Delishytown

Homemade Mexican Food 

 I love to make serious Mexican food from scratch. I live and work in Southern California, so there are Mexican restaurants all around. Most of them are awesome. The ones I don’t love as much are maybe not my favorite because their ingredients aren’t the best, like cheap corn products, or questionable meats. So sometimes I like to spend a couple hours making homemade Mexican everything from scratch. Home made Mexican food, using the best quality ingredients, is delicious and easy to do. It’s a little time consuming, but worth the flavor explosion. The Mexican grocery stores around here are cheaper than any other grocery stores, so that’s good too.

The top picture was the other dish I made to possibly submit to the cheesy Chopped competition, taquitos, stuffed with chicken and poblanos, with ancho chili cheese dipping sauce, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes and fresh guacamole. It was delicious. My Hubby and I loved every bite. I didn’t use this photo because after I made it, I saw on their inspiration page they suggest taquitos, so I changed my dish to Fried Chicken & Waffles. Thanks to anybody who voted for me. They don’t announce the winner of round 2 until June 27th. Fingers are crossed and all good luck charms in my small jeans pocket. 

The second picture is a chicken and bean tostada I made the next day because I still had a lot of ingredients. This dish has home made restaurant style salsa, avocado crema, and beans and rice. This was also amazingly delicious. Here are some of the basic components I like to make for a Mexican feast. 

For easy Guacamole: mash avocado, mince shallot, squeeze of fresh lime or lemon, chopped cilantro, chopped tomato, s & p. 

For Avocado Crema: Mix plain yogurt or Mexican crema with a few spoonfuls of the Guacamole.

For easy Salsa: Fresh tomatoes (or a can of tomatoes) in a blender, salt & pepper, 1 garlic clove, chopped cilantro, 1 seeded jalapeño or red chili flakes, lemon or lime juice. Blend until blended but still chunky. Add minced onion that you have rinsed in cold water, at the end. The rinsing is so the onion doesn’t take over.

Tomatillo Salsa: Roast hulled tomatillos in the oven, at 400, with a small onion, a jalapeño pepper, and 2 garlic cloves, for about 20 minutes. Blend the cooked ingredients with lemon or lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper. 

For Easy Taquitos: Roll your favorite cooked ingredients (chicken, potatoes, charred peppers, cheese) in a softened corn tortilla, secure with toothpicks, fry in hot oil for 3 or 4 minutes.

Easy Cheesy Ancho Sauce: 1 tbsp Butter, minced shallot, salt, pepper, 1 tbsp flour, cook until flour cooks, 1-2 min. Add 1 1/2 cups chicken stock or Milk, whisk until it thickens. Turn off heat, add 1 cup shredded cheese and 1 tsp Ancho chili powder. yum.

Easy Tostadas: Fry organic Non GMO corn tortillas in hot oil until crisp. Top with refried beans, cooked chicken seasoned with chili powder, cumin and coriander, lettuce,  tomatoes, guac or avocado cream, & salsa.

For easy Mexican Rice: Oil or butter in a pan, add chopped onions, chopped garlic, chopped jalapeño, and rice. Sauté all ingredients together until fragrant. Add chopped tomatoes, s & p, and enough liquid to cook your rice, I think it’s usually 2 c water to 1 c rice.

For easy Refried Beans: The easiest way is buy a can of low fat organic refried beans. You could doctor it up with Ancho chili powder, maybe a little garlic powder, maybe a little cumin, or just heat it up and let the rest of the stuff you made flavor the beans. The slightly harder, but still easy way, is to buy dry beans, wash them, cook in a big pot with several cups of water or chicken stock, cook for a couple or more hours, add salt and seasonings, mash. Add to a baking dish with some cooked rice, top with cheese, bake until the cheese melts. 

Garnishes for me always include shredded lettuce, chopped cilantro, chopped tomatoes, and a fresh squeeze of lemon or lime. Seriously Yum.

Quatro Queso Chicken & Waffles, with Poblano Maple Salsa

I made this dish for a contest sponsored by Chopped and the Sargento cheese co. I had to make a Mexican dish using: chicken thighs, 4 cheese Mexican blend, corn tortillas, and poblano peppers. I made this: 

Quatro Queso Chicken and Waffles with Maple Poblano Salsa, featuring 4 main components, Poblano & Cheese Corn Waffles, Corn and Panko crusted fried chicken, delicious Poblano Tomatillo, Maple salsa, and a Quatro Queso Sauce, which has a little Ancho chili powder kick. 

Please click over to Vote for me, and for instructions on how to make this dish. It’s quick to vote, takes about 2 seconds. Thank you thank you if you do!  http://www.foodnetwork.com/sponsored/sweepstakes/chopped-at-home-challenge/gallery.html?ngxItemID=149161579&r=a20849efa1263661920c221aadd8ebbb

If I win, I get to go to NYC and they’ll give me money! I can use it to pay for groceries and kitchen equipment and such. I kind of really want to win.

Cheesy Homemade Enchiladas

Happy Cinco De Mayo Tumblrs! Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of the Mexican defeat of French forces in a clash during the Battle of Puebla in Mexico, in 1862. Mexican Independence Day is September 16. I’ve learned a little bit about Mexico in the past couple years. I live and work in California, and CA used to be part of Mexico. Sometimes when I’m looking at the hillsides, I try to think back hundreds or thousands of years and imagine what it looked like back then. Some of my co-workers are from Mexico and they’re awesome. Some are from Spanish ancestry and some are Indigenous People. Mexican food is amazing, because it’s a mix of so many ingredients and cuisines, going back hundreds and thousands of years. It’s a massive essay to explore all the flavors and influences. My favorite part of the day while working on a landscape, is lunchtime. I usually get steak tacos with all the sauces, and then we sit around and tell stories, before getting back to hard ass work. 

This is a dish which I particularly crave, corn tortilla enchiladas, either stuffed with cheese, black beans, or chicken. I usually don’t get this for lunch at work, because it’s sometimes too messy to get from a carry out place. I also like to make it at home because when you go out, no matter how nice the restaurant is, chances are you aren’t getting organic corn tortillas, and you might even be getting genetically modified corn. So I just make it at home.

I made this for lunch yesterday, and I have leftover sauce so I can make more today. I think I need to make some Taquitos today too, because I have all the ingredients and I need more crunch in my diet. And just fyi, the Vallarta recently started carrying a small selection of organic produce, beans, chicken, and some other products. Yay to not living in a food desert.

I recently started trying to crack the formula of basic enchilada sauce. It’s easier and faster than I thought. Basically you’re cooking a roux, with chili powder, tomato paste and seasonings, adding stock or broth and then stir and thicken.

In a sauce pan or skillet, add 1 tablespoon butter, a drizzle of olive oil, 1 small chopped sweet onion or shallot, 3 to 7 minced garlic cloves, salt and pepper. Add 2 tsp all purpose flour, 1 tablespoon tomato paste and let it cook a bit. Add 2 teaspoons chili powder, and 1 additional tsp Ancho chili powder, 1 cup vegetable broth or chicken stock, or wine or water. I also added a spoonful of home made poblano salsa fresca that I made yesterday (optional). Simmer to thicken, blend if you want it nice and smooth. Heat the oven to 400. Roll corn tortillas around cheese, I used mozzarella, but you could use pepper jack or cheddar, or whatever you have. Pour some of the sauce in the bottom of a baking pan, add the rolled enchiladas, cover with more sauce, a little more cheese, and bake until bubbly. Yum! Serve with margaritas and beer, and a salad dressed with lime juice and olive oil.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This is delicious and so easy. I like to serve it with Nopales tortillas chips they sell on Saturdays at my farmers market. These green cactus paddle chips are yum! And the ladies who sell them always tell me how healthy they are. I love that they’ve convinced me to eat chips and salsa in order to get healthier.

I used leftover chicken on the bones to make this rich broth. I used 1 Breast and 1 leg and thigh piece. Place leftover roasted chicken in a soup pot, add water to cover along with chopped onions, carrots, celery, diced parsnips, red bell pepper, 4 peeled and smashed garlic cloves, chopped parsley, salt and pepper, 1 or 2 whole tomatoes, cored, a pinch of thyme or Italian seasoning, a small sprinkle of red pepper flakes and a big sprinkle of smoked paprika.

Simmer on low, you don’t want it to get foamy. Skim any fat that accumulates. After about 1 hour of simmering the broth is nice and rich. Remove the chicken and take the meat off the bones, chop or shred it, add the meat back to the pot. Remove the tomatoes, peel off the tomato skins, chop them up and add them back to the pot. Stir and taste for seasoning, Add salt and pepper if needed. Serve with organic corn tortilla chips (these add salt too, so season/ don’t over salt the broth, accordingly), a squeeze of fresh lemon, (our Meyer lemon tree is loaded with lemons, my favorite time of year!) chopped avocado, and grated cheese. Yum!

Huevos Rancheros with Pico de Gallo

Hi Tumblrs! I haven't been posting a lot of recipes lately because I have a job now! Yay employment! I’m a garden designer. I love my job so much. I have a crew! Having a crew is the best thing ever, especially if the thing you are designing involves large, heavy items like flagstones, big vegetable boxes and trees. 

Anyhow, today is a partial day off for me so I made Huevos Rancheros from scratch, this came out so delicious! 

In a skillet or sauce pan, saute 1 shallot and 2 or 3 garlic cloves, minced, in a little olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1 can whole peeled tomatoes and 1 or 2 dried chili Ancho peppers, (the kind you get in cellophane bags) stem and seeds removed. Simmer until the pepper softens and starts to break down, about 15 minutes. Add a sprinkle of coriander powder, a pinch of cumin, a little smoked paprika, and a bit of celery salt. Blend in a blender (Please be careful blending hot sauces. The steam will make the top of the blender want to pop off, sending hot molten flavor all over your kitchen) Or use a stick blender, again being careful of hot bubbling liquids with power appliances. Strain through a mesh strainer into a sauce pan to simmer while you make the eggs, crispy tortillas, and Pico de Gallo.

Heat oven to 350, spray organic corn tortillas with olive oil spray and set them on the oven rack to crisp up, turning once. They should crisp up in about 5 minutes, keep an eye on them.

Chop 1 small white onion and rinse in a mesh strainer under cold running water. This keeps the onion flavor from taking over the whole dish while also keeping it crisp and crunchy.*  Add 1 chopped Jalapeno pepper, 2 chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper, chopped cilantro, and the juice of 1 whole lemon. Set aside.

Cook 1 or 2 eggs in a little butter in a skillet. Don’t cook the yolks all the way, because they will continue to cook in the broiler when you melt the cheese.

Set the crisped tortillas on a plate, add the just undercooked eggs, top with a big spoonful of the velvety sauce, add some grated cheddar or your favorite cheese. Broil on high for one minute to bubble it up and melt the cheese. Serve with the fresh Pico de Gallo and a little more of the chopped cilantro. Yum!

* I learned this onion trick from Chef Rick Bayless who has several restaurants and a cooking show on PBS called “Mexico, One Plate at a Time.” This is a great show. The bonus of this show is it helps you to learn Spanish because they subtitle interviews when he’s cooking with somebody in Mexico. Most of my crew speaks Spanish and they are awesome, funny guys so I want to be able to talk to them. And tell them where to plant the trees. 

Have a great week Tumblrs! 

Smokey Black Bean and Cheddar Burritos

These burritos are so delicious. One of the things I love about making burritos from scratch, besides the delectableness, is that you end up with a lot of burritos. Leftover burritos rule! I wrap the burritos in buttered foil wrappers, and a couple of them go right in the oven. I put the rest of the unbaked burritos in the freezer. It's great to have something already made to pop in the oven when you get hungry. These are good for any meal and make delicious party food. I made 12 organic burritos for about 5 or 6 bucks. If you use small tortillas to make them for a party, you end up with about 20.

I've always soaked the beans first when I cook black beans until I read this article about how flavorful they are if you don't soak first. This is a great article about bean cooking science. I'd already been soaking the beans for about 2 hours when I found the article, so I just started cooking them. I cooked them in the soaking water, along with another couple cups of water. These were the best black beans I've ever made. If you don't care about awesome beans from scratch you can just use 2 cans of organic black beans. Here's how to make easy home made burritos.

Simmer 2 cups black beans on low in 5 -7 cups of water with a sprinkle of coriander powder and a pinch of garlic powder. Cook on low to avoid breaking apart the beans. I cooked them for 2 hours or so. Salt at the end. Salting at the beginning makes them take forever to cook. Once they're cooked, taste and add smoked paprika, coriander powder and chili powder, about 1/2 tsp of each. Season with celery salt and pepper.

For the Mexican rice: Rinse 1 cup of par-boiled rice a few times in a bowl of water to remove some of the starch. This prevents the rice from getting gummy. In a sauce pan, saute 1 small minced onion, 3 or 4 cloves of garlic in a little olive oil seasoned with celery salt and pepper. Add the rice, 1-2 tablespoons tomato paste, a sprinkle of annatto powder, (Optional, but it gives it Mexican restaurant flavor) and 2 tablespoons salsa.  Add 2 1/4 cups broth or water and salt and pepper. Cover with a tight fitting lid and simmer on low for 20 minutes or more until cooked. 

Grate 1 cup of smoked cheddar, Monterey Jack or sharp cheddar cheese.

I used tomatillo salsa from a jar to make these. You can make your own salsa from scratch, or use jarred salsa. I also love chipotle salsa in these.

On a work surface, layer 12 sheets of foil. Butter the top one. Add a large flour tortilla, top with some of the rice, some beans, some cheese and a tablespoon of salsa. Roll the bottom up, fold in the sides, then roll the rest of the way. Wrap in the foil. Continue filling the rest of the tortillas making sure to use spray or butter on the foil sheets so the burritos don't stick. Bake at 375 for 7 - 10 minutes until hot and melty. Garnish with every kind of hot sauce. Yum!

Bake only what you will eat right away. Put the rest of the unbaked burritos in the freezer in a zipper bag. They'll keep for a couple months. From frozen, they take 30 minutes to bake in the oven at 375.

Mole Chicken Enchiladas

I made this chocolatey, decadent enchilada casserole using leftover mole sauce. The mole recipe I posted last week makes a big pot of sauce. If you use it for baked chicken like I did, you only need about a cup and a half of it, so you'll have plenty leftover for another dish or two. It's great with scrambled eggs & tortillas, or over crispy tortilla chips as a chocolatey chilaquiles type dish. But this post is about using it to make enchiladas. 

I used leftover cooked chicken in my enchiladas, but you can fill your enchiladas with anything you like and nobody can stop you. You might try grilled tempeh, tofu, black or pinto beans, corn, rice, bell peppers, or any greens you might have on hand like spinach or Swiss chard. And of course you can always add some cheese. And some on top. Unless you're on a diet, then maybe don't. Or maybe tell your diet to fuck away. Cheese enchiladas are so bad for you  sincerely delicious.

It's easy to make a quick cheater version Mole using the Mole sauce they sell in a flip top jar in the Mexican food aisle. If you do it that way, just sauté some onion and garlic in a sauce pan, add the Mole paste, and then some enchilada sauce or canned tomato sauce, and maybe a little wine or chicken stock to thin it while it simmers. It will thicken back up. It's not really cheating, you're cooking, but it's way faster than doing the whole thing from scratch. The home made version is infinitely more flavorful though. But, the kind in the jar is ok if you doctor it up with fresh ingredients.

Heat oven to 375

Heat corn tortillas on both sides in a dry hot pan

Roll any cooked chicken, pork, tempeh, veggies, peppers, cheese or greens into corn tortillas. Place in a casserole dish. Cover with enchilada mole sauce, top with shredded cheese and bake. Serve with rice and green salad. 

Yum!

Chicken with Mole Poblano Sauce

This is my favorite dish! Yum, I love Mole! This home made mole sauce takes a little time to make, and the flavor is worth it. My favorite thing about this flavor profile is the combination of Ancho chilis and chocolate. Yum! This is the perfect sweetly spicy dish for this time of year when evenings are chilly. Fall always makes me crave stewed things and spices.

Here’s how I make Mole Sauce:

Heat oven to 350.

On a large cookie sheet, 2 sweet peeled and quartered onions, about 10 peeled cloves of garlic, 1 or 2 peeled and halved shallots, about 6 to 8 washed & peeled tomatillos, 1 or 2 halved tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil and roast for about 25 minutes until they start to caramelize.

On a separate cooking sheet toast a mixture of about 10 dried Ancho, California, and New Mexico chili pods with the stems removed and some of the seeds removed.

 To a dry stew pot add about 7 peppercorns, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 small whole nutmeg, a few cloves, 1/4 cup pepitas, 2 tblsp almonds & 2 tblsp peanuts. Heat the nuts and  spices on medium low heat until fragrant, about 5 to 7 minutes.   

Add all of the toasted chilies and vegetables to the stew pot along with 3 or 4 cups vegetable stock 1 tsp tamarind paste, and 1/2 cup raisins. Let the ingredients simmer down, covered, stirring occasionally, for 45 min to 1 hour. Add 1 torn up corn tortilla. 

Blend it in batches. Be careful blending hot liquids. The lid of the blender will want to pop off. I let the steam escape a little from the top and use a kitchen towel to hold the lid down. Blend on low at first. You’ll be surprised how the cinnamon stick, cloves and nutmeg blend up and disappear into the sauce. If there are still any big pieces of spices and such, you can strain the sauce through a mesh strainer at this point. 

Now add 1 tblsp oilive oil to a stew pan, add the mole sauce and bring back up to a low simmer. Add 1 wheel of Mexican Chocolate and 1/2 to 1 cup of strong cold coffee. Add more vegetable stock as needed.

Taste the sauce and balance the flavor to your liking.

Heat the oven to 350.

Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Sear on both sides in a heavy bottomed roasting pot. Once it's seared and browned, pour some of the mole on the chicken and bake for about 20 minutes or more until cooked through.

Serve over Basmati rice with corn tortillas, and garnish with slivered onions, chopped avocado, chopped tomato, chopped cilantro, sesame seeds, and crumbled queso fresco. Yum!

Red Chili Eggs

This was our delicious breakfast today. I woke up craving "Red Eggs", a dish we used to get at Wishbone in Chicago. The sauce for this Huevos Rancheros type dish was made using leftover taco ingredients, cooked grass fed beef, chopped tomatoes, cilantro and Queso Fresco. I added a soaked and blended Ancho Chili pod to the sauce, which gave it a nice deep color and an amazing taste. I highly recommend making chili paste to add to your next Mexican feast. 

For a simple chili paste: In a small bowl, soak one or two Ancho chili pods in boiling water for about 10 minutes. Remove the seeds and stem and blend in the blender with a little of the soaking water. Set aside.

In a skillet, saute 1 chopped onion in a little olive oil. Add 2 large chopped tomatoes, or a large can of tomatoes, 2 or 3 tablespoons of the Ancho chili paste (to taste), chopped cilantro, any leftover taco meat you might have, or fake meat crumbles, or rinsed and drained canned beans. Season with celery salt and pepper, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a pinch of coriander powder, and smoked paprika. Cook until bubbly.

Crips corn tortillas in a 350' oven with olive oil spray.

Cook sunny side up eggs in a low heat skillet with butter. Low heat keeps the edges from getting crispy.

Place the crispy tortilla on a plate, add sunny side up egg, garnish with Queso Fresco, sliced scallions, sliced olives, Mexican Crema, plain yogurt or sour cream. Yum!

Here are more easy and delicious Mexican dishes from my archives including enchiladas, tacos, margarita chicken, chimichurri steak, tortilla soup and empanadas. Yum!

http://delishytown.tumblr.com/search/enchiladas

http://delishytown.tumblr.com/search/tacos

http://delishytown.tumblr.com/post/798815639/margarita-chicken-ask-your-butcher-to-butterfly-a

http://delishytown.tumblr.com/search/empanadas

http://delishytown.tumblr.com/search/chimichurri

http://delishytown.tumblr.com/post/5168568510/tortilla-soup-yum-this-was-my-lunch-today-with

Baked Sweet Corn Chili Rellenos

Happy Cinco De Mayo everybody! Today is a celebration of Mexican heritage and a win against some pesky French soldiers in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Mexican Independence Day is Sept 16th.

Today's not an official U.S. holiday, but don't tell that to all the happy people you'll see driving around my neighborhood. I love holidays and holiday food, and spicy, delicious Mexican food is my favorite. I made this Chilis Rellenos casserole the other day and it was amazing. The combination of melted cheese, crunchy sweet corn and smokey peppers is perfection. You can use tortilla chips to scoop it up, or just eat it with a big salad from the garden. This is easy and you can make this recipe for just a few bucks.

Here's how to make this delicious dish:

Turn the broiler on and char the skin of 4 or 5 Anaheim chili peppers. I also used a couple Jalapeños. Once the skin on the peppers is blistered, put them in a bowl and cover with a plate to steam.

In a skillet saute 1 small diced onion in olive oil. Add chopped garlic and sauté 1 minute more, set aside to cool. Mix the cooled onions and garlic with 1/2 cup Queso Fresco cheese, 1/2 cup shredded cheddar or Monterey jack, 1/2 cup corn kernels, a little chopped cilantro, and 1 small can diced green chills. Season with celery salt, 1/2 tsp coriander powder, a sprinkle of Ancho chili powder, and fresh black pepper. In a separate bowl combine 1/2 cup milk or cream with 2 eggs. Peel, stem and seed the Anaheim chills. Place in a buttered casserole and stuff with the cheese and corn mixture. Pour the eggs and cream over the top and add a little grated cheese. Bake at 350 for 20 to 30 minutes until bubby. Garnish with a squeeze of fresh lime or lemon and a little more chopped cilantro. Serve with chips and salad.

Yum!

Smokey Carne Asada Tacos with Pomegranate Seeds

These Tacos were so delicious!  I used grass fed rib eye for this recipe. The grass fed beef is seasoned with a mixture of coriander powder, Ancho Chili powder, smoked salt, celery salt, Spanish smoked Paprika, Freshly ground black pepper, cumin, garlic powder and onion powder. I mix together a 1/4 tsp or so of each spice and then sprinkle the mixture on the sliced pieces of steak before searing in a very hot cast iron pan for about 3 to 5 minutes. Serve on warm corn tortillas. and garnish with your favorite taco garnishes. I like to garnish tacos with chopped avocado or guacamole, hot sauce, cilantro, chopped tomatoes,  pickled peppers, shredded lettuce, crumbly Mexican cheese.  I also experimented with some pomegranate seeds because we have so many pomegranates that our friends gave us from their tree. The pomegranate seeds gave the tacos an unexpected crunch and tartness. Yum!

Smokey Chocolatey Mole Sauce

 I'm making Mole Chicken Tacos. I love Mole sauce. It's a bit of a luxury due to millions of ingredients & time required to make it. But it's so good!! It's got flavors that range from chocolatey sweetness, to mellow heat from the dried peppers, to savory garlic and onions, bitter notes from the coffee, tanginess from the tomatillos and tamarind, and creamy goodness from the nuts. Make sure to add the very sweet Mexican chocolate in batches and taste your sauce as you add this sweet element. If it's too sweet, you can balance with more coffee or tamarind paste to add bitter and /or tangy notes.

 This takes a little time, and since it takes so long to do, I make extra to freeze for future use. Mole Turkey Enchiladas will be good made from Thanksgiving leftovers. 

 Here's how I make my Mole Sauce:

Heat oven to 350.

On a large cookie sheet, 2 sweet peeled and quartered onions, about 10 peeled cloves of garlic, 1 or 2 peeled and halved shallots, about 6 to 8 washed & peeled tomatillos, 1 or 2 halved tomatoes. Drizzle with olive oil and roast for about 25 minutes until they start to caramelize.

On a separate cooking sheet toast a mixture of about 10 dried Ancho, California, and New Mexico chili pods with the stems removed and some of the seeds removed.

 To a dry stew pot add about 7 peppercorns, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 small whole nutmeg, a few cloves, 1/4 cup pepitas, 2 tblsp almonds & 2 tblsp peanuts. Heat the nuts and  spices on medium low heat until fragrant, about 5 to 7 minutes.   

Add all of the toasted chilies and vegetables to the stew pot along with 3 or 4 cups vegetable stock 1 tsp tamarind paste, and 1/2 cup raisins. Let the ingredients simmer down, covered, stirring occasionally, for 45 min to 1 hour. Add 1 torn up corn tortilla. 

Blend it in batches. Be careful blending hot liquids. You'll be surprised how the cinnamon stick, cloves and nutmeg blend up and disappear into the sauce.

Now add 1 tblsp oilive oil to a stew pan, add the mole sauce and bring back up to a low simmer. Add 1 wheel of Mexican Chocolate and 1/2 to 1 cup of strong cold coffee. Add more vegetable stock as needed.

Taste the sauce and balance the flavor to your liking.

Sweet Potato and Roasted Chicken Tostadas

I made these tostadas for lunch from leftover roasted chicken and sweet potatoes. Holy crumbs! This was so fresh and delicious! I highly recommend this delicious take on leftovers.The sweet potato on the bottom of the tostada gives the whole dish a very nice savory sweetness, yum!  You can easily make this vegetarian by eliminating the chicken, maybe swap it out for the black beans on the tostada. 

Heat oven to 400.

Crisp organic corn tortillas on a cookie sheet in the oven with olive oil spray, or in a skillet with some oil.

Shred cooked chicken, season with salt, pepper, ancho chili powder, coriander powder, cumin, and smoked paprika. 

Chop 1/2 of 1 small sweet or purple onion and mince some garlic, saute for a few minutes in a little olive oil, add the chicken and heat through until fragrant. Set aside.

Spread roasted sweet potato on the crisped tortillas, add the cooked chicken and aromatics. Place on a cooke sheet and add sime queso fresco, bake for a few minutes to heat through.

Top with shredded lettuce, chopped red peppers, chopped avocado, chopped purple onion, chopped tomatoes, chopped cilantro, a little queso fresco and hot sauce. Serve with a side of rice and beans and lemon wedges. mmmmmmmm.

Spicy Shrimp Tacos with Sweet Avocado Cream

Happy Taco Tuesday Tumblrs! This was our delicious lunch today. The greens and herbs in this dish came from our back garden. It's getting hot here so I'm trying to use up the salad greens before they bolt. Salad greens like cool weather, and it was 100 here yesterday. I'm still going to try to grow some in the shade this summer. I bet it will work. I love our home grown garden salads. I especially love the Arugula! It's spicy and delicious and tastes so amazing fresh out of the garden.

Here's how to make these yummy shrimp tacos:

For the Avocado Cream dressing, blend 1 or 2 avocados with 1 cup plain yogurt, the juice of 1/2 lemon, 2 tblsp Cider vinegar, a small smashed garlic clove, a small handful of chopped cilantro, handful of chopped parsley, a drizzle of honey, and salt and pepper. (This dressing keeps in the fridge for about 5 days.) 

Heat a grill pan to high. Heat a few organic corn tortillas on the hot grill pan and set aside. 

Marinate the shrimp with 2 tsp coconut oil, the lemon juice from the other half of the lemon, a sprinkle each of ancho chili powder, chipotle chili powder, ground coriander, freshly smashed garlic or garlic powder, salt and pepper. Sear the shrimp on both sides until cooked through, about 2 to 3 minutes. 

Serve your tacos with salad greens and chopped tomatoes and the creamy dressing. Yum!