Carnitas Five Ways

Well, hello lovelies! I hope that y'all had a beautiful week while I was away on spring break. I can't believe that it is over already. 

Sad. Day. 

I have been overwhelmed with goodness from my trip with my OMBC students this past week and I am truly sad to see it come to an end. I learned a lot and look forward to sharing it with you soon!However I am really not motivated right now to just mentally process all of that or to go through photos and construct posts, so for now I will leave you with this: 

five ways to eat carnitas (slow cooked seasoned pulled pork). I posted the recipe last year. It's fabulous, really. I made a big batch before midterms last week and found fun ways to eat it up!


Tacos
flour tortillas with carnitas, chipotle cream, avocados and sour cream. These went great alongside a Cherry Coke. 

Carnitas Quesadillas:
Buttered flour tortillas, layered with carnitas, cheddar cheese and refried black beans, topped with avocado and served with jalapeno cream sauce (sour cream, jalapeno, lime, salt, pepper). 

Carnitas Rice Bowl
wasn't that pretty so I didn't take a picture. I layered brown rice, carnitas, black beans, pico de gallo, sour cream, etc etc. 

Late Night Snack
garlic toast with avocado, carnitas, a fried egg and chipotle cream (sour cream, lime, chipotle seasoning)

Carnitas Stuffed Poblano
a poblano pepper stuffed with rice, tomatoes, onions, carnitas and goat cheese, served over creamy chipotle sauce. 

I really hope that if you haven't tried this fantastic and budget friendly meal-maker that you will! It is quite versatile and reheats beautifully. 

AND

Come back tomorrow for an exciting announcement!

Easy Guacamole

Fresh guacamole is one of life's most wonderful things. There's just something about the combination of rich avocado with diced onions, tomatoes and jalapenos with just a squeeze of lime juice that begs you to keep dipping tortilla chips into it. 


Okay, so guacamole is my crack.


And sometimes, I don't have onions, tomatoes and jalapenos on hand to mix in. So the trick I learned (from a legit Hispanic family, so don't hate) is to mix in some salsa! It already has all of the flavors you would mix into the guacamole all melded together in its own delicious form.  So if you don't have time to dice up all the fresh veggies, this is a perfectly acceptable and functional alternative. 

What You'll Need: 
3 Haas avocados
salt and fresh cracked black pepper
garlic powder
onion powder
1/2 lime, juiced
3 tablespoons of salsa 


What To Do:
Scoop avocado into a bowl and mash with a fork to desired smoothness or chunkiness. Add salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder to taste. Mix in salsa and lime juice. Adjust to taste. Consume immediately and if, unlike me, you have enough self control to have leftovers, refrigerate for up to 3 days in an airtight container. 


So easy. So addicting. Enjoy responsibly.

Beans a la Charra

I'm submerged in Hispanic culture a lot of the time

<3

And let me tell you, it's improved my accent 

on my poorly spoken Spanish

and definitely increased my awareness of and

 cravings for delicious Hispanic foods!

Fajitas

Enchiladas

Botanas 

(only in the Valley- can someone in Austin PLEASE make these?!)

Tamales

Tacos 

Carne Guisada

and the list goes on and on...

But a staple to go with any dish

is a good pot of beans

I used to be satisfied with canned refried beans

but as part of my goal to not used as many processed foods

and because these are just SO much better

I attempted this recipe. 

Besides the bacon/salt pork, the ingredients are super cheap

and the final product is very filling!

What You'll Need:
1 pound of pinto beans (2 cups)
1/4 tablespoons of minced garlic (3 large cloves)
1 cup diced onion (1/2 of a medium-sized onion)
1/4 cup of jalapeno juice (from canned jalapenos)
1/4 pound of salt pork (near the bacon at the grocery store)
Salt to taste

4 slices of bacon, chopped into 1-inch pieces
2 cups fresh chopped tomatoes or one 14 oz. canned, diced tomatoes with sauce
3 jalapenos, chopped
2 chipotles in adobo, chopped
1 cup of chopped cilantro 

What To Do:
1. Rinse and sort your beans
2. First soak the beans. You can either cover the beans with one inch of water and soak overnight or bring water to a boil, remove from heat and cover for one hour. (I did the quick soak and they still turned out fine!)
3. Drain the beans and cover with seven cups of fresh water.
4. Add to the pot the garlic, onion, jalapeno juice and salt pork.
5. Bring pot to a boil and then cover and reduce heat to a simmer, stir occasionally.
6. After about an hour, remove the salt pork and begin prepping the other ingredients.
7. Cook bacon in a skillet until crisp.
8. Add tomatoes, jalapenos, chipotles and cilantro to the skillet, and cook on medium for 10 minutes.
9. Let tomato-bacon mixture cool, add one cup of bean juice (or water) and then puree.
10. Stir puree into beans and let simmer together for 20 minutes.
11. Alternatively, if you prefer a chunkier texture, you could skip the puree step and add the tomato-bacon mixture straight to the bean pot. (I definitely prefer the chunkier version 

And that's it! 

Really, the longer you simmer these, the better they are. 

And they make excellent leftovers!

From Homesick Texan