Three Layer Soft Tacos: Black Beans, Guacamole, Salsa

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black beans, caramelized onions, guacamole, honest tom's, lime valley mill, North Star Orchard, salsa, saveur, taco seasoning, tacos

There is a food cart in Center City Philadelphia called Honest Tom’s Taco Truck.  Their tacos are scrumptious…full of fresh ingredients, served in a nice warm corn (or flour) tortilla.  My favorite is the sweet potato taco with guacamole, but they are also well known for their fish tacos and their breakfast tacos.

Although we’ve made many tacos in our house, I wanted to recreate a more authentic taco – similar to Honest Tom’s and all the little Mexican restaurants/grocery stores we’ve frequented over the years.

Goodbye to the ground beef and cheese.

Hello to black beans with caramelized onions, tomatillo guacamole and homemade salsa on a soft and slightly warmed corn tortilla.

The kids love these, especially scooping up their toppings to fill their tortillas.

While these are easy to prepare, they take a little longer than a typical weeknight meal.  It helps to have an assistant or sous chef to split up the pieces!

I promise you:  they are so worth it!

from bottom:  black beans with caramelized onions, tomatillo guacamole, fresh salsa

My Three Layer Tacos feed two hungry adults and two hungry kids (approximately 8-10 tacos).

Layer One:  Black beans with caramelized onions

Start by caramelizing one big or two small sweet onions (or more if you want) with a little olive oil and sea salt on medium low heat.  When the onions have turned brown, add about two cups of black beans with more sea salt to taste and a little taco seasoning (I make my own, but you could use whatever brand you like best).

Layer Two:  Tomatillo Guacamole

We have been stocking up on tomatillos at the farmers market (thank you Lime Valley Mill Farm!) since my husband found this recipe for Guacamole Taquero (Taco Shop Guacamole) in a recent Saveur magazine.  We follow the recipe, except we roast the tomatillos before processing.  I do this ahead of time, when I think of it, and keep them in the fridge until I’m ready to use them.  If you choose to roast them, you could do it at the same time you start the onions since they take about the same time to caramelize as the tomatillos take to roast (approximately 20 minutes at 400 degrees).

Layer Three:  Salsa

For many years, I had a hard time combining ingredients to give me the perfect salsa  or guacamole.  Maybe it just took practice, but now I am pretty comfortable throwing either of those together quickly.  For this salsa, I cut up two fresh tomatoes from North Star Orchard and tossed them in the bowl.  Then added about half of a small onion, a small handful of cilantro, half a lime and a bunch of sea salt (again to taste).  I let this sit for about 10 minutes and drained any extra water off.

How to Warm Corn Tortillas

You could warm your tortillas in an oven, but we wanted them soft and pliable so we chose to use the microwave.  Take a damp cloth napkin (use damp paper towels, if you prefer) and wrap the tortillas in it.  Microwave for 30 seconds. I always buy organic corn tortillas…no GMO corn in this house! Next up…making my own corn tortillas.  See how we made flour tortillas here.

I hope you enjoy these tacos as much as we do!

What are your favorite taco fillings?

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Chia Hemp Breakfast Pudding

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black chia, breakfast, chia pudding, choosing raw, choosing raw chia, choosing raw chia pudding, ezekiel sprouted english muffins, gena hamshaw, gena hamshaw chia, green and crunchy chia caramel dip, healthy snack, North Star Orchard, nutiva chia, white chia

Chia Hemp Breakfast Pudding (the little black specs are the hemp seeds)

I am always looking for quick and easy breakfast ideas to add to my repertoire.  I tend to rely on the old standbys of oatmeal (both steel cut oats and rolled oats) and sprouted grain muffin (I use Ezekiel) or homemade wheat toast with nut butter and jam or honey, always with a side of freshly made juice or smoothie.

As I consider new everyday breakfast options, it’s ideal for them to fit into these categories:

• fast
• few steps
• easy to commit to memory
• adaptable

I have wanted to try a chia pudding for a while.  Having used black chia seeds in smoothies and other dips (like the fabulous chia caramel dip from Green and Crunchy’s Sheri), I loved their nutrition profile (high in omega 3s, omega 6s and fiber) and cool gelling action. (Yes, I am talking the same chia seeds from the 80s ch-ch-ch-chia commercials.  Surprising, isn’t it!?)

Recently, I saw white chia seeds used in a pancake recipe by one of my favorite vegan cookbook authors, Dreena Burton.  So, I ordered a pack of those intending to make her pancakes.  But, after finding I didn’t have all the ingredients, I sought to use them elsewhere and ended up making this breakfast pudding (or any time of day pudding!).

Chia Hemp Breakfast Pudding (adapted from the back of the Nutiva White Chia package)

• 3/4 cup almond milk, vanilla and unsweetened (you can substitute other milks, but make sure you add a dash of vanilla extract if the milk doesn’t have it in it)
• 2 T white chia seeds (I use Nutiva that I bought through vitacost; a little pricey, but the bag will last a long time)
• 2 T hemp seeds (I use Nutiva organic shelled hemp seeds, purchased through amazon or vitacost)
• 1/2 apple, thinly sliced and diced (North Star Orchard apples are our favorite)
• 1 tsp. maple syrup (or other sweetener to taste)

Step one:  Get all the ingredients ready.  Combine the almond milk and chia seeds and let stand for 20-ish minutes (soaking time is not exact, but the longer you let it sit, the firmer the pudding).  This is a good time to shower or dress the kids.

Step two:  Add all the other ingredients and mix well.  The pudding should be thick with little puffed up seeds.  The texture will be similar to tapioca pudding.

Here are additional chia recipes from the Nutiva web site.  And, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the very simple chia pudding recipe that Gena of Choosing Raw features on her blog (with lots of great dietary info since she is a nutritionist!).

Have you tried chia pudding and, if so, what is your favorite recipe?

Savoring Summer: Zucchini Pasta

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benriner, FIMBY, North Star Orchard, savoring summer, spiralizer, zucchini

I am always looking for different ways to present vegetables to my family.  I read a lot of whole foods blogs, many of them written by raw food enthusiasts, and have seen people using a spiralizer to make vegetable pasta.  As a gift to my husband last year, I bought this spiralizer (he had suggested it would be great to make veggie pasta for work, but I knew we would all eat it!).

Spiralizers are also called benriners and are offered in a range of prices.  I chose one that removes the center from the vegetables because that tends to be the most watery part.  With the center removed, the long strands of veggies (especially cucumber pasta) last longer in the refrigerator.

This past weekend, we used our first local zucchini from North Star Orchard.  It was a beautiful, large one with zebra-like stripes (sorry, no before pictures).  Marc turned this zucchini into long strands of pasta using our spiralizer.

The kids loved their veggie pasta complete with a little zesty “bleu cheese” miso vegan dressing.

This post has been inspired by the Savoring Summer series over at FIMBY, where Renee is blogging three times a week showcasing the beauty of summer in her life and has invited us to the do the same.

If you are celebrating the 4th of July this weekend or Canada Day, enjoy!

Easy 2-Ingredient Homemade Applesauce (Cooked Version)

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apples, applesauce, Gold Rush, high fructose corn syrup, immunity poster, North Star Orchard, preservatives, vegan

Have you ever made homemade applesauce?

The very first time I made applesauce was last fall and I was shocked at how easy it was to make (and really embarrassed that it took me over 35 years and two kids to figure this out).

Immediately after my first batch, I thought of five reasons why we should continue to make our own applesauce.

1.  Apples from a local orchard make the tastiest applesauce.  Here’s an example of the difference between jarred and homemade applesauce:  you can’t get applesauce made from Gold Rush apples grown by North Star Orchard in any supermarket!

2.  Apples are so nutritious (they are one of the 18 foods featured on the kidoing! Immunity Poster).  We snack on them raw every day, but if my kids want variety, applesauce is satisfying.  We also add applesauce to many of our yummy vegan baked goods.

3.  My kids can take part in and see one of their favorite foods made in our own kitchen.  To me, this is priceless.

Getting Kids Doing! Tip:  My kids choose the apples the want me to use when I ask them to find me medium-sized apples.  Older children, with supervision, may be able to cut the apples.  And, of course, kids of all ages can be the taste testers along the way!

4.  The aroma of applesauce cooking in our house is heavenly.  It smells just like an apple pie baking, without all that work – or the sugar!

5.  Homemade applesauce can be personalized to suit your tastes.  You can choose:

• the apples you want to use
• whether or not to use any spices (cinnamon, star anise, chinese five spice)
• how chunky or smooth to make your applesauce
• whether or not to add a sweetener
• if you want to add other fruits such as pears to make apple-pear sauce

Most importantly:  Homemade applesauce does not come with any artificial colors or artificial flavors, high fructose corn syrup or preservatives.

OK – so, I’ll stop with the yada, yada, yada and give you my version of homemade applesauce.

kidoing!’s Easy 2-Ingredient Homemade Applesauce (Cooked Version)*

4 medium-sized apples

Cinnamon (or preferred spice)

Step 1:

Wash, cut and core the apples into roughly one inch chunks and add them to your saucepan.  I do not peel them because my apples are either organic or from a local orchard that grows apples without pesticides, but this is up to you.

Step 2:

Add a sprinkle of cinnamon…

and 1/4 c of water to a saucepan (and please excuse my unmanicured, weathered-looking fingers!)…

Cook on medium low for about 20 minutes until the apples are really soft.  Make sure you are close by so you can inhale that sweet delicious aroma! They will be soft and look like this when done.

Step 3:

Transfer apples and juices to blender or food processor (or use an immersion blender in the saucepan).  Blend until your desired consistency.  Some folks like chunky; others like smooth.  It’s your choice.

My kids like their applesauce really smooth.  Remember when I said I leave the peel on? This is how smooth it gets – with the peel on! You can’t even tell, and we are getting the fiber from the skin.

Here’s our finished product!

I did include a lot of pictures illustrating the steps, however the actual prep work takes about 10 minutes.

I hope you try making homemade applesauce.  If you do, stop back to tell me how you like it!

*This recipe is for cooked applesauce.  Some of you may want to keep your apples raw, so keep stay tuned for my raw applesauce recipe.