Monster trucks and Hummus

I've been asked by several of my parent friends how I find the time to cook and watch twin, two and a half year olds.  We don't live in a huge house, but we do have a pretty decent sized kitchen.  And it is easily the kids favorite room to play in.  Those two things are how I accomplish a morning of cooking in the kitchen.  That and Joe's work schedule has him here until lunch time, so I there's someone to wrangle those two.  The truth is they tend to be fascinated with whatever I'm cooking and are always right there to try it when it's ready.  You can pretty much guarantee as soon as the food processor or blender or oven time goes off, it's immediately followed with "Some?!" and a tiny hand shooting up in the air.  This morning they were trying to help me find recipes from my cookbooks.  "Help" is a generous word...they can't read.

They cute, they cute.  Mommy's little helpers.

So today, in honor of these super cool kids, who allow me to enjoy them AND enjoy cooking, I'm bringing you a meal that is loved by my little ones. 

Homemade Pita bread with Roasted Red Pepper Hummus and Summer Veggies

This was my first attempt at making pita bread, but after reading the recipe I was shocked to learn how easy it was.  And it's easy.  I'm serious.  Here, lemme show you:

Pita Pocket Bread

-1 cup warm water

-1 pkg active yeast

-1 tbsp honey

-1 tsp salt

-1 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

-1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

Pour yeast into warm water in a bowl and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.  Add honey, salt, 1/2 a cup of all purpose flour and 1/2 cup of wheat flour and stir until its well mixed.  Add the rest of the flour, 1/2 of a cup at a time, until dough cleans the sides of the bowl.  Knead dough on a lightly floured surface, adding flour as needed to keep dough from being too sticky. Brush olive oil in a bowl.  Once dough is smooth, place it in prepared bowl and cover it with a damp towel.  Let it rise in a warm place until doubled, or about an hour.

When dough has risen, punch the dough down and knead for about 5 minutes.  Split the dough into 6-12 pieces, depending on how big you want your pita bread.  Knead each piece a few times.  On a floured surface, roll each ball out flat (no thicker than 1/8 of an inch).  Once all the balls are rolled out, let the circles rest for about 30 minutes. 

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees.  Brush oil on a baking sheet and put the pan in the oven just long enough to get hot.  Pull it out and put as many pita circles on the pan as you can without the circles touching. Bake for 6-8 minutes, until puffed up and slightly browned.  To keep the bread soft, remove them from the pan and cover them with a towel for about 5 minutes and then bag them immediately. 

Check out that pocket!  Totally awesome! These pita breads are great, stuffed with grilled chicken and cucumbers and feta cheese or any other sammich fixins.  Or you can cut them into triangles (like the kiddos love) and serve them with a dip or spread.  Something like Roasted Red Pepper Hummus!

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

-2 Red Bell Peppers

-2 cans of chick peas, drained, reserving the liquid from one can

-2 or 3 cloves of garlic

-1 lemon, juiced

-1/4 cup plain greek yogurt (optional)

-1 tbsp tahini

-2 tbsp olive oil

-2 tsp turmeric

-1 tsp cumin

-1 tsp paprika

-1 tsp salt

To roast the peppers: You can broil the pepper on a baking sheet, rotating as each side turns black.  The way I learned to roast peppers is to put them on the stove top like this:

Just put them straight down on the burners and rotate as they get black. You can use tongs to turn them, or you can use those nifty little stems, like I did!  Once they are pretty well blackened on all sides, remove from the broiler or stove and put them in a brown paper bag and close it up.  This traps the steam and helps the skin slide right off the peppers when they are cool and ready to peel.  Once the peppers have cooled and you remove the skin, slice the pepper into strips, removing the seeds.

In a food processor or blender, pour in chick peas and 1/4 cup of liquid you reserved from the can.  Add garlic, lemon juice, tahini, greek yogurt, paprika, cumin, turmeric, salt, olive oil, and sliced roasted peppers.  Blend until smooth. 

Serve with pita triangles, carrot sticks, and sugar snap peas.

There's so many things I love about this meal.  One of those things is that this makes A LOT of hummus.  Easily enough for 5 days worth of lunches.  It keeps well in the fridge and it's really filling.  It's really inexpensive, as well.  But the thing I love most, obviously, is that the kids love it.

And the pita triangles make a pretty cool monster truck obstacle...