Taco Tuesdays!

Everybody loves tacos! So have your own "Taco Tuesday" even if it happens to be Thursday.

You're going to need a few things to start with:

-Taco Seasoning
-Chickpeas
-Canned Corn

-Tortillas and/or Taco shells

-Cheese

-Lettuce

-Sour Cream

-Guacamole

-Tomatoes

-1/2 an Onion

-Peppers (I like to use a mix of habeneros and jalapenos)

1. Wrap your tortillas in foil and throw them in the oven on 170°F. Take them out when the chickpeas are done and wrap the foil package in a kitchen towel.
2. Dice your tomatoes, onion and peppers. You can keep the onions and peppers together, but keep the tomatoes separate because this will be a topping when you build the tacos later.

3. In a pan, heat a little oil then add the onion and peppers. Cook until the onions are clear.

4. Drain one can of chickpeas and one can of corn. Add both of them the pan. Add one and a half spoonfuls of the taco seasoning along with salt and pepper to taste. Allow to cook on medium heat for ten minutes, stirring occasionally. A lot of the liquid should have dried up and you should have well seasoned 

5. Build your tacos using the seasoned chickpeas as a base.

Enjoy the tacos!

Holy Guacamole, Batman!

Guacamole is perhaps one of the most awesome things you can make with an avocado. (Right next to The Original Don Special, that is.) So grab some avocados and make some guacamole!

Ingredients:

-2 to 3 avocados

-1 tomato

-1 to 2 cloves of garlic

-1/4 of an onion

Optional:

-Cilantro

-Lime Juice

1. one or two cloves of garlic. I really enjoy garlic, so I mince three of them. Place the garlic in a bowl.

How to mince garlic.

2. Dice one quarter of an onion and add it to the bowl along with the garlic. You'll want to dice this onion as finely as you can otherwise the onion will be overpowering in the guacamole.

3. Dice your tomato and add this to the bowl as well. Since I only had cherry tomatoes, I simply quartered them.

4. Pit and scoop out your avocados. Add them to the tomato, garlic, and onion. Use a fork to mash and mix everything together. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you had cilantro or lime juice this would be the time to add those ingredients.

How to mince garlic.

Here's a quick and easy way to mince garlic. While there are better methods out there, this is what I do when I have to make good quick work out of the garlic I have.

 1. Smash the garlic. You can use the bottom of a jar, the side of a metallic knife, a spoon, etc...


You can now remove the skin easily.

 2. Rock your knife back and forth until all of the garlic is chopped coarsely.

3. Scrape all the garlic into a single pile and wipe your knife clean.

 4. Rock your knife back and forth in a direction that's perpendicular from how you moved it the first time.

5. Scrape the garlic into a neat pile. Don't forget to clean the garlic off your knife!

That's all there is to mincing your own garlic!

Baked Pasta

Pasta tastes better baked. It's just scientific fact. (At least according to this guy it is.) That's why for this post, we're going to bake some pasta. Not only is it an easy way to make pasta and tomato sauce taste better, it also adds in a couple extra servings of vegetables.

 Ingredients:

-Pasta sauce

-Pasta of choice

-Cheese

-Onion

-Bell Pepper

-Garlic

Optional:

-Tomatoes

-Sun Dried Tomatoes

-Sugar

-Frozen vegetables

 1. Start out by pre-heating the oven to 350 degrees and boiling a pot of water. 


Once this is done, dice the garlic, onion, bell pepper, tomatoes, and sun dried tomatoes. 


Don't worry if the alarm goes off or if the water starts boiling while you're chopping. Those can be left alone for a while without any problems.

 2. Heat up a pan and add some olive oil. Once the pan is hot enough, add the garlic then the onions. Let the onions sweat. (They'll turn clear when they're ready.)


If the water is boiling at this point, add the pasta to the water and set the timer to what the recommended cooking time.

3. Drain as soon as the timer goes off, then set it aside in your baking dish.

 4. Add the remaining vegetables to the pan such as the bell pepper, tomatoes, and sun-dried tomatoes.

5. Once the bell peppers soften or the tomatoes break down and give up their juice, add the pasta sauce.

Let the sauce simmer on medium-low for about seven minutes.

You can also add a little sugar if the sauce is too acidic at this point.

6. Pour the sauce into the baking dish and mix with the pasta you've set aside earlier.

7. Smooth out the top a and add the cheese of your choice.

Then cover the dish with foil and bake it in the oven for 10 minutes. Once this is done you need to remove the foil and bake it for another five minutes.

Remove the dish from the oven and let it sit for a few minutes before cutting in.

There you have it: Baked pasta in all its gooey cheesy glory!

A slice of baked pasta.

Insalata Caprese

With the last salad I posted being a little less than healthy, I decided to upload another salad that's a little better for the waist and heart. This is a lazy five minute meal with only three major ingredients and a bunch of optional ones.

That right all you'll need is:

-Tomatoes

-Fresh mozzarella cheese

-Extra virgin olive oil

Some optional things to have are:
-Basil
-Salt
-Pepper
-Balsamic vinegar

Because there are so few ingredients in this salad, make sure that each ingredient is the best you can get your hands on. Tomatoes from a farmer's market are generally better than the ones you'll find at a value food mart. Extra virgin olive oil will add flavor and richness to the salad (it's also better for you), so make sure you get what you can!

1. Start out by slicing your mozzarella into slices that are about as thick as crayon. It doesn't have to be precise though.

2. Then cut your tomatoes into slices that are about the same thickness.

3. Start with a slice of tomato then stack alternating layers of tomato and cheese in any configuration you desire. Today I opted for a heart and ate the scraps because wasting cheese is a terrible terrible sin.

4. Drizzle on the olive oil. Add the salt, pepper, balsamic vinegar and basil if desired. (I actually used scallions for this one instead of basil.)














There you have it! Insalata Caprese in under five minutes!

My favorite salads.

I enjoy salads. And all of the salads I enjoy, there's one thing in common: eggs. It's either going to be in the dressing or one of the toppings. But today, I'm making a salad where egg is the star. I'm making egg salad!

For this you'll need:

8 eggs

2 tablespoons of mayo

1/4 teaspoon paprika

1/4 of a medium onion, minced

Mustard powder to taste

Salt to taste

1. Place the eggs into a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil until the eggs are hard boiled. This should take about 10 minutes, however this time will vary depending on a lot of factors.

2. In the mean time, begin by mincing your onion.





Start off by peeling back the onion's skin.

Cut the onions into strips without separating it from the root.

Cut into small pieces.

3. Combine the minced onions, mustard powder, salt, and mayo.

4. When the eggs are done, move them to an ice bath and then peel them.

5. Mash the eggs and mix with the ingredients. I like to add coarsely ground pepper to my egg salad.

A fork works better for mashing than a spoon. A special egg slicer works better than either of those things, but I've decided to use a fork since not everyone has a special egg sliver device.

With the optional pepper added.

Now that you've got tasty egg salad, you can do anything with it. For today, I'm going to have to go with the sandwich option, with a big glob of ketchup: