Everybody Eat the Dinosaur.

I’m sorry, I really couldn’t resist. Following my foray into lyric appropriation a few posts back, I thought I’d repeat myself with an equally as admirable switcharoo. Genius.

Well at least I think so.

I apologise for the lack of posts recently. Despite claims from friends who shall remain anonymous (for now) that my blog is pure crap (I choose to think this is sarcastic), I know you’ve all missed me. However my life has become a constant whir of overdue uni work and an endless torrent of rental applications and, admittedly, I’ve barely any time to feed myself, let alone write about it. I’m living off carrots and muesli bars, people. Cue melancholy violins.

However all this frenzied mania has been somewhat relieved by a recent addition to my constantly growing collection of (often useless) kitchen appliances. The bread machine, ice cream maker, tofu kit and I have just welcomed a brand-spanking new blender to our brood. And what a change it has made.

I’ll be honest and say that I’ve only really made one thing with it so far, due to a new found obsession with chickpeas. I’ve probably had hummus for the past five days straight (with aforementioned carrots) but am in no mindset to stop. It’s just so easy and takes less time than two-minute noodles – which, for me, always take at least ten.

As well as the blender, I’ve also acquired a dinosaur-shaped sandwich cutter, courtesy of my dear flatmate who thought it would be the ultimate birthday gift. Thank you, dear friend. It was.

Dinosaur-shaped sandwich cutter!

We’ve decided that everything will be dinosaur-shaped – sandwiches, biscuits, fried eggs, dumplings… You name it, we’ll cut it. So dumplings might be a bit difficult, but it does create the ideal accompaniment to hummus – dinosaur-shaped Turkish bread chips. Yeah, you wish you were as cool as us.

 

Hummus and dinosaur-shaped chips.

Hummus with (Dinosaur-Shaped) Turkish Chips

Serves 2

Hummus:

1 400g tin chickpeas, drained

1 TBSP tahini

1-2 cloves garlic (depending on your preference and whether or not you need to venture out into the general public afterwards)

1 TBSP lemon juice or white vinegar

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

salt

Turkish chips:

1 loaf Turkish bread

extra virgin olive oil

salt

1. Fit the blender with the chopping blade.

2. Place the chickpeas, tahini, garlic and lemon juice or vinegar in the bowl of a food processor.

3. Pulse until everything is well combined.

4. With the motor running and everything blending, add the olive oil in a steady stream until the mixture resembles a thickish paste. Season with salt to taste.

5. Remove the bowl from the machine and place the hummus into a serving bowl.

6. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

7. Meanwhile, make the (dinosaur-shaped) Turkish chips.

8. Preheat the oven to 200C.

9. Split the Turkish bread in half like you would a bread roll, so there’s a top and bottom. Sorry, this is the best explanation I can muster.

10. Cut each half into smaller triangles (or dinosaurs) and place on a baking tray. You may need to do a few batches.

11. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.

12. Bake in the oven for around 10-15 minutes or until crisp.

13. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

14. Serve with the hummus.

*NOTE: Hummus is one of those things where everyone has a preference: more garlic, less lemon and so on. Feel free to change the recipe to your liking.

Impromptu Guacamole.

When making my trip to the local supermarket, I intended to leave only with a bag of self-raising flour, a block of dark chocolate and an onion (don’t get too excited here – some of my recipes may be weird but that’s just pushing it) but fate, or a large sign advertising cheap food, instead led me to an enormous bucket of overripe avocados.

Normally I’m afraid of even going near avocados at the supermarket. I worry I’ll do something completely irrational – like buying one. Lately I’ve only ever seen them hovering around the $3-4 per unit mark and have subsequently avoided them so as to prevent any outlandish spending. But today, these little green beauties were only 99c each. Yeah, you heard right.

I bought three with the intention of savouring them over a few days but as I got home, remembered I had a friend to entertain tonight. I grabbed whatever we had on hand (and, although sacrilegious, used white vinegar instead of lime) and whipped up some very basic, but very delicious, guacamole.

To me, nothing gets a party started better than a giant bowl of guacamole goodness. But clearly I need to get out more.

Guacamole.

Guacamole

Serves 2-3

2 large ripe avocados

1 TBSP mayonnaise (preferable good quality whole-egg – that sugary stuff is just weird)

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

1 TBSP white vinegar

salt and pepper

* You can add fresh coriander, garlic and tomato to this to make it more authentic. You can also use sour cream instead of mayonnaise – I just didn’t have any lying around.

1. Scoop out the flesh of the avocados and place in a large bowl.

2. Add the mayonnaise, chilli and vinegar and mash to combine.

3. Season well with salt and pepper.

4. Serve.