Salsa Queen

Many years ago when I was very pregnant with my second child, I made this salsa with a friend. I referred to her as "salsa queen" from then on.
This is a great, easy recipe.

Also to the basic recipe I have added a can of drained and rinsed black beans, niblet corn and fresh cilantro for the Santa Fe version. So without further delay here it is:

SALSA (basic recipe)

30 medium Roma tomatoes, blanch, peel and chop

2 cups chopped celery

2 lrg green papper, chopped

2 lrg red pepper, chopped

1 tbsp dried red chilis

2 lrg jalapenos or a jar of them, chopped

2 cups chopped onion

5 cloves of garlic minced

2 cans green chilis (old el paso)

2 13 oz cans tomato paste

3 drops Tobasco

3/4 cup white vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar

3 tbsp chopped parsley

4 tbsp pickling salt (coarse salt) 2 tsp paprika

Put all into a large pot, bring to a boil, mix well and simmer for 30 minutes.

Stir as needed. Seal in prepared jars and immerse in hot bath for 30 minutes depending on your altitude.

One recipe makes 12 pints.

Mex - a - role

I made this up tonight - wanted something easy to pop into the oven.

2 chicken breasts - boneless skinless
1 red or green pepper
1 cup of frozen corn
2 cups cooked quinoa (can use cooked rice if you don't have quinoa)
bunch green onions, chopped
small bunch cilantro, chopped
1 jar of salsa (medium sized)

1 can of refried beans
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or any cheese you like)

Cook the chicken breasts in a frying pan. I cooked them 3/4 of the way, then took them out of the pan to cut them up into chunks. I then put the chunks back into the pan to finish cooking. When I returned them to the pan I added the chopped pepper, frozen corn and salsa. I covered the pan to let the chicken finish cooking and to cook the peppers and corn.

Once this was all cooked, I added 1/2 of the green onions, quinoa and cilantro to the chicken mixture. Mix well. Put this in a casserole dish. Spoon out the refried beans and spread on top of the chicken/quinoa mixture. It sometimes is not that easy to spread so you will have to work at it. Once it is spread, sprinkle on the cheese and then the remaining green onions on top of that.

Bake at 400 for about 20-25 minutes. The refried beans should be all bubbly on top - delicious.

Serve with sour cream or plain yogurt if you like!
Enjoy.


Vegetarian option: substitute tofu for chicken.

Chicken and Black Bean Casserole

Chicken and Black Bean Casserole

This recipe uses the leftover chicken and potatoes from yesterday's roasted chicken recipe.

Slice up potatoes and place them in the bottom of a casserole dish. (You may want to put a bit of oil or non-stick spray in the bottom to ease clean up.)

In a separate bowl add:

cooked chicken, chopped up into bite sized pieces (I had about 1.5 cups leftover)
one tomato chopped up into bite sized pieces
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed (important to rinse to get rid of the sodium)
1/3 cup of salsa - or more if you like salsa
3/4 cup of frozen corn (or can of corn) - optional

Mix these ingredients together and pour over the potatoes

Top with grated cheddar cheese

Bake at 350 for 25 minutes or until heated through.