Spanish Rice

Spanish Rice - Yuka's recipe

1 cup long grain rice (white or brown)
1/2 of an onion diced
1/2 of a bell pepper diced
1/2 cup tomato paste
1 1/2 cups water
Cumin, salt, pepper

Fry rice, onion and pepper in a skillet w/ some corn oil for a few min.
Combine tomato paste, water, and spices.
Add to rice mixture.
Simmer covered for 15 min. until rice is tender.

Notes: you need more cumin, salt and pepper than you think. I don't have this one down pat yet so if you find some good adjustments let me know....I've also seen this made where you just put in a chunk of onion and pepper for flavor and remove before serving, but I like to cut it up and leave it in.

Laura Daines added at note about her rice:
-i add lots of chili powder along with cumin in my mexi rice, and sometimes some jalapeno, cilantro and maybe some carrots (whatever i have). but the chili powder/cumin/onion/tomato paste mixture is key.

Beans Liquados

Beans Liquados (changed my life! No more Rositas for me!) -- Yuka's recipe

1.5 lbs Pinto Beans
Water (double that of the beans)
2 teaspoons of salt (or more to taste)
corn oil

Boil your salted water. Add your beans and simmer partially covered (tilted cover) for about an hour until soft. RESERVE ALL LIQUID FROM THE POT, this is how you get the smooth or liquido beans). I pour everything from the pot into a big pitcher, see below.

Heat some corn oil in a pan. Fry desired amount of beans in pan, pouring in bean liquid from your pitcher to desired consistency. I was taught to then mash the juice and beans directly in the pan (w/a potato masher), but last night I realized that's probably not a good idea for teflon, so i fried for a bit then transfered to a blender. Here were the smooth refried pinto beans of my bean burrito and huevos rancheros dreams.....

note: If you like them chunkier use a regular pan and mash away. Store the unused beans and liquid in the pitcher in the fridge. Then when you want some more freshly refried beans just pour and scoop from the pitcher.

Common mistake: not enough water in the pot. The first time I did this by myself I didn't have enough water and burnt the beans before they were tender. I also used a high output mega burner. Not a good idea. Last night I used more water than I thought I needed and switched to a regular sized burner and I had a good amount of juice w/o burned beans.

note- using a decent amount of oil and salt makes these yummy. You can add some of that soft white crumbly Mexican cheese on top if you really want to do it right!

Salsas Rojas

Salsas Rojas - Yuka's recipe

3 dried chiles: (the small dried red ones that are a dollar a bag)
roasted 'til toasted in a pan, then deseed and destem those hoties

1 Tomato: roasted like a marshmallow directly over a gas flame - which is really fun
(I like to use romas and spear them w/ a fork to rotate over the flame, the skin will pop, blister, bubble, split and char, take your time and slowly roast (not burn) until it smells and looks roasted

1 clove garlic

1 teaspoon white vinegar (you just need a bit, I used a teaspoon- not my tsp measure)

salt/ pepper

Blend all of it in a blender.
(Notes: last night I used 3 small romas and 4 chiles, do what tastes good to you)

Black Bean and Salsa Chicken Soup

A friend forwarded me this recipe from the Crockpot Lady's blog (very fun. She tries a new crockpot recipe every day).
And yes, I'm in love with this soup: it involves corn, there's kick to it, and the sour cream/cilantro really completes it. As another friend pointed out "if a recipe calls for sour cream on top, you MUST make sure people know that....it won't taste the same without it." I couldn't
agree more.
I made a few changes to the Crockpot Lady's original recipe, only because I found it too watery. So I cut down on the salsa amount. And if you don't add cheese on top, it's a very lowfat meal. Enjoy!

BLACK BEAN and SALSA CHICKEN SOUP
--1 pound chicken (I used 6 frozen breast tenderloins)
--1 cup dried black beans (or 2 cans, drained and rinsed)
--4 cups chicken broth
--2 cups frozen corn (sweet white corn is best)
--1 1/2 cups MILD prepared salsa, from a jar (12 oz)
--1 1/2 tsp cumin
--1/2 cup sour cream
-- juice of 1/2 a lime
--cilantro (optional)

This is made in a 4 quart Crockpot (or larger)

For DRIED BEANS follow these directions:
Starting the night before, soak the black beans in enough water to cover and another 2 inches overnight. In the morning, drain the water and rinse the beans. You can also quick soak the beans by pouring boiling water over them and let them sit for an hour or two.
Drain and rinse beans and pour in the crockpot. Put in the chicken, broth, salsa, corn and cumin. Stir, but don't disturb the beans---let them stay at the bottom of the pot, closest to the heating element.
Cover and cook on high for 7-9 hours. Yes. High. For 7-9 hours. It takes crazy long for the beans to soften, but they will.

Spoon out the chicken pieces and shred with two forks in a separate bowl.
Ladle out half of the soup mixture (minus the chicken you just took out) and carefully puree it in a traditional blender. Pour the puree back in the pot, add the shredded chicken, squeeze in the juice of one small lime, and stir. Ladle into bowls and serve with a large spoonful of light sour cream and cilantro.


For CANNED BEANS follow these directions:
Drain and rinse beans and pour in the crockpot. Put in the chicken, broth, salsa, corn and cumin. Stir, but don't disturb the beans---let them stay at the bottom of the pot, closest to the heating element.
Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-5--similar to normal soup-cooking time.

Spoon out the chicken pieces and shred with two forks in a separate bowl.
Ladle out half of the soup mixture (minus the chicken you just took out) and carefully puree it in a traditional blender. Pour the puree back in the pot, add the shredded chicken, squeeze in the juice of one small lime, and stir. Ladle into bowls and serve with a large spoonful of light sour cream and cilantro.

Soup is best when served with: Quesadillas, chips, corn bread muffins, or warm flour tortillas.

- dana

Sopapilla Cheesecake Pie

2 (8 ounce) packages low fat cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 (8 ounce) cans refrigerated crescent rolls
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, room temperature



DIRECTIONS
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Prepare a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
Beat the cream cheese with 3/4 cup of sugar and the vanilla extract in a bowl until smooth.
Unroll the cans of crescent roll dough, and use a rolling pin to shape each piece into 9x13 inch rectangles. Press one piece into the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Evenly spread the cream cheese mixture into the baking dish, then cover with the remaining piece of crescent dough. Stir together 1/2 cup of sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Pour the mixture over the top of the cheesecake.
Bake in the preheated oven until the crescent dough has puffed and turned golden brown, about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and drizzle with honey. Cool completely in the pan before cutting into 12 squares.

YUM!!

Sangria Punch

I got this mock sangria recipe from the Kraft foods website.

- 1 qt. (4 cups) cold reduced calorie cranberry juice cocktail
- 1 cup cold orange juice
- 1 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
- 3/4 cup COUNTRY TIME Lemonade or Pink Lemonade Flavor Drink Mix
- 3 cups cold club soda
- 2 oranges, sliced
- 2 limes, sliced

1. Add cranberry juice cocktail, orange juice and lime juice to drink mix in large pitcher; stir until mix is dissolved.
2. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
3. Stir in club soda and fruit. Serve over ice cubes.

*I couldn't find the lemonade drink mix so I substituted one tub of crystal light raspberry ice drink mix.