Your new secret for easy Mexican food *GIVEAWAY*
Hello everybody!! I've been a little quiet here and on the 'gram due to being so busy with house renovations and moving. Let me just say, redoing a house is not for the faint of heart. I've had a few breakdowns the past two weeks, but we are still trucking along and taking everything in stride. I can't wait to show you guys the before and after pictures of what we have done!
But in the meantime, I wanted to share with you all a new product I've found that has made meal prep easier. When we were driving back and forth to work on the house every night, I had to make quick meals earlier in the day and then bring it to the house to reheat in the microwave. Quick and easy was the name of the game. That's where these sauces came in handy.
Awhile back, the owner of Molli sauces, Rodrigo Sales, contacted me asking me to try his sauces. He is the sweetest man and want to do something for all of YOU. He wants to give one of you lucky readers a pack of three of his sauces plus "Mexico, the Cookbook." All you have to do is comment below with your favorite Mexican dish or comment on my IG post.
I've made several dishes with his sauces, this cheesy beef and rice Mexican casserole and a chicken enchilada soup. Any of the sauces will do, so pick whichever one sounds most appealing to your tastebuds. I know I should have included the jar in the picture, but I took them after I created the dish, which means the jar was empty. 🤦🏼♀️ Reason number 183902483 of why I probably shouldn't blog 😂
Anywho, you should give these sauces a try. They're full of veggies and flavor and a super easy way to add a lot of flavor to a meal. So what are you waiting for? Comment below for a chance to win!!
Easy Mexican Beef and Rice Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 cup yellow onion, diced
- 5 cups rice (or quinoa)
- 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1 tsp garlic
- 1 jar Molli sauce of choice + 1.5 cup water, divided
- 1.5 cup shredded cheese (Mexican, Pepperjack, Colby Jack, whatever you prefer!)
- 1 lb ground beef or turkey (or use can black beans for plant based)
- Toppings: green onion, plain Greek yogurt, cilantro, avocado, tortilla chips
Instructions
- Cook onion, bell pepper, ground meat, and garlic in a large skillet until meat is browned and veggies are soft. In a 9X12 casserole dish, combine cooked meat and veggies with jar of Molli sauce, 1 cup water, and rice (or quinoa). Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and stir in 3/4 cup cheese, and 1/2 cup water (if needed). Bake another 30 minutes with foil on. Uncover, top with rest of cheese and broil for 2-3 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.
- Top with plain Greek yogurt, green onions, cilantro, avocado, etc and serve with chips!
In case you missed the link about, here is the link to learn about Molli sauces: http://www.mollisauces.com/
We bought a house!! + easy dinners lately
Phew!! Life has been a bit of a whirlwind lately! We have been saving up to a buy a house for the past few years and with our apartment lease ending at the end of October, we decided it was the perfect time to buy a house. Let me tell you, looking at homes is a blast, the process of buying a home is not. Talk about stressful!! And redoing a home...even less fun and more stressful. BUT, we own a home!! And when we are done with it, it will be a great place for us. I plan on doing several before and after posts for those of you who are interested.
This is it!! It needs some landscaping, but I think it has GREAT potential.
We bought a 1950s home that is 3 bed, 1 bath and in a pretty central location (I'm so excited about living 5-10 minutes from the majority of our friends, church, and delicious restaurants). With it being over 60 years old, it's got some quirky characteristics. Some of those characteristics give it charm and others give it "character" 😂. We are currently in the process of redoing the hardwood floors, painting all of the trim and walls, and knocking out the wall between the kitchen and dining room. Eventually we will have a completely redone kitchen (homegirl needs adequate storage and countertop space!!!). Unfortunately, when we move in, we won't have a working kitchen because the kitchen cabinets won't be ready in time. Yes, it's frustrating, and I don't like the idea of moving into a half-ready house, but it is what it is, so we're going to make the most out of it.
In the meantime, we are getting as much done as possible before we move in. We've had pretty busy weekends with various family functions and weddings, so we've been forced to mainly work in the evenings after work. As a result, dinners have had to be easy. It's been a bit of a stretch, but it's good to get out of our food ruts and to try new things. So here are a few of the dinners we've had recently with varying degrees of prep time and difficulty. Thank goodness for tupperware, a microwave, and paper plates/plastic silverware!!
Deli bakery bread, avocados, and rotisserie chickens have been my best friend lately. You'll see variations of these ingredients throughout. The above meal was an Italian salad kit (that was SUPER delish!) that had greens, sundried tomatoes, parmesan, black pepper and a dressing. Topped it with rotisserie chicken and served it with a whole grain loaf topped with avocado.
Taco soup I made earlier that day topped with cheese and avocado and served with blue corn chips. I know this is weird, but I was craving taco soup mainly for the yellow hominy, and I didn't even end up finding any for this 😩 😂
Mac and cheese from Aldi (LOVE that place!) served with rotisserie chicken and veggies I roasted earlier.
A new Papa Murphy's pizza that was having a deal for $9. I wouldn't get it again...it wasn't all that filling and it just wasn't that tasty. Served with a homemade version of the Italian salad kit from the first picture.
Spring roll bowl: farro, cabbage, red bell pepper, carrots, mango, avocado, rotisserie chicken, shrimp, cilantro, green onion and a Thai peanut sauce. Suuuper fresh. Mmmmm.
This meal was not a win. These chicken sausages were on sale at Sprouts, but the casing got tough in the microwave. I served it with steamable vegetables that were HORRIBLE. No wonder people think vegetables are gross. Thankfully that everything seed topped bread was great. I definitely got seconds of it and we used it for multiple meals.
Farro and a pork and green bean stirfry that I made earlier in the day. Meh, it was okay. I don't plan on making it again anytime soon.
Cauliflower Italian nachos and the everything seed bread with more avocado. I happen to love roasted cauliflower and saw cauliflower nachos and thought it would be right down my alley. I think it would have been even more delicious with a meltier cheese and feta, but I used what we had. I really enjoyed it but will definitely need to make them more substantial in the future.
Pumpkin chili 😍 with cheese, avocado, plain Greek yogurt, a squeeze of mustard, and fritos. Fall, frito chili pie, and me were all MFEO. This chili had red bell pepper, mushrooms, onion beef, tomatoes, canned pumpkin and a bunch of spices that included cocoa powder and cinnamon. It's SO fall and super yummy.
So there you have it! I hope this gives you some inspiration for easy meals that can be made, transported, and reheated with minimal prep. When we're living in our new house without a stove, I'm gonna have to get super creative, so I'll be sharing what I come up with during that time.
Hope you're enjoying this fall season!!
Homemade Strawberries and Coconut Cream Ice Cream
It's SUUUUMMER TIME!!!
I don't know about you, but it is getting HOT here. Like I'm starting to sweat. And it makes me irritable...But really, I'm just being a wimp. It's only in the 90s, and that is only the beginning of what's to come. 😩 Here in Oklahoma it easily gets up into the 100s during the summer. How in the world am I going to be able to handle it if I already think it's hot?! (side note: I wanted to be able to use a phrase to describe how hot I think it is, but I know my mom reads my blog and wouldn't approve, so I decided to sensor it out. This led me to googling phrases/idioms for it being hot outside. I didn't find any I liked or that would be appropriate, but there were some funny ones...while I was on this rabbit hole, I saw something that reminded me of the summer scene with Olaf on Frozen. I'm putting it at the end of this post...you're welcome.)
In order to handle this hot weather, I have a very good solution--ice cream and iced lattes all day (and a swimming pool). And I've been doing a pretty good job of this so far. 💪🏻 I've tried out several new coffee shops in my area and Isaac and I have been eating ice cream at home fairly regularly.
Fun story, my grocery store had a freezer section clearance where everything was 99 cents. Ya'll I got Talenti gelato for LESS THAN A DOLLAR!! We're talking about the gelato that is at least $5.00 a pint. It was the best deal ever. And it is the most delicious ice cream I've ever had--peanut butter pretzel. I recreated it and will be sharing later....😉
Anyways, when it's hot I want something refreshing. And strawberries, berries, and citrus fruits just scream "refreshing" to me. Cue this homemade strawberries and coconut cream ice cream. I've combined full fat coconut milk with Bolthouse farms strawberry and banana juice, honey/maple syrup, greek yogurt, and fresh strawberries.
This technically is vegan (if you use maple syrup instead of honey) and a good choice for people who don't handle dairy very well, but I really chose coconut milk because it's uber creamy and it seems easier to me than the traditional method of making homemade ice cream. I don't know why, but it just seems super intimidating to me so I've never even attempted it...
I used my Cuisinart ice cream maker (which is the BEST) to make this, but I've heard that you can make ice cream by placing the ice cream mixture in a container in the freezer and stirring every 30 minutes to incorporate air into it.
I'd love to hear what you're doing to stay cool!!
