A Weeknight Fiesta

I adore rice and beans from Mexican restaurants. Adore. I could live off of them and usually wind up with platas de fiesta from Mexican restaurants just for the sake of those darned rice and beans. Add a side of chips and salsa and I swoon. So I decided to whip up a batch of homemade rice on a recent weeknight, crack open a can of beans and make a pan of enchiladas for dinner. It doesn't need to be a special occasion to make good, homemade food! If you are a Mexican-food obsessed girl like me, and especially if you are a gringa, then it is especially satisfying to make it yourself. Here are my recipes. Enjoy! Oh, and ole!!

Green Enchiladas
2 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (I used the Crock-Pot..)
1/2 cup salsa
10 flour tortillas
1 can green enchilada sauce
2 cups Mexican blend shredded cheese
Assemble by rolling each tortilla with a scoop of chicken and a bit of salsa. Place in 9X13 baking dish and cover with enchilada sauce and shredded cheese. Heat under broiler and serve with rice and beans.

Mexican Rice
2 tablespoons oil
1 chopped onion
3 teaspoons chopped garlic
2 cups white rice
3 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
1 can chopped tomatoes
Pour oil, onion and garlic in medium saucepan and cook for 3 minutes. Add rice and cook another 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add tomatoes and chicken broth and cook at a low simmer about 20 minutes or until rice is cooked through. I serve with a can of vegetarian or black refried beans.

Luck O' The Irish

Being a mutt, I have plenty of Irish thrown in with my German and Scotch' so it's appropriate my kiddos turned out having red hair. Immediately people assume we are Irish and St. Patty's day is the perfect occasion to celebrate our mixed heritage. So what do you do to celebrate and make the day fun for kiddos? Turn everything green and tilt things up a bit! Here's a beautiful cake I made with the kids to start feeling festive. It's super easy, from a box and fun to make. It tastes great too! And what goes better with a leprechaun hat cake than a craft to work on while it's baking?? My daughter copied this "leprechaun trap" from a magazine and nailed it! We had to practice for the big day! I plan to scatter gold coins around the house, turn chairs on their sides and dye the milk green, among serving fun dishes throughout the day. A fruit rainbow with green pancakes, green pasta and green velvet cake sound good to me!
How will you celebrate?
 
For the cake:
yellow cake mix plus ingredients
3 round cake pans (I used two 9" and one 10")
1 can chocolate frosting
1 can vanilla frosting
green and yellow food coloring
Preheat oven to 350-degrees then mix ingredients for cake. Distribute cake mix into the three pans evenly. Bake about 15 minutes, until set. When cakes are cool, layer them on a cake plate, filling with chocolate icing (reserve a bit for around the hat...) Then tint the vanilla with green food coloring (reserving a tiny to tint yellow for the buckle..) and get icing! Have fun, be silly and enjoy the day with your kiddos!