Dinner & a movie: The Birds

Another exciting dinner and a movie night! With The Birds. And what do birds eat? Human flesh? NO. Sunflower seeds.


So I made this awesome sunflower seed spread and pita chips!

I adapted it from this recipe which I found from a Google search for "sunflower seed recipes." It was SUPER DELICIOUS and the hardest part was cleaning out the blender afterward.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup tahini
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 cup water

I made it with raw sunflower seeds from the local co-op, but some of the reviewers on AllRecipes said they used salted & roasted ones. Also, following the advice of the AllRecipes reviewers, I dropped the onion and celery from the originally posted recipe.

1) Toast the seeds in a frying pan on medium heat for 8-10 minutes, stirring constantly until the seeds turn they brown.
2) Mix the seeds with the tahini in a bowl. Then, spread the seeds out on a baking sheet and let them cool to room temperature.

3) Meanwhile mix the garlic and lemon juice and set it aside.
4) After the seeds are cooled, put everything in the blender or food processor and blend it!!

Seriously! So delicious! It's kind of like hummus, but nutty and savory-er.

Also by the way, last year I learned how easy it is to make pita chips! Did you know how easy it is to make pita chips? All you do is cut the pitas into triangles, spritz a baking sheet with olive oil and then spritz the tops of the pitas with olive oil, and bake at 400 for 10 minutes. Sometimes I put garlic salt on them, but I just did plain ones to go with the sunflower seed spread.

Simple Bean Dip

Sorry for the lack of pictures, y'all. Our puppy chewed the camera cord, so we have technical difficulties.

Anyway, here is the simple bean dip I made for Super Bowl today:

1 can of pinto beans, cooked, drained, and rinsed
1 tomato, peeled and seeded
3 cloves minced garlic
2-3 TBL of lime juice
Cumin (I didn't measure)
Salt, pepper, cayenne (I didn't measure)

I used the Magic Bullet (yes, from all of those really lame infomercials) to mix this all together. Play with the spices, and feel free to add others, or perhaps lose the lime (Nicole isn't a fan of lime, so I'll try it without next time). I really liked the "kick" the cayenne gave this.

The Super Bowl is over, and it's all gone!

garlic hummus

Ingredients:
1 can chickpeas
1 lime/lemon, or like a spoonful of lime/lemon juice
2 spoonfuls tahini
5 minced cloves of garlic (less if you don't like garlic that much, more if you want to ward off vampires)

Oh man, do I love hummus. This is a super easy recipe that you can make even if you are in the Peace Corps. The tahini is kind of a splurge (it was like $6 for that jar) but it is worth it, because it lasts a really long time and makes hummus sooo much better than just plain mashed chickpeas.

Anyway, here's what you're going to do. First, mash the chickpeas! I use a pilon (mortar & pestle) which is pretty fun. You can use a blender if you have one, or a fork.

Yeahhhh. Then, add the garlic and mash it a little bit. (Tip: crush a garlic clove with the flat edge of the knife before you peel it. It'll make the skin easier to peel off and will start crushing the garlic a little bit. Other tip: if you are in America and cook with garlic often, just buy a jar of pre-minced garlic. So much easier than dealing with chopping and garlic-scented hands all the time.)

 

Then, add the citrus juice and the tahini! Stir it around real good and eat it!

 

Yum! I like hummus on tortilla chips, carrot sticks, bread, crackers... basically anything is better with hummus on it.