Baked Corn Chips

These are so much healthier than the store-bought fried corn chips.  Also, you can custom flavor them!  They are quick and easy.

Take corn tortillas, brush with water, lemon or lime juice.  Sprinkle with salt or other desired seasoning. 

 

Cut tortillas into 6ths or 8ths.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.  Cool and enjoy.

Black Bean Dip

This is one of my favorite recipes from The Feast of Santa Fe.

Black Bean Dip

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 tsp cayenne (optional - we omit this)
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin

Put all ingredients into food processor and process until smooth, leaving a little texture if desired.  Top with salsa and chopped cilantro.  Serve in quesadillas, burritos, tacos, or with chips. 

Black beans are an excellent source of many nutrients including protein, fiber, folate, iron, magnesium, potassium, and more.

Mango Salsa

Mango Salsa

2 mangos, peeled and cut off seed
1/2 red onion
1 anaheim pepper
1 lime, juiced

Place ingredients in a food processor and process until coarsely chopped.  Serve with crackers, chips, rice and beans, or on Hawaiian Chickpea Teriyaki from Happy Herbivore.

This freezes well for future use.  Enjoy!

French Lentil Taco Filling

Over the last few weeks we've been making several of our favorite ground meat recipes (sloppy joes, taco filling, bbq) with a combination of green lentils and quinoa. Then we discovered French Lentils. They are smaller than green lentils and have more of a ground meat look. Perfect! Here's how we used them to make a taco filling this week. In the picture is a soft taco tortilla with brown rice (cooked with Sazon Goya con Azafran), French lentil taco filling, and roasted corn salsa (will post recipe in the summer).  Yum! 

French Lentil Taco Filling
In a large pot, saute until translucent:
1 lg onion
5 garlic cloves (minced)

Add:
1 lb French Lentils
4 cups water
2 Tbsp chili powder
2 Tbsp cumin
3 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp salt
~20 grinds of black pepper

Simmer 45 min or until water is absorbed.

Pinto Beans

We go through a lot of Pintos Beans around here.  We do pintos with rice and cheese, burritos, tacos, refried beans, or, like tonight, Mexican Pizza.  As I have written before, we cook our own pintos from dried beans.  The recipe I use is from The Feast of Santa Fe.  They have a lot of flavor and make excellent refried beans just by mashing them (so much better than canned refried beans).  As usual, I make 2 pounds of dried beans in my crockpot.  I use them for a meal and then freeze 3 containers of 3 cups each.


Pinto Beans

1 lb dried Pinto Beans, soaked all day or overnight in 8 cups of water

Drain and rinse beans (save water and pour it over your garden to save water!).

Put beans in crockpot and cover with water to about 2 inches above the beans.
Add:
1 small onion, chopped
2-3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp whole cumin seed
1/2 tsp cracked pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt (I use Kosher)

Cook on low for 18-20 hrs or on high all day.

Taco Style Lentils and Rice

This recipe is from my friend Laura. We tried it for the first time this week and it was a huge hit! I hope you enjoy it as well. Thanks Laura!

Taco Style Lentils and Rice

3/4 c. dry lentils
3/4 c. brown rice
4 broth
2 t. chili powder
1/2 t. cumin
1 t. onion powder
1.4 t. garlic powder

Bring water to a boil and then add all. Bring back to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer with lid on for 45-50 minutes. Fill tortillas with lentil rice mixture and top with sour cream, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, etc.

Notes:
1. You can add a can of diced tomatoes
2. This would be good with a little "kick"--like a dash of cayenne. It's up to you! Without it, it is more kid-friendly.
3. I used homemade bison broth instead of water and bouillon cubes.
4. I used 1/4 of a large onion and a clove of garlic, chopped instead of the onion and garlic powders
5. We blended this with an immersion blender for a refried bean-like texture.

Adaptable Red Chili Sauce with Tomatoes

This is a very basic, versatile recipe from The Feast of Sante Fe.  We use this to cook chicken and pork.  We also dilute with 3/4-1 cup water and use it as an enchilada sauce.  It's a favorite at our house and I hope it is for you too.

Adaptable Red Chili Sauce with Tomatoes
2 pounds canned whole tomatoes, drained, or 2 cups canned crushed tomatoes packed in tomato sauce
1 clove garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
4 Tbsp powdered red chili
1/2 small onion, peeled and cut into rough chunks
1/2-1 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp oregano
salt and black pepper to taste

Place all the ingredients into a blender or food processor and process until smooth.  Transfer to a saucepan, bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring once or twice to prevent scorching, and cover the pan.  Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.  Use as a marinade, to moisten fillings, or dilute to use for enchiladas.

Personal note:  we didn't add the cayenne when we prepared this in our group.  Even the 1/2 tsp cayenne can make it quite spicy.  Use to taste.

Refried Beans

I'm currently reading In Defense of Food:  An Eater's Mainfesto by Michael Pollan, in which he states "Eat Food.  Not Too Much.  Mostly Plants."  It is the third book of his that I have started to read.  My problem is that I have been so busy lately that I get about 30 pages into one of his books and then I have to return it to the library.  I can't renew it because there's a wait list for it.  So far I'm doing much better with this one as I'm on page 69.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm dangerously close to just ordering them from Amazon so that I can read them at a pace that I have time for.
Michael Pollan is a Professor of Journalism at Berkeley and has written several books about food.  His books are easy to read and full of interesting information.  I recently read that someone took a class that included one of Mr. Pollan's books on the reading list and it was the most entertaining book they had to read that semester.
Anyway, we hear all the time how we need to eat more whole grains, fruits and vegetables.  Actually, Mr. Pollan would point out that we tend to translate this into the idea of eating more.  What we really need to do is replace some of the non-whole grains, fruits, and vegetables in our diets with whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, thereby changing the ratio of the types of foods we eat.  This has me finally (again) trying to accomplish this feat.  Therefore, tonight's dinner was burritos made with homemade refried beans and brown rice.  As you sit there potentially thinking I have too much time on my hands if I'm making homemade refried beans, I am going to show you how simple it actually is and the taste is SO much better than what you'll get from a can.  I found this recipe in Huntly Dent's The Feast of Santa Fe.  I love this cookbook!  It not only has wonderful, authentic Southwestern recipes, but he does a lot of teaching about the hows and whys of cooking Southwestern-style foods (a major ingredient in an awesome cookbook - pun intended).
Refried Beans in Butter
3 cups cooked black kidney, or pinto beans, plus cooking liquid (a 27-ounce can, approximately)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Wedges of lime for garnish
Drain the cooked beans and reserve the liquid.  Combine the onion, garlic, butter and seasonings in a 10-inch skillet, stir over medium heat, and cover to allow the onion to wilt, about 5 minutes over low heat.  Uncover, turn heat up to medium, and add the beans.  Using a large slotted spoon, roughly mash the beans as you are heating them.  but not to the point that the beans lose all their shape.  Thin out of necessary with some of the reserved liquid.  Serve garnished with wedges of lime to squeeze on as the guests are served.
If you don't want to mash the beans yourself, you can also put half at a time into a food processor and pulse to the desired consistency.
Personal Notes:

1. I have used canned black beans or pinto beans as well as dried beans that I soaked and cooked myself (the crockpot is wonderful for this).
2. The amount of cayenne listed makes for quite the spicy dish.  I use about 1/4 of what is called for (i.e. 1/8 tsp)

Coming soon:
A series on potatoes (requested by my sister, who I'm sure is through her bag of potatoes by now - sorry!)
Treats for our K9 family members

Taco Soup

Tonight I spoke with a wonderful group of women about Budget and Power Cooking.  This has put me in the mood for sharing something that is budget friendly and easy to double or even triple so that you can freeze extra for future use.  This Taco Soup recipe is quick, easy, and delicious.  Our friend Judy served it for dinner one night and I had to ask for the recipe.  I believe she found it through Weight Watchers.  While it does not call for any meat, feel free to add ground meat or precooked chopped chicken.
 Taco Soup

3 cans beans, drained
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 can corn, canned, undrained
1 cup water
1 package ranch-style dressing mix
1 package taco seasoning mix

Put ingredients into pot on stove.  Simmer about 20 minutes.
Top with shredded cheese, if desired.
Personal Note:  I also rinse my beans.  This is a great way to reduce your sodium intake.