As you may have read, my last dinner party was a little overly-ambitious. So when we decided to have a few friends over for dinner a couple of weeks ago, I decided to scale back my expectations (and my effort!). I also had scheduled drinks with my buddy from college, Mike Levy, right smack in the middle of the day, so I couldn't afford to have a broken-pasta-machine-snafu this time around! So for our dinner with the Heavy's (including Heav's sister, Audra) and the Billingers, I mean Davies, we made a great little fiesta spread of homemade salsa, homemade guac, carne asada, marinated tilapia, marinated portobellos, grilled veggies, black bean and corn salad and baked apple chimichangas for dessert! Jen also made a kick-ass sangria, but you'll have to ask her for the recipe (and I apologize in advance for the headache that comes as a result the next morning!).
HOMEMADE SALSA
Ingredients:
28 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chiles
1 jalapeno (or more if you like it really spicy!)
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (you should probably use cilantro, but I HATE cilantro, so I don't use it!)
1 medium onion, diced
salt and pepper to taste
Directions: Place all ingredients into blender and blend to desired consistency. Enjoy with chips!
HOMEMADE GUACAMOLE
Ingredients:
4 ripe avocados
1 lemon
1 packet of that awesome guac mix from the grocery store produce aisle
Directions: Follow the instructions on the packet (hey, I said I was lowering expectations!). Serve with chips or raw veggies!
CARNE ASADA
Ingredients:
3 lbs. flank steak
1/3 cup white vinegar
1/2 cup soy sauce
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 limes, juiced
1/2 cup oil (you can omit this if you want-- it makes the meat a little more moist, but it's fine without for far fewer calories)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
Directions: Marinate in a plastic Ziploc bag overnight. Grill to desired done-ness on an outdoor BBQ.
MARINATED TILAPIA
Ingredients:
1 lb tilapia
1 packet Taco Seasoning
Directions: Marinate overnight. Grill about 4 minutes on an outdoor BBQ. For portabellos, do the same (but not in the same bag as the fish-- that would be gross).
GRILLED VEGGIES
Ingredients:
4 medium zucchini
2 medium sweet onions
8-16 green onions
2 green bell peppers
2 red bell peppers
Directions: Slice all veggies to uniform size; place on grill tray and spray with cooking spray. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Grill until soft, about 5 minutes for zucchini, grilled onions and about 8 minutes for peppers and sweet onions.
CORN AND BLACK BEAN SALAD
Ingredients:
10 oz. frozen corn, defrosted
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 red onion, chopped
1 cup salsa
3 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste
Directions: Mix all ingredients and chill for at least 2 hours.
I'm not going to include the Apple Chimichangas recipe because it wasn't very good... but I'm workin' on it!
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