Salsa...giving it a second try!

First off, I was really excited yesterday to see the robins all out and about flittering here and there in my backyard.  Robins make me think of Spring, so it is always a delight when I have my first sighting of the year.  They were eating the berries off of one of my trees.  I have no idea what kind of tree it is but seeing as how I don't have a bunch of dead robins littered around my backyard, I guess I now know the berries aren't poisonous, so that is a good thing.  They were nice and fat little birdies too.  I guess this long hard winter hasn't affected them too much.  Not like our squirrels, they are scrawny little guys since all the nuts they buried last fall were buried under mounds of snow since mid-December.  Poor little critters!

When I began my blog in January, one of my first posts was my crazy attempt to create my own homemade salsa which turned out, ehhh...ok but nothing spectacular.  I had some time on my hands this afternoon, since my hubby was out working hard for his money, and so thought I would give it another go with a recipe that I, but of course,  found on my favorite recipe website.  (Sorry, I just can't seem to get away from that site.  She has oh so many fantastic looking recipes that I want to try them all!!!)  I must also confess that I did make some modifications due to not having some of the ingredients.  More on that later. 

Restuarant Stye Salsa modified from The Pioneer Woman

Ingredients:

4 tomatoes, sliced up in chunks
2 cans (10 Ounce) diced Tomatoes And Green Chilies
¼ cup Chopped Onion
1 clove Garlic, Minced
1 whole Jalapeno, Quartered And Sliced Thin
1/4 tsp sugar or a pinch of Sugar Substitue (Stevia)
¼ teaspoons Salt
¼ teaspoons Ground Cumin
1 cups Cilantro

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Pulse until nice and smooth or chunky if that is what you like.  I enjoy it thoroughly mixed.  Refrigerate for at least an hour. 

Now for my little modification flub up. I made a bit of a mistake when adding the sugar substitute.  The original recipe called for 1/4 tsp of sugar.  Thinking of my hubby, and his wish to avoid sugar I decided to use some of his Stevia. So I ripped open a little packet of stevia, sprinkled it all over the top of my bowl of ingredients and then thought to myself, hmmm... maybe I should read the box and see what the sugar to stevia ratio was.  To my utter dismay, one little itty bitty packet was equivalent to 2 teaspoons!!!  UGGHHH...me and my stupid hastiness.  Note to self, I must really begin to think first and then act. 
 
Even though I made it a tad bit sweeter then it is probably supposed to taste, I did frantically attempt to scoop out some of the stevia I had dumped in so it wasn't too terribly sweet, at least not as much as it could have been.  I have to say it was actually much better then my first attempt at salsa making, sweetness and all.  I think my hubby will be pleasantly surprised when he gets back from his long 6 hour round trip drive this evening, he just loves salsa!
 
 ****UPDATE****  Added a bit more sea salt to my salsa last night and have to say this salsa is amazing.  It stewed in all it's juices overnight and all the flavors really blended and came together very nicely.  YEAH!!!!! Although I am thinking I will just not add sugar at all to this salsa in the future. 

Dinner on the Fly

In everyone's life, tragedy strikes.  Our past week has been a life unexpected.  My father in law just spent 8 days in the hospital, 4 of those in the ICU.  The diagnosis is still unknown, but we are hopeful that the Mayo Clinic, our next stop, will provide us with some answers.

Since we have spent most of our days at the hospital, a forty minute drive from our house, our food choices have been the quick and easy kind, namely from some random fast food joint. Unfortunately, as you can also well imagine, our food choices this week were not the most healthy for us either. 

I really wanted to stick to my life goal of experimenting with a new recipe every week, no matter what, so my challenge was to find a very quick and easy meal.  I also wanted to make something of a more healthy fare, since we have been so terribly unhealthy for the majority of this past week.  Thank goodness I had come across this recipe a few weeks ago, printed it off, and had it shoved into my very cluttered and unorgainized binder, which is mostly made up of loose leaf recipes that always end up all over my floor at some point when I pull it out. (Side note: must remember to purchase a hole puncher one of these days for the tiny kitchen elves have not magically done it all for me in the six years that I have had this binder, and so I must come to the conclusion that kitchen elves really must not exist or just get tons of jolly good entertainment from seeing me repeatedly dump the entire contents of it all over the floor.)

Hearty Turkey & Rice from Taste of Home

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups instant brown rice

1 pound extra-lean ground turkey

1/2 medium onion, chopped (not a big fan of onion so went easy on it)

1-1/2 cups salsa
1 can (8 ounces) no-salt-added tomato sauce
1 teaspoon reduced-sodium chicken bouillon granules
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
Sea Salt, to taste
*Chopped tomatoes, baked tortilla chip scoops and sliced olives, optional

Directions:
1.  Cook rice according to the package directions.
2.  Meanwhile, in a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray, cook turkey and onion over medium heat until turkey is no longer pink. Add the salsa, tomato sauce, bouillon and sea salt; heat through.  

 I served this dish with some shredded fiesta blend cheese, a dollop of sour cream and some tortilla chips for scooping.  Both of us enjoyed this dish!  It was so completely easy to make.  It is almost too easy, really.  It was a very light on the stomach, deeply satisfying and we had lots of leftovers for lunch tomorrow. I will definitely make this dish again, especially on those nights when I just don't have a heck of a lot of time to make make anything too labor intensive.  

"Feelin' hot, hot, hot!"

I woke up this morning and groaned after looking outside and seeing another 4 inches of snow on the ground to contend with.  Shovel in hand, I ventured out into the arctic cold, letting my husband sleep in.  It was the big fluffy kind of snow that is really easy to deal with, but what I didn't think about until my first heaping shovel load was where I was going to put it all!!!  We have snow drifts that are four feet tall in some places taking up the space, on all sides, up and down our walkways from our big blizzard a week ago.  The plus in all this was I was going to get in that workout today whether I liked it or not!

Over an hour later, chilled to the bone, I finished flinging my last scoopful of snow into the yard and headed back inside, dreaming of going to south for the winter.  Unfortunately, this is a dream that will have to wait about twenty odd years, after my husband and I retire!!!   In the meantime, I can make a lunch that will have us thinking of heading south, into Mexico!!! 

I mentioned in a previous post that my husband is a salsa addict and taking this into consideration I was eager to whip some up for him to try.  I also decided to make Chicken Enchilada's as well, using a recipe I got from a Campbell's ad! :^) 

The Chicken Enchilada recipe was simple and something I found while clipping coupons one morning about a week ago.  I have actually already made these, last weekend, but will include the recipe as a link
Campbell's Easy Chicken& Cheese Enchilada

The salsa recipe hunt was kind of an overwhelming mess. I found pages and pages of recipes on many different websites that I sorted through.  Some said to use vinegar, some said to use lemon juice, some said lime juice...ahhhh!!!  I just didn't know which one would taste the best. 

Not to be detered I took decided to take bits out of many of the different recipes that I had looked out and make my own version.  Please bear with me on this one.  I just threw some stuff in that I thought would work, lol!!!

"Boy I hope this tastes right" Salsa:

28 oz can of whole tomatoes, hold on to about a cup of juice and mix in after blending
4 oz can of chopped green peppers
4 oz can of chopped jalapeno
1 clove of garlic
small onion  (I didn't have an onion and left this out but would add it next time)
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 tsp Vinegar (I used red wine vinegar, cider vinegar or balsalmic would be good though, I think...)
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1/4 cup of fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (unless you really like lemon, you may want to add a bit less or try lime juice)
Add to your taste preferences:
salt
pepper
red pepper flakes
-Throw everything into a food processor and blend until everything is mixed together. 

The salsa was good, although honestly not my favorite salsa ever.  It was really mild and even with my addition of the jalapeno's and red pepper flakes it still was not as hot as I would have liked it.  I also would go easy on the lemon and tomato juice next time as it may have been a bit too much.  All in all, it wasn't an epic fail but I'll do a bit more recipe digging and try it again sometime in the future. 

Fashionista in the kitchen!

I got a fabulous new apron from my Mom for Christmas today.  Due to the insane Christmas Blizzard we had here in the Midwest over the Christmas holidays we had to postpone Christmas with my Parents until today.  Imagine my surprise when I opened a totally cute and totally chic new apron! 

My New Years resolution was definitely written in the clouds or something because this was a perfect gift.  I also got a very adorable mini food processor from my Brother and SIL.  I am thinking my first new recipe will be salsa!  I have never ever made it before and since this week is almost over I want to do something quick and easy.  It also helps that my Husband is a die hard salsa junkie, so he was ever so excite to hear about my first dish of the year!

Salsa 101 here I come!!!