Sweet Potato Hummus

Sweet Potato Hummus

This. Is. So. Yummy. I could just eat this all by itself. I previously made a post about the hummus at Wegmans, and how delicious it was. Well, I found the perfect recipe for the sweet potato variation!

Adapted from wholeliving.com recipe.

Makes about 3 cups

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. (about 2 1/4 cups mashed) sweet potatoes, baked, without skin
• (Place 3 medium sized sweet potatoes on baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 50-60min or until a knife inserts easily when pierced. Let cool. Remove skins.)
• 3 tbsp lemon juice (add 1 tbsp if you like it be more tangy)
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 tsp reduced sodium salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 1 3/4 cups canned low-sodium chickpeas
• 1 tsp minced garlic (1 clove)

Directions:

Easy as pie!

Add all ingredients to food processor...Process until super-smooth (about 5 min), periodically scraping the mixture down the sides if needed.

Easter Dinner

My mom and I received so many kind words about our Easter dinner dishes, and I must say it really meant a lot to me, after all our hard work! I hope that everyone enjoyed themselves at the party, enjoyed the food, and hopefully were pleasantly surprised to have some new dishes to try, mixed in with some long-standing family favorites!

Here is the complete menu! Send me a message if you are interested in one of the recipes without a link—those are from cookbooks I have!

Beverages
Sunny White Sangria

Appetizers

Garlic Herb Hummus with assorted vegetables (DF)

Black Pepper-Crusted Herbed Goat cheese with crackers

Parsi Deviled Eggs

Dinner

Onion & Thyme Tart (GF, DF)

Chicken Marbella 

Hoisin-Glazed Beef Tenderloin

Green beans, blue cheese, & walnut salad with vinaigrette

Warm Butternut Squash & Chickpea Salad with Tahini dressing

Dijon Vinaigrette Potato salad

Ratatouille

Strawberry Jello Mold

Black Skillet Baked Beans

(Dinner rolls and sliced French bread)

Dessert

Pear & Almond Frangipane Tart (GF, DF)

Dark Chocolate Sunbutter Crisp Bon Bons (I followed all the directions from the original recipe, Peanut Better Balls, only I swapped out the peanut butter for sunflower seed butter)

Carrot Pineapple Loaf

And...here are some other tasty treats family members brought! 

Carrot Cake with cream cheese icing

Chocolate-covered strawberries

(Blueberry Pie)

Irish Potato Candy

(Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake)

Assorted Cookies: (Chocolate chip blondies, wedding cookies, sugar cookies)

Maki sushi

So... This year started with my first homemade veggie-filled sushi rolls... And since I bought a package of nori with 10 sheets in it, not really thinking about how quickly I would need to use it before it absorbed moisture and became stale or unusable...  Well, that led to what has felt like a LOT of sushi rolls this month! Today I finally finished off the last roll, and needless to say, as yummy as they were, I don't think be making these again for quite a while!

Sweet potato, cucumber, & avocado for New Years Eve dinner

Sushi overload!

Carrot, avocado, and ginger

To make Sushi rice: 

These quantities makes enough rice to make 5 rolls. Though I didn't really measure it, it ends up being about 3-4 cups cooked. I used about a 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of rice per roll.

• 1 cup sushi rice (short grain white, sticky)
• 1 1/2 cup water
• Seasoned rice vinegar

Directions: Add rice and water to a pot on the stove. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer, and cover. Cook for 20 min. (Make sure heat is low enough so the rice won't burn on the bottom; it will stick, but you shouldn't need to stir the rice at all) Remove from heat and let stand, covered for additional 10 min. (This finishes cooking the rice by steaming and will also release any rice stuck to the bottom of the pot). Fluff with fork; drizzle about 1/4 cup seasoned rice vinegar over rice and mix to distribute.

To make the rolls, I used:

• 8x7" sushi nori sheets
• Assorted vegetables, julienne-cut
• Sushi rolling mat

If you check out Allrecipes' YouTube channel, they have a great tutorial video for assembly (I found it much easier to watch how to do this instead of reading instructions):

http://youtu.be/XKUSI8ElgRc