black bean avocado hummus

We are obsessed with this dog.

It brings me unbelievable amounts of joy when she plays fetch, swims, goes to the bathroom outside, sleeps in the car. I’m concerned that this means I will someday praise a human child for doing things innate to him/her, such as hiccuping and farting.

However there are some things she’s not great at. Going for walks? Not a strength. I walked her to the park for the GS’ softball game the other night (about a half mile away) and I had to carry her for over half of it. I’m sure people were looking at me wondering why I was hauling this 30 pound dog down the street. But she just lays down when she gets tired and refuses to move, and I had somewhere to be!

She’s also not good at being away from me. This is a photo I took of my homecoming after I was gone for 1 hour.

She frequently follows me around the house, lays down at my feet if I stop moving, and cries if I go upstairs to take a shower.

So this recipe was actually a completely happy accident that resulted in me throwing things together that I had already to avoid leaving this sweet Baby Louise to go to the grocery store.

Black Bean Avocado Hummus

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 avocado

2 cloves garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

1-2 tbs sriracha

salt, to taste

This could not be easier. Rinse the black beans really well, and put them into the food processor with the garlic. You can leave the cloves whole.

Let it whirl until everything is combined. Add the avocado, and while that’s blending stream in about 1/4 cup olive oil.

I added the sriracha at the end, but if you don’t want any spice you can leave it out.

If you use regular black beans you may not need any salt added, so taste it before you toss it in!

This tastes fantastic on its own with pita or chips. I ended up creating one of the greatest sandwiches of all time with it, again as a result of not wanting to leave my house.

The GS had folded down a page of Travel and Leisure a few months ago with a recipe for the flatbread served at Maydan, an up and coming DC restaurant that he went to and loved. I finally got around to making it and I may just chuck my sourdough starter because OMG.

Next I shredded some leftover chicken. I had cooked it the night before in my new Cuisinart multicooker which is yet another kitchen appliance that we were gifted for our wedding and I don’t know how I lived without it. You can sear in there and then switch it to slow cooker mode, so it makes everything so easy and quick to clean. We had run out of propane in our grill so I ended up doing chicken in this and it was great. Definitely faster than cooking chicken in the oven, and it doesn’t get dried out.

Finally, Sheila recommended this recipe from Bon Appetit and we had it the night before with the chicken. It was great and I served it over arugula, as Sheila had suggested. I’m so glad she recommended this because I would have probably thought it was really bizarre but it just works. Can anything with burrata be bad?!