Brinner South of the Border

First, I need to apologize for the long hiatus. I've been working crazy hours the past few weeks and have not had time to blog about all the tasty things I've been cooking. Needless to say, I've got a good one for you.

Back to food: 'brinner' is definitely one of my favorite things. If you don't know what brinner is, first, slap yourself in the face, then read this: BR(eakfast for d)INNER. Got it?

Brinner can take on any type of breakfast food, but I decided on this occasion to go with Mexican because, well, I love Mexican food.

First, for my side I wanted to make a sweet potato home fries recipe  from Cate's World Kitchen that I found via Pinterest. Unlike my usual MO, I actually stuck pretty closely to the recipe, besides one key difference. Here's the ingredients Kate recommends:

3 tbsp olive oil3 medium sweet potatoes (I guess they’re actually yams? The ones that are orange inside…), diced3 cups cooked black beans (or 2 cans), rinsed and drainedjuice of 2 limeszest of 1 lime1 tsp salt, dividedpinch or two cayenne1/4 cup chopped cilantro

I may or may not have accidentally bought yams. In my defense, they were right next to the sweet potatoes, they look really similar, and the labeling was confusing. That's right, I blame you, Acme Markets! Regardless they still had a really sweet flavor that worked well with the other flavors.

Not orange.

I diced them up and tossed them with some olive oil, salt and pepper and tossed them in the oven on a cookie sheet. I had to use two because my roommates and I really like potatoes. Also our cookie trays are baby-sized. Definitely need to do some kitchen supply shopping this summer.

I cooked them for probably about 30 to 40 minutes because I like my home fries crispy. Take them out every 10 to 15 minutes and shift them around though so they won't burn.

Plus one of them doesn't have edges. It's very strange.

While those are cooking up I zested the lime (I think I made that word up), squeezed the juice, and mixed it all together in a bowl with salt and cayenne pepper. I also added a little cumin cause I just love cumin.

Zesty!

 Once the potatoes are cooked, toss them in the juice mixture, add a can of black beans and through in some cilantro!

I want to eat this again!

The main course was also a Pinterest idea, this time from Food Beast: avocado eggs. It's actually one of the simplest things you could cook. Just cut the avocado in half, put an egg in the hole form each pit, and bake 'em!

 Just buy small eggs. Please, please buy small eggs. We only had large eggs and there were way too much whites to fit inside the avocado so they overflowed. It was way messier than I expected. But still delicious.

 Lastly I topped them with some salt, pepper, paprika and bacon bits.

 Get at me.

Sandwiches can be cool too

I'm a notorious homemade sandwich hater because I just find your typical ham and cheese painfully boring. But this week I decided to make a sandwich worth posting about. Like my mini roast beef sandwiches, this took only a tiny bit longer than a more plain sandwich but it was beyond worth it.

First off, browse your fridge for everything interesting you have. I usually try to pick up a few ingredients I love when I'm at the supermarket even if I don't have a specific recipe in mind so that I can do things like this. Avocados were on sale: now I've got some for a sandwich. Win!

I also recommend investing in some GOOD grainy mustard. French's yellow is okay but those extra few bucks make a difference.

Make it healthy: get some FRESH veggie toppings that you LOVE.

What's not to love about toppings that taste like they were picked this morning AND keep you healthy? 

Now for the obvious: put it all together.

I toasted my bread first for a little extra crunch and it was beyond worth the 30 second wait.

Yum, yum, yum. I already had dinner but I almost want to eat this too.

And the best part? I packed this little baby into a tuperware with a few cookies and ate outside to enjoy this beautiful weather. YOLO my friends.

Tex-mex Breakfast

I almost titled this post 'Mexican Breakfast,' but then I thought about it, and I don't want to insult the deliciousness that is real Mexican food by equating it with some salsa.

BUT that doesn't mean that I don't have a very fond place in my heart for tex-mex. Particularly when I'm craving some spicy flavors but don't want to make anything fancy, salsa hits the spot.

Which is exactly how I felt last weekend when I decided to make a breakfast sandwich and then get fancy and toss on some salsa (I do things like this all the time and my roommates act really shocked and impressed like I've actually made something gourmet. I think they're just being nice.)

I like my eggs poached so I heated up some water on medium in a frying pan.

Oooo, bubbles AND steam!

Try to crack the egg and lower it into the pan gently so the yoke doesn't break and you don't get splashed with hot water.

Meanwhile I toasted up some bread. The only sliced cheese we had in the fridge was muenster which is typically slower to melt (although delicious when it does) so I toasted the bread with the cheese on it.

Your eggs will be finished when all the whites are solidified and no longer clear.

Almost done! Take out the bread and put the eggs on, topping it with some salsa.

This is just what I happened to be craving at the moment, but definitely get creative with your food staples. It's like adding fun accessories to a simple, classic outfit, there's nothing wrong with the original, but that little something extra is what makes you remember it.

Your Mom's Chili

The title of this post is inspired by my roommate S who said that my chicken taco chili tasted like "home." Now that the weather's warming up I can't imagine everyone is as interested in comfort food as usual, but Mexican food is summery so dig in!

Crock pot meals are great cause you just need time. It's also great for me all my roomies have to eat a lot later when I'm cooking between work and my time-consuming, perfectionist cooking.

I found this recipe on Pinterest

and only edited it a little bit:

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped 
• 1 16-oz can black beans 
• 1 16-oz can kidney beans: Instead of kidney beans I used garbanzo (aka chick peas) cause kidney beans are yucky. 
• 1 8-oz can tomato sauce 
• 10 oz package frozen corn kernels 
• 2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes w/chilies: I couldn't find this so I used plain canned tomatoes and added 3 jalapenos 
• 1 packet taco seasoning: Also couldn't find this. Trader Joe's is weird. But I added a bunch of extra cumin and chili powder to make up for it as well as some garlic powder and red pepper flakes 
• 1 tbsp cumin 
• 1 tbsp chili powder 
• 24 oz (3-4) boneless skinless chicken breasts: I used thighs. DO THIS. Especially for a dish like this where everything's mixed up dark meat has much more flavor. AND it's cheaper! Yay! 
• chili peppers, chopped (optional) 
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

 

 

 

 

Really, you just dump it all (except the cilantro) into the crock pot and pat yourself on the back for being such a no-nonsense chef. Put the chicken pieces on top so you'll be able to find them later to shred them up.

 

After that it's a waiting game! Cook it on low for 10 hours or on high for 6 hours. Neither of those times worked for my time schedule so I cooked it for about 8 hours on low and then turned it up to high for about an hour once I got home from work. When I switched the time I also took all the chicken out, shredded it, and mixed it back in.

Once it's all done, mix in or top it with some fresh cilantro.

Lastly: just add cheese! Perfection.

This makes a TON of food so be prepared for tasty lunch leftovers!