Beans, Beans What do do with Beans? HUMMUS

Have you ever had hummus? I am unsure of how prevalent it is, my mom used to make it when I was younger to put on pitas, but I had never heard of it outside of home until about 6 years ago when I worked for Challenger School. Right next to our school was a "Great Harvest" and they sold the BEST sandwiches I have ever had.. HUMMUS SANDWICH. I had their grain bread, and they would put a layer of hummus, then provolone cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, grated carrots and sprouts on the sandwich and I'm telling you... HEAVEN in between bread. It was sooo good! I found out later that the hummus they used was sold at Costco for a pretty reasonable price... but when you know what it is, it's hard to spend much money on it..

Garbanzo Beans.

Yup! That REALy is what hummus is made of. Puree'd garbanzo beans. It seriously takes less than 10 minutes to make a few jars worth and you are set. It's a GREAT replacement for expensive nitrate filled lunch meats....(... I can't help but to use that expensive nitrate filled, brown sugar ham lunch meat on egg ham and cheese sandwiches though.. you win some, you loose some, right? :) hehehe) It's also an excellent dip for chips and crackers, vegetables or you can serve it the way my mom did.. spread on pita bread with a few garnishes = SO simple and SO good! :)

My mom's Hummus
I'm starting to think this should be her blog with how many of her recipes are on here! :) See how wonderful it is to have a mother to teach you these things? I so want to be that way for my children :)

I am totally bummed about this picture - I had a really pretty one taken and i somehow deleted it... Sorry for the "blah" factor - It really is good, I swear! :)

1 can chickpeas/garbanzo beans

6-8 green olives

1/4 c olive oil

2 T tahini

Italian parsley

Paprika

Put it all into a food processor, pure' and ..taaa daaa!! Hummus! I alter it to my taste - this is a great recipe and you can also use it as a base then tweak it to your liking! - I like to add a little lemon juice, garlic, cilantro, and red onion instead of the parsley ... MMMMM...Sam and Claire BOTH love this. I think Mike could eat the whole jar plain. :) hehe. I don't always have all of the vegetables for the Great Harvest hummus sandwich, but we usually put peppers, tomatoes and cheddar or pepperjack cheese and it is amazing -

I hope you enjoy! This really is so much healthier then what the norm is, it tastes fabulous and is SOOOOO inexpensive! :)

PS - If you don't know what Tahini is, it looks like this and you can find it at regular grocery stores, I got this at Smiths :).

Tahini was created in the middle east and it's simply a paste made from ground sesame seeds.