Recipe: Homemade Salsa

I first have to apologize that it has been a really long time since I have posted.  This time of year just keeps me busier with other things than working on my computer, but I hope to be better about updating new posts!  As it gets warmer out, it makes me crave salsa more.  I like making my own salsa at home but don't always have fresh tomatoes on hand.  I don't think they always look that great at the grocery either, so when they don't, I just buy some canned diced tomatoes.  This recipe uses that plus some other fresh ingredients.  This is a go-to salsa that I will just make to have on hand at home for a snack or to serve with chicken or fish tacos:

Ingredients:
1 can of petite diced tomatoes with green chiles (any diced tomatoes would work, but I like the chiles)
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can of corn drained (you could use frozen if you have it)
1/2 green pepper chopped
1/2 red onion chopped
1-2 jalapenos chopped (add more if you like spicier)
1-2 tbsp. cilantro
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
Juice from one lime
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. chili powder

All you have to do is throw all these ingredients in a bowl, mix and serve! I like it better after it has chilled for awhile and all the ingredients have settled together.

So, this is a really easy and tasty salsa and it also makes a lot!

~Kate

Recipe: Vegetable Soup with a Kick

Soup is one of my favorite winter comfort foods to make. I'm always looking for new recipes to try. I like to keep it healthy and low-calorie so I can pack them in my lunches throughout the week. My mom has a pretty good recipe for vegetable soup but I wanted to take it up a notch and give it a spicy, Mexican kick. I have to admit, this turned out really good for something I just made up with ingredients I had on hand. I will definitely be making this again and again!

Ingredients:
1 can low sodium chicken broth (could also use vegetable or beef broth)
1/2 cup water (this can be adjusted depending on how thick vs. watery you want it to be)
1 can fire roasted tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes with green chiles (such as Rotel)
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3/4 cup carrots, chopped
3/4 cup celery, diced (I chop up the leafy parts too and put those in the pot for more flavor)
1 zucchini, chopped
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
S&P to taste
fresh cilantro, chopped

To make the soup, you'll want to start out by sauteing the carrots, celery and red pepper until softened. While those are cooking, add the tomatoes, chicken broth, cumin, chili powder and black beans to a large soup pot over medium heat. Once the veggies have softened, add them to the pot as well. In the same skillet as the other veggies, saute the zucchini for a few minutes. Zucchini doesn't need as much time as the other vegetables, so I do it separately. I added the red pepper flakes to the skillet with the zucchini as well. After a few minutes, toss those in the soup pot with the other ingredients. Season with salt and pepper to your liking and add the cilantro. I actually didn't add any salt because the tomatoes had pretty much sodium in them already.

Let it come to a boil and then turn it down to warm. I left it on warm for about an hour and a half for the flavors to meld together - stirring every so often. At the end, I added in my water because I thought it was too thick, but you may like it that way.

The fire roasted tomatoes add such a nice kick to this soup. It's super filling and very healthy - a winning combination.  :)  And feel free to play with the spices and veggies. I just used what I had on hand at the moment. Almost any veggie will work! You could make it more of an Italian soup by changing out the spices to garlic, basil, parsley and oregano and switching to a cannelini bean. They make diced tomatoes with basil and garlic in them instead of the ones with green chiles. You get the idea! Be creative...and enjoy!

~ Kris

Recipe: Burrito Bowl Minus the Rice

Okay, I have to first apologize for the name of this recipe because I really didn't know what to call it.  I was inspired by Chipotle's burrito bowls, but didn't use rice, so thought the name was the best description I could come up with!  My husband is pretty obsessed with Chipotle--he always gets the burritos though, and I don't care for those as much, so I thought I'd throw together something like the burrito bowls.

These ingredients can be altered or added to according to your liking, but I'll share what I used.  I'm not going to put measurements because that is really up to you as well:

Ingredients:
Romaine lettuce
black beans, rinsed and drained
corn (frozen, canned, or fresh)
red pepper
red onion
red wine vinegar
hot salsa
mild salsa
sour cream
chicken (I bought some pre-cooked chicken that was cilantro-lime seasoned from Trader Joe's)
mozzarella cheese

1. First I made a little corn salsa real quick of my own.  I mixed some frozen corn that I had thawed and rinsed with about half a red pepper, and about 1/4th of a red onion with some cumin, salt, and red wine vinegar.  I let that set and chill while I got the rest of the ingredients together.

2.  I chopped the Romaine thin, rinsed the black beans, and heated up some chicken in the microwave.  This chicken was great to use.  It is pre-packaged from Trader Joe's and you choose as much as you need and heat up for about a minute then slice it up.  There are a variety of flavors as well.

3. Last, just mix everything together! I layered my black beans, then corn salsa, chicken lettuce and I added a bit of hot salsa and mild salsa.  (I also got the hot salsa from Trader Joe's which was great, and the mild salsa from Kroger).  I topped it off with some cheese and sour cream, mixed it up and enjoyed!

I thought this was great!  I had plenty of left-over ingredients to make the salad again for lunch later that week.  You could add cilantro, rice, turkey, a different cheese, or any other ingredients you might have in your pantry.  You could serve it with tortilla chips if you want some crunch or even crumble some up and throw it in the bowl.  This is a great meal that is fast and easy! Enjoy!
~Kate

Recipe: Spicy Chicken Tacos

I recently went back through some of my old recipes I had stowed away.  I sometimes forget that I have a lot of recipes written down and easily accessible.  I thought of this recipe because I have been on a big Mexican food kick lately.  It's just so easy to make and is ALWAYS good :)  This recipe is made in a slow cooker which is very convenient.

Ingredients: (Serving 2)

1 large or 2 smaller boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 adobe chiles (in adobe sauce), chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup salsa
1 tbsp. chili powder
salt and pepper
taco shells

Optional Garnish:
shredded cheese
sour cream
cilantro
extra salsa

So this recipe is extremely easy.  You just throw all those ingredients in the crock pot and cook on high for 2 hours or on low for 4 hours. Mix everything together and shred the chicken.   I put more salsa and chiles in because I like it extra spicy.  You could probably add any other ingredients in if you want as well, onion, peppers, etc.  The garnish is pretty much to your liking, I used sour cream, taco sauce, hot sauce, and a bit more salsa. We used corn tortillas because we had them on hand, but you could use hard tacos or flour tortillas as well!  Enjoy and watch out, those chiles can get pretty hot!

~Kate

Recipe: Brown Rice and Black Bean Casserole

I have been looking for a good casserole dish to make because I never really make casseroles, and I thought it'd be something good to make one night and have for lunch or leftovers another night.  While browsing allrecipes.com I came across this casserole dish that sounded just up my alley.  I looked at the ingredients and was drawn to it because it is Mexican inspired, and I love almost anything with black beans.  I also found the list of ingredients easy to come by and not lengthy.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup brown rice
1 cup vegetable broth
1 tbsp. olive oil
1/3 cup diced onion
1 medium zucchini, thinly sliced
2 cooked skinless boneless chicken breast halves, chopped
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 tsp. cumin
salt to taste
ground cayenne pepper to taste
1 (15 oz) can of black beans, drained
1 (4 oz.) can of diced green chile peppers, drained
1/3 cup shredded carrots
2 cups shredded Swiss cheese

1.  Mix the rice and vegetable broth in a pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes or until rice is tender.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease a large casserole dish.
3. Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook the onion until tender.  Mix in the zucchini, chicken, and mushrooms.  Season with cumin, salt, and ground cayenne pepper.  Cook and stir until zucchini is lightly browned and chicken is heated through.

4. In a large bowl, mix the cooked rice, onion, zucchini, chicken, mushrooms, beans, chiles, carrots, and 1/2 the Swiss cheese. Transfer to the prepared casserole dish, and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

5. Cover casserole loosely with foil, bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking for another 10 minutes.

So, this sounds somewhat complicated and timely, which I will say it was not complicated at all, but it was a bit timely.  However, I think it was worth it! This turned out even better than I had expected.  All these ingredients went very well together, but I have to share some of my changes that I had made:

For one, I couldn't find zucchini at the grocery store! Seriously, I looked everyone, so I substituted red pepper instead.  I actually think this may have been a good choice.  Secondly, I prefer shredded chicken that I boil opposed to sauteeing the chicken with the veggies. I also didn't have enough Swiss, but I had some cheddar on hand, so I just tossed some of that on with the Swiss.  I used extra cayenne because I love spicy food and I also tossed a little bit of salsa I had on hand with the mixture, it appeared a bit dry to me...but I think it would have been just as good without it.  Lastly, this really does make quite a bit, so use a BIG bowl to mix everything together.  I underestimated and had to switch bowls, which is a pain to clean up.
This really came out very flavorful and yummy.  I had a couple tortilla chips with it, but I didn't need those.  I also had a little side of sour cream, but I didn't really need that either!  Of course,  I did toss a bit of hot sauce in though to spice it up even more!

Word of caution, this takes about an hour and 15 minutes or so with cook time.  I think it would be faster my second time making it, but I think it's worth a try and it would serve at least 6 people.
~Kate

Recipe: Taco Roll-Ups

A week ago, I had plans to go to the Jimmy Buffet concert with a group of friends.  We decided to meet up our friend Dan's house beforehand to get the party started off right.  Now Dan is always a great host and has everything we need, but I was feeling like making an appetizer.  For whatever reason, Jimmy Buffet music reminds me of margaritas and Mexican food, so I had the perfect appetizer in mind.  This recipe is a family favorite, particularly my sister's favorite.  I believe my mom found it somewhere a long time ago, or made it up herself, I'm not quite sure, but we have been making and eating it for years!

Ingredients:

1 package of flour tortillas
1 can of refried beans
1 8 oz. package of cream cheese, room temperature
1 package of dry taco seasoning mix
about 4-6 green onions chopped
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
1 jar of salsa

This is extremely easy to make.  First, mix refried beans, cream cheese, taco seasoning, onions, and cheese together.  I somewhat eyeball the onions and cheese, you can put as much as you like of those items in the mix.

Take out a tortilla and spoon some mix on.

Spread it on the tortilla evenly then roll it up.  Extremely easy!!

Before serving, I like to have had these chill in the refrigerator for a little bit, they are easier to slice that way.  Take them out of the fridge and slice into about a half inch pieces, place on a dish, and serve with salsa.

These were definitely a crowd pleaser, everyone seemed to enjoy them, and they are easy to take with you somewhere also!
~Kate

Review: Cancun Mexican Bar & Grill

My mom, sister, and I recently met up for lunch on a Friday afternoon.  My mom and I were both off work, and my lucky sister has a pretty flexible schedule, so we decided to go out for lunch!  My sister lives in Norwood, so we thought we'd try something close to her house.  My mom was craving Chipotle, but we wanted to go somewhere more "sit-down", so we decided to try Cancun Mexican Bar & Grill located on Montgomery Rd. near the Lateral. 

Walking in, we were immediately greeted by a very friendly and warm host who sat us in a booth.  The decor in this place was unlike any other Mexican restaurant, in a good way!  It was very vibrant and fun.  All the tables had unique artwork on them with a glass covering on top which I thought was really interesting.  The chairs had a similar motif to them as well.

While looking over the menu, our server promptly delivered some salsa and chips. I thought the salsa was a bit bland, I like to have a bit more spice in mine, but the chips were pretty good.  We ordered a side of queso (my sister's favorite) to go along, and this was a pretty standard queso.

The menu was a very typical Mexican restaurant menu in my opinion.  There was a lunch special for the day, but we had our hearts set on other items.  My sister always gets tacos, especially for lunch, but she did opt for the shrimp tacos to change up her typical order a bit.  She asked to get hard shells instead of soft, and they happily obliged.  She liked this just okay...there was hardly any shrimp in two of them and a lot in the third.  The first two tacos had mostly veggies, but she still liked them fine.

I also get tacos many a time when I go to Mexican restaurants, but I felt like getting one of my other favorites--a quesadilla (could have been because I had just watched Napoleon Dynamite??)  I ordered the fajita quesadilla which was stuffed with cheese, chicken, peppers, onion, mushrooms, and tomatoes.  This was served with lettuce, guacamole, sour cream and tomatoes.  I really liked this quesadilla.  It had plenty of chicken and vegetables.  I loved that the veggies were grilled and mixed together nicely with the melted cheese.  The tortilla was just crispy enough without getting soggy from all the filling.  I would definitely order this again.

My mom went with the "fajita" style nachos.  The portion was a big size, especially for lunch.  It was topped with similar items from my quesadilla: peppers, onion, chicken, cheese, tomatoes.  These were good as well.  I tried these and liked that the cheese had been melted on the nachos, it wasn't too runny.  I also liked that the chips didn't get soggy and it had a great amount of toppings.  My mom really liked this, there wasn't much left to share!

The prices at Cancun are very reasonable.  For all 3 entrees, queso, and 2 drinks, our total came to about $30 which I didn't think was too bad.  The service here was great as well.  Our server really went above and beyond to make sure we were pleased.  He was on top of our drinks, and even offered to get my sister a different meal when she didn't eat it all--she just wasn't that hungry :) 

I liked Cancun Mexican Bar & Grill; I'd like to back for dinner and see how their margaritas are, but if you're in the area, it's worth a try!
~Kate

Food: 3
Service: 4
Overall Experience: 3

Guest Blog: Mexican Stuffed Peppers

Thank you so much to my dear friend, Lauren for a great guest blog today!! Sounds delicious and can't wait to try it!
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As someone who lives alone, I do a LOT of cooking for one. And while it’s sometimes fun to put together a big, complicated meal, most days I’m lucky just to avoid the drive-thru on my way home from work.

Which is why I love recipes like the following for Mexican Stuffed Peppers. These peppers are easy to make, super tasty and have enough “everyday” ingredients to whip up at the last minute. Plus, the recipe makes more than enough for a single meal… in other words, the next day’s dinner is already taken care of!

Mexican Rice and Bean Stuffed Peppers (serves two)

Approximately 1 Tbl oil (I use vegetable oil)

½ an onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 bell peppers, any color (I like red or yellow – the colors just pop!)

Pinch of ground cumin and oregano

1 cup cooked rice

One-half of a can of kidney beans, drained

1 cup (4 oz.) grated Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack cheese

One small can of diced green chilies

Salsa, any kind (I used Frontera brand double-roasted tomato salsa)
In a skillet, heat oil and sauté onion and garlic until soft and onions are slightly translucent, about 5 minutes. Slide stem ends from peppers and remove seeds. Chop tops and add to skillet and sauté another 3-5 minutes.

Stir in cumin, oregano, rice, beans and chilies.

Let cool for about five minutes while preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Stuff peppers with rice mixture.

Place side by side in a shallow casserole dish. Top liberally with salsa and bake for 35-40 minutes.

NOTE: This recipe always makes PLENTY of stuffing, so just put the remainder in a Pyrex dish, top it with salsa and cook it along side the peppers. You can also parboil the peppers for five minutes prior to stuffing, which makes the peppers a little softer, but be sure to drain and cool before stuffing so you don’t burn your fingertips!

VARIATIONS: Kick up the spice factor by adding a dash or two of chili powder (or even a dash of pepper sauce, like Tobasco) with the rest of the spices. You can also make this a meat-lovers recipe by adding chorizo sausage (one link, casing removed and meat crumbled into the pan) or ground/chicken/turkey with the onion and garlic… just give it a few extra minutes to cook thoroughly and to drain the fat before adding the rest of the ingredients. If you add meat, just remember there will be a lot more stuffing and you may need an extra pepper or two.
Serve with clips and salsa, the rest of the kidney beans and chilies (heated through in the microwave and topped with a spritz of lime juice).

Review: El Toro

I have to say that I have great friends.  I am lucky enough to have friends who know just what to get me for my birthday....gift card to a restaurant.  My birthday was a couple months back, but my good freinds Zac, Kelly, and Dan gave me a gift card to El Toro restaurant in the Oakley/Hyde Park area.  I love Mexican food and had never been there before, so I was excited to be able to try something new!

El Toro is located in a shopping center on Paxton Ave. where Daybreak used to be.  I loved Daybreak and was a little disappointed when I saw it was closing, but there aren't a ton of Mexican options in this area.

My husband and I decided to go a couple weeks ago on a Thursday evening.  We arrived around 6 or so and we were immediately seated at a table.  The decor in El Toro is pretty standard for a Mexican restaurant.  Lots of colors and a bar toward the back.  We were seated in a booth by the window, which was nice, but a bit chilly.

Ross and I decided we were gonna start with a margartia.  El Toro offers FOUR different sizes: small, jumbo, grande and monster.  I was going to order the grande, but my husband talked me into the monster, we had a gift card after all, and the margaritas were a special price during happy hour.  This thing came out and I couldn't believe my eyes.  It wa HUGE.  It was seriously the biggest margarita I have ever had in my life!!  Now, as far as taste...it was just okay.  I think it was a bit to sweet for my liking.  I would have been happier with a smaller margarita with better proportion of tequila to the mix.

As most Mexican restaurants do, we were given some salsa and chips to start off with.  The chips were pretty good.  Salty and warm; however, the salsa again was just okay.  It was a bit too runny for me and didn't have much flavor and no kick to it whatsoever. 
                                

We also decided to try the queso dip, which always reminds me of my sister, she loves queso.  This queso was fine, better than the salsa.

El Toro's menu is also huge.  Ross and I took a long time deciding what to get because there were so many options.  I almost always get a quesadilla, fajitas, or tacos when I got to Mexican restaurants, so I decided to try something a bit different.  I went with a combo of a taco, enchilada, and chile poblano.

All in all, these were not that great.  The taco was fine.  I had ordered it with chicken and it was topped with lettuce and cheese.  The enchilada wasn't very good at all.  The chile poblano was the best of the three.  It was the only one that tasted like it had any flavor to it.  The other two items I had to add hot sauce or the runny salsa to.

Ross ordered some sort of burrito, as usual.  He thought his burrito was pretty good.  It came with a side of rice which he thought was pretty good as well.

We ended up not even being able to finish our margaritas because they were so big and sweet.

Our service was fine.  Pretty standard overall.  It was great that I had a gift card to El Toro but I don't know if I would go back. There are many other Mexican restaurants I like a lot better.  Prices were pretty average as well, average $6.99-$11.99 for dinner.
So, I thank my friends again for my gift card, despite mediocre food, we had a good time!
~Kate

Food: 2
Service: 3
Overall Experience: 2.5

Review: El Pueblo

Who doesn’t love Mexican food??  There seems to be more and more Mexican restaurants popping up around the area, but my go-to is El Pueblo in Blue Ash.   First of all, always check the Reach magazine.  There is almost always a coupon in there for El Pueblo that you might as well take with you.  We went up here on a recent Friday night when it was kind of warm but not warm enough to sit outside.  The restaurant was PACKED and therefore, pretty loud.  This didn’t bother us though.  We put our name in and headed to the bar.  I started with a frozen strawberry margarita and my husband got a Dos Equis Ambar. Both drinks kept us busy while we waited for the rest of our party to arrive.  While we waited, a server gladly brought us a basket of chips and salsa to snack on.

For it being a Friday evening, and for how crowded it was, we were seated pretty quickly considering we had a party of 9.  I would guess we waited no more than 20 minutes. 

The menu can be a little intimidating at first, but I would say it’s pretty similar to most Mexican restaurants I’ve been to.  I have been to El Pueblo multiple times, but I still like to try different things.  I decided on this night to go with the Quesadilla Dinner.  This is a basic quesadilla: chicken and cheese with a side of lettuce, sour cream, guacamole and tomatoes.  It was just the right size for me since I had some chips and salsa as well.  This quesadilla was pretty good, but my friend Anna got the Super Quesadilla, which I have had before, and I would say that is better.  It is a little bit bigger and has a cheese sauce on top of the quesadilla as well. 

Our other friend got the El Zacatecano. This was grilled chicken with chorizo, pineapple and melted cheese served over a flour tortillia with rice, lettuce, sour cream, tomato and cheese.  I didn’t try this, but she said it was very good.  I just never think to get dishes like this when I’m at Mexican restaurants. I always get the standards: tacos, quesadillas, fajitas, or nachos.  However, I thought this looked really good and opened my eyes to other types of food on the menu!  I may end up trying this in the future.

I couldn’t get pictures of what everyone else got, but some items that were ordered was a burrito, a chimichanga, and enchiladas. Everyone seemed pleased and full when finished with their orders. 

So, to wrap it up, here are some positives and negatives about El Pueblo:

Negatives:  It gets REALLY loud in here.  It can be hard to hear people sitting right next to you. It also gets pretty crowded; there was a wait the whole time we were there. 

Positives: The food is good and reasonably priced.  A 12oz margarita is about $4.50, domestic beers are $2.79 bottle and domestics are $3.29 a bottle.  Drafts are cheaper.   Most meals are around $10.  I don’t drink margaritas very often, but I think these are pretty good.  They have a nice patio for when it gets warm and parking is easy. 

~Kate