the poverty luxe kitchen vol. 20: black bean chipotle hummus.

for the (wait for it...) twentieth edition of the poverty luxe kitchen, i have a very, very special recipe for you: the black bean chipotle hummus that i have been meaning to post on here for literally an entire year. yeah... obviously im really on top of things. but better late than never, right? 
right. 
because this hummus is awesome. i mean, not to toot my own horn or anything and we all know that hummus in general is awesome, but this goes beyond regular hummus into fancy-six-dollar-for-a-tiny-thing-at-the-farmers-market-why-cant-i-make-this-at-home hummus territory. except, that you can totally make it at home and a huge batch costs less than the little 8 ounce tub you buy at the farmers market. oh, and its totally easy. 
are you ready to get started with the recipe? here we go: 
black bean chipotle hummus.  (serves 6-8)
heres what you need: 
4-5 cloves garlic 1/4 cup olive oil 1 can (or two cups cooked) garbanzo beans 1 can (or two cups cooked) black beans 3 tablespoons lime juice 2-3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (save the rest to make chipotle aioli!) heres what you do: 
finely chop garlic and place in a small dish with the olive oil and let it sit for 15-20 minutes. 
in the bowl of your food processor, combine the oil and garlic with the remaining ingredients and pulse until smooth. if the hummus is too thick, add water one tablespoon at a time until it reaches your desired consistency.  transfer hummus from food processor to an airtight container and store for up to a week in the fridge. 
im a big fan of eating hummus with carrot sticks and cucumber slices, how do you like to eat it? 

the poverty luxe kitchen vol. 8: "healthy" nacho cheese.

nacho cheese. who doesnt love nacho cheese? i mean, its all hot and gooey and spicy and so, so good. but also it tends to come from a can or jar or pump and be chock-full of all kinds of nasty weird ingredients that make you feel so, so bad. 

but what if i told you that you could make nacho cheese and not feel all that bad about it? that would be pretty awesome, right? well do i have a treat for you today. i mean, this recipe isnt exactly what youd call "light" or "skinny" or "diet" or whatever (and i certainly wouldnt recommend eating it all the time...), BUT its entirely made from normal, pronounceable, real food ingredients. no hydrogenated oils or artificial flavors or scary fake orange color here, just creamy, gooey, spicy cheese sauce ready to be poured over a big plate of chips or into a bowl for dipping (actually, my favorite thing to do the night after taco night is to pile all the leftover taco fixings on some chips and top it all with this sauce, its wonderful). 

so are you ready to make some (relatively) healthy nacho cheese? 

heres what you need: 

(serves 4+ as a topping/dip)

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons sweet rice flour (or regular flour if youre not gluten free)

1 cup milk

8 oz shredded pepper jack cheese

1 cup cooked black beans (or 1/2 a can, totally optional)

heres what you do: 

melt butter over medium heat in a small saucepan. 

stir in flour and cook, stirring constantly, for about a minute. (this is called making a roux, its a very important skill in fancy cooking).

slowly stir in milk, stirring constantly to make a nice, smooth sauce. 

raise heat to medium-high and cook until sauce thickens and begins to bubble, stirring occasionally. (if youre familiar with traditional cooking techniques, or my recipe for mac and cheese, you know that we just made ourselves some béchamel).

remove from heat and stir in cheese until completely melted. 

if you want your nacho cheese plain, you can go ahead and stop here, pouring the cheese sauce over chips/toppings or into a container for dipping, BUT if you want to make some AWESOME dip for say, party-type situations, go ahead and stir in those black beans. 

and thats it! now you can treat yourself to "healthy" nacho cheese! (i mean, in comparison to you know, typical nacho cheese)

oven fried potato recipe.

ok, so i kind of teased this post on instagram (did i mention im back on instagram? you can follow me @povertyluxe if you like cats and food), and it was supposed to go up later in the week, but school starting has resulted in a lot of brain farts and wibbly-wobbly scheduling. 

also, this is one of those recipes that i just. cant. stop. eating. 

so im posting it today. 

today im going to show you how to make these AMAZING oven-fried potato... disks?

theyre not really fries, and theyre not really chips. honestly, im not sure what to call them, other than delicious:

ok, so an old friend of mine from high school contributes to this lovely blog called the happy hunters. and recently she posted this potato recipe and i was like "OMG I HAVE TO TRY THAT RIGHT NOW". but then i realized, i am way, WAY too lazy to fry anything. 

but i still wanted the yummy potatoes. 

so i came up with a brilliant solution: i oven fried them. 

as you can clearly see, problem SOLVED:

not only is this recipe the PERFECT salty/carby side dish/snack, its also CHEAP, since, you know, potatoes regularly go on sale at sprouts 3 pounds for a dollar. meaning, these are actually WAY CHEAPER than buying potato chips. just saying. 

anyway, back to the recipe. 

ingredients:

(note: i wrote this recipe for one potato, which makes like, a two person amount, feel free to double/triple/quadruple this recipe as necessary)

1 of those freakishly large russet baking potatoes

olive oil

seasonings of your choice (i did salt, garlic powder, and black pepper)

instructions:

start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees and liberally oiling a rimmed baking sheet or jelly roll pan (this part is especially important). 

next, while the ovens preheating, slice up your potato(es) into approximately 1/8 inch slices (this would be an especially helpful time to own a mandoline. unfortunately, we do not). 

now place your sliced potatoes onto the oily baking sheet in a single layer (again, important) and coat to tops with olive oil using a pastry brush. 

bake for about 20 minutes, flip over, return to oven and bake for another 5-10 or so minutes until browned and crispy. 

top with your preferred seasonings. 

eat immediately.

garlic fries recipe.

you probably know by now that im on a totally boring and lame diet that makes me want to cry just thinking about it (you can read more about my multitude of food allergies here). and if you read the post i just linked to youd also know that i LOVE carbs. and um, im sorry to offend all the people that enjoy being gluten free, but 99% of gluten free bread tastes like poop and is NOT sufficient to assuage my carb cravings. 

sometimes i get really upset about my limited options food-wise. 

but then i remember i can still have french fries. and i freaking LOVE french fries. 

unfortunately because of my stupid celiac disease i cant have fries from anywhere that uses their frying oil for anything containing gluten so basically the only place i can safely get fries is at in n out (which hardly ever happens because were broke and for some reason going to in n out with james always ends up costing like $20). 

but you know what i CAN do? i can make fries at home because frozen fries seem to generally be ok. and i can get them at dollar tree which is conveniently walking distance from my apartment. 

and today im going to show you how to make my favorite treat, garlic fries. and also post my first recipe with super awesome step-by-step photo instructions!

garlic fries recipe. 

ingredients: 

1 bag frozen french fries 

3-4 cloves of garlic

1 bunch fresh parsley

kosher salt

olive oil

start by preheating your oven and baking your fries however the package says to do it. while thats going, finely chop your garlic and push it into a little pile with your knife like this:

then pour your kosher salt (or whatever kind of salt you prefer. also the amount is really up to you and how salty you like your fries, i do like, a teaspoon and a half) on top of your little garlic pile, like this:

now, using the side of your knife or a spatula, smash the garlic and salt together on the cutting board until it gets all crushed and juicy like this:

then chop up your parsley (again, the amount is really up to you, i used half of the little bunch i got at sprouts), and put it in a large bowl along with your garlic/salt mixture:

finally, when your fries are done, throw them in the bowl and toss with a drizzle of olive oil (helps get rid of the dry "baked" taste of frozen fries) until everythings all evenly coated, like this:

and enjoy! these are especially good dipped in chipotle aioli, btw. 

six things i bet you didnt know you could get from dollar stores.

dollar stores. until very recently i wasnt a big fan. if youve been following me for a long time you may remember this post where i unpack exactly why i tended to stay away. but since june (which feels like it was years ago), ive worked very hard at uber-streamlining my shopping habits so as to have more free time. and seeing that nowadays i basically dont have a job anymore, ive had a LOT more time (and a lot less money) to learn to appreciate the finer things that dollar stores have to offer. 

yes. i said finer things. at dollar stores. and im not kidding. in fact, ive complied a list of SIX totally unexpected things you can find at dollar stores, if you take the time to look. 

1. fresh produce. 99 cent stores typically have a pretty decent selection of fresh produce. its not always the most attractive produce, and you cant always count on them having exactly what you want all the time, but i regularly find fantastic deals on (normally super expensive) things like artichokes, asparagus, and strawberries. 

2. organic produce. yeah, that produce, sometimes its organic. not always, but ive gotten organic salad mixes and canned beans multiple times. 

3. wild-caught salmon filets. i knew you werent going to believe me about this one, so i took a picture:

these are 4 ounce salmon filets (actual filets, not leftover bits pressed into rectangles), and i got them at dollar tree. obviously, this salmon is frozen, and its not the best ive ever had, but its wild. and $4 a pound. which as far as i can remember is cheaper than i can usually get crappy salmon for at vons when its on clearance. 

4. booze. i think i mentioned in my other post that the 99 cent store has beer. well, recently theyve started carrying wine and even gluten free ciders. unfortunately neither of those is actually 99 cents (2.99 a bottle and 1.99 a four-pack, respectively), but still. 

5. free stuff. dollar tree takes manufacturers coupons. and they carry a surprising amount of brand-name items that you can get coupons for. and since everythings only $1, if you have a $1 off coupon, its free. this happens way more often than youd think, too. 

6. gluten free goods. ok, maybe this is only a big deal to me, because ive had this whole gluten free thing forced upon me and i literally can not afford $6 crackers. but heres a short list of gluten free things that i (or my mom) have gotten at the 99: bagels, pie crust, crackers, bread, pizza dough, cookie dough, panko crumbs and a bunch of stuff that i dont even remember. 

so thats what ive learned about dollar stores recently. 

whats the best thing youve ever found at a dollar store?

more new foods. cookies, crackers, and mac and cheese.

my original plan this week was to do one small blog post every day about the new foods ive been trying, but this was really one of those ideas that worked much better on paper than in real life. first of all, the commitment to post everyday was a bit much, especially when this is my first week trying to get back into our normal chore routine, and second, only the pizza mix had much of a story to go with it, and i noticed that didnt really have enough to say about each of the other foods to really justify spending the whole week on individual posts. so heres what ive been snacking on lately:

1. jovial gluten free chocolate cream filled cookies:

as you can see, these were in the clearance section at vons, but this is probably the only gluten free cookie ive seen with a price that isnt horrible, especially since the cookies are separately wrapped so they wont all go stale. i wouldnt say these cookies are bad, the buttercream icing inside is good, but they are pretty dry and crumbly and MUCH better crumbled over ice cream than eaten as a cookie. they also seem to go on sale a lot, so they might be a good thing to keep in the pantry for when i need an emergency treat. 

2. schar table crackers:

honestly the sticker price ($6.50 per package) and the fact that "table" is probably my least favorite type of cracker probably would have kept me from ever trying these. also the only other gluten free cracker ive had is the really dry and powdery communion crackers at church so i wasnt exactly hopeful.  but again, at half price it seemed worth a shot. i mean, i really need to branch out if im going to avoid going absolutely insane on this diet. so far ive had them as a snack with some cheese, and theyre pretty good. then i had them for lunch with some tuna salad on top:

and well, they dont hold up so well for dipping into things. they went great with the tuna, i just had to carefully spoon bites of tuna onto each cracker. but like the cookies, they also come packaged in individual servings, which is really nice because i definitely dont want to have to eat an entire box of crackers all at once. 

and last but not least, 

3. annies homegrown rice shells with creamy white cheddar:

this stuff is fantastic. boxed macaroni and cheese is probably my number one guilty pleasure, and this tastes exactly like the real thing. mainly because its just the normal powdered cheese mix with white rice pasta instead of wheat. so far this is the only gluten free product that id be willing to buy at full price. my only complaint at all is that the box is too small. i seriously did NOT want to stop eating this. ever. 

 seriously i cant get over how much i love this. if you know me at all you know that im not exactly adventurous when it comes to trying new foods, so im really glad this experiment has turned out at least one success. 

p.s. my birthdays coming up, and amazon sells this in cases of 24. just saying...