Fresh 5 Minute Salsa

Posted on October 2, 2015 by Georgina

Fresh 5 Minute Salsa

ohhh helllooo my fraaands.

Did anyone else have tomato overload at the end of the season? Like I ate cherry tomatoes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for about 2 weeks straight. I loved it, but just explaining the depth of my tomato haul.

After eating so many that I get a belly ache, canning and freezing…one of my favorite things to do is make SALSA!

My hubs and I eat ungodly amounts of salsa. Seriously I put it on eggs, rice, chips (duh) and way too many other things.

This salsa recipe is one of the easiest things a person can make. Cooking skill required on a scale from 1-10…

I only say that because you need to be able to identify ingredients, other than that….easiest. thing. ever.

You need to try this out. Even if you don’t have your own tomatoes or aren’t drowning in any you need to try it.

It’s so good.

Like you know when you go to Mexican restaurants and they give you the house chips and salsa and you eat your body weight in them and then your meal comes and you can’t even look at it?

oh what? Don’t lie…you do it too.

Well this salsa is that good. So I’ll stop talking now and lets get to the good stuff!

*drooool*

Hope you enjoy! Have a wonderful, wonderful weekend!

xoxo

Roasted Veggie & Black Bean Burritos

Posted on April 11, 2014 by Georgina

Roasted Veggie & Black Bean Burritos

Heyyy-o! It’s fridayyyy friiiidaaay (you’re welcome that song is now stuck in your head). But seriously I pretty pumped that it’s the weekend! The weather is starting to look up around here (high of 66 today!) and I am visiting a old roomie from my college days tonight. Life is good.

I was browsing through my dashboard (basically like the settings portal of my blog) here on WordPress and saw that I didn’t ever publish this recipe! I made a quite a while ago and it was deeelcious but must have spaced on the publishing part.

This would also work great as a gluten free option to just make the “stuffing” part of the burrito and put it over rice or or quinoa or any grain you want etc…

Hope you enjoy this tasty meal and also the helpful burrito rolling tip below 🙂

INGREDIENTS:
2 whole Sweet Potatoes, peeled And cubed small
2 whole Jalapenos diced
1 whole Red Pepper, diced
1 whole Red Onion, diced
2 teaspoons Olive Oil
1 teaspoon Cumin
1 teaspoon Chili Powder
1 pinch Salt And Pepper
2 cups cooked Black Beans (or 1 15 oz can rinsed and drained)
½ cups Fresh Cilantro, chopped
2 teaspoons Fresh Lime Juice
1 cup Shredded Cheddar
1 package Burrito-Sized Wheat Tortillas Or Wraps (6-10 Count) but really any tortilla will work.

INSTRUCTIONS:
In a bowl, toss your raw veggies in olive oil and season with spices. Place in a large baking dish and roast in 425 degree oven for 20 minutes, tossing around halfway through.

Let cool. Add your roasted veggies to a cans worth of rinsed black beans. Add cilantro and squirt of fresh lime juice. Combine gently. At this point, mixture can be stored for later use if want to make this part ahead of time.

Warm your tortillas of choice in microwave for about 30 seconds (so they are easier to handle and roll). Spray a casserole dish with nonstick spray or olive oil spray.
Add few heaping spoonfuls of vegetable and bean mixture to center of wrap. Top with shredded cheese. Fold in sides, and then roll up to complete(see pic below).Place in pan and continue to roll the others. Place into your baking dish, seam side down so that they stay together.
Bake in 375 degree oven for about 15 minutes or until golden brown. Baking this way will make the tortilla wrap crisp. It’s up to you if you want to sprinkle with cheese or not, I just thought it would look a little ‘prettier’.

** Tip: Premake your burritos and wrap them in aluminum foil. Keep in refrigerator for 3-4 days for a quick lunch or dinner!

Burrito Rolling 101:

This is how my mom taught us to roll up our tortillas. I have been doing it this way since before I can remember. It blows my mind to see people do it any other way. I mean your “stuffing” is falling out all over the place and you, more likely than not, end up with food all over you! All I do is fold in the sides of the burrito like the the top left picture and then roll up(tucking in the ‘insides’ while you go) to complete it! Super simple and it all stays inside.

Hope you guys enjoy this one. It is a healthy, filling, tasty dinner!

xoxo

Holy Guacamole

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Georgina

Holy Guacamole !

I’ve been told to quit my day job and become a professional guacamole maker….. not kidding. I have this dowwwwwn and could definitely sit by myself and eat an unhealthy amount of this goodness. Just look at it.

“I can’t heeeeellllpp it. It’s sooooo beeeauuutiful”. – and name that movie 🙂

I mean real talk- I’ll eat that all. Kidding I wont. I would if it was socially acceptable and I was able to get my mind to forget how many calories that contains….but I could probably make a good dent in it.

Lets get up close and personal with this stuff.

Ahhhhhh feed me.

Ok so I know you guys totally want some of this. Here is my top secret recipe revealed to you! (you lucky readers you)

I pretty much shoot from the hip with this and of course it depends how much of this you’re making and how many mouths you want to feed. I’ll show you my typical ratio I use for a group of people and keep in mind you can par this down or bumb it up depending on your crowd (or how hungry you are 😉 )

Ingredients:

3 Avocados
¼ cup diced red onion
½ cup diced tomatoes
¼ cup chopped cilantro
½ jalapeno, chopped
Juice of half a lime
1 tsp. ground Cumin
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
½ tsp. Chipotle Pepper Powder
½ tsp. Red Pepper Flakes
½ tsp. Salt

Directions:

Peel and cut your avocados into smallish cubes. Use a fork or potato masher to gently mash up the avocados. I don’t mash all the way up because I like some chunks in mine, but that’s up to you.
Juice your 1/2 lime into the avocados and stir to evenly mix.
Dice your onions, tomatoes, jalapeno and cilantro and gently mix in as well.
Then sprinkle your spices into the mix and stir to combine.
Chill and serve! Chilling isn’t necessary but know you can make this ahead of time.

But WAIT?!?!? What about how avocados turn brown and look like something that comes from….well never mind you get the idea- not super appealing. No problem-o, I have toooooootally found the solution to this.

First of all the fact that you just put the juice of half a lime into your guac will really help keep the browning to a minimum. But truth be told even then you can sometimes get the dreaded icky brown. Here’s what you do. If you’re serving it right away, don’t worry. This baby won’t stick around long enough to even begin to brown. If you are making ahead of time and planning on serving later, all you do it follow all the steps above and put into a container. This can be your serving bowl or just a storage bowl. Then you take some plastic wrap and lightly press down and make sure it’s touching the entire surface of the guac(*don’t worry it won’t stick when you take it off*) then pop in the fridge and try not to sneak any of it while you wait! And I swear to you it could last 5 days and it would hardly brown! Not joking.

Thanks for stopping by and by the way, notice how my pictures are umm, how do I say, not taken with my iPhone? I am taking initiative to step up my food photography game, which isn’t to say some drafts I have started already and publish at a later date won’t have the sub-par quality 😉 Inspired by Lindsay over at Pinch of Yum. She is my little mini hero breathing new life into my blog pics! And not to mention I think I’ve noticed about 1/3 of my posts are recipes from her site! If you haven’t looked at her blog- ummmm you need to. ASAP. Like why are you still reading my blog? GO! 🙂 Kidding stay as long as you’d like ❤

xoxoxo

Oven Baked Fajitas

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Georgina

Oven Baked Fajitas

This is one of my favorite fast and easy go-to recipes. You can throw it all together (even ahead of time if you want) and just let it do it’s thing! I’ve made this a few times when we had company coming to visit for Friday night as I don’t really feel like slaving away after a day of work and want to hang with the guests too! 🙂 My only adjustment to this was that the first time I made it added the whole can of Rotel without draining at all and it was reallllly juicy so now I try to drain the tomatoes/chilies as much as possible. I’ll usually accompany this with my special homemade guacamole (to.die.for) and chips and just tortillas for the fajitas. Jake likes a little cheese on his, I don’t- so just pick whatever you want! Hope you enjoy!!!

This is a separate time making this. But just proving you can use any ingredients you have on hand!

Ingredients:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into strips
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
½ tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp salt
1 (15 oz) can diced tomatoes with green chilies (Drained as much as possible)
1 medium onion, sliced
2 large bell peppers, seeded and sliced (I use any color I feel like/have. Sometimes I even use those fun little colored peppers too!)
flour tortillas
Toppings such as cheese, sour cream, cilantro and guacamole – if you want

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place chicken strips in a greased 13×9 baking dish.
In a small bowl combine the oil, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, dried oregano, and salt
Drizzle the spice mixture over the chicken and stir to coat.
Next add the tomatoes, peppers, and onions to the dish and stir to combine.
Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are tender. Serve on tortillas with desired toppings.

See ?!?!? Easssssy Peassssy

xoxo

Easy Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Georgina

Easy Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

Hi All!!

With Thanksgiving coming up soon you will probably have a little extra turkey hanging out in your fridge 🙂 I love finding fun things to do with leftovers because we always seem to have so many each year. Last year we (my mom and I) made a turkey and pumpkin soup and it was delicious!!! Of course there is nothing wrong with cold turkey sandwiches also(personal fav). This recipe is very simple and takes almost no time at all to whip up, which is nice after slaving away for Thanksgiving. It’s also sort of refreshing that it’s a totally different taste combination than all of the traditional flavors we all will have just had! Hope you enjoy!!!

Ingredients

1 can (19 oz) mild enchilada sauce
4 cups shredded chicken(or leftover turkey)
1 bag (8 oz) shredded Mexican cheese blend
2/3 cup Neufchatel cheese (or 1/3-less-fat-cream cheese)
10-15 small flour tortillas
Sliced fresh jalapeño peppers, fresh cilantro leaves and diced fresh tomato for garnish (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Coat one 4-quart or two 2-quart baking dishes with nonstick cooking spray. If using 1 dish, spread 1/3 cup of the enchilada sauce in bottom. If using 2 dishes, spread half of the 1/3 cup of the enchilada sauce in bottom of each dish.

2. In a bowl, combine chicken, 1 cup of the shredded cheese and 3/4 cup of the enchilada sauce.

3. Spread about 2 tsp of Neufchatel on a tortilla. Spoon 2 to 3 tbsp chicken mixture in a strip in center of tortilla. Roll up tightly to enclose filling; transfer to prepared dish(es). Repeat with remaining tortillas, cream cheese and chicken mixture to yield 16 enchiladas. I used toothpicks to secure each tortilla so that they stayed closed.

4. Pour remaining sauce over enchiladas, dividing evenly between dishes(if using two). Top with remaining cheese. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Increase temperature to 400 degrees and bake an additional 5 minutes, until cheese begins to brown slightly. Garnish with whatever toppings you like: jalapeño slices, avocado, and cilantro. Enjoy!!!!