From The Garden To My Kitchen

I go through tubs of hummus like it's nobody's business. Party-sized? Ha! You ain't got nothing on me. Especially when I am armed with a bag of carrots. I keep a well-stocked pantry and typically have most of the ingredients for hummus on hand. However, something else inspired me to make hummus the other night.

It all started with this:

Images like that make me wish I had a scratch-and-sniff computer screen. How beautiful is that basil? When I saw that basil in my garden, I knew I immediately had to make something. We were in the middle of a heat-wave and the idea of pesto was unbearable at the time. I needed something cool, refreshing, and quick because I was starving and hot and starting to get cranky.

The recipe is at the end of this post, but before we get there I have two quick things to comment on. 

1. The recipe I was referencing called for 3 tablespoons of tahini paste. In my opinion, this made the end result a little heavy on the tahini. Tahini is quite strong and I think 3 tablespoons masked the taste of the fresh basil and sun-dried tomatoes. I will definitely only use 2 tablespoons from now on.

2. I have the olive oil quantity listed as 1/2 cup(ish). This is because you may use more than 1/2 cup or less than 1/2 cup. It all depends on how you want the consistency to turn out. 

Sneak peek:

The best part about making hummus is that there is barely any clean-up. You don't have to dirty any knives or cutting boards or counter tops. You literally throw everything into your food processor and turn it on. It really couldn't be easier.

Sun-Dried Tomato and Basil Hummus

Prep time: 5 minutes
Time until you are eating: 2 minutes
Yields: 4 cups of hummus
Warning: This is a lot more hummus than most people can eat. If you don't down hummus the way I do, you may want to cut this recipe in half.

Ingredients 

• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons tahini paste
• juice from 1/2 of a lemon
• 2 (15.5 ounce) cans garbanzo beans, drained
• 1/2 cup(ish) olive oil
• 1 8 ounce package sun-dried tomatoes (Mine were not packed in oil, but you could certainly use the oil packed kind.)
• Fresh basil (I just grabbed a fistful from my garden so I can't provide an accurate measurement. The recipe I was referencing said 1/4 cup, but I used more than that. If I had to guess, I would say I used about 1 cup of fresh basil.)

Directions:

1. Place everything in your food processor.
2. Let her rip!
3. Wait 30 seconds to a minute.
4. Stream in olive oil until hummus reaches desired consistency.

That's it! Had I known hummus was this quick and easy to make, I would have been making it years ago. I don't think I will ever eat store-bought hummus again. I have been enjoying this with veggies and pita, but it would be delicious on sandwiches as well. Next up, roasted red pepper hummus.

June Dress, July Coming Soon!

Ugh! I have had little free time lately due to something I can't blog about just yet, but let's just say that it is very time consuming, involves a lot of writing, and is not in the form of a novel. I have to keep this post short because I am under a tight deadline and since it is Friday (yay!), I do not want to have to stay late at the office.

I know this isn't the best view of this dress since I am sitting down at my desk, but it is the best I can do under the circumstances. Due to my "Month Without Credit Cards" experiment, I had to wait until June 30th (payday) in order to purchase this dress. Yes, I was literally down to my last few dollars by the end of June. I think this dress would look adorable with a string of pearls. It has a tie in the back which helps create a waistline and hits me just above my knee making it appropriate for work.

The specs for this dress are below. The link will lead you to a full-length image of the dress.

Dress #2: Jane Doe Dress
Condition: New
Purchased at: Francesca's Collections
Cost: $38

A Month Without Credit Cards - FAIL

It is next to impossible to survive in this day and age without the aid of a credit card. Until I was not "allowed" to use my AMEX, I never realized how much of my life revolves around making purchases, reservations, and performing secure transactions online. I am not one of those technology fanatics. I don't own a fancy smart phone that has me connected to the internet 24/7 and I do not hyperventilate at the thought of not checking my email or Facebook profile for a weekend, but I was absolutely flabbergasted at how difficult it was to go a month with using a credit card-online. I also had high expectations of saving a ton of money and having this eye-opening experience where I would never use my credit card again. In truth, I think I save more on a month-to-month basis by being a smart internet shopper. I caved and used my credit card on Sunday, June 28 because I found my shampoo and conditioner in a liter size for almost $100 less than retail price. The site was also offering free shipping and a free gift for orders over $50. The sale ended at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday and I decided that my blogging experiment wasn't worth $100. I guess I can't say the entire experiment was a fail. I learned that I am smarter with my money than I give myself credit for and if you live within your means, pay bills on time, and save money every month you shouldn't feel guilty about spending what you have leftover.