Lemon tahini salad dressing

I have to say, I can’t stand salad dressings from the grocery store. All those gums and thickeners make me gag. Once I realized how easily it is to make my own, I never went back.

My initial forays into salad dressing making were naturally oil-and-vinegar variations with some spices. These work well, but sometimes you want something that will stick a little more to all your greens and not just pool at the bottom of the bowl.

I forget how I happened upon this dressing that became my basic go-to dressing. Maybe I wanted to put some tahini sauce on my falafel. I kept tahini in the fridge, but needed to thin it out somehow, and I had lots of lemons.

Basic lemon tahini (sesame seed paste) dressing

• 1-2 TB of tahini
• Juice of 1/2 lemon (or more if needed/desired)
• Salt to taste
• Desired spices (such as garlic, pepper, oregano…)
• Can be thinned out with a small amount of additional water, olive oil, and/or vinegar

Directions:

Start with just the tahini and lemon juice in a bowl and slowly mix together. As it mixes, the acid from the lemon juice will cause the tahini to lighten in color and change texture. After you have a smooth consistency, you can add in spice and any other flavorings.

lemon tahini dressing before mixing

 

lemon tahini dressing after mixing

Chocolate protein pudding!

I love to experiment with my recipes. Even when I have a recipe that I know  I like, I throw in different things just to see how it will turn out.

My dad loves to tell the story about how I asked for chocolate yogurt when I was young, and it was my first full sentence to him. These days I still LOVE chocolate yogurt, but I prefer mixing up my own from plain yogurt and cocoa powder.

Ingredients:

• plain yogurt – about 1/2 cup
• 1 scoop of plain whey protein powder
• 2 TB of cocoa powder
• 15-20 drops of vanilla liquid stevia, or other sweetener to taste ( I also like using honey when I am in the mood)

Note: if you haven’t worked with cocoa powder much, it is easy to make a mess. Always start with all the dry ingredients in a bowl and slowly mix in the wet ingredients. If you dump in all the yogurt at once, it can be hard to mix all the cocoa powder sufficiently and you get lots of little pockets of unmixed cocoa. Not fun.

The end result is something like chocolate pudding! but with more protein! yay 🙂

PS: I suggest using regular yogurt, but not Greek yogurt. Many people do not understand that Greek yogurt is just yogurt with some of the water drained out – that is the difference. By adding protein powder, it will thicken the yogurt. If you started with Greek yogurt, it may end up too thick.

Recipe: chocolate coconut protein mash-up

I considered calling this a protein “ball” or “pudding”, but to me it is best described as an amorphous mash-up (and of course delicious). I have been making this frequently when I am am hungry but don’t really feel like cooking or prepping vegetables. Also makes a great addition to my lunch box.

Chocolate Coconut Protein Mash-up

• 2 scoops of whey protein powder (I use grass-fed) [you can also use protein powder that is already flavored chocolate, but I get plain unsweetened protein powder]
• about 2 TB of cocoa powder (I use fair trade organic powder from Frontier Co-op)
• 2 TB of coconut butter (Artisana makes the best that I have found – available on Amazon and your local natural food store)
• 1 TB of powdered peanut butter (such as Betty Lou’s Just Great Stuff Powdered Peanut Butter or PB2)
• 20-25 drops of vanilla liquid stevia (this will give a very lightly sweet dark chocolate taste)
• dash of cinnamon or other sweet spice as desired
• about 3 TB of water (or some plain yogurt will give a nice thick texture)

I put all the ingredients except the water in a bowl, and start to slowly add water as I mix. Add water until the desired texture is reached, which may vary depending on type of protein powder.

Plus: I like adding a little Barlean’s Omega Swirl on top like frosting. This stuff is a great way to add healthy fats (fish/flax oil) and it tastes great – not a bit like fish. Great flavors!

To my appetite level, this yields 2 servings. 🙂

ingredients for chocolate coconut protein mash-up