Today marks the beginning of spring break!! After playing Pictionary all day with my school kiddos in honor of the last day of school before spring break, I picked up Eli and Olivia from daycare. Then we went to the bank and got quarters for laundry. Then we stopped at the "Waterwagon" to get water for the house. When we finally got home I had a vague idea in my head that I was going to make breakfast for supper. While I was looking through the cabinet for inspiration on what type of breakfast supper to make, light shone down from heaven, angels sang, and I discovered a can of chickpeas in the back corner of the cabinet!!! AHA! I thought, time to make falafel!! So I dusted off the blender, dumped in the chickpeas, flour, lemon juice, spices, and... half an egg. Yeah, half an egg. The recipe I have for falafel calls for two cans of chickpeas and one egg. Since I only had one can of chickpeas, I had to half the recipe, and I had to figure out how to half an egg. So, half an egg later, I started blending. Let me tell you, chickpeas and my blender are not a good combination. Basically, the bottom half of the chickpeas blended and stuck to the side of the pitcher, while the top half of chickpeas sat motionless and unblended. I had to stop and stir multiple times, and in the end I just dumped the slightly blended, lumpy mixture into a bowl and mushed the remaining chickpeas with a fork. Eli and Olivia were hanging around the kitchen, looking up at me with hungry eyes and wondering what I was making for supper. Wary of telling them what I was actually making (they are both picky preschoolers) I mysteriously whispered "faaalaafel!!!"
"OOOOOhhhh!! falafel!!" they cheered!
( Food tip #1--Preschoolers will think mushed up chickpeas are cool if you give them a cool name and whisper it in just the right tone of voice!)
Chickpeas mushed, and oil heated I rolled the falafel mix into balls and popped them into the hot oil to sizzle. Approximately 5 minutes later... delicious crispy falafel!!!
Since I had half an egg and a pan full of hot oil left over after frying the falafel I decided to give funnel cakes a try. I always see them at the fair, and I'm always jealous of the gluten-full people who can eat them. So, I dumped some gluten free flours into the bowl, added a little bit of sugar, vanilla, and that half of egg. Then I blended in enough milk to make a runny batter, and drizzled it into the hot oil. I was a little nervous, imagining a doughy, greasy, mess stuck in the pan, but... the dough sizzled away and ended up perfect!!
Funnel Cake and Falafel success!!
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