Guests for Dinner: Mexican Night {Recipes #80-82}

I love having dinner with friends!

Our first apartment is tiny {been wondering why there aren't any pictures? ;)} so we haven't had very many people over.. but each time we do we have so much fun hosting!

Our good friends Kendra and Nate had us over to their first house earlier in the fall so we returned the gesture by having them over for a Mexican Fiesta and Card Night. Of course neither the Mexican "theme" nor the Card Night part had been determined prior to the week. It worked out well though, and we had lots of fun catching up with them!

I decided to make several recipes from Pioneer Woman's cookbooks. I made Tequila Lime Chicken & Mexican Rice and then I made up my own Black Bean recipe.

We also started the night out with my FAVORITE guacamole recipe and chips. Always a hit! It's SO good!

Mexican Black Beans

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Canola oil

1 Tsp. minced garlic

1/4 cup or less of finely chopped onion

2 Cans of black beans, mostly drained

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp. garlic salt

1/2 tsp. cajun seasoning

1) Put the oil, garlic and onion in a sauce pan over medium-high heat. Saute the garlic and onion until the onion is translucent. Add the drained black beans with a bit of the canned liquid. Add the spices to taste or as recipe states. Cook until warmed through. Serve with your favorite Mexican dish or as I did with Pioneer Woman's recipes!

What is your favorite meal for entertaining?    

All for now,

Alexandra

Recipe #11: Blackened Chicken Nachos & #12 Guacamole

Generally I am not a huge fan of nachos.

Or chips and salsa. 

I LOVE salsa... just not with chips. Especially not restaurant chips.

But for some reason this nacho recipe sounded good, and it turned out that "good" is an understatement.

Blackened Chicken Nachos 

{Borrowed and Enjoyed from The First Real Kitchen Cookbook by Megan and Jill Carle}

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

1 T. Cajun seasoning

1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts (2-3)

2 large tomatoes

tortilla chips (13 oz)

pickled jalapeno slices

4 cups cheddar cheese {or jack or Mexican blend...}

*I think I would add some black beans!*

1) Preheat oven to 350 F.

2) Put Cajun seasoning on a plate and dredge {i.e. rub on chicken, or dip chicken in} the chicken in it until fully covered.

3) Heat frying pan with oil, or non-stick pan w/o oil on high heat and add chicken. Cooking for 1 minute on each side. Transfer to baking sheet/tray and bake for 20 minutes.

4) Let chicken cool and then cut into cubes or chunks.

5) Halve, seed and cut the tomatoes into pieces.

6) Spread some chips on the pan. Top with chicken, tomato, jalapeno and cheese. Repeat.

7) Bake for 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted. 

The chicken was FANTASTIC! The Cajun seasoning made all of the difference. :) These nachos were great!!!

Guacamole  

Ingredients: 

1 ripe avocado {dark skin, has give when you poke it}*

2 cloves of garlic

1 lime {juice}

1 small tomato

sea salt and ground pepper

1 T. cilantro

salsa and/or sour cream on the side

1) Pit avocado and scoop out insides into a bowl. 

2)Finely chop garlic and add to avocado.

3) Cut tomato into pieces and add to avocado.

4) Add lime juice and season with sea salt and ground pepper.

5) Chop cilantro into small pieces and add.

6) Stir.

Enjoy!

*tip* avocado not ripe? Put in a paper bag overnight to speed up the process.

This is not my favorite guacamole recipe {the one I always use} but it ended up being very good!

Serve all together with salsa and sour cream!

What is your favorite nacho topping?

All for now,

Alexandra