Taco Salad, Homemade Guacamole and Homemade Tortillas

Last night we had Taco Salad for dinner.  It's a family favorite that I've made over the years.  Nothing really special, but different every time, depending on what I have hanging around here.  Sometimes I have iceberg lettuce, other times I have romaine lettuce and other times I may have bagged salad.  I always have taco meat, usually it's ground beef or ground venison or a combination of both.  Much, much less often I've had ground chicken or ground turkey.  Usually I have fresh tomatoes, although there have been a few times that I haven't and salsa or canned diced tomatoes have filled in.  Usually I have a Mexican blend of cheese, but cheddar works just as well.  When I've planned ahead, I chop some sweet gherkins to top our salads.  I know that sounds really odd, but don't knock it till you try it!  Only one of the bigger kids doesn't like it.  Usually we have some Doritos to either munch on the side or to crumble on top for the crunch that croutons give.  If I don't have Doritos around, I usually have some tortilla chips.  Sometimes we use taco sauce, sour cream, guacamole, red kidney beans.  I haven't had black beans, that I can remember, but now I'm considering adding that into the mix.  Usually we use ranch dressing or Catalina dressing.  Both are put out on the table.  If I don't have Catalina, sometimes I have another  honey french dressing or I'll make a french dressing recipe I found.  I usually keep ranch dressing in the house, because it is a standard favorite for most of the kids.  So, as you can see, the possibilities of variety are almost endless.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to try a recipe for guacamole that I found on Pinterest.  I made a few changes though, based on what I had on hand.

Here's my changes:

Ingredients:

3 Avocados
1 large shallot, chopped (approx. 1/4 c)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 bunch of cilantro leaves, chopped (I actually had this because I bought it for another Indian dish)
1 tomato, diced
Approx 2 tsp of lime juice (I didn't have any fresh limes, but I had lime juice)
Sea salt, to taste
Fresh cracked pepper, to taste

Directions:

Pit avocados and mash in a bowl.

Carefully stir in remaining ingredients until well mixed.

A tip that a friend of mine gave me a couple years ago, is that if you leave at least 1 avocado pit in the guacamole, it helps to prevent oxidation.  It works!  So, that's why you see 2-2 avocado pits in the guacamole.

I really liked how this turned out and will definitely make it again.

I also tried a tortilla recipe that I found on Pinterest, but I don't like it as much as another recipe I've made before.  I need to make my old recipe again to compare.  I don't think any one liked the new recipe.  It called for olive oil instead of lard or shortening.  And the water wasn't hot, which apparently makes a big difference.  The taste of olive oil was overpowering, in my opinion.  So I'm not going to post that recipe.

Here's baby trying the tortilla with some guacamole smeared on it, with our friend getting in on the picture opportunity.  Silly Livy!

A little Mexican blend cheese sprinkled on top.  She likes grated cheese.

Enjoyed her bit of taco meat and seemed to be happy after dinner.

My dinner plate.  Missing a few things, but we had to eat and run, so I didn't have time to chop gherkins.  But, most importantly, I had the guacamole in there and it was good!

Another Birthday Celebrated

We recently celebrated another birthday here! We have a tradition that the birthday person gets to pick the meals for the day. So, my dear son decided that we were going to have Cinnamon Blintzes for breakfast, Jambalaya for lunch and Papa John's for dinner! Definitely some favorites around here. He said that he chose those meals because we haven't had them in while. He also wanted a Bakugon Cake. That was going to be a challenge for me since I couldn't order one from the bakery.



Cinnamon Blintzes are really, really good and really easy to make. But, they do take time. I didn't think about taking any pictures of them, mostly because I was busy making them.



Jambalaya is wonderful! A friend of ours who happens to have a Creole background introduced us to it. I haven't looked for a recipe to make it, but have use the mix by Zatarain's. I did two pots. One mild, (picture on the top) made with smoked beef sausage and the other, (picture on the bottom) spicy Creole style with Andouille sausage! The kids absolutely love the mild version, except for my youngest with the severe food allergies. The birthday boy tried the spicy version and really liked it, but the second serving ended up being a little too much for him.










I don't need to say much about Papa John's except for the fact that the order got a little mixed up. But, after I called to let them know of the mix up, they sent the correct pizza, so we got 3 for the price of 2! Can't really complain about that!



Now the Bakugon cake had me a little baffled! I go to the local Party City store to get the specialty items that I can't get at Target, Walmart, or the grocery store. Nobody had any cake topper type stuff for Bakugon. So I got an idea while I was standing in the isle at Party City. There was a large Bakugon key chain. I figured, well, I could use that as a topper and put it on a doilie so as to not contaminate the cake. Yes, I actually have to think of that. I think it worked pretty good! At least he was pleased with it! He specified a triple chocolate cake, and that was what he got!



All in all, a fun day!