Fire Roasted Tomato Salsa

Recently I posted my review for RW Garcia Tortilla Chips and 5-Seed Crackers.  We loved having the tortilla chips with some Fire Roasted Tomato Salsa.  In the summer when we were in the States I picked up a couple of tins of Fire Roasted Tomatoes.  I've never seen Fire Roasted Tomatoes in Canada before and have seen other blogs using them so I was curious to try them out.  I found making salsa with Fire Roasted Tomatoes made the salsa slightly sweeter.  I usually buy salsa but really it is so  easy to whip up that I should be making it at home.  Also by making it at home I know exactly what going into it as well!

Black Bean and Vegetable Chili

My husband is always wanting me to make more vegetarian meals and I've been wanting to make chili for awhile now so I decided to make this recipe this week.  It's been years since I made this.  When I had made it before I didn't know the difference between chili powder and the red chilli powder we use in Indian cooking.  I thought they were the same thing.  The recipe called for 1 tbsp chili powder.  That seemed an insane amount to me and I thought it would be way too spicy.  I reduced it but it was still pretty spicy.  Now I understand that the recipe was not calling for what is labelled in the Indian grocery stores as Red Chilli Powder.

Red Chilli Chicken with Black Beans and Rice

When I saw this recipe on Annie's Eats I knew I had to make it.  We love black beans.  This was so simple and easy to make.  I added some cayenne pepper to increase the spiciness and as usual increased the garlic.  The original recipe uses 15 oz can of black beans.  In Canada we only get 19 oz so that is what I used. I used basmati rice because that is what we always have on hand.  Make sure to soak it so it cooks well.  The original recipe serves it with just some salsa but I thought sour cream would go great with it too.  Without the salsa and sour cream this is a bit dry.  As usual it wasn't spicy enough for my husband but for me it was just right!

Spicy Fish Tacos with Creamy Chilli and Cilantro Sauce

We really enjoyed the fish tacos I made a few weeks ago.  Recently I saw another recipe on Cookin' Canuck that looked so good.  I wanted to give this a try because it looked like it would be more spicy than my first try at fish tacos.  As usual I increased the spices.  These were very quick to make.  The Creamy Green Chilli and Cilantro Sauce was really good.  The recipe called for 2 oz of green chillies.  In Canada they don't put ounces on our tins.  I figured this would be half a tin.  I added this and gave it a taste....wasn't spicy at all.  I tasted the green chillies and they weren't hot so I added the whole tin and I was so glad I did!  You can top these with whatever you like.  We had lettuce, tomatoes, green onions and some Simple Guacamole.  I also loved that the sauce used all low fat ingredients (which I would have done anyways).

Simple Guacamole

I have one recipe for Guacamole on this blog and it turned out good but it involved more chopping than I would like.  I adapted this recipe from one I found on Simply Recipes.  What I love about this recipe is that there is very little chopping and it is very fast to make.  I used my chopper to make this but you could also use a food processor.  We had these with some fish tacos I made (a new recipe which I will post soon...)

Fish Tacos

I always feel lost on what to do with fish.  I would love to make more but really don't have a lot of good recipes.  Lately I've been seeing a lot of recipes for Fish Tacos.  Most recently I saw them on Throwdown with Bobby Flay.  They looked so yummy.  Most recipes deep fry the fish which I want to avoid.  The recipe I tried I found at Annie's Eats.  The recipe was very simple and I had all the ingredients.  I served this with the Guacamole and Pico de Gallo I made for the Spicy Bean Burritos.  These were very easy to make and is something I will definitely be making again.  I increased all the spices in the recipe. 

Guacamole and Pico de Gallo

I haven't eaten much guacamole.  I've always avoided buying it because it is so high in fat.  It's good fat but I know once I start eating it I won't be able to stop.  I thought some would go great with the Spicy Bean Burritos.  I searched online and settled on a recipe I found at The Pioneer Woman.  Most guacamole I've seen have been a smooth paste.  This one was more chunky and had tomato and onions in it.  The Pioneer Woman's recipes so far have turned out really good so I thought I would give it a try and I'm glad I did.  The recipe is to make Pico de Gallo (which really is Kuchumbar) and mix it with avocado.  You can also eat both of these with some nachos.

I basically followed the recipe but scaled it down since it was only for 2 people.  I added less lime juice than the original recipe.  If you want it spicy leave the seeds in the jalapeno.

Spicy Bean Burrito

I've never had a bean burrito before.  It never seemed very appetizing to me although a lot of people have told me they are really good.  I came across this recipe at Annie's Eats.  They looked so yummy and so simple to make I thought I would give it a try.  Mine didn't look as good as Annie's but they were tasty.  I had black beans and kidney beans but you can use whatever beans you have in your pantry.  I had to make some changes because in Canada our beans come in 19 oz and Annie mentioned that these burritos were mildly spiced so I increased the spices.  I also replaced the chipotle with jalapeno.  I made some Pico de Gallo and Guacamole (recipe to come) to eat with it.