˚recipe˚ Hummus and Pita Chips

Is hummus a hippie food? Do you even like hummus? I LOVE it. Especially this recipe.Complete with pita chips. Mmmmmm...a perfect snack for any day.

First, start the pita chips. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Take normal pita bread and brush with olive oil on both sides. Sprinkle on sea salt (regular salt works too).

Use a pizza cutter to cut the pita into little slices.

Pop them in the oven for about 5 minutes. Then flip them over and let them toast for another 5. Meanwhile, put these ingredients in a blender:

• 1 clove garlic
• 1 can garbanzo beans (drained and rinsed)
• 1/4 c. water
• 1/4 c. olive oil
• 3.4 tsp. salt
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 1/4 c. teheni (this is mashed up sesame seed and can be found in the store by the mayo.)
• Juice of one lemon.

 

TIP: Since the tehini can get a little sticky when you are measuring it, put the water (1/4 c.) and oil (1/4 c.) in a measuring glass, and pour the tehini in until you reach 3/4 c. The tehini displaces the other liquid and that's how you know to stop pouring. Plus, when you dump all of that in a blender, it is much less messy. (This trick works great with peanut butter too).

Now sit back, relax, and enjoy your hippie hummus!

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˚budgeting series-part 8˚ The End.

Now that you have had a few weeks to track your expenses, how is it going? It's kind of hard isn't it? Don't give up. Do you remember this post  where you committed to doing 4 months? You can do it! And keep your eye open for money saving tips on this blog so you can live within the budget you developed. And last, keep it changing. Life changes...so should your budget.

*Update: click here to see part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, and part 8.

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˚tutorial˚ Applique

Sometimes the word applique makes me think of old people. No offense. It just does. But, applique can be young and hip too. For example, check out this adorable onsie:

Want to learn how?

First, cut the shapes you want out of fabric and fusible web.

If you are using one sided fusible web, iron the fabric to the fusible web. (If you use double sided fusible web, don't iron anything quite yet.)

Next, pin the shapes onto the onsie. If you are using double sided fusible web, you don't have to pin your fabric to the onsie, you can just iron all three layers right on.)

Using an applique stitch (zig-zag stitch works great too) sew the shapes onto the onsie.

For my little poppies, I wanted to sew on a stem. I just stitched two straight lines up to the circles. As you can see, it kind of bunches the fabric. 

If you iron the onsie, the fabric will shrink right up and look great.

Easy, and adorable. I like it.

And if you want to add a little more love to the onsie bum, check out this tutorial:

http://www.makeit-loveit.com/2011/04/altering-baby-clothes-long-sleeve-to.html

Oh so cute!

 Applique is the same technique I used here. 

And click here for a baby boy applique onsie. 

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˚thrifty tip˚ Ziplock Bags

This trick is one I learned from my mother. Growing up, we always had sandwich bags without zip lock closures on them. We only had the fold-over-the-flap-and-hope-everything-doesn't-spill-out kind. Zip lock bags were way more expensive. 

Well, I married the Mr. and was finally old enough to make some of my own decisions. We decided to go with zip lock bags instead of the fold-over-the-flap-and-hope-everything-doesn't-spill-out kind.

And...they are more expensive. In order to remedy the situation, we will actually turn gently used zip lock bags inside out and wash them.

Then we lovingly hang them on our knife block to dry. Once they are dry, we flip them right side out and off we go. This trick might not be worth it to you for the small sandwich bags, but it saves a pretty penny when you wash and reuse gently used gallon bags. 

 

Thanks for the tip Mom!

Disclaimer: About 90% of the stuff I post here I learned from my mom. And I'm not just sayin' that because it's Mother's Day this Sunday (little reminder for you)!

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