Garlicky Bean Enchiladas

Ingredients

  • ½ cup plus 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil (we only used 2 Tbsp.*)
  • 8 cloves garlic, thinly sliced (we minced our garlic)
  • 2 (15.5 oz. each) cans cannellini beans, drained
  • ½ cup chicken broth (used Swanson’s reduced-sodium chicken broth)
  • Salt (used kosher salt)
  • 12 (6-inch) corn tortillas
  • 2 cups store-bough salsa verde (used La Victoria Thick’N Chunky Salsa Verde Medium that we pureed**)
  • 1 ½ cups shredded pepper jack cheese

Directions

  1. Turn the oven on and set it to 375 degrees. Take a 9 x 13-inch baking dish out and spray the inside with nonstick cooking spray, leaving the baking dish off to the side for now. In a medium-sized saucepan, pour 2 tablespoons of the oil into the skillet and set the heat to medium. Once the oil’s hot, toss the garlic in and stir constantly for 2 minutes or until the garlic just starts to look golden. At this point, add the beans to the saucepan and continue stirring for one minute, stirring the broth in after that minute passes. Season with salt and start mashing the beans until they’re softened, about 7 minutes. Let the bean mixture cool a little.
  2. Take a baking sheet out and line it with paper towels.  In a small skillet, pour the remaining oil in. Once the oil’s hot, place a tortilla in the oil, cooking it for 3 seconds per side, placing it on the paper towel lined baking sheet to drain. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
  3. After the oil’s drained, place around ¼ cup of the bean filling on a tortilla, rolling it up to enclose afterwards, placing it in the prepared baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
  4. Once all the tortillas are in the baking dish, pour the salsa over them, sprinkling the cheese over the salsa afterwards. Stick the dish in the oven for 20 minutes or until the cheese has melted and the salsa is bubbling.

*We decided not to fry our tortillas in oil and instead heated them up in a dry skillet over low heat. We heated them up one at a time, and it still made them nice and pliable without worrying about excess grease and saved on cleaning time !

**Mommy has no problem with the consistency of the salsa straight out of the jar but I don’t like my salsa having any remote chunkiness so we pureed the salsa and measured out 2 cups afterwards.

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The garlic flavor in the bean filling comes through but doesn’t overwhelm the dish. The salsa adds such a wonderfully bright acidic flavor to this dish and the cheese is nice and gooey. Because the beans are the filling for this, you do feel pleasantly full after 2 enchiladas.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Swanson or La Victoria salsa.

Recipe source unknown.

Take care everybody !

Spiked Watermelon Sorbet

Ingredients

  • 5 cups watermelon puree
  • 1 (15-ounce) can coconut milk
  • 1 (14-ounce) can condensed milk
  • ½ cup rum (we used Bacardí Superior)
  • Chile fruit seasoning for serving (we forgot to use it)
  • Mint for garnish (we didn’t use it)

Directions

  1. Add the watermelon, milks and rum to a baking dish, whisking to combine. Cover the dish and place it in the freezer for 6 hours or overnight.
  2. When you’re ready to eat his, scoop your portion into a bowl and sprinkle it with the fruit seasoning afterwards. Top with mint and enjoy !
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You taste watermelon first and foremost but you can taste the coconut milk as well. The coconut milk and condensed milk gives this dessert a nice creamy texture. You taste the rum but it’s not too strong tasting.

We got this recipe from Chile Pepper magazine.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Bacardí or Chile Pepper magazine.

Take care everybody !

Maque Choux

Maque choux (pronounced mock shoe) is a damn delicious side dish from Louisiana !

Ingredients

  • 4 strips thick-sliced bacon, diced
  • ¾ cup diced red bell pepper
  • ½ cup diced onion (we used red onion)
  • ¼ cup dry sherry (we used cooking sherry)
  • 4 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (we used frozen corn kernels that we thawed)
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tsp. Tabasco sauce
  • Salt and black pepper to taste (we used kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper)
  • ½ cup thinly sliced scallions (we used green onions)

Directions

  1. Add the bacon to a large skillet, setting the heat to medium. Cook the bacon until it’s nice and crisp, pouring all but 1 tablespoon of the bacon drippings out afterwards (we decided not to drain off any drippings). Toss the bell pepper and onion in, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes or until they’re tender.
  2. Deglaze the skillet by pouring the sherry in, letting it simmer until the liquid has nearly evaporated, scraping up any bits from the bottom of the skillet while waiting for the sherry to evaporate. Now stir in the corn, cream and Tabasco, letting it simmer for 3 to 4 minutes or until it’s thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste, mix in the scallions and you’re ready to eat !
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This recipe is an old favorite of ours. We like how colorful this dish is thanks to the bell pepper, corn and green onions. We’re not sure if it’s from the Tabasco sauce or simply the black pepper but there is a little bit of heat that you get in this. The silkiness from the heavy cream is a nice contrast to the crunch of the green onions, crisp bacon and the bite of the corn. Hope this becomes a new favorite side dish for y’all as well !

Recipe source unknown.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Tabasco.

Take care everybody !

Steamed Green Beans With Lemon-Mint Dressing

Ingredients

  • 1 pound green beans, trimmed
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh mint leaves
  • 1 tablespoon minced shallots
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 1 ½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

  1. Steam the green beans for 4 minutes or until they get crisp-tender, draining them afterwards.
  2. While the green beans are steaming, take a large mixing bowl out and whisk together the mint and remaining ingredients. Once the green beans are done steaming, add them to the bowl and toss them so they get coated in the dressing.
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This is a delicious veggie side dish ! The green beans had a nice bite to them and the dressing was nice and bright tasting. You do taste the mint in this but it’s not overwhelming, it’s just a nice background flavor to the lemon juice in the dressing. This is supposed to serve 4 but it’s delicious enough that mommy and me finished it off all by ourselves !

This recipe came from Cooking Light.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Cooking Light.

Take care everybody !

Sour Cream Potato Salad

Ingredients

  • 3 lb. small russets potatoes, thinly sliced (about ¼-inch thick) (it’s hard to find “small” russet potatoes but we tried to get them as small as we could)
  • 6 thick-cut bacon slices, cooked crisp and crumbled (we used hickory thick-cut bacon)
  • ¾ cup sour cream
  • ½ cup mayonnaise
  • 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh chives
  • 1 Tbsp. white vinegar
  • 1 ½ tsp. table salt
  • 1 tsp. granulated sugar
  • ¼ tsp. garlic powder
  • 1/8 tsp. white pepper
  • 1 scallion, finely chopped

Directions

  1. Add the potato slices to a Dutch oven, pouring in enough cold water to cover the slices afterwards. Set the heat to medium-high and wait for the water to come to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes or until the potato slices are tender. Drain the water and add the potatoes to a large mixing bowl, letting them cool down. Add the crumbled bacon to the bowl, mixing it gently with the potatoes (to try and avoid breaking up the potato slices).
  2. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the remaining ten ingredients until combined. Pour the sour cream mixture over the potato slices, stirring gently until the bacon and potato slices are completely coated.
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This is our new favorite potato salad ! The dressing is delicious enough on its own that you’ll be trying to find other reasons to use it. Combine it with the bacon and potato slices though and you almost feel like you’re eating a loaded baked potato ! The crumbled bacon is a nice contrast against the tender potato and the bacon also brings a delicious smoky flavor to the dish. The potato salad was a little salty in a few bites but that’ll be easy enough to fix by reducing the salt to 1 ¼ or just 1 teaspoon of salt next time we fix this !

We got this recipe from Southern Living magazine.

We weren’t paid in any form to promote Southern Living.

Take care everybody !

Tequila-Lime Fruit Salad

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup water
  • ¼ cup lime juice
  • 3 Tbsp. tequila or additional lime juice (we used tequila)
  • 2 cups cubed fresh pineapple
  • 2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
  • 2 cups chopped peeled kiwifruit
  • 2 cups seedless red grapes, halved

Directions

  1. Add the sugar and water to a small saucepan, setting the heat to medium. Once boiling, take the saucepan off the heat, letting the syrup mixture cool completely. Once cooled, mix in the lime juice and tequila.
  2. Toss the fruit together in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle the syrup over the fruit, tossing the fruit gently afterwards so all the fruit gets covered in the syrup.
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If you want to get a buzz but feel like you’re doing something healthy at the same time, then you’re going to love this dish ! We only had a few bites and could feel a buzz forming. The syrup almost gives this dish a margarita flavor. We hope you enjoy this as much as we did !

Recipe source unknown.

Take care everybody !