Chickpeas

One of my recent desires has been to reduce the amount of meat our family consumes. I was a vegetarian for years, but over time, I started to have a desire to cook and eat meat. Of course DH is very into eating meat and has never paticulalry enjoyed my vegetarian meals. One of my goals is that we start eating vegetarian meals as a family a couple times a week and that I not eat meat at lunch if DH is at work. There are multiple reasons for this, but just quickly, meat is a considerable part of our weekly grocery bill which I am constantly trying to reduce, and I am concerned about the amount of resources that go into producing the meat that we eat.

Today, I was at a playdate for DS where hummus was served. It was so good! I haven't eaten any in a while and really enjoyed it. So, this got me thinking about chickpeas and how they have always been my favorite legume and all of the things I used to like making out of them back when I was a vegetarian. I would like to start making at least some of these items again to eat for my lunches/some veggie dinners.

1. humus-love the stuff and can't get enough!
2. chickpea oat patties-I used to use these instead of chicken to make things like non-chicken parm.
3. roasted chickpeas-a great snack
4. chickpea and almond pasta (this is one veggie dish DH actually likes).

Off the top of my head that's what I can think of without consulting my recipes. I think next week I will start making and posting some of these items on here.