Recipe Thursdays (On a Sunday again) - HUMMUS

My blender is my best friend

 At potlucks or parties you can usually find the meat eaters happily munching away on some buffalo chicken dip or maybe some seven layer dip with ground beef. When I was a vegetarian with no cares in the world, I remember eating a dip that I'm pretty sure was basically just three different kinds of cheese mixed with mayonnaise. It was delicious but I probably consumed a day's worth of calories in ten minutes. Now my options are more limited. 

I was up late the other night and wanted a snack and I wasn't too tired so I decided to try to make some hummus. It was a solid decision on my part. The best thing about hummus in my opinion is that it's so easy to personalize. I don't think I will ever stop being obsessed with sun dried tomatoes so I threw some in my blender with the chickpea mixture and I had sundried tomato hummus! You can sub anything for the tomatoes. You like olives? Throw some Kalamatas in there! Add some extra garlic or some more lemon! You can even switch the chickpeas with some edamame for edamame hummus. 

I brought it to work and made basically everyone I know try it and it was loved by all. So here's the recipe and whip up your own.  I like to serve it with pretzel chips or the "Food should taste good" olive chips! 

"Whatever you want" Hummus  

1 can of chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini
1 clove of garlic
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoon olive oil (you might need to add a little more to achieve the consistency you want
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup whatever you want 

Add all of your ingredients together into the blender and blend until you get hummus.  Done.  

In the picture to the left you can see that for my "whatever you want" I used Italian oil-packed sundried tomatoes and a few sprigs of cilantro because why not? I also used 2 cloves of garlic because I really like garlic.

There's just something that makes me feel really accomplished about making my own hummus.  It's like, I used to spend about ten dollars a week on hummus and now I probably spend half of that and I MADE IT.  Granted, it was very very easy to make.  But still, I made it.  Go me.  You too can have this sense of accomplishment if you make your own hummus.  I highly reccomend it.  

I live overseas and do a lot of my shopping at our military commissary and the selection of vegan foods is very very VERY limited. As far as I can tell the only avenue to get them to stock more things that are vegan-friendly is to put in request forms, which I have done. I just want some tempeh mannnn. I'm dying here.  If you can think of anything else I should request, put it in the comments!  I already asked for Daiya products and tempeh.  We JUST got Earth Balance buttery sticks so props to the commissary for that. 

I promise that next week the recipe will actually be on a Thursday! My time management skills are not so hot but I'm working on it! I have the next three days off of work to get some stuff done!

YUM!

 Here's a bonus pic of a wrap I made.  Low carb tortilla, hummus, seitan, baby spinach, red bell pepper and balsamic vinegar.  I sprinkled on some chia seeds too.  Too delicious.  I can't even describe in words how tasty this was. 

ciao ciao! - Katelyn

Things That I've Learned - Part Two

If you missed the first installment of "Things That I've Learned" you can read it HERE.

This is mostly a rant in the form of an enlightened post.  My bad.

1) People are annoying.  Sometimes you can't change people's minds.  Example:  I cook delicious food.  I'm not bragging, it's just a fact, my food is amazing.  My father will NOT try my food.  If it even looks a little bit healthy he won't even try it.  Not only will he not try it, but he will also remark that it smells weird or looks weird.  This frustrates the hell out of me.  What also frustrates me is when people tell me that I need to eat meat to survive.  Whoah... I haven't had meat in OVER ELEVEN YEARS and here I am... SURVIVING.  Please don't spout off an unsubstantiated fact that you "know" is true and then completely shut down when I try to provide you (nicely) with actual evidence that I'm going to keep on surviving.  I'm not even the type of person that will give you a dirty look if you're eating meat.  If you want to eat meat, be my guest, I'm not even going to judge you, everyone does it and has been doing it for years but please respect my choice to not eat meat and don't act like I'm some hippie that eats dirt and grass.  No. I get all of the vitamins and minerals that I need because I am informed and I am an intelligent human being.  But you know what? I am going to judge you if you're telling me that I'm not getting enough protein while you eat a fucking twinkie and wash it down with a Coke.  Bye.

Obviously disregard the animal products on the right but the message is clear.

2) A good blender changes EVERYTHING! I used to avoid recipes where i had to blend anything because my blender was a piece of crap and now I go out of my way to blend things.  I got the Ninja Food and Drink Maker.  You can see it HERE.

3) All that I really need is a job that allows me two hours a day of company time to watch my shows because I have to watch them the day after. Okay maybe four hours. Five on Thursdays and Mondays.

ps. here is a bonus recipe that I tried and think should be shared with the masses!

It's basically baked tofu covered in a cilantro pesto.  Read it HERE.

I made it twice.  Once the way that the recipe has listed above and the second time I changed it a little bit to fit my tastes.

All of the ingredients. yum!

Cilantro Pesto Tofu
1 package of extra firm tofu (I used the kind packed in water)
small handful of pine nuts
1 generous bunch of cilantro
3 cloves of garlic
1/8 cup of lime juice
1 heaping tablespoon of nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon of salt

1) Press the tofu using a tofu press or place in between two cutting boards and put something heavy on top of it to get all of the water out of it.
2) After water is removed, cut tofu into cubes and place of a baking sheet covered in tin foil.
3) Bake at 325 F for about 30 mins, flipping over halfway through.  I like to cook it until the outside is firm to the touch.
4) While the tofu is baking, place all of the ingredients except for the tofu in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.
5) After tofu is done and relatively cooled, mix together.  Eat hot or cold!

The pesto!

Ciao ciao! -Katelyn

pps. If you need any ideas for vegan recipes go look at my Vegan Recipe Pinterest board HERE!!