Living Healthy - God Bless the Chickpea

Anyone else remember that amazing line from the "Friends" episode guest starring George Clooney and Noah Wyle? There's this great awkward scene going on between Monica and Rachel, and the guys are sitting there as their dates eating humus, and its getting more and more awkward, and at one point George has this great line "God bless the chickpea." Amazing.

So in honor of that line, I present my most recent healthy dining experience, homemade Humus!

Yummy, easy to make, and pretty damn healthy. Actually, making your own ends up with a lot more healthy a humus than you can buy at the store. Partner it with homemade Whole Wheat Pita Chips and you have an amazing snack, or just a healthy munchy!

Homemade Humus

1 can of chickpeas (15 oz)

1/2 lemon

3 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon cumin

salt and pepper to taste

Drain the can of chickpeas into a bowl, but save the liquid that they were packed in.

Using a food processor or hearty blender, start blending the chickpeas with the lemon juice, and some of the chickpea liquid. Add the olive oil, a bit at a time, along with more of the liquid, until it is the consistency that you like.

Roughly mince the garlic, and add it along with the cumin, salt and pepper to the food processor. Make sure that the garlic is well blended in.

Depending on how you like your humus to taste, you might want to start with just blending the chickpeas, and then start adding the lemon juice and garlic slowly, tasting as you go.

Then dump it into a bowl, and serve!

(To make the homemade pita chips, simply chop up some pita pockets, split the triangles open, and bake in the oven at 300 until they are the appropriate crispiness.)

And then enjoy! Stay tuned tomorrow for images of my latest endeavors, and check out Twitter for previews of some of my new products!

Ciao for now, Allison

Scrabble Tile Coasters

As I said, you saw them here first, and now they are out there in the big bad world of Etsy hoping to get some LOVE! :-) Check out the full listing with more photos here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/55566510/love-themed-scrabble-tile-coasters-set

More Living Healthy recipes later today or tomorrow, stay tuned! Want a hint? It has to do with the chickpea...

Ciao for now, Allison

New Product Preview - Scrabble Tiles Coasters

They're finally here! My new line of Scrabble Tile Coasters is ready to be revealed, and I'm posting some preview photos here first! This first, sample set if you were, is based on the theme of LOVE. The four coasters say things such as "Love/XOXO" and "Kiss/Beso" Stay tuned to my Etsy shop page for the full listing within the next day or two.

Living Healthy - The Great Tomato, Part 2

I'm back, as promised, with some photos and the recipe for this weekend's super yummy Bruschetta!! Recipe can be found below!

Fresh Summer Bruschetta

6 summer tomatoes

1 small yellow onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 large handful of basil

10 slices of sourdough (or other quality bread)

2 tablespoons (or so) olive oil

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

salt and pepper to taste

Chop up the tomatoes, onion and basil. Mince 1 clove of the garlic, and either add it raw to the tomatoes or for a milder flavor you can pan sear it briefly. Put the tomatoes aside, and if you want you can drain some of the extra liquid off, once its sat for a few minutes.

While you let the tomatoes sit, toast your bread. You can use a regular toaster, a broiler, or my personal favorite is to throw it on the barbecue! Once toasted, drizzle the olive oil around. Then take the remaining clove of garlic, cut it in half lengthwise, and rub it all over the toast.

Then simply spoon your tomato mixture on top of the bread, sprinkle the cheese on top, and enjoy!

Ciao for now, Allison

Living Healthy - Tomatoes, Tomatoes, TOMATOES!

A while back I mentioned that one of my summer goals was to eat healthy, and so far I've been pretty successful both eating healthier and loosing a bit of weight. So far I've lost 20 lbs, and I couldn't be happier, and its all thanks to some good old farmers market vegetables.

This weekend specifically we were down near Baltimore, visiting relatives, and their backyard vegetable garden has been going so well that we ended up with WAY more tomatoes then we could possibly eat on their own. So what did we do? We made Gazpacho and Bruschetta! Summer standards, sure, but amazing none the less. I thought I'd share some photos, and the simple recipes we used. Today, Gazpacho, tomorrow, stay tuned for the Bruschetta!

Summer Gazpacho

3 summer tomatoes

1 small yellow onion

1/2 red pepper

1 clove of garlic

1 large handful of basil

1 tablespoon (or so) olive oil

1 tablespoon (or so) balsamic vinegar

1 piece of bread, whatever is lying around

salt and pepper to taste

I roughly chopped the vegetables, and ripped up the bread, and then added it all to a food processor and blended it until it was roughly smooth. It couldn't be more simple, OR healthy, and made for a great lunch along with a piece of multi-grain toast and a farmers market apple with just a touch of peanut butter. Healthy, local, and primarily organic. It doesn't get much better than that!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's recipe and photos of the Bruschetta we made for dinner!

Cheers, and happy healthy eating, Allison

New Products - Scrabble Tiles

I've been busy thinking about what new things I can make into coasters. Today's exploration, SCRABBLE!

And on the principle of 'measure twice, cut once' I like to lay out new designs before pushing forward and actually making them with resin. So here I have a sneak peak of what's to come, a set of 4 scrabble tile coasters, with words based on the eternal sentiment of LOVE.

I laid them out on top of my flower coasters, so the flowers seen behind are not going to be included, though maybe a few pretty hydrangeas would work nicely with my love themed words. Anyone have any thoughts before I start pouring the resin?

Zipper 8 Design on Twitter!!

I finally bit the bullet and signed up for Twitter!

So come check me out at http://twitter.com/Zipper8Designs to get great new tips about upcoming products and a peak inside the inner workings of starting your own business.

Cheers! Allison

Zipper 8 Design on Cargoh!

Sunday Greetings!

I know I've been somewhat M.I.A. recently, and I apologize. My only excuse is that between Basel nibbling on EVERYTHING and trying to come up with some great new products, I have let my internet presence slip.

But, there's some exciting new news, my work has been accepted to be part of a new marketplace, Cargoh.com! It is a new website devoted to hip, young, indie sellers, and in order to keep their vision intact, they have decided to become a juried site. I figured it was worth the effort so I applied and they liked my work enough to accept me as a seller! So come on down and check out my new shop, at http://www.cargoh.com/store/zipper8design and see what's there!

While I will probably have the exact same inventory as I do at Etsy, it is always good to spread out a bit, not have all your eggs in one basket and that sort of thing. Hopefully Cargoh will catch on and it will be a new and exciting marketplace to be a part of!

As always, thanks for reading and cheers to a good week ahead!

Allison

My First Etsy Treasury!!

I just put together my first Etsy treasury, inspired by Basel. Its filled with Dachshund themed items, bright colors, and fun art. I hope you'll check it out, and enjoy!!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c5dd03e752e8eefc369c1db/dachshund-love?index=18

Zipper 8 Lighting Design

Friday Greetings Everyone!

So I've recently been working on some new inspirations, and more specifically ideas for creating my new line of lights. Here's the first one I created. It isn't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with the first effort! I hope you like it, and stay tuned for more new lamps to be appearing soon, both here and at my Etsy shop. And of course don't forget to check out all the new inventory at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/Zipper8Design

Cheers!! Allison