Eating Healthy: Our Hummus Recipe

My favorite lunch menu of all time???  Leftovers of whatever we had for supper the night before.

The children and I are simply not crazy about sandwiches...and the easiest thing in the world to do is just pop our leftovers from last night's supper into the oven and let it heat up for a while, while we are working on school. 

BUT...

We don't always have leftovers.  My (now) 5 eaters are all the time eating more and MORE!

And sometimes, even when we do have leftovers, I put them in the freezer so that we have a "fast-food" meal for a later evening (when I know we'll have a busy afternoon/evening).  

So one of our standby lunch menus includes hummus as the main attraction.  A couple of my "friendgirls" have recently asked for the recipe, so I thought I'd share it here.  My bud, Shan, is on a journey to eating/living healthier, and when we had lunch with her and her sweet daughter Michaela on Friday I was so proud when Shan tried our hummus. I don't know if she surprised me or herself more when she actually liked it!

I got this recipe from my friend Chrislyn who came to our food co-op before her family moved out of state. Chrislyn was the kind of cook that never measured anything.  Getting recipes from her was always an adventure.  Trying to figure out how to replicate her dishes (that I loved) gave me facial tics...because I am definitely a measure-everything, by-the-rules, black-and-white kind of girl.  

Every time I make this hummus it turns out different.  

BUT, I made myself measure everything (except the spices) when I made it this time so I could pass along (one version) of a hummus recipe.

I throw all the ingredients in my handy dandy blender, a Vitamix...but a food processor would work great also.

And one thing that I love about this recipe is that it makes enough for two portions for us (one half is seen in this picture below)...so I freeze the other half and we have an even easier lunch the next time we have hummus.

Hummus

3 c. chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans) cooked dried beans, or 2 cans  (I try to avoid cans whenever I can because of the BPA lining in cans), drain one can but keep the liquid from the other can and add to blender

1/4 c. lemon juice  (fresh would be best, but I don't always have lemons on hand)

2 tbsp. tahini  (when I'm out of tahini (which is sesame butter), I just throw sesame seeds in my blender)

2-3 cloves garlic, or more if you love garlic (fresh garlic is so good for us!)

salt to taste  (1 tsp?)

cumin  (1-2 tsp?)

basil  (1/2 tsp?)

olive oil to desire consistency (1-2 tbsp?)




We love to scoop up our hummus with veggies - green pepper strips and carrots being our usual picks.  We normally round out a hummus lunch with apple slices, nuts (walnuts or almonds)...and a glass of yummy raw milk.  We normally have hummus for lunch about every other week...and my kiddos are excited when they hear it is on the menu for that day!