Black Bean and Corn Fritters
Can I just go right ahead and admit today was just one of those days. If you have kids then I know you know what I m talking about! Having my 8 year old son home for summer vacation and being super preggo is a lot more then I bargained for. Hello when you can t see your feet how are you supposed to bend over and pick random things up?? Or bend over and give the babes a bath?? Or put your own shoes on?? The big belly struggle is real! #pregnancyproblems However. somehow I managed to throw these super fun and delicious Black Bean and Corn Fritters together and the kids gobbled them up for lunch. I wish I could say that I served them with a green veggie or fruit salad but no, the kids are on a hard boiled egg kick so protein + protein it was. Hey, nothing wrong with that. until tomorrow morning when I have to smell the aftermath of this bean + hard boiled egg meal. Thankfully my husband wasn t here! In other news my husband wants me to stop purchasing kitchen stuff. How do I put this nevergonnahappenhubby. In other, other news Donald Trump is running for president. Am I missing something here? Is he a politician now? Is he just going to pay someone off to make important decisions? Am I the only one super confused about this? And by the way, if you haven t seen his Toupee memes I suggest you Google that immediately and have a good laugh!
AAAANNNNDDD. Back to the fritters because they are super easy to make and come together in about 30 minutes from start to
finish. 30 minutes!! They are so easy I would say this would be a great recipe to let the kids help out with. I served mine with a nice dollop of sour cream and a little extra cheese on top and they were just perfect. Hope you all enjoy as much I we did!
Creamy Crockpot Taco Dip This creamy Crockpot Taco Dip is sure to be your new Go-To party recipe! Throw it together the day of your party and keep in warm in your crockpot. Hello delicious!
Today my hideous crockpot is unveiled. I ve spoke of it, I ve joked of it, and here it is in all of it s *older then I am*
glory! Doesn t the color remind you of something your mother got as a wedding shower present? HA! Before we get started I d like to point out the obvious: tomorrow is New Year s Eve! My whole family is going to a party at our Pastor s house so that should be fun. I know, I know, it sounds like a big snooze fest but it is not like that at all, I m telling you! 2014 has been such an amazing year for me. I watched my boys grow up a little more *tear*, started this blog, and was surrounded by amazing people all year long. I couldn t have asked for anything better. It is amazing how every year seems to get better and better. Ok, I m done with the sentimental stuff now, I promise! On to the dip. Even though my crockpot is ugly it doesn t stop this dip from being delicious, addicting, and pretty. Now don t get me wrong, I m not claiming this dip to be healthy or fat free.but it is one notch above the Velveeta and Rotel kind of thing because Hello! no random ingredients! So that makes it a little better, right? PLUS it has fresh tomatoes on top and that s a veggie (I mean fruit, but hey who is being politically correct right now?) so yeah tomatoes = healthy. I mean, it was a nice try, right? Cooking Tips I only made a half batch of this dip because I was only serving it to my family. The recipe below is a full batch, that will serve roughly 12 or so people. I waited until the end to add my beans, however you can throw them in with the rest of the ingredients in the beginning if you d like. If you want your dip to look like mine, use a plastic baggie to pipe your sour cream in lines! I recommend choosing a tortilla chip that doesn t contain soybean oil, and is non-gmo verified. We love the brand Garden of Eatin so check them out! I ve also
found Wegman s has a decent organic corn chip if you live around one of their stores. When all of your ingredients are melted together just perfectly, turn your crockpot on warm/low to keep it warm for your party.
Healthy Loaded Nacho Skillet
It is officially Football season and the first day of Fall! Yay* for pumpkin everything and tailgating. A bigger *yay* for
pumpkin spiced lattes from my good ol Nespresso and cold brewed coffee with my very own Pumpkin Spiced Coffee Syrup. Ok, ok we are getting all coffee snob up in herrr so let s move on to nachos because who doesn t love some gooey melted cheese, spicy black beans, corn chips, sweet corn off the cob, rice, veggies, and even more gooey melted cheese. And not the fake stuff folks because we don t get down with Velveeta like that! That s right.. nachos do not have to contain Velveeta because cheese is WAY TOO GOOD on it s own to add a bunch of crap that makes it look like plastic when in cools. You pickin up what I m puttin down? Thank You, Thank You, I knew you would understand! Now let s forget about that crap and get back to the good stuff because these nachos are the perfect balance of all the cheesy goodness you would expect from nachos, and a bunch of other goodies that are whole and nutritious. Sweet bell peppers, a big bed of lettuce, brown rice, black beans, oh yeah! Loaded nachos say whhhhhaaatttt? Ok, ok I m calming myself down but this is something to get excited about. One of my all time favorite snack foods, in a skillet, with nutrition on top?
Now that my rambling nacho madness is over the voice of reason is here to tell you what exactly this Loaded Nacho Skillet
is PLUS the fact that it only takes 30 short minutes to put this bad boy together. Cook the rice, add the beans, the cheese, the frozen corn, the chips, more cheese, the peppers, more cheese, and finally broil it for a few minutes until everyone is happy. Got it? Since that way A LOT of steps here is a pretty picture for you to see exactly how to achieve this nacho goodness:
Now if you really want to take these nachos totally over the top try adding a dollop of my Homemade Ranch right in the middle of a big pile of nacho goodness. These two things are basically a match made in food heaven and I would not tell you to do another step if I didn t think this ranch was basically the best thing that ever happened to these nachos. Nachos meet ranch. Ranch meet nachos. And they lived happily ever after all up in my tummy! *I used my Taco Night Freezer Corn in this recipe as well! Tex-Mex Potato Wedges I m just going to throw this out there. these Tex-Mex Potato Wedges are epic. So epic I ve included a ridiculous amount of
food porn! They are over the top delicious and possibly one of my all time favorite food creations. These potatoes do take a little bit more time to put together then your average baked potato wedge recipe but they are soooooo worth it in the end! Here are the steps to making these amazingly cheesy and delicious wedges:
I ve said this before and I will say it again the key to the perfect oven baked potato wedges is boiling your potatoes before you bake them. This ensures you are going to get a really nice fluffy inside with a super crispy outside. Essentially that is what the perfect wedge is to me! The other important part of this recipe is seasoning the potatoes correctly. I ve included the spices that I used, which are pretty standard tex-mex spices. My secret weapon when it comes to the perfect looking potato wedges is paprika. You want color on your potatoes and paprika is going to do that for you. Although this recipe already has chili powder in it, I still sprinkled extra paprika on the potatoes just to bump up the food porn appeal! One last thing to note about the spices measure your cumin people! Too much cumin will ruin these potatoes so I wouldn t recommend going over 1/4 tsp. As for the toppings, the sky is the limit! I topped mine with sour cream (which I consider essential), avocado, and fresh tomatoes. Of course we needed to throw in some fresh produce to combat all of the cheese!
Hand modeling jobs here s my audition! Come on you know you want these beautiful un-manicured hands for your next job!