Tomorrow, Game of Thrones comes back in its second season on HBO. To say that I’m excited is a bit of an understatement. If you haven’t seen it yet, I couldn’t recommend it enough. It’s just the right mix of action, romance, mystery, with a hefty dose of scandal. If you don’t have HBO (I don’t), you can get the first season on DVD from netflix (alas, not instant watch.. darn you, HBO), but I highly recommend that you read the series by George R.R. Martin. At the moment, there are five books. I’m currently in the third one, A Storm of Swords. I saw the TV show first, I will admit, but I had heard how closely they stuck to the book for the TV series, and I was absolutely shocked to find how true that was when I read the first book, A Game of Thrones. The TV show mirrored the book scene by scene. I’m one of those people that are always disappointed in screen adaptations of books, and I was highly impressed with the work they did on this. The first season was the first book from start to finish. I’m so excited to see how they did with the second season, now that I actually have read that book in its entirety.
While Game of Thrones would really be best with some lemon cakes, Sansa Stark’s favorite, or perhaps a few oat cakes, I had to share the second of the chickpea-based dips that I so enjoyed. I’m out of it now, unfortunately, but perhaps I’ll need to make more for tomorrow night.. it’s that good.
1 (15-oz.) can of chickpeas, drained
1 1/4 cup Medjool dates, pitted
2 T almond butter (or any other nut butter)
2 T coconut oil
1 T + 1 t vanilla
1/4 t salt
pinch of baking soda
2 T oats
1-2 T milk
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
In a food processor, pulse the dates until chunky. Add in the chickpeas, almond butter, and coconut oil, and pulse until smooth. Mix in the vanilla, salt, baking soda, and oats. If still slightly chunky, add milk, 1 T at a time, until it reaches the desired consistency. Pulse in the chocolate chips. Serve with graham crackers, pretzels, or fresh fruit.