The Inception (easy nachos)

My 11-week-old daughter is asleep on the couch, chai tea is cooling on the stove, and thank you/birth announcement/Merry Christmas/Happy New Year cards are on the way to me. I'm stuck being mostly vegan until I'm finished breastfeeding and I'm thinking about adding coffee grounds to my houseplants in an effort to get them back to their pre-pregnancy health.

I'm finding out how busy being a new mom is and how much I need an outlet for my creative energies. I've determined that THIS will be my outlet. I'll journal my crafts, recipes, thoughts, family projects, possible play ideas, etc.

OK, now I'm typing one-handed because my little girl woke up. Ariadne (air-ee-AD-nee) Evangeline- a darling little girl whose first giggle happened last weekend. She has a wonderful smile and she flashes it often- but I can't ever catch it with my camera!

Tonight we're going to have half-vegan nachos. My husband is a meat-eater and I'm meat- and dairy-less because of my daughter's digestive tract.

OK, I have to start with the homemade Sort-Of Hummus:
I cooked up some garbanzo beans a couple of days ago and just haven't gotten around to making hummus. For some reason, I think that hummus would be a great replacement for sour cream. I'm calling this 'Sort-Of Hummus' because I'm just making it with what I have in stock, which doesn't include yogurt or tahini.

I'm going to use Ariadne's bouncy seat to get a hands-free hummus-making experience.

First we combine:
4 C. chickpeas/garbanzo beans
6 T. lemon juice
4 cloves garlic, minced/crushed/whatev
4 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 T. cumin
1 T. water

I put them all in a bowl, applied my new favorite appliance- the Cuisinart smart stick- and blended the whole shebang into a nice, creamy consistency. Here is where the tahini would be most useful.

I did a finger taste-test and found it a little dry and not seasoned well enough. If I had my d'ruthers, I'd put both tahini and cilantro in, but I just had to season to taste this time. So I added:
2 more T. oil
4 more cloves garlic
1 more generous T. cumin
and 1/4 t. crushed sea salt

Then I mixed it all together with a spatula (which is a pretty funny word) and put it in a jar in the fridge for later.
What would happen if I added a little bit of peanut butter...? I'll let you know if I do.

So, now it's time to make the nachos. I have tortilla chips, homegrown (not my home) beef, cheddar cheese, salsa, one avocado, some lettuce, doctored refried beans, olives, onions, green onions and corn. I browned the beef, added chili powder, cumin, cayenne, and garlic to taste. Then, I covered a baking sheet with tinfoil and scattered on the sheet in layers the tortilla chips, refried beans, beef, olives, corn, onions, green onions, and cheese with the beef and cheese on one half. A no-brainer.

Then I baked it at 350* until the cheese melted, about 8 minutes. I just sliced the avocado up and put it, the hummus, and the lettuce on top of the nachos. Then we dug in! Nummy...

Next time I'll try the hummus with some peanut butter. *wink*