Tomatillo & Avocado Salsa Verde V* GF**

The perfect match for Garlic & Lime Vegan Tostadas

I love shopping at a small Mexican Market near my home. I walked in today and noticed that everything had changed inside and quickly learned that they were under new management. Right in front of my eyes was their amazing meat showcase. The man behind the case wasted no time in trying to tempt me into buying some of their tantalizing marinated thinly sliced beef (which is why I usually go there in the first place). Just as I was starting to salivate, there it was …. The biggest ugliest cow head, or Cabeza I have ever seen in my life! Actually, I can’t say that I have ever seen just the head of a cow before, ever…eeeeek. He said, “oh, Senoria, you must try it, it’s delicious”. To which I replied, “he’s looking at me, and I can’t eat anything that is looking at me” “oh, no… he is not looking at you, he winking at you”. At that point, I pulled out the Vegan card and kindly asked…”where’s the tomatillos?” To which I bought a pound, headed home and made this sauce …..

Save a cow head today and make this tangy and tasty Tomatillo Salsa Verde instead…

Tomatillo & Avocado Salsa Verde

Ingredients:

1 pound tomatillos, husked

½ jalapeno pepper, seeds and all

4-8 cloves garlic (the more the better)

½ lime, squeezed

½ avocado

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. Place tomatillos in a medium saucepan, and bring to a boil over high heat for about 10 minutes.

2. Drain water, and carefully place tomatillos inside a blender with remaining ingredients. Place cover on blender and pulse about 4-6 times. Once pulsed, turn blender on high speed until ingredients are smooth and creamy

*Vegan

**Gluten Free

Garlic and Lime Vegan Tostadas

Garlic and Lime Vegan Tostadas

Now, let me get one thing straight.... I am not a Vegan.... Well kind of... I guess I am what I like to call a temporary Vegan. I always said that I would be a vegan except for the fact that I love the taste of meat and cheese. But for health reasons and as hubby and I are rounding a corner, & pushing the big 30, 40, or 50 (I will let you guess), we are ... dare I say.. eating an all veggie diet. And I mean ALL VEGGIE. (except for when I cheat and eat prepackaged pecan snack crackers).... Did I just say that out loud?

You got it; we are drinking green smoothies in the morning, and mixing and matching lots of vegetables all day long. The truth is that we do seem to have more energy. So, here comes the shocker.... Are you sitting down?

I have not had one cookie, slice of cake, pie, or sweetbread for three weeks. Yes, ME the queen of dessert, the princess of pie , the "let's have cake for breakfast"....yes, the woman who would rather have dessert than air, is not eating dessert!!! I can't believe I am still alive for heaven's sakes!!! What do I do? I eat fruit instead. I know, I know, I always said that fruit is not dessert. But for me at the moment it temporarily is.

At this point you must be thinking ...."eating nothing but Veggies seems crazy", but if hubby and I can do it, than you can at least share in our feast and try a Tostada or two. And the next thing you know you will be drinking spinach for breakfast.

But for heaven saves, whatever you do, don't go overboard and give up dessert.

Ingredients:

Corn tortillas

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups fresh or frozen corn

1 sweet onion finely minced

1 small red and green pepper, seeded and diced

2 heads garlic, unpeeled

Carne Asada Seasoning to taste

White pepper, to taste

3 limes

3-4 baked potatoes, skins removed and cubed

½ head cabbage, thinly sliced

½ Bunch cilantro leaves chopped

2 ripe avocados, sliced

2-3 roma tomatoes, diced

Preparation:

1. Place olive oil, corn, ½ of the onion, and red and green peppers in a large pan and fry until mixture begins to brown about (10-15 minutes).

2. Stir in minced garlic and the juice of 1 lime and begin adding the carne asada salt, and white pepper to taste. Turn heat to off position and cover

3. In a small bowl, mix minced onion, cilantro, and juice of ½ lime together.

4. Starting with a corn tortilla on the bottom, place a spoonful of potatoes, sliced avocados, corn mixture, cabbage, cilantro mixture. Top with tomatoes, and serve with ¼ lime wedges.

Last Minute Olive Oil Kettle Corn

Last Minute Olive Oil Kettle Corn

“Hey mom, can you make a treat for me to take to my Young Women’s group tonight”, “ Sure honey, what time do you need to be there?” , “In 15 minutes!”. Okay, can’t bake, don’t have any pre-packaged anything in my house, fruit? Not unless I want to make my daughter look bad. So…. Hmmm… what can I pull off in ten minutes? “ Can you make some popcorn ?”. "I can do better than that sweetie pie, much better".

And so it was… A delicious kettle corn whipped up at the last minute and I have to say…”salty, sweet, loving heavenly crunch". What a yummy treat! You really gotta try this one for a last minute, gotta have a treat.

Hey, it worked for me :)

Last Minute Olive Oil Kettle Corn

Ingredients:

1/3 cup white popcorn kernels

3 Tablespoons EVOO

2 Tablespoons Butter (optional)

½ cup cane sugar

Sea salt to sprinkle

Preparation:

1. Toss the EVOO in a large pot (you must have a fitting lid made of glass), and toss the popcorn in.

2. Heat over a medium/high flame until the popcorn starts popping. When the bottom of the pot is covered with popped kernels, very carefully open the pot and pour in sugar (Warning: this is scary, because some of the popping corn will escape.

3. The popping will start to slow a bit and that’s normal. When popping picks up, drop the flame to medium/low. With the cover still on, move the pot over the flame with a back and forth motion.

4. Continue moving pot until popping slows down. Quickly remove from heat as the sugar continues cooking and will easily burn.

5. Stir in melted butter and sprinkle with salt.

Extreme Lemon Sugar Cookie

Extreme Lemon Sugar Cookie

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade right?

Not so fast missy!

Although I love a nice tall glass of lemonade as much the next guy, there is so much more to lemons (and life) than just plain old lemonade. For example…

Did you also know that lemons:

Are the top source of citric acid

Packed with vitamin C

Act as a natural laxative (the juice of one lemon blended with one egg yolk)

Fresh lemon juice has only 4 calories

Are a natural therapy for treating fever?

When heated, creates salicylic acid, which is a natural pain reliever.

Are excellent thirst quencher

A natural insect repellent

Lighten hair color in the sun

Are an natural body detoxifier

Fruits like apples and pears from going brown

Have a delicious and soothing aroma

Add incredible flavor to baked goods

Lemon tips

When needing only a few drops of lemon juice, prick one end with a fork and squeeze the desired amount.

Lemon juice can be frozen for up to 6 month and still taste fresh. To freeze, place juice in ice cube trays.

When a recipe calls for fresh squeezed lemons, squeeze upside down to avoid seeds from dropping into your recipe.

To extend the shelf life of a lemon, keep them in your refrigerator in a clean jar, cover them with cold water and seal the jar well.

And …

A couple of useless facts about lemons:

There are 18 varieties of lemons worldwide

On his second voyage, Christopher Columbus brought the first lemons (and lemon trees) to America.

So, when life gives you lemons go ahead and make lemonade…….

You might also want to make my amazing lemon sugar cookies

Extreme Lemon Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:

⅔ cup pure olive oil

1 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

2½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons lemon zest (one large lemon)

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2¼ cups flour (whole wheat pastry flour works well)

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup additional sugar for rolling

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Coat cookie sheets

with olive oil cooking spray.

2. In mixer bowl add olive oil, sugar, egg,

vanilla, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Blend

until smooth.

3. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, and

salt. Mix until well blended.

4. Drop by teaspoonfuls or by small size cookie

scoop into sugar and roll until well coated.

Place on prepared cookie sheets.

5. Bake 8 minutes, cool on wire racks, pucker up, and enjoy!!!

If you want to get really spunky...Why not dust them with powdered sugar?

© Micki's Kitchen- Micki Sannar 2011

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