I had some friends over last night and we had a big Mexican feast! It was soooo yummy! I didn't get a picture of it, but it wouldn't have done it justice anyway. With some help from Michael, it took us a little over an hour. Worth the effort though. Worth. The. Effort. :)
Serves 6-8
The Menu
Seasoned mixed vegetables with pinto beans (recipe below)
Refried black beans
Spring mix greens
Spicy rice (recipe below)
Guacamole (recipe below)
Citris Sour Cream (recipe below)
Chopped tomatoes
Chopped cilantro
Salsa
Blue Corn hard taco shells
Whole wheat soft taco shells
Spicy brown rice (start this first):
Recipe courtesy of Michael!
Ingredients
1 cup rice
2 cups water or vegetable broth
3 Tbsp hot sauce
Directions
Add water, rice and hot sauce to pot. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low and simmer for 35-40 minutes.
When cooked, uncover and fluff with fork. Add more hot sauce and salt if desired. Leave half covered with lid to keep warm.
Seasoned mixed vegetables with pinto beans:
Ingredients
1 white onion
3 portobello mushrooms, diced (make sure to scoop out the brown stuff on the bottom)
2 red (or color of your choice) bell peppers
4 cloves garlic
3 zucchini, quartered and sliced
2 white zucchini, quartered and sliced (if you can't find this just use one more regular zucchini)
1 cup frozen corn
2 cans pinto beans
1 packet taco seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
1. Heat a large pan to medium high heat. Add 2 Tbsp olive oil. *Never let your pan smoke with olive oil in it - the olive oil becomes carcinogenic.
2. Add onion and a couple dashes of salt and cook until almost transparent. Add mushrooms and cook 3-4 minutes or until most of the mushroom juice has evaporated. Add red bell pepper and cook about 3 minutes. Add garlic, zucchini, pinto beans, corn, and taco seasoning. Mix until taco seasoning is well incorporated. Cook on medium heat until zucchini is almost transparent. When zucchini becomes completely transparent it's a little overcooked. Salt and pepper to taste.
*The order in which you put the vegetables in the pan is important here so they don't get over cooked. Onions are first because they add a ton of flavor to the other vegetables as they cook. Mushrooms take the longest, followed by the peppers, etc... I always add garlic toward the end because I don't like my garlic overcooked and I think it's more flavorful when not overcooked.
Refried Black Beans:
Open the can, put beans in a small pot on medium low heat, add a couple tablespoons of water, mix well, cover and cook for 7-10 minutes until warm.
Guacamole:
Ingredients
5 ripe avocados, pitted, peeled and roughly chopped (save one avocado pit)
1 large tomato, diced
1⁄2 cup finely chopped cilantro
juice of 1⁄2 lime
1⁄4 red onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic (sautéed or raw - I prefer sautéed)
1⁄2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely finely diced (don't touch your eyes after you cut it!!!)
salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Mash avocado with a fork until desired consistency (I prefer chunky). Add tomato, cilantro, lime juice, onion, garlic, jalapeno, salt and pepper.
The best part about making guac is that you have to taste it the whole way through the process - I'm always tweaking the amount of different ingredients based on who I'm serving. Less garlic, onion and cilantro if I have picky eaters, more if I have hard-core guac lovers (like my sister-in-law who is my #1 guac fan...thanks Suz!) - and tons of everything if it's just me :) This recipe is also really good if you eliminate the garlic and onion for a more mellow guacamole.
*warning! Add lime juice slowly. Too much lime juice will make it too soupy.
*tip! When adding guacamole to your serving bowl, save an avocado pit and put it in the bottom of the bowl. This will keep the guacamole greener, longer!
Citrus Sour Cream
Mix about 1⁄2 cup sour cream with 1 tsp lime juice and a couple dashes of ground white pepper
Enjoy your feast!
Besides the whole wheat tortillas, this is gluten free!!
