Last Week's Recipe Wrap-Up

Monday: Black bean burritos, lettuce, salsa, sour cream, and shredded cheese. I took freshly made black beans and "re-fried" them in olive oil and then seasoned them with adobo and cumin and mashed them with a potato masher.

Tuesday: Spinach egg strata, chilled pear halves. I diced two types of slightly stale bread, one a multi-grain artisan loaf and the other crusty french bread. I defrosted some spinach and layered it over the bread pieces. I put about 2 cups of cheese over the bread and spinach, I used a combination of grated mozzarella and parmesan cheese. I beat 8 eggs with 2 cups of milk, about 2 generous squirts of grainy mustard and a dash or two of tabasco sauce and poured that over all. I baked it at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes or until puffed and golden. You can make this the night before and leave it in the fridge and then bake it in the morning too.

Wednesday: Dirty Rice Mix with kielbasa sausage. I was at cheerleading camp with my daughters and hubby sauteed some onions and green peppers, added it to the dirty rice mix and then sauteed some kielbasa to go with it. Yum!

Thursday: Driving to my brother and sister-in-law's to see the world's cutest baby. We had to eat on the road. But we also received (just for showing up!) five fresh and delicious avocados from my amazing in-laws. My friend Kayla gave me a tip to try Avocado Chocolate Mousse, but only after you make guacamole, BLTA (bacon, lettuce, tomato and avocado sandwich), shrimp salad with avocado, and using the avocado to garnish spicy bowls of tortilla soup. I also had an Eggs Benedict Florentine made with slices of fresh tomato (in place of english muffins) fresh leaves of spinach and slices of avocado. YUM!!!

Friday: Football game, the kids were cheering at half time and dinner with my Mother-in-Law and Father-in-Law. They took us out to dinner where I had a pretty tasty beer cheese soup. This one had pieces of sausage in it, but the kind I make at home is vegetarian. Use a beer that you like to drink and one that you would pair naturally with any nice selection of cheeses. I make a mirepoix in the bottom of a stock pot in some butter or olive oil, then I add some flour and let it cook a bit and add a quart of veggie stock, several shakes of worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, a bit of cayenne pepper and a 12 oz beer and let it come to a boil. I reduce the heat and then add in handfuls of shredded cheeses (usually mostly cheddar cheese, but blended with monterrey jack, mozzarella, maybe colby if I have some) stirring constantly, then I finish it off with a bit of cream, but that is optional. Between you and me, my soup is waaay better than the soup I got at the restaurant.

Thanks for putting up with the paltry posting, in addition to traveling with my family this week, my husband's asthma flared up really badly and my older girl got a 48 hour fever. So it was a little bit hectic.

Last Night's Dinner: Fajitas over salad greens

I sliced some beef into thin strips, seasoned them all over with adobo and cumin and placed them in a medium hot pan, lubed with a little olive oil. You must not have meat on top of any other meat, otherwise it will not brown correctly. Then as the beef cooked I quickly sliced up some sweet yellow, red and orange peppers and one onion; all into nice thin uniform strips. I seasoned the veggies and added them to the pan. Don't stir too much, but keep an eye, when some of the peppers get a good sear going, stir them so that others get to be on the bottom too. I turned the heat up to high for the last minute or so of cooking and added 1 cup of frozen corn stirred in well. Lastly I splashed some worcestershire sauce over the whole business and then turned the heat off. I served the fajitas over dressed salad greens (I used a honey balsamic dressing on torn up hearts of romaine) and topped everything with a sprinkle of cheese. If you have thawed beef ready to go this dinner can be on your table in 20 minutes! Fast and easy and pretty darn nutritious, check out all the veggies you're eating! In fact by subbing some cooked black beans for the meat, cooking the peppers and onions first, adding the beans and corn last, you could make some incredibly good vegetarian fajitas!