra olive oil as you blend until there is a nice smooth consistency.
3. Stop the blender and taste the hummus, then add sea salt and blend to taste (I usually require a few dashes).
4. Pour/scrape the hummus into a container, then use the spatula to spread the hummus in little circles, creating various ridges. Drizzle olive oil in a circle so that it spreads over the ridges, as opposed to pooling in the center. Sprinkle za’atar and paprika overtop, and enjoy!

      *My favourite thing to eat with this hummus is chopped celery, but it works well with carrots, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and probably lots of other vegetables. It’s also great on top of a pita or a sandwich, or even as a creamy salad dressing!

Variations – There are endless variations you can create using different spices, or substituting other types of beans for the chickpeas (black beans work great), so feel free to experiment. My favourite is to add a tablespoon of curry powder while blending which provides a bright yellow colour. For serving, create the same olive oil drizzle, but then sprinkle with chili pepper flakes for a spicy hummus. Delicious!  

Finished hummus along with some chopped veggies. Food prep for the week!

Winter Blue Mountain Trip

So this is one of my retrospective posts, a little more on CCNM life.

Something that I wanted to do throughout my undergrad, but never got a chance to do, was plan a ski trip. The great thing about planning a trip is that: you get a discounted price for yourself for booking, you get a lot of responsibility, and thus satisfaction from helping everything come together, and of course, you get to set up a trip doing something you enjoy, with people that you like.

It was finally this year that I went ahead and did it, and I'm really happy that I did. The trip that I planned was really difficult to pull together. I first started looking for people interested in late October, and once I had a lot of people, I started looking for a place to book the trip. Suddenly, people started dropping like flies, and then there were issues with dates because of other events, a lot of different factors made it really difficult. However, a lot of hard work and persistence allowed things to finally come together, and for my post-midterm Blue Mountain trip, I had just over 20 people signed up with money paid to come.

We had a fantastic time on our trip, leaving for Collingwood just after we finished our exams Friday morning, and staying until Sunday afternoon. We skied in beautiful weather on Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday. We had a wonderful time enjoying a big chalet, spending time together in the hot tub and sauna, playing games in the big great room, and talking late at night. We also went out to the Village Saturday night and created our own party at a small club, having a lot of fun there too. Sunday we went to the spa at the hotel at the Inn at Blue, and enjoyed going from hot tub to cold pool, to massage, and finally a really nice sauna. And a big part of the enjoyment was from spending time together and talking about lots of things, most of all not talking a lot about school. The 2 hour drive there and back was also a great time to talk and enjoy each others company.

Now I'll mention that this was not actually the only trip. Another friend of mine booked a trip to Blue for us to a similar type of chalet just at the end of Finals in December. Same thing, we drove to Blue right after finals were over, and went up to have a great time. The only difference, is that there was no snow in December! So we didn't ski at all, I didn't even bring my skis! That being said, we still had a wonderful time, getting away from the city and just hanging out with each other.

So I guess the reason that I wanted to write this blog post, aside from reminiscing about some great times with my friends, is to talk about the importance of getting out. Escape. This works for people in areas of life of course, but I think this is really important to CCNM students. Depending on how diligent you are or how important going to lectures is for you, CCNM students can spend well over 30-40 hours a week at the school, many more of course if you live in residence (I'm fortunate enough to have my home close enough to school, and a car, so I do get away). There are many wonderful people at CCNM that you get to become friends with and connect with, but when you're at school, we are in a little bit of a bubble. It's not the same as the outside world, and the things that you talk about are very different. Realizing this, it is vital to get out of the school and experience the world with these wonderful people. I have found that the connections you create become much stronger, and the experiences you get to have are amazing. Whether it is going out to a bar on a Friday night, taking in a museum, going to a Harry Potter Trivia night (yes I did that in February, it was really fun!), or going on a ski trip, it's just awesome to connect with your friends in a different setting.

I hope that you, blog reader, take my message to heart, and ensure that you take opportunities to connect with people outside of your bubble. If it is CCNM, push yourself and your friends to participate in activities outside of the school. If you have friends that you work with, offer to do things outside of there. The connections that you strengthen, and the experiences you will have are worth the effort.

Fun picture from the first Blue Mountain trip. Since there was no skiing to do, we wandered and enjoyed the village together, and ended up taking a picture with Santa Clause. It was a really happy and fun day!

Shortest Midterm Week Ever?

It's Monday, sorry I missed my usual Sunday post, but I'm here right away! It's a bit of a busy time right now with CCNM midterms. Again, I'm in third year, so this is going to be my fifth midterm period at CCNM! Time sure flies. This is a really odd one though, because for the first time, midterms are not the week of Thanksgiving (I may have mentioned that in my last post, if so, sorry, I forgot). So we have midterms over five days instead of four. However, third year is a little different than first and second; we have a lot more assignments, so we have less midterms. So right now, I've only got three midterms - I know, my undergrad self would be crying if I had three midterms in a week, but at CCNM, when you're used to five to six exams in four days, three exams in five days is really not so bad! Anyway I've got Nutrition on Tuesday, Men's and Women's Health on Thursday, and Physical Medicine on Friday. I'll try to debrief these exams a bit on my next Sunday post.

Nutrition is going to be a little strange, because it's actually an open book exam; to my knowledge, my first open book exam ever in seven years of post-secondary. We can bring in whatever we want, and for me that means the course textbook, the Gaby "Bible of Nutrition" (honestly this book is over 1300 pages, it has so much information!), and course notes. The exam is all short answer instead of multiple choice, so it'll be a little different, but I think it will be okay. Critically think instead of memorize. What a concept!

Men's and Women's Health is regular multiple choice, there's a fair amount of material, but I don't think it will be too bad. Lots of overlap with other courses, and stuff we have done in the past. There is a lot of therapeutics to know though...oh third year.

Finally Physical Medicine, it's going to be a little weird as a multiple choice exam. This is the type of course that you really see as more of a practical based thing, and the final will be just that. But for the midterm, we've got about 400+ pages worth of material, all sorts of physical exams and conditions and dermatomes and trigger points. So much information! But at least it's at the end of the week, so there's lots of time to prepare for it.

Anyway, on to something that is not just school. I've recently been doing lots of self-development, with books and podcasts being a big part of that. There's so many interesting and useful little tips you can learn, and I thought it would be nice to share some of those through my blogging. So for this week, I wanted to share a pretty cool one I learned today, called "block breathing." This is something I had learned in the past, but modified. Basically, you breathe in for 3-4s, hold your breath for 3-4s, breathe out for 3-4s, and hold again for 3-4s. While you do this, you can imagine drawing a square with your finger, or even actually draw one. Each side of the square is a portion of that breathing. This is a great exercise for helping draw you back to your breath, become more mindful, get into a parasympathetic state, and just relax. The simple things are always the best aren't they? The cool twist I learned today though, was to do block breathing while walking. Walking can be especially stressful if you are in a rush or in a big crowd of people. It's also something you have to do all the time, so why not use it as an opportunity to be more mindful and relaxed? So in this scenario, instead of using 3-4s for each side of the square, you can breathe in, hold and breathe out based on the number of steps you take. 4 steps is a pretty standard number, but depending how fast you walk, you can switch between 4-8 steps and have a pretty good rhythm.

So give that exercise a try next time you're out walking, and let me know how you feel. I'm off to study again, see you Sunday!

Remember to breathe properly! Breathe with your diaphragm and not your chest to get the best airflow, and better relaxation. This is as easy as putting you hand on your stomach while breathing - ensure it pushes out while breathing in, and comes in when you breathe out. Enjoy!

OAND Convention, First "Regular" Post, and Running

Here I am, as promised, for my first regular Sunday post. I already summed up last week so there's no need to talk about that, but instead I'll talk about my great weekend at the OAND Convention.

So, I think I mentioned it in a previous post, but the OAND is the Ontario Association of Naturopathic Doctors. This is not to be confused with CONO (College of Naturopaths of Ontario), who are the licensing board for NDs in Ontario. The OAND is the advocate for Naturopathic Doctors in Ontario, helping to advance legislation, provide continuing education opportunities, and lots of other activities. They have an annual convention each year which is a big opportunity to get a lot of great continuing education, and of course meet up with old friends - I'm still at school so this isn't as big, though I did get to see some friends who had graduated, and also Leslie from Signature Supplements, a really fantastic supplement company that does custom compounding for NDs (I worked for her in first year, but I'm a little too involved in academics and other stuff at school now to do that).

Anyway, this year I volunteered at the convention instead of working for a company, so I volunteered all day Saturday, and then got to go as an attendee for free on Sunday (the convention is Friday-Sunday). On my volunteer day I still got to see some talks and walk the tradeshow floor, so overall it was a great time. I saw a bunch of interesting talks, my favourite of which was about Fear and Anxiety in Cancer Patients, this was given by Dr. Jen Green who is actually a FABNO ND from Detroit - FABNO is a Fellow of the American Board of Naturopathic Oncologists; there are only about 100 total right now, and these are really well educated doctors. I really enjoyed learning about some new research in the use of mindfulness to treat anxiety and depression in cancer patients, and also seeing the applicability across other disciplines. The tradeshow was also fun, getting a bunch of free stuff, and also learning about some new products and things that are in the works. Overall it was a pretty cool weekend, and though it would be nice to sit around and relax after a hard week, I think this was a great choice - I'd recommend going for any student, but especially in 3rd and 4th year when you know a lot more and can see yourself using the things you learn much sooner.

On another note, I wanted to mention that I've taken up running, at least a little bit. I've never done that much of this in the past, most of my cardio being HIIT type stuff...or non-existent (I weight train too much!). There's tons of benefits to cardiovascular training and it's an important part of a complete workout program, so I'm pushing myself to really get involved. I did my first 10k on Friday, and today, after the convention, on about 4 hours of sleep by the way (I went out with some friends last night and got home pretty late..), I went out and did a short 5k night run. Not a long one, but decently tough for a beginner runner, plus I'm exhausted from the weekend. It's a nice little break from the world though, and I really love my music so it's a great chance to zone out and enjoy that - though don't zone out too much and get hit by a car!

Alright so that's all for my first Sunday post of the year, I've got a long week ahead of me with a bunch of assignments due, and my gynecology station 1 practical on Friday, and my first physical medicine practical on Friday too. I'll see you next Sunday for an update on the week, if you want to know about anything particular make a comment and I'll see to that. Have a good week!

I swear I don't do all this!
Okay.....maybe just a couple apps

Thursday, and the most posts in a row ever!

It's Thursday, which means only one thing....tomorrow is Friday! Let's just say it's been a long week, the first full week of the year - well technically last week was, but I was still kind of recovering from unity summit and dragon boating (things I'll hopefully touch on in future posts), so it didn't really count haha. Anyway here are the courses for today

Nutrition 3 - As this is a big class, we've got it twice a week, so just the same stuff, though Dr. Prousky tends to get us working on a case together in little groups for part of class on Thursdays.

Asian Medicine Theory 3 - Taught by Dr. Kassam again, here we're learning the more advanced treatment and theory stuff that we'll later on apply in our practical. For fall, the theory and practical class are side by side, and you have the choice of doing them in either order; but no problem, the stuff we do in practical is based on last weeks lecture, so if you have practical first, you aren't in trouble. Having lecture first is beneficial because we start class at 1, meaning we have a break from 11-1; but having practical first is beneficial becauase you end class at 4 instead of 430.

Asian Medicine Practical - Here we get to actually practice all the stuff in theory class. So far we've just been working on acupuncture, doing some advanced techniques, and then advanced points. Today we did the more advanced points that we didn't do in first and second year, the most infamous of course being Stomach 1, 2 and Urinary Bladder 1. These points are infamous due to the fact that they are right around the eye. It was actually completely fine though, you feel these points less than you feel points in your arm. Once you get over the initial fear, and realize the safety and your control, they are no problem. In the future we're also going to do fun stuff like moxabustion and cupping, and we're also going to start doing cases with each other. These will be great because we'll be able to take everything we've learned and and practice developing appropriate treatment protocols. I'm excited!

After class today, I had my regular clinic appointment at the RSNC. I think I've mentioned it in a previous post, but self care is extremely important, especially in this intense program. The RSNC provides extremely affordable naturopathic care for students (free if you're on the student health plan), and it's a great opportunity to learn about what you will be doing soon from people who were in you shoes just 1-3 years ago. It's also nice to act as a patient so to provide more practice for the interns, and of course it can benefit you immensely, helping work on all sorts of issues. I personally have been doing lots of MSK related stuff in my own visits, but some mental/emotional stuff comes up too, and it's always great to have someone non-judgemental to talk with about anything.

Ok it's 11:15 and I'm going to bed a little bit early today! Here's my funny cartoon for the day, see you tomorrow.