Casandra's Guacamole

I don't know if it's the Mexican in me or what, but I always eat way more than my share when it comes to guacamole. There's lots of different ways you can make guacamole, but I this my recipe... well... I guess it's my dad's recipe, but I made a few changes :) Also note, that when I make this I usually just eyeball how much of something to put in and use my taste buds, so the measurements may not be exact.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

2 medium/large avocados

1/2 ripe tomato (chopped)

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 tsp minced garlic

1/2 TBS cilantro (chopped)

1 small jalapeno (chopped--without the seeds)

1/2 green/red pepper (capsicum)

juice of a lime

salt and pepper to taste

Tortilla chips for scooping :)

Instructions:

Mash avocados in a bowl. Chop tomato, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, and pepper and add to bowl. Add garlic, lime juice, and salt and pepper. Stir together and grab those tortilla chips and enjoy! 

You might want to double if you are having a party or if you love guacamole as much as I do :)

Arroz con Pollo (Dominican Style)

One of my best friends is Dominican. She was my roommate in college and I loved it when she made her Arroz con pollo. I have been wanting to make it for quite some time now, but she is one of the people who is naturally a great cook. She just adds spices, tastes it, etc... so it was hard to get a recipe for this. She sent me this link and said that it's similar to how she makes it. I thought I would try it. The chicken was so good! The rice was alright, so I made a few changes.

Preparation Time: 25 minutes plus at least 1 hour marinating time
Cook Time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients:

4 lbs Chicken (I used 10 chicken legs)
2 cups long grain rice
3 cups water
1 green bell pepper (capsicum)
1 red bell pepper (capsicum)
1 onion
3 cloves of Garlic
1/2 cup fresh cilantro (coriander)
2 limes
2 Tbsp Spanish Olives
1 Tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
1 tsp Salt (for marinade)
1 tsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Oregano
2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
1/2 cup Vinegar
2 Tbsp Sugar

Instructions:

First you want to soak the chicken while you prepare the marinade. Put it in some water and 1/2 cup vinegar.

 Prepare the marinade by chopping up your ingredients and combining all the ingredients (peppers, onion, garlic, cilantro,  lime juice, Spanish Olives, Worcestershire Sauce, Salt, Pepper, Oregano, and chicken) in a Ziplock bag. Let it marinade for at least an hour. I ended up letting mine marinade for 2 nights because we got invited to dinner the night I was going to cook this.

When you're ready to cook. Heat the oil and sugar in a pot.

When it starts to caramelize and gets dark add just the chicken to the pot (Don't discard the marinade!)

 Cook the chicken for 10 minutes, then turn over to the other side and let cook until the juices have reduced down. You might have to gently stir every once in a while so the chicken doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.

Once your chicken is brown and cooked through (about 20-30 minutes), add the marinade to the pot. Lightly cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Remove the chicken from the pot and add 3 cups of water, 2 tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper. Let it come to a boil and add the rice. Once the rice has absorbed most of the water, cover and let it continue to cook on medium/low for 20-30 minutes.

The rice should be fluffy when you return to the pot. Return the chicken to the pot (on top of the rice), cover, and let it heat through for 5-10 minutes, then serve.

Rice Bowl

So remember how I really like Rumbi's? Well I wanted to make their rice bowl that I usually get. I found this recipe for some pork, used the Rumbi rice recipe and added veggies and Teriyaki sauce (bought from the store) and there you have it... instant rice bowl :)

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes

This meal can be as easy as you want it, or as hard. It's easiest if you use left over meat. Then all you have to do is cook the rice and veggies.

Ingredients:

Meat of choice
Rumbi rice (or white rice)
Vegetables
Sauce of choice

I used broccoli, onions, carrots, and red peppers (capsicum) for the veggies.

Instructions:

Start with your rice, add the meat and veggies, top with your sauce and you have a rice bowl. :)

Enjoy!

Dutch Oven Aussie Pizza

When we first got to Australia, our days would be really long that when we got in, I didn't really want to cook anything. So one nights we got on the phone and ordered a pizza. We decided to order an "Aussie Pizza" because we had never had it before. Turns out it's a pizza with egg and ham on it. We have made it a couple of times before just in the oven. At our family reunion last weekend, we had dutch oven pizza and that was on our minds! So we decided to make an Aussie pizza in the dutch oven.

Ingredients:

Shredded ham (or deli style ham and layer it)
2 Eggs whisked together
Cheese
Marinara Sauce
Pizza dough*

*I Love using this recipe, but you can go buy it or use your own recipe.

Instructions:

Spray dutch oven with pam

Place pizza dough in the bottom.

Layer with sauce, eggs, ham, and top with cheese. (You might notice from the picture that I did it backwards... that's because sometimes I forget what I am doing. Either way you do it, it tastes good, but it's better when put the eggs on the bottom).

Cook in dutch oven for 30 minutes at 375*F (About 14 cols)

Note: If you don't have a dutch oven or don't want to do it, simply follow the directions but put it on a pizza sheet or on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven at 500*F for 10-15 minutes.