If you follow me on Twitter, you might have noticed that I was tweeting like a crazy woman last Thursday and Friday. I attended Big Omaha, a conference for entrepreneurs and startups. I actually volunteered for my first Big Omaha two years ago, and that experience really got me thinking more about entrepreneurs and their health. Why? Because the amount of candy, soda, and alcohol that was consumed over the course of 3 days could have probably driven a small nation to diabetes. I had envisioned the tubs of red bull being replaced by gallons of insulin at Big Omaha 2050.
But this year was a little different.
I was really surprised to see several healthy options at breakfast, snack time, and there were even healthy beverage choices. Instead of a bacon bar and chocolate fountain, my breakfast consisted of fruit and skim milk. Keep in mind that I’ve attended a gazillion food & nutrition conferences, but I can honestly say that Big Omaha 6 served the healthiest breakfast and snack options that I’ve seen at a conference. One of the snack breaks included a line up of fresh vegetables with different kinds of hummus. Amazing. That is why this white bean & basil hummus is Big Omaha inspired.
I was also shocked to hear so many respected entrepreneurs preach about the importance of health and wellness from the entrepreneurial pulpit. I would definitely say that health, nutrition, and fitness was the theme throughout the conference. In fact, Evan Williams (you know, the dude that founded Blogger and Twitter) said that he wish he had more balance early on, because it would have made him a more effective entrepreneur. There were a couple of other talks specifically related to nutrition and our food system that I could probably write long narratives about, but I’ll spare you for now. But I am so thrilled that the message I’ve been preaching to my husband, his business partner, and anybody else who will listen is finally starting to catch on. Because seriously…how do you expect to take care of your business when you don’t have the energy or life balance to care for yourself? How can you be creative when you don’t give your brain the nutrients it needs?
One way that you can take care of yourself and feed your creativity is to learn how to make healthier meals and snacks at home and at work. This is a recipe that is not time intensive, it’s easy to make, healthy, and tastes delicious. The great thing about hummus is that you can store many of the ingredients and mix up a batch when you’re ready to serve.
P.S.- Research has shown that the ability to prepare hummus can make you quite popular among your hipster, skinny jean wearing friends.
Traditional hummus is made with garbanzo beans aka chickpeas, but I decided to use reduced sodium white northern beans for this recipe. Traditional hummus also calls for Tahini sauce. Don’t panic! Tahini sauce is basically sesame seed butter. The two main grocery stores in my area (HyVee & Super Saver) both carry Tahini sauce. You’ll find it in the ethnic section in these two stores, near the asian sauce selections.
