Concentrating over a longer period of time, e.g., gaming, requires both good physical and mental fitness. While exercising helps deliver that much-needed oxygen to your brain, healthy food choices keep your blood sugar levels balanced and supply you with vitamins and minerals to help your brain function even in the dead of night. The good news is, you don’t need to prepare a healthy meal by standing three hours in the kitchen. Whip up a dip or two and have a bunch of bite-sized vegetables such as baby carrots or cucumber pieces ready for your snacking pleasure. Here, I present you with two types of dips to amp up your vegetable experience.
Yogurt Herb Dip
You will need
One serving of Greek full-fat yogurt (low-fat makes for a less creamy version)
Frozen, dried, or fresh herbs (e.g., parsley, chives, cilantro), chopped
1 Tbs. lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste
This dip is so simple and possibly even do-able with the things you already have in stock. Just blend a serving of yogurt and whatever chopped herbs or salad dressing mix you have, and you are good to go. Mix everything, season to taste, and done! It’s that simple. If you got a Ranch dressing mix, you can use that instead of the herbs and simply omit the lemon juice.
Hummus Dip
You will need
One small can of cooked chickpeas (approx. 240 g/8 oz.)
1-3 cloves of garlic (depending on whether you are going to talk to somebody in real life for the next few days)
Approx. 4 Tbs. Tahini (sesame paste)
1 Tbs. lemon juice
3 Tbs. olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
This dip is much thicker in consistency and can also be used as a spread on flatbread (or toast, if you must – yes I am judging you right now). You can adjust how strong the sesame taste should be, but I do recommend adding at least 2 tablespoons of sesame paste to it. Unless you need a way to release that pent-up aggro due to instance crashing or hour-long queues, I recommend using a blender to mush your ingredients.
Drain the chickpeas and put in a blender. Peel the garlic and add to the chickpeas. Add as much sesame paste as you like (I usually add about 2-4 heaping teaspoons full) as well as the remaining ingredients. Blend until smooth. If it is too thick to blend, you can adjust by adding olive oil by the tablespoon. Anyway, bake the bread for about 40 to 50 minutes, until the bread crust appears dark brown. You can test doneness as well by removing the bread out of the loaf pan (careful it’s hot, so use gloves!) and gently knocking the bottom. The bread will be done if it sounds hollow. Let it cool for a few minutes before transferring the bread onto a cooling rack.
While it is super tempting to slice your bread while it is still warm, I highly recommend letting it cool down to make slicing easier. Enjoy!
