Pico de Gallo

tomatoes (depends on size)  I use 2-3 large tomatoes

onion (1/2 - 1 whole)

Serrano pepper (remove seeds and add to taste) I use 1/2 to 1

cilantro (desire amt)

salt

fresh lemons

avocados

Cut up tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and serrano pepper (peppers vary in hotness- add to taste) Squeeze lemon from frest lemons (1-2) . Pour salt on mixture to taste (can use quite a bit).  Add 1-2 avocados.  Adjust everything on the amount of pico you desire

Sweet Potato Black Bean Burritos... yet another. :)

I changed up the original recipe a bit.  It makes a lot.  Ben and I ate this for 5 days straight, but it was so good we didn't mind.  :)  

INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2-3/4 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 cans black beans, drained 
a little water to thin out the beans if needed
1 tablespoon chili powder (or to taste) 
2 teaspoons ground cumin (or to taste)

4 teaspoons prepared mustard (dijon was good)
1 pinch cayenne pepper, or to taste
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 large sweet potatoes, cooked and mashed (I chopped and boiled mine)
corn tortillas (because I served them as tacos with melted cheese, but you could use flour tortillas and make burritos if you like)
shredded cheddar cheese
taco condiments: cilantro, guac, avocado, salsa, sour cream, tomatoes

DIRECTIONS:

1. Heat oil in a medium skillet, and saute onion and garlic until soft.  Stir in the chili powder, cumin and cook a minute or two.  Stir in beans, and mash (leaving some whole). Gradually stir in water, if needed, and heat until warm. Remove from heat and add mustard, cayenne pepper and soy sauce.
   
2. Mix the bean mixture with the mashed sweet potato (the original recipe leaves them separate, but this worked great).  
   
3. Melt cheese on tortillas on stove, fill with mixture and serve with your favorite toppings.
   
   

Crock Pot Refried Beans

In.Credible. Never buy canned refried beans again. Never. Promise? So cheap and so good. I want to make Mexican food just so I can make these as a side dish. This makes quite a bit, but you can freeze the beans in smaller portions (I have). And there is nothing "fried" here ... but there is butter :)

3 C dry pinto beans
5 chicken bouillon cubes
1 TB garlic salt
1/2 medium sweet onion**
1/2 C (1 stick) butter

This is for a large 5 qt+ crock pot.

First, lay the beans out on a cookie sheet. Pick through to make sure there aren't any funky beans in there. Then rinse the beans.

Put beans in a crock pot and fill with at least 8 cups of water. You'll need to check the water level periodically to make sure the beans stay covered (although a few will start floating near the end).

Add bouillon cubes and garlic salt. You can either chop up the onion into big chunks, or leave it just one big chunk. I've done it both ways.

Cook on high for 4 hours (again, depends on your crock pot, beans need to be soft).

Strain beans, but keep the liquid! You'll want to save at least 1 Cup of "bean liquid".

Add 1/2 cup butter, and 1/2 cup of bean liquid. Use an immersion blender (or do this in batches) to blend the beans/butter/liquid. Gradually add more liquid until the beans are your desired consistency. I usually add 1 cup, maybe a little more. You don't want them too stiff, since they set up.

**If you leave the onion as a big chunk, you can just take all/most of the onion out before you blend. When I've cut it into chunks, I take out some, and blend the rest with the beans. I liked it both ways.

Lime Fish Tacos

It's the dead of winter and I really needed a summer-food pick-me-up. These fish tacos are crazy easy to whip up and just right to get you through another cold and dreary day. Ahhh, summer.

1 lb. fish (orange roughy, tilapia, whatever) cut into 1" chunks
1 garlic clove finely diced
7 teaspoons fresh lime juice
2 TB butter
1/4 tsp pepper
2 TB sour cream
2 TB mayonaise
dash hot sauce
small corn (or flour) tortillas
shredded cabbage
good salsa

Melt butter in a skillet. Add 5 tsp lime juice. Saute garlic in butter and lime juice for ~30 seconds. Add fish and pepper and cook on medium heat until flakes with a fork (flip half-way through).

Combine mayo, sour cream, 2 tsp lime juice, dash hot sauce. Stir well.

Heat up tortillas in the microwave (corn tortillas need longer than flour to get soft).

Top tortilla with fish, shredded cabbage, white sauce, and a little salsa.

I can get easily get these on the table in 20 minutes, 15 minutes if I'm really efficient.

Charlies Roasted Corn Salsa

I've been making this all summer because I'm WILD about every ingredient. It's one of those dishes that is always a hit at a BBQ and there's millions of compliments! As expected from Charlie Crump... He's a good cook.

1 (16 oz) Bag Frozen Corn
6-8 Roma Tomatoes
1 Small Onion, Diced
1 can (15 oz) Black Beans, rinsed
1 clove of Garlic, minced
3 Avocados, diced
Juice of 3 Limes
1/4 c Fresh Cilantro, chopped
1/4 c Olive Oil
1 tsp. Cumin
1 Tbsp. Red Wine Vinegar
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:
Thaw corn on cookie sheet and broil until it begins to brown. Saute onions. Mix all ingredients with corn and let the favors blend for several hours.

Serve with Tortilla Chips.

baked creamy chicken taquitos

I made this recipe from Our Best Bites for dinner tonight ...

Delicious!  B-boy and I both thoroughly enjoyed. I'm putting this one in the repeat-offenders rotation, for sure.

We just ate them with fresh salsa and sour cream. I used neufchatel cheese (1/3 less fat cream cheese) and it worked fantastically. I'm also quite sure you could play around with the ingredients to your taste. Ours were a little spicy because we're spicy people. :)

To make the chicken, I just browned & poached a few (2?) breasts for shredding.

I used fajita-sized flour tortillas (because I think corn tortillas are nasty).

It made 12 taquitos, although you could certainly get away with adding less stuffing to create more than 12 (but I doubt more than 15-16).

Get to work on this one.