Super Easy Homemade Hummus

My family enjoys hummus.  Normally, I buy it at the store and we'll use it as a dip for pita chips or veggies.  I needed hummus for a recipe (see tomorrow's post!) and recently saw this homemade hummus recipe.  I liked it because it didn't call for tahini.  I've made hummus in the past, bought the container of tahini for like $5 and only used it once.  Another plus is that I already had all of the ingredients in the house.  This was super easy to make, just like the title implies.  The most time consuming part was taking the skins off of the chick peas.  This was very garlicky and tasty but it definitely wasn't as creamy as I would have liked (like the store bought hummus!).  Could the tahini possibly have something to do with it?  Possibly.  This was perfect for my recipe that I needed hummus for, but I probably won't make it again.

Supe Easy Homemade Hummus
recipe from Pinch of Yum

Ingredients:
2 cans chickpeas
1 clove garlic
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
up to ½ cup water
½ teaspoon salt

Directions:
Remove the skins from the chickpeas by gently pinching them until the skin comes off. Discard the skins and reserve the chickpeas.

Place de-skinned chickpeas in a blender or food processor with garlic, olive oil, ¼ cup water, and salt. Blend or puree until very smooth, adding the remaining water one tablespoon at a time if the mixture is too sticky to move through the blender. Once the mixture is going, you can stream in a little bit more olive oil to help achieve a super creamy texture.

Family Rating: 1 thumb up.

Golden Artichoke Dip

My son turned 4 this past Saturday and we had several extended family members over to celebrate.  Over the next few days I will be posting various recipes that were made for the party.  My husband and I were making a lot of salads and sides with our dinner so I didn't want to go crazy making a lot of appetizers.  I served crackers with cheese, hummus and baby carrots, chips, and this artichoke dip.  It seemed a little fancier than just putting out onion dip.  Unfortunately, my husband did the grocery shopping for the party and came home with Lays Tomato & Basil potato chips.  They tasted great, but not so good with artichoke dip!  Luckily, Ritz crackers tasted just fine in this dip! I haven't made a lot of recipes off backs of products, but this was tasty enough that I'd make this dip again.

Golden Artichoke Dip
recipe from Lipton Recipe Secrets
(originally found on the box of the Lipton Recipe Secrets Golden Onion Souop & Dip Mix!)

Ingredients:
1 envelope Lipton® Recipe Secrets® Golden Onion Soup Mix
1 can (14 oz.) artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
1 container (8oz.) sour cream
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese (about 4 oz.)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. In 1-quart casserole, combine all ingredients.

Bake 30 minutes or until heated through.

Serve with your favorite dippers.

Family Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.

This recipe was shared at:
Fireflies & JellyBeans
Somewhat Simple

Guacamole

When I went grocery shopping on Monday for the Black Bean Burgers (see Monday's post!) I needed an avocado  for the salsa.  The loose avocados were hard as a rock though.  I've learned from a past bad experience that hard, unripe avocados are not tasty.  The bag of four avocados though were nice and soft.  So, instead of one avocado I ended up with four.  My husband and I both love avocados, even though the kids don't.  So I was super excited to be able to make some guacamole.  There are tons of guacamole recipes out there on the internet.  I had never made homemade guacamole before this, but have eaten it many times when I've gone out to eat at Mexican restaurants.  I referred to foodnetwork to find a recipe and adapted it a little to fit my needs.  Overall, I thought the guacamole was okay.  I ended up using it as a dip for my quesadillas that I made that night, instead of eating it with tortilla chips, like I originally had planned.  It was nice having homemade guacamole, but next time I may try making this recipe as originally written!

Guacamole
recipe adapted from foodnetwork.com - courtesy of Alton Brown, Good Eats
original recipe here

Ingredients:
2 Haas avocados, halved, seeded and peeled
1 lime, juiced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 Roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 clove garlic, minced

Directions:
In a large bowl place the scooped avocado pulp and lime juice, toss to coat. Drain, and reserve the lime juice, after all of the avocados have been coated. Using a potato masher add the salt and mash. Then, fold in the onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and garlic. Add 1 tablespoon of the reserved lime juice. Let sit at room temperature for 1 hour and then serve.

Mommy & Daddy Rating: 1 1/2 thumbs up.