Black Bean Salsa

I've been making this "salsa" forever and it's so yummy! I usually make it when we are having a get together at our house or to bring over to a friend's house. If I make it to bring to a friend's house I usually double the recipe and leave half at our house for us to snack on. If I could get away with it, I would seriously just eat chips and dip for dinner every night. We usually just eat this w/ tortilla chips, but it would also be really good on top of grilled chicken, shrimp, or fish. It's so fresh and light and yet so filling b/c of the black beans.

I brought this over to our neighbor's pool party and it disappeared pretty quickly. I LOVE easy dishes like this that everyone enjoys!

Gather it:
1 can of black beans, rinsed and drained
1/2 cup of frozen corn (I don't measure, but it's probably about this much and it's ok to leave it frozen)
grape tomatoes, quartered (I used almost a whole pint)
scallions, sliced (about a large handful and then some if you like scallions)
2 avocados, diced (I usually prefer to use 2 and diced, but 1 of my avocados was too mushy so I mashed up just the 1 good avocado I had to make it go further)
1 lime
salt
pepper

Make it:
1. Juice half of the lime into a large bowl. Place avocados in bowl and toss in juice to help prevent it from turning brown. If you prefer to mash it then mash it now.

2. Add tomatoes, corn, scallions, and beans. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add more lime juice if needed.

3. Serve with tortilla chips...and a margarita!

FYI: I've had this with cilantro too and it's really yummy with it, but the cilantro wasn't looking too good at Publix. And it's really good with diced fresh jalapenos too, but I've omitted it since kids have come into the picture. I suppose I could make 2 separate batches...yep...I'll do that next time!

Mini Sliders

Kevin ran errands while the kids napped and I worked at home. He decided to go ahead and do our grocery shopping and planned dinners for the week as well. Yeah, I think he's pretty amazing too. When he got home he told me he was going to make mini sliders for dinner...similar to what we had at our friend Mike and Sarah's house a couple of weeks ago. These were so yummy and so easy (of course it was...I just handed him bottles of herbs/seasonings and watched. lol).



Gather it:
1 lb of ground beef
3 mozarella cheese sticks, cut into about 1/2" pieces (I suggested using Baby Belle cheese, but the chef vetoed my idea...still think it would have been delicious)
white onions, diced
1 whole egg
garlic powder
black pepper
dried parsley flakes

Toppings/bread:
Hawaiian rolls
sliced cheddar cheese
sliced tomatoes
lettuce

Make it:
1) Combine all ingredients in bowl except for the cheeses, toppings, and bread and mix together.

2) Make a small patty, place 1/2" piece of mozzarella , and top with another small patty and press both patties together to seal cheese in the middle.

3) Grill patties to desired doneness and top w/ sliced cheese and allow it to melt on the patty.

4) Cut Hawaiian rolls in half horizontally and place patty on bred, top with tomatoes and lettuce and gobble it up!

We served ours with macaroni and cheese (what else?!?) and fruit. For dessert Parker and I made funfetti cupcakes (without icing). We had lots so we shared some with our neighbors b/c let's face it...we don't need to eat all those cupcakes especially after all the cake we I ate from Avery's bday.

Guacamole with Roasted Corn

It's not a secret how much I love Mexican food and Chili's is one of my (and Kevin's) favorite restaurants. Ok, before I get slaughtered alive...I'm aware that Chili's is not a "real" Mexican restaurant, but they do have some Mexican-ish dishes. The past 2 times I've gone to Chili's (both in the last 2 weeks), I've ordered their guacamole with fire roasted corn. It is so yummy!!! I ordered it last night and while Avery ate her waffle this morning, my mind started to wander and think about that delicious guacamole. Soooo I deemed tonight Taco Tuesday...with guacamole! I didn't google a recipe, just kind of made my own up (how hard can it be???) and I didn't use corn on the cob b/c I def was not firing up my husband's ginormous grill (I don't even know how) to "fire roast" the corn. Here's my version of the guacamole:

Gather it:
3 small avocados, diced
1 large tomato, seeded and diced
cilantro, roughly chopped (I just grabbed a big handful - we LOVE cilantro)
a handful of diced red onion (I had leftovers from a prior dish so I just scooped some)
about 1/2 cup of frozen corn kernels, defrosted
juice from half a lime
salt and pepper

Make it:
1. Pat corn kernels dry with paper towels and pan fry over medium/high heat (don't use any oil). Stir to avoid burning, but if you like a few burnt kernels like you would fire roasting it then go for it! Set aside to cool.

while my corn is not fire roasted, it is "pan roasted". no smoky flavor, but I'm not a fan of smoky flavor anyway and this was way easier.

2. Place avocados in a large bowl with lime juice and mash together. I like to leave a few chunky pieces.

3. Add tomatoes, cilantro, onion, corn, salt and black pepper. Mix thoroughly. Taste and add more lime juice, salt and pepper as needed. I had to squeeze more lime juice (to equal 1/2 lime) and salt and pepper to mine.

Enjoy it with some chips! I had mine with blue corn chips for lunch (I can eat chips and dip all day long!) and will be having more with dinner. I'm also going to add it to my taco tonight! I can't wait for dinner!!!