Last night I ate a giant, beautiful, totally-worth-it cupcake {yeah still doing that no-sugar thing, oops}.  It was magnificent.  And then I went crazy with sugar.  As in, turned on my hip hop playlist and pulled out all my most ridiculous-awesome dance moves.  For about 20 minutes.  And then I laid down on the floor and wanted to barf.  Big time.  It was a very kindergartener response to sugar.  But tasty and wonderful too.

So now I'm back to the straight and narrow, which thankfully doesn't mean the flavorless and sad, because I have recipes like this one in my life!  It's deceptively simple and so quick to throw together, but creamy, flavorful, and full of protein!  I pretty much always have a can of black beans on hand {It just makes me feel more secure to have cans of things in the pantry. Weird, yes, like we could survive a natural disaster with all our cans}, so this appetizer came together very quickly thanks to a little whirl in the food processor.

This recipe is from An Edible Perspective, and while I normally tweak recipes to make them more congruent with my own crazy taste buds, I pretty much left this one alone.  Mostly because I have tried about 5,482 times to make hummus at home in my food processor, and it always comes out weird.  It tastes fine, but the consistency is never right- either too runny or too textured.  So I'm pretty wary of bean dips in the food processor.  But this black bean dip had an excellent consistency.  It's especially agreeable with some {or a whole bag of multigrain scoops} tortilla chips.  {I would probably eat sand if it was fed to me on a tortilla chip}

So do your sugar-infused body some good, and feed it this lovely, protein-y dip.

Simple Black Bean Dip

Makes about 1 1/4 cup, adapted from An Edible Perspective

1 15 oz can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 small garlic clove, peeled

1 tablespoon water

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons lime juice (or lemon)

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon salt & pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

Dash of smoked paprika, to top

Whirl the garlic clove around the food processor until it's in smithereens {aka all chopped up}.  Then add in the rest of the ingredients and mix until all combined and smooth.  Add more water or lime juice if you want a thinner consistency.  Serve with a dash of smoked paprika and a squirt of lime.     

And happy weekending!