Chopped (in my) Kitchen

I love playing Chopped at home! It's fun to experiment and create new variations of dishes based on what you have on hand at home.

Recently, I've discovered that you can make different versions of "pesto" and "hummus" by tweaking the ingredients. Two of my recent faves are mint-teriyaki pesto and black bean hummus. Here's how I made them:

Mint-Teriyaki Pesto

• Mint leaves
• Pumpkin seeds (roasted with or without salt)
• Olive oil (just enough)
• A little honey
• A little Soy sauce
• veggies of choice (I blended in a few leftover raw carrots and broccoli)
  
  Put everything into a chopping or blending device, blend, adjust to taste.

Black Bean Hummus

• Black Beans (and some leftover water from cooking them)
• Peanut butter
• Raw Garlic * I used four cloves
  
  Blend, baby, blend. The ratio of black beans to peanut butter was probably around 4 to 1.

Well, that's all for chopped *in my* kitchen. :)

Two weeks ago in Chopped (I mean My) Kitchen...

I like to pretend I'm on the TV show Chopped when I cook. There are 2 reasons for that. One, I have a need to try new things and two, I love to be gameful. Acting like I'm on a show where I can only what's provided (plus the pantry) makes things fun. I look through the kitchen, grab ingredients that need to be cooked and see what I can make. Two weeks ago, I made something that my son has decided is his second-favorite meal. It's a vegetarian potato pancake with green onions, zucchini and garlic.

As I remember, I used:

5 potatoes, shredded
2 zucchini, shredded
2 bunches of green onions, chopped
5 garlic cloves, shredded
2 eggs
Some flour
Some pepper
Some salt

I mixed it together and deep fried it (but since it's vegetarian, it's still healthy, right?)

It tasted a lot like those onion pancakes you can get at some Chinese restaurants. Not bad.

Here's a pic: