This weekend we made some salsa fresca (the hothouse tomatoes weren't exactly up to snuff, but it was still good). Salsa fresca is just
2.5 lbs de-seeded tomatoes,
1 cup white onion,
2 jalapenos,
1/2 tsp salt, and
2 cloves of garlic.
If you want, you can add a bit of sugar esp. if tomatoes aren't the best. We got some tortillas from the local latino grocery store (not awesome, but way better than WF corn tortillas which are like leather). We threw some Amy's Organic vegetarian refried beans with some fried onions and chayote squash, some spices (cumin, probably something else), and ate that for a few meals.
Then we made zuchini-corn hominy soup, (
2 zuchini,
1 can diced tomatoes,
1 7oz can herdez salsa,
2 cups veggie broth,
1 can golden or white hominy,
1 yellow onion fried up with 2 tsp mexican oregano,
and salt n pepper to taste.) Its a surprisingly good soup given how simple it is (so easy!), but next time I'll add pinto beans because the soup has hardly any calories in it. Plus we eat the soup with corn tortillas and that would make it a complete protein.
Our final Mexican-themed food item this weekend was Mexican salad. It rocks. It calls for lettuce, chipotle-lime-date dressing, lots of cilantro, mexican-fried tofu, and most importantly, the Garden of Eatin' Red Hot Blues Chips, crushed up, added at the last minute. You can add sliced avocado to this (yum!), you can add diced red bell pepper or cucumber, we even added salad turnips once. No problem. The Chips and the tofu and the dressing really carry the salad, so you can add things that maybe don't match exactly and its still fine.
For the dressing:
3 tbs lime juice
2 dates
oil to your liking
agave nectar to taste
balsalmic vinegar to taste
chipotle chili powder to taste
cayenne pepper to taste
For the tofu:
2-3 tsp mexican oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder or to taste
1/2 tsp onion powder or to taste
1/2-1 tsp paprika
blend those up together in a spice grinder or with mortar & pestle
Set in a bowl. Dredge tofu till lots of the spice sticks to the tofu (lots of spice should be on the tofu). Fry in hot oil a few mins each side.
The only downside was that we got the lettuce at the farmers mkt. I don't know why I never learn. In addition to numerous minute slugs and little flying type bugs, I discovered a red centipede, and a scary, scary spider amongst the leaves of this lettuce. Frighteningly, I discovered the centipede and spider on the THIRD wash of these leaves. When I save enough money to buy a home where I can have a garden, will my garden have that many bugs in it? I sure hope not, otherwise I'll have to move all lettuce production into a sun-room or a greenhouse, because I'm not spending 45 obsessive minutes on debugging lettuce every time I want a salad.
Got a new camera! Has a large book I am reading. Haven't gotten to the 'how to charge your camera part' yet, so it lies dormant. However, that means, blog will soon have photos and be worth reading!!!!! So, so, so excited.
