Butter Beans and Peanut Butter Hummus

We’ll have our usual family dinner tonight, but I probably won’t be able to post it until Tuesday night. I’ve got a quick few things to share in the meantime.

V-con Mediterranean Baked Lima Beans


To me limas are green and small. I grew up calling these giant white beans “Butter Beans.” This was my first time to cook the dried beans, but I like the canned variety as well. Isa is right when she says lima haters will love this recipe. Butter beans are creamy and hearty, and these baked beans in tomato sauce reminded me of eating pasta. Alongside a nice bunch broccoli, a delicious dinner is at hand in no time.



ED&BV Peanut Sesame Hummus

I made this for Chase. He will go bananas when he eats this! Creamy hummus with a hint of peanut butter and sesame – what’s not to love!

Here’s a new food find.

Well now I've found the perfect food from a shelf - gluten and soy free AND vegan! When I opened them I was surprised and elated to find mini chips!

That’s a lot of chips in one cup. And they taste great. I’m baking with them now for tonight’s dinner. Stay tuned!

On the local front, Rachel Ray is here autographing and promoting a new cookbook. She’s been to Austin many times and today she’ll be just a couple of miles from where I live. I’d like to go take a look at her, but I just don’t have time (or any of her cookbooks or the desire to wade through the crowd).

It’s also Eat Local Week here. From their website:

What is Edible Austin Eat Local Week? Of course every week is "eat local week" in our book, but Eat Local Week, our winter fundraiser event, is an invitation to Central Texans to explore and celebrate the abundance of local food and to raise money for Urban Roots, a youth development program that uses sustainable agriculture to effect lasting change for youth 14-18 years old, and to nourish East Austin residents who have limited access to healthy foods. Young people will cultivate a local 2 - 5 acre, diversified organic farm, selling a portion of their harvest in the Austin area and donating a portion to local hunger relief programs. Through this process young people can connect to the land and learn the benefits of growing, eating, selling and donating organic food, as well as leadership, entrepreneurial and life skills, and the importance of giving back to their community. This will serve as a model for similar programs statewide.

Edible Austin Eat Local Week will kick off on December 8 with the City of Austin’s proclamation and with support from other Central Texas communities and the Greater Austin Restaurant Association. Check back frequently to see a growing list of participating restaurants, featuring locally-sourced entree and drink specials for the week, a portion of the sale from which will go to our beneficiary, Urban Roots. Participating markets will collect donations in other ways.

You are invited to dine out, shop, throw a dinner or cocktail party, or simply make a home-cooked meal using local foods and beverages. And you can share your experiences finding, cooking and tasting local food during this week on our blog, or join our Eating Local Forum, and we’ll publish a collection of your tales and discussions in our Spring issue.

Another of the many reasons I love Austin. I missed the farmers market yesterday, but I hope to be able to participate in some way this week.

Till Tuesday.....