Home-made Hummamole Dip

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Marianne under Recipes

Now that the good weather’s here, I’m always on the lookout for delicious and nutritious recipes for the summer months.

I’ve never been a big fan of Hummus or Guacamole, finding both chickpeas and avocado rather bland in their own ways. But combined, with a few extras thrown in – I’m loving my Hummamole, and I’m sure you will, too!

Here’s how to make it:

Home-made Hummamole Dip

Ingredients

1 large avocado (approx150g after being peeled and pitted)

1 jar of chickpeas – drained and washed (approx. 150g)

2 fat cloves of garlic – peeled and crushed

1 small red onion – peeled and chopped

½ cup fresh cilantro – chopped (you could use fresh mint leaves instead, if you prefer)

2 teaspoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 lemons – juiced

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Pinch of hot chilli powder

A few twists of black pepper

Method

Simply throw all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth. Add a little water to thin out the consistency if you prefer.

I usually cut some batons of carrots, red and green peppers, celery and red onions for dipping in, and the Hummamole will keep in the fridge for a few days.

It’s as simple as that!

Other posts you might enjoy:

Easy No-Bake Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies

Cost of living in southern Spain

CBBH Photo Challenge – Multi-coloured

East of Málaga: Old men on benches

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Marianne under Photo challenges

Sometimes they will be wearing cardigans. Often they have on their hats.

Sometimes they sit in the shade and other times in the sun (depending on the time of year).

One thing´s for sure – if there´s a bench in one of the white villages of Andalucía – there will be some old men sitting on it!

Bless ´em!

Related posts:

Travel Theme: Benches

Cost of Living: East of Málaga, Spain – April 2013

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Marianne under Axarquía, Cost of Living, Slice of Life

Edited to add: When you’ve read this article, make sure you also look at my up-to-date Cost of Living in Spain: (Málaga edition) for July 2015, now available HERE.

Whenever I travel, I´m always interested to know how much things cost and, every day, people from around the world find my blog by searching for the cost of living in Spain.

Back in August and November 2012, I posted some receipts for groceries I had bought here in southern Spain, which proved to be very popular articles.

But I wanted to do something a bit different, so I decided that rather than post the prices of random items of shopping that you may, or may not be interested in, I would come up with a list of standard grocery items, which I will update the prices of, two or three times a year. This list can easily be changed, so if there are any other basic items you would like me to include, please let me know in the comments section, below. This way, if anyone else wants to do something similar, we can have a direct comparison between countries.

To make such direct comparison simple, I have once again used the Spanish Supermarket – Mercadona in Torrox Costa.

This month’s prices are a bit of a mixed bag, with some prices remaining stable, yet others increasing or decreasing.

So, here´s the Standard Grocery List I used previously. The first prices are as they were in August 2012 – the second prices (in bold) are as they were last November, with this month’s prices in RED alongside.

Standard Grocery List

Milk (semi –skimmed UHT, own brand), 1 litre 0.54 € 0.54 € 0.53 €

Loaf (white, baguette 250g) 0.45 € 0.45 € 0.45 €

Eggs (12, own brand caged, medium) 1.35 € 1.35 € 1.35 €

Chicken breasts (1kg, boneless, skinless) 5.50 € 5.50 € 5.80 €

Apples (1kg, green, Golden Delicious) 1.35 € 1.00 € 1.65 €

Oranges (1kg) 1.39 € 0.89 € 0.79 €

Bananas (1kg) 1.25 € 1.15 € 1.35 €

Potatoes (1kg) 0.92 € 0.89 € 0.96 €

Lettuce (1 head, Iceberg) 0.85 € 0.85 € 0.85 €

Water (1.5 litre bottle) 0.45 € 0.36 € 0.42 € (for a 2 litre bottle)

Domestic Beer (1 litre bottle, Cruzcampo) 1.29 € 1.20 € 1.20 €

Fish (1kg Salmon steaks) 8.75 € 8.75 € 9.50 €

Toilet rolls (pack of 6, own brand) 1.95 € 1.95 € 1.95 €

Washing powder (Box, 35 washes, Elena brand) 5.94 € 4.87 € 4.87 €

Olive oil (1 litre, extra virgin, own brand) 3€ 2.75 € (5 litres 12.99€) 2.99 € (5 litres 13.99 €)

Coca-Cola (1.5 litre) 1.09 € 1.00 € 1.00 €

Butter (250g, own brand) 0.98 € 0.98 € 0.98 €

Sugar (1kg, white) 0.95 € 0.93 € 0.93 €

The following two items were only introduced in November’s grocery list:

Coffee (ground, 250g, Santa Cristina) 1.79 € 1.89 €

Beef mince (Store brand, pre-packed, 1kg) 5.43 € 3.80 € (for 700g)

New items added to the list:

Red Peppers (1kg, loose) 2.29 €

Green pointed “Italian” Peppers (1kg, loose) 1.99 €

Tomatoes (1kg, loose) 1.19 €

Currency Conversion from XE €1 = 1.31 USD
0.85 GBP
1.24 AUD
1.33 CAD
1.53 NZD
11.66 ZAR

Other household expenses

Gas: We don´t have mains gas here – we use bottles of butane gas. In August, a 12.5kg bottle of Butane gas cost 16.45 € – falling to 16.10 € in November. They are now 17.15 € . One bottle used to last (on average) 21 days (for two people… though around 4 weeks in summer) for all hot water, showers and cooking on a gas hob. Last September we had a new gas water heater fitted and, even though it has a larger capacity for water heating than the previous one, it appears to use significantly less gas. It´s early days yet, but the first bottle lasted five weeks (rather than three weeks). I´ll keep my eye on how that goes.

Electricity: For a 3 bedroom/2 bathroom detached house in the countryside with a swimming pool, we pay an average of 100 € per month. The cost of consumption for us is slightly lower in winter with heating/lighting, as opposed to air conditioning/lighting/swimming pool pump running for 8 hours a day, in the summer months.

Water: We are not connected to mains water, so when we bought our house part of the purchase cost was for a share in a local water company. We have a 14,000 litre water deposit in which to store our house water. Our water share gives us an allowance of up to 17,500 litres of water each week at reduced cost, though if we use more than this, the price rises steeply. Needless to say, we don´t use this amount of water, even allowing for swimming pool top-ups and garden irrigation. The water company, Patamalara, doesn´t always sent out their bills regularly and much of the cost appears to depend on the amount of repairs that have been undertaken on the system, but over the past twelve months our annual water bill has amounted to 92 €.

IBI – Council Tax: Paid yearly to the local council. Last year´s bill was 338€

Internet: 29 € per month with unlimited downloads (within reason). Speeds up to 3 Mbps

Petrol/Gasoline: In August 1 litre of 95 octane petrol was 1.49 €. In November 2012 the price had fallen to 1.40 €. The price is now 1.48 €

Vehicle excise duty: We have a Peugot 307 and pay 51 € per year.

Eating out: Glass of wine or beer, including one tapa is 1 € – 1.50 €. Menu of the day (three course meal, served at lunchtime, including bread and one glass of beer, wine or a bottle of water) 8 – 10 €

How do prices compare where you live?

You might also enjoy these articles:

Menú del Día: Great food at a budget price

Cost of Living: East of Málaga, Spain – August 2012

Cost of Living: East of Málaga, Spain – November 2012

Goats on the road: I kid you not

At the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Marianne under Axarquía, Places

The Rock of Gibraltar, one of the Pillars of Hercules in Greek mythology, has a strategic location on the Strait of Gibraltar where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean Sea, with Europe to the north and the continent of Africa to the south.

Standing at the top of the Rock of Gibraltar it’s magical to look across the entrance of the Mediterranean Sea towards Morocco in North Africa – only nine miles away!

I hope you´ve enjoyed this spectacular entrance, which is my contribution to this week´s Sunday Post.

Other posts you may be interested in:

CBBH Photo Challenge: Multi-Coloured

Venturing further afield: San Sebastián in the heart of Basque country

The Day of the Dead: A Celebration of Life

English Language Publications for FREE!

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Marianne under Axarquía, Laws and Customs

Whilst you are visiting any town or village throughout the Axarquía region, a selection of English language newspapers and magazines is available for you to collect, free of charge.

These publications, including Spanish Insight, SolTalk, Streetwise, Marketplace, Grapevine, Sentinella and Euro Weekly are useful for both tourists and residents alike. Each contains information about ‘what’s on’ in the local area as well as some well-written articles on a wide range of topics, recipes and items for sale – including properties. (You can CLICK on the links to be taken to the online versions of the publications).

Sadly, in order to make-ends-meet with their budgets, these magazines contain more advertisements and fewer articles as time goes by, but I guess that happens round the world.

You will find these free magazines in many estate agents, bars, cafes and other such popular places.

How do you like to discover what’s happening in your local area?