Mexican Black Bean Salad

I was looking though one of my Southern Living cookbooks for side dishes to serve with dinner and I found this one.  While I was preparing it my husband told me more than once that it smelled great.  The combination of chopped onion and fresh tomatoes was filling the kitchen.  By the time dinner was served, anticipation was high.  Healthy, colorful, aromatic...I decided to give it a try before serving it.  Oh no!  How disappointing!  It was similar to a taco salad that I make, but it totally lacked flavor!  How could something with so many awesome ingredients not taste fantastic?  The dressing completely lacked flavor...I had to make modifications to the recipe since it didn't have quite that wow factor that I was looking for and, the green leaf lettuce couldn't stand up to the weight of the dressing and beans.  By that I mean, once tossed with the dressing, the lettuce didn't have any distinguishable flavor or texture.  I would use a hardier lettuce next time, like iceberg or a romaine/iceberg mix.  I want my lettuce to crunch when I bite into it, not fall flat.  To improve the dressing I added some medium salsa to it.  It saved the salad.  Below is my adapted version.  I would make it again using this version.

Here's the salad when tossed.

Here's the salad when served as a small side salad (not tossed).

Ingredients

• 1 (8-ounce) carton sour cream
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tbs taco seasoning
• 1/4 cup medium salsa 
• 1 head iceberg lettuce, shredded
• 2 cups (8 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup chopped purple onion
• 2 (15-ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• corn chips, slightly crushed
• 1 fresh lime, cut into large wedges, optional

Directions

1. Combine first 4 ingredients into a bowl, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour or overnight.
2. In a large bowl combine next 5 ingredients, toss with dressing.
3. Sprinkle with corn chips, serve immediately with a wedge of lime on the side.

Here's the original recipe from my cookbook.

Mini-Taco Salad Appetizer

Every Friday night is "Taco Friday" here at my house. A friend of mine has "Taco Tuesday" at her house and I thought the idea was so good that I decided to steal it for my family. Knowing what your family is going to eat one night out of every week means I only have to attempt to be creative six other nights of the week. And, who wouldn't want to eat their favorite meal once a week? It's one of my favorites, and since I cook 99% of the meals, the husband and son must eat it every week too. (Well, realistically, my son doesn't eat it. But maybe that will change one day).

We're not a very exciting family so the chances of us heading out on a Friday night are slim to none and tacos are a super fast dinner. We always have shredded cheddar on hand. I manage a restaurant for the closing shift on Wed. and Thurs. and our diced tomatoes are only supposed to be used for that day's business. So...if I remember, I snag a soup cup full of diced tomatoes to use for Friday dinner. Seems like a waste to toss them and using them the next day to make a $7+ salad doesn't seem fair to the customer - so they are mine! Wa-ha-ha!

So last Friday night I was preparing vegetarian tacos for dinner. If I've got organic ground beef on hand I'll make it for my meat-eater husband. Last Friday he was out of luck. So as I was preparing the meal (which I can do in as little as 12 minutes), I pulled chips out of the pantry. I love tacos, my husband prefers taco salad. So anyways...I was pulling chips out of the pantry and found I had two open bags. Mission rounds are my favorite. We also had those kind that look like little chip cups. Light bulb moment...and there we have it. The creation of the mini-taco salad appetizer. I secretly made three and presented it to my husband. He looked so excited as I place the plate in front of him. Honestly, I know the presentation is wasted on him and I know he was hungry, hence the excitement of seeing food placed before him. But...after hearing how good they were, even though they were vegetarian, I decided to delay dinner while I made myself a couple. OMG! So good. A little bit of this and a little bit of that sitting on a tortilla chip was the perfect amount of every ingredient.

After preparing a few more to photograph, we finally had dinner. And, we both went back for seconds. Yum. Every "Taco Friday" is going to begin with Mini-Taco Salad Apps from now on!

Oh, and as a side note, I'm getting a new camera in February! I am so excited that I've been literally dreaming about it. Hopefully my photographs will look more appealing after I learn how to use the camera, since it'll be sooooo much better than the one I currently use.

Fruit Salad

Just tossed an organic fruit salad together for lunch. Nothing special...but it was so good and perfect for summer.

Bananas
Strawberries
Blueberries
Pink Lady Apples
Bartlett Pears
White Nectarines