Food can be so pleasurable that it becomes a trap to a foodie like myself. I enjoy cooking and buying food way too much sometimes for my own good. Thus the weight problem. Now, I am learning to cook healthier foods, but even then this can cause a problem as I tend to taste the food way to much that I am experimenting making. I have often thought home made is better than store bought in calories and taste until I started analyzing my recipes or some of the recipes of others that I use. An example of this is Hummus. I saw a home made Hummus recipe from Cooks Illustrated and put the pen to the paper and calculated the calories. I even bought the products and will try making some tomorrow just for fun. What I learned though, is that store bought Hummus will have less calories than my homemade version though because Tahini sauce is close to 200 calories a serving and olive oil is 39 calories a teaspoon. My recipe came out to about 89 calories a tablespoon of Hummus, double or triple that of the store bought kind. NOw most Tahini paste is around 180-200 calories for 2 tbs on the average which means that there might be a lighter version out there, but I haven't found it yet. If you go to a restaurant, no telling how much oil and Tahini is in their Hummus. This means you could have a very rich and heavy caloried Hummus at a restaurant. So, don't think that the calorie count you see on a Cedar's Hummus box is what you are getting when you go out an eat. Nope, if you are getting the REAL thing, you are getting calories. Probably double or triple that of a Cedars Hummus container. Go commercial if you are going for calories here. Go home made for the occasional treat or going out, but eat only a little bit of it.

Now, I will try this recipe two ways. One with the amount of Tahini the recipe calls for. The next time I make it I will reduce the Tahini and see if I can get by with it. I'll let you know if this works. If anyone has a good Hummus recipe let me know. Mine calls for 6 tbs of Tahini and 2 tbs of olive oil to one can of beans plus other ingredients. This is where the main calories come from. I may be wrong on the amount of servings which can effect the calories count. I'll let you know that tomorrow to. If anyone wants the recipe vote on it a and I'll type it out if you all want it.

Eating has been so so. I had one good day and one off day. Getting better about not eating at night though. Slowly getting back into form. Did learn how to make a 230 calorie burrito, homemade, with low fat. I will put a salad with it and a piece of fruit for tomorrows lunch. My husband was thrilled at the home made Mexican food that he came up and kissed me and ( :eyebrows well to say the least it was a pleasant evening. He hasn't had Mexican food in ages. Unless I cook it, we don't eat it because of health reasons. I used low carb small flour tortillas ( 80 calories ), made my own pinto beans with turkey breakfast sausage and seasonings. Mashed them ( between 125-30 cal. per serving ). Wrapped these up with lettuce. My husband put a little cheese on his. It was just enough to get the craving out and have a nice little burrito. As a diabetic this was just enough carbs for my body. Who says you can't have a little Mexican food and be a diabetic !!!!!
Oh, I just got back from Whole Foods and had a chance to talk to the head chef there about there Hummus. I asked him which Tahini they used and if he could share a little about what they put into their Hummus. He couldn't share what ratios they put into their Hummus because of trade secrets but we came up with the conclusion that theirs would have more calories than a commercially prepared Hummus, but by how much he couldn't tell me because even he didn't know. The nutritional data isn't even on his Tahini sauce that he gets in to make his Hummus ! He knows from experience that Tahini is around the 200 mark as I mentioned. They use Canola oil in theirs and not olive oil. Many people have switched to canola oil instead of olive oil because the American Heart Ass. is recommending it over olive oil for heart patients now. Get back with you latter.