Back in the saddle with taco salad

made some promise about posting more recipes a couple of weeks ago... faint, weak promises, I know. Then this past week I was reflecting on my love of taco salads... and today I made myself a heavenly salad for lunch. I realized then that I've never posted my version here. Must be rectified!

It's a pretty loose definition of a recipe, I'll give you that. But hopefully it will inspire you to whip up something along these lines and you'll fall in love with the salad 'o taco the way I have.

I even thought today that I could take on a Morgan Spurlock-type challenge (he's the Super Size Me dude) and eat nothing but taco salad and variations on taco salad for a month... but then I worried I might indeed get sick of it, so I'll just continue to partake as the cravings strike!

Taco salad for one
Greens: rip up a couple of cups of lettuce leaves
Tomatoes: I cut up about a half-cup of grape tomatoes, yum
Avocado: cube either a half or a whole avocado, depending on your mood
Cheese: a liberal handful of shredded cheddar or jack
Beans: warm up a cup of beans in the microwave--pinto, black, kidney... I love them all
Cilantro: roughly chop a handful of washed leaves
Salsa: optional, depending on your mood, and how wet you like your salad
Sour cream: a generous dallop!

In a large bowl (so you can mix it all up) put all the ingredients except the beans, salsa and sour cream; toss and mix gently. Take the beans, once warmed, and pour over the mixture; again, mix gently, adding salsa and sour cream as desired. Turn the salad out onto a plate and enjoy!

There are many variations possible: add some black bean and corn salad, rather than just beans... add olives if you enjoy that with Mexican cuisine... green onions would be a nice zippy addition, as would other onions, if you're not scared of the bite... get creative, go wild, have fun! Yum.

Soup of many beans (four to be precise)

Admittedly, we're on a bit of a soup roll over here. Can't really explain it other than a) the weather begs for something warm, and b) the guys like it--especially the big guy. And, they are easy, for the most part. At least, the way I choose to do them.

I have been wandering around tastespotting.com and various food blogs, as is my way, and do indeed see that there ARE other things to make and eat besides soup... and I'll get to it, really; tapioca is top on my list again since I burnt a batch last week... But for now, I'm pretty content to put the pot on, go away and putter around, and come back every now and then for stirring and adjustment.

The inspiration for this was finding a couple of different soup recipes online--one used refried beans, which I've never done, and the other had green enchilada sauce in it; again, I've never tried that or even considered it. So I thought, what the hey, let's give it a whirl. It's pathetically easy really quite yummy. All you need is a can opener, almost. But the taste is really good and quite different than the other black bean soup I posted a couple of weeks back.

Four bean soup (it started out three bean, but it was a little brothy so we stepped up the beans!)
1 large onion, diced

1 15 oz can pinto beans

1 15 oz can chile beans or kidney beans

1 15 oz can black beans
1 15 ozcan refried beans

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes

1 28 oz can green enchilada sauce

1 7 oz can of green chiles

1 cup chopped cilantro

1/2 cup chopped green onions

Saute the onion in a large saucepan in a dash of vegetable oil until translucent. Add the beans (and their juices), tomatoes and enchilada sauce and heat on medium until simmering, stirring occasionally. Reduce to low for an additional 10-15 minutes. Add the cilantro and green onions, and serve. Great garnishments: crushed corn chips, avocadoes, cheddar cheese, more cilantro and green onions, and sour cream, of course! Enjoy!

The soup picture above is pre-garnishment. The one below shows what I actually had for supper... and yes, I do love me some sour cream!