34
I was pleasantly surprised by the response I received from my Clueless in the Kitchen post. I have several new recipes to try out and was anxious to get started.
This bean salad recipe is from the fabulous Kirsten. She's a friend from high school that I've recently reconnected with on Facebook and by reading her wonderful blog From Inside to Outside. Check it out people, it's good stuff and is what inspired me to start my own blog.
My good friend Kirsten.
Our story begins with a text from Jim saying he's going to pick up the kids. This little time saver made it possible for me to stop at the store to pick up the ingredients we didn't have (all but one - remember my fridge is empty). I called Gracie on the way home and asked if she wanted to help me cook and she squealed with delight. I told her to go find her apron and she promptly dropped the phone to complete her mission.
My lovely photographer Gracie greeting me on my arrival. That big old dog in the back is Maggie.
When Jacob saw that there was fun to be had he wanted in on the action too.
My intention was to make fish stick tacos and use the bean salad in the tacos but as any mom can tell you - "you can stuff your good intentions in a sack mister." Jacob didn't want fish stick tacos and Gracie had already declared she wouldn't like the bean salad.
Jim threw a few fish sticks in the oven anyway and then Gracie and I got busy making the bean salad.
I'm a recent convert to guacamole - love it. I've never bought an avocado before so I did a little homework on YouTube to find out how to cut them up. Turns out it's super easy.
I think the kid's favorite part was watching me put the knife in the avocado seed and pull it out. Right away Jacob wanted to plant it. I said we could but I think they were thrown away.
The kids show me what they think of the avocado.
I fell in love with fresh cilantro when I got a salsa recipe from my old co-worker Chris. I love this stuff and it smell so yummy. The kids wanted to check out what I was smelling.
I proudly present bean salad.
Kirsten was right, it was super easy to make. It also was very pretty. I hadn't planned on eating with the fam since I would be heading to Zumba in 30 minutes, but I had to give it a try. I had bought some Boston Butter lettuce because I thought it looked cute and I made a little salad for me and Jacob topped with the bean salad and some salsa.
It's a rule in our house that you have to try what's put on your plate so no one was getting out of this one. Here's our thumb review.
Jim is up first. He has simple tastes. He would be happy with cereal and Cheetos on most nights. Result: sideways thumb
He said it would be good with sausage in it. (FYI - this is his standard response when trying new recipes. He amuses himself.)
Second up is Gracie. She is my picky eater. Unless it's made of cheese she's not interested. It took a lot of effort to get her to try it. Result: thumbs down (I'm not surprised)
When I looked over at her later, this is what I found:
Up next is Jacob. He's my adventurous eater. I was a little concerned that he didn't like it at first but ... Result: thumbs up
And finally I try it out.
Result: big thumbs up
I really liked it and it turns out it was a good snack to eat before Zumba. I had a good level of energy and didn't feel full during class.
When I got home I ate some more. I really like it was salsa and on a salad. I'm new to garbanzo beans and liked the texture of those beans together with the corn. I thought the avocado added a lot of flavor and of course I loved the cilantro.
I should have tried to figure out the Weight Watchers points but I didn't think about it. I imagine it's pretty low since it's mostly veggies and fruit (I learned that avocado is a fruit from watching the YouTube video). The recipe made a big bowl of the stuff so it's something I could make easily and add to salads or eat as pre-workout snacks to replace my normal pb&j snack (higher in WW points).
So my first Clueless in the Kitchen experiment was a success.
Here's the count: Thumbs up - 2 Thumbs sideways - 1 Thumbs down - 1
Here's the recipe: Do you like beans? If you do, this is wicked easy, healthy, and if you don't like a straight bean salad, you could use this as a burrito mix or something like that:
We put it over a leafy salad and threw in some grilled chicken--topped with some hot tomato salsa.
Juice from 1 lime Chopped green onions (4 or so) 2 cans garbanzo beans (rinsed) 1 can black beans (rinsed) handful of chopped fresh cilantro 1-2 chopped avocado 1 chopped green pepper (or orange, red, yellow) 1 cup corn if you like salt and pepper 2 tblsp Olive oil mix it up, chill it, eat it.
Thanks again Kirsten for the recipe.
Me and Kirsten circa 1996. I think this was the last time I saw her - it was our friend Maureen's 21 birthday I believe.
It's not too late I'm still looking for healthy recipes to review. Post them in the comments below.
Zumba Corner I love when people try out Zumba so today's Zumba shout out goes to Beth's mother-in-law for coming to Kim's class last night - and in the second row even! I chatted with her after class and I think we figured out that her family owns the barber shop where Jim and Jacob both had their first haircuts.
