One of my favorite easy recipes to add to our family’s weekly menu plan (something I’m getting back to doing) is a chicken and vegetable soup that easily cooks in my Crock-Pot slow cooker. This recipe has actually gone through a few transformations, which is something I love about it. I can vary this recipe to make a simple vegetable soup, or I can add different meats (chicken or turkey sausage are what I usually use). Sometimes I also add a few noodles! This soup recipe is versatile for sure and tastes great! But, the best part is that it doesn’t take a lot of effort, whether you use a slow cooker or not. An added bonus is that it is full of vegetables, protein, and fiber, making this a pretty healthy soup for your family to enjoy!

Chicken and Vegetable Soup Recipe

Ingredients:

*I can buy all these ingredients at my local Walmart during our regular grocery shopping trips and tend to keep them on-hand on a regular basis.

• about 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken tenderloins/breasts, cubed (You can also use turkey sausage or any other preferred meat, or leave the meat out altogether.)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 12 oz. bag frozen vegetables (I normally use mixed vegetables, but any variety will do.)
• 1 15.5 oz. can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed (You can also use lentils for added fiber.)
• 1 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
• 1 14.5 oz. can chicken broth
• 1 cup water (For a thinner broth, use more water.)
• salt and black pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Season the chicken to your taste. I use adobo, meat tenderizer, and black pepper, then toss lightly to cover all sides.
2. In a large pot, combine chicken and olive oil. Cook chicken on med-high heat until partly-browned. (If using a slow cooker, simply skip this step.)
3. Add all remaining ingredients to the pot. (If using a slow cooker, this is when you’d add the uncooked chicken along with the other ingredients.)
4. Cook soup on low-medium heat for about 45 minutes or until chicken is well-cooked and broth is at desired consistency. (If using a slow cooker, let it cook on low heat for at least half of the day, ensuring the chicken is well-cooked.)

Isn’t that super easy? I love this soup recipe and though my husband is not a huge fan of soup (he never orders it when we eat out), he likes this vegetable soup in all its forms!

What is one of your family’s favorite healthful recipes?

Disclosure: As a participant in the Walmart Moms Program, I’ve received compensation for my time and efforts in creating this post. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

All photos © Melanie Edwards/modernmami™

Growing up, every time we had a party, baby shower, or family get-together, my mami would serve finger sandwiches (or sandwichitos as we called them) for an appetizer. I recall loving these sandwiches and eating way too many of them at a time. In fact, I loved them so much, that when I got older, I eventually asked her for the recipe so I could make my own finger sandwiches, party or not. (The funny thing is that even if I make them for at-home use and not a party, I still like to cut them up into tiny triangular finger sandwiches. It’s only right.)

When mami shared the recipe with me, I was surprised to learn that her finger sandwich recipe had a super-secret ingredient in it that I never knew about – tuna fish! I swear, you can’t even taste the tuna and the proof is that my baby girl once ate some of these finger sandwiches and didn’t complain. This finger sandwich recipe (or tea sandwich as some call them) was actually passed on to my mami by my father’s tía (aunt). Other than that, I have no idea where the recipe originated. But, it’s delicious and your guests will love your awesome finger sandwich appetizers!

Easy Tuna Fish Finger Sandwich Recipe – Great Party Appetizer Idea!

*Makes 100 Finger Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 2 cans of Bumble Bee tuna fish, in water, drained
• Roasted red peppers, canned or jarred, drained
• Sandwich spread, 15 oz.
• Kraft Cheez Whiz, 15 oz.
• White bread

Steps:

1. Mix tuna fish and red peppers in blender.
2. Add sandwich spread and Cheez Whiz to the blended mix and stir well.
3. Spread mixture on 2 pieces of bread and make a sandwich.
4. Cut crusts off bread and cut sandwich into quarters, in a triangle shape.
5. Serve and enjoy!

You can actually make the mixture and refrigerate it for later, if you don’t necessarily want a bunch of finger sandwiches or don’t have the need for that many for your party.

Do you have a favorite finger sandwich (or tea sandwich) recipe you serve at parties?

Disclosure: modernmami is a member of the Bumble Bee Squad through Bumble Bee Foods.

Photos copyright Melanie Edwards/modernmami.com

Being born on a tropical island and growing up with flavors like pineapple, mango, coconut, passion fruit and many more means that I have an affinity for anything tropical. I almost always pick one of those four flavors for desserts, frozen drinks, and the like. My baby girl has inherited my love for tropical flavors and is known to share a good piña colada (virgin, of course!) with me.

I love sharing flavors I grew up eating with her and take the opportunity to talk about Puerto Rico and Trinidad (where her dad is from) in an effort to pass down our cultures and heritage. She loves hearing stories of our childhood and we enjoy sharing our stories and seeing her eyes light up. It’s a perfect fit!

When Walmart asked us to try out some of Del Monte’s Gold® Extra Sweet pineapples, I couldn’t pass up another opportunity to share tropical favors with my girl. Immediately I knew I would enlist her help in making a smoothie, something else she loves. So, I decided to make a Pineapple Mango smoothie with my girl and for the first time ever, cut a fresh pineapple instead of using frozen or canned pineapple. It really was pretty easy to cut the pineapple, to my surprise; I just followed the instructions on this how to cut a pineapple video by Del Monte.

The good thing about pineapples is that they are full of Vitamin C and other vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Mangoes are also great for you, so this smoothie is really a wonderful way to get your kids to love new flavors and fill them up with good nutrients. The recipe is super simple too – let me know how you and your kids like your tropical smoothie!

Pineapple Mango Smoothie Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 Pineapple, cut up into chunks
• 1 Mango, ripe and cut into chunks
• Vanilla yogurt, to desired thickness
• Milk, to desired thickness
• Honey, to taste
• Sugar (optional)

Pour all ingredients into blender and blend to desired texture. If you want it thicker, add more yogurt and if you’d like it smoother, you can add more milk. If the pineapple pulp bothers you, you can strain them out.

Enjoy your pineapple mango smoothie with the kids!

Disclosure: ModernMami.com and its owner, Melanie Edwards, is a member of the Walmart Moms program, resulting in compensation for this post.

From many moms, I have learned how difficult it is to get kids to eat their veggies. I thought a great idea would be to combine zucchini with cheese, making for a delicious way to introduce this vegetable to children using familiar flavors. This is what you will need:

Zucchini and Cheese Kid-Friendly Recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 fresh zucchinis, cut in cubes
• ½ cup of chopped white onion
• 1 spoon of butter or margarine
• 1 cup of crème fresh or sour cream
• Salt and pepper or “cubitos de pollo” (chicken stock base in cubes)
• 2 cups of shredded cheese (suggest Monterrey Jack/Cheddar combination)

Steps:

1. You will need a sautéing pan with a lid and a wooden spoon.
2. Sauté onions with the butter.
3. Add the zucchini and let it cook for 5 minutes – don’t cook it too long as you want the veggies to be crunchy.
4. Add the crème fresh and the seasonings; combine well.
5. Top with cheese and cover for 5 minutes.
6. Serve hot.

This is a delicious and inexpensive way to introduce your children to zucchini; it’s also super quick! You can serve this recipe as a soup, side dish to a main course, or eat as an entrée. This is a great option for dinner or a quick lunch. If you want to reduce the calories, replace the crème fresh with Greek yogurt, the butter with olive oil, and the cheese with a low-fat option.

Enjoy!

All photos copyright and courtesy of Adriana Martin.

I grew up eating tuna fish. It was a quick lunch solution – mix tuna with mayo, spread on bread, and you had a quick sandwich! My mom often made those for us, so naturally it became a go-to meal for me as I got older and especially when away at college. It’s actually still a part of my lunch menu every so often, though I’ve “upgraded” the sandwich by adding mustard, cheese, lettuce, and sometimes tomato. Exotic, isn’t it?

Because tuna has been a part of my life for so long, it was easy for me to say yes when Bumble Bee Foods asked if I wanted to partner with them this year and become a member of the Bumble Bee Squad. I am looking forward to learning more about new ways I can use tuna for various meals.

Bumble Bee actually has many recipes on their site and information on how they’re encouraging healthier living. In particular, they have the BeeWell For Life program, where you can log exercise you do, fitness challenges completed, and calories you eat, all benefiting the cause of your choice from the following three: The American Diabetes Association, WomenHeart, and Y-ME.

If you want some great tuna fish recipes, try these I came across, some from Bumble Bee!

• Garden Vegetable Medley Skillet
• Finnish No Mayo Tuna Salad
• Tuna Burgers
• Lemon & Pepper Tuna Salad
• Mexican Tuna Salad

Look for more tuna-inspired posts, recipes, and Bumble Bee Foods information throughout the year! Do you have a favorite tuna fish recipe? 

As part of our partnership with Bumble Bee, I attended the Mom 2.0 Summit thanks to Bumble Bee Foods. The conference was in Miami, Florida and I loved attending this conference for the first time. If you want to see some of the conference tweets and articles, you can follow the #mom2summit hashtag on Twitter. I’m working on another post to share insights from this conference.

Photo: kozumel/Flickr

Do your kids eat an after-school snack when they get home? Every day when my baby girl gets home from school she acts like she hasn’t eaten all day. A snack after school has been a must since the first day of school. Some days she makes her own snack by grabbing something simple from the fridge or pantry and other days I make her something a little bigger. Last week we tried a new product as part of our Walmart Moms participation and we were able to enjoy a fun after-school snack using Kraft Philadelphia Indulgence Milk Chocolate Spread.

Easy After-School Snack Idea: Banana Chocolate Roll-up

Ingredients:
(Serves 2)

• Kraft Philadelphia Indulgence Milk Chocolate Spread
• 1 banana
• 2 tortillas

1. Spread Kraft Philadelphia Indulgence Milk Chocolate on tortillas.
2. Cut banana into slices and place slices on top of chocolate.
3. Roll up tortilla.

That’s it! Your kid will love it! You can also use different fruit, or use toast instead of tortillas. Plus, this is something children can make for themselves as well.

Kraft Philadelphia Indulgence Chocolate Spread also works well for no-bake desserts. The other night we actually dipped some fresh strawberries into our milk chocolate spread and ate that for dessert. It’s smooth and creamy, so it’s really easy to work with. By the way, it also comes in dark chocolate and white chocolate flavors and individual-sized tubs (except for the white chocolate).

Check out what some of the other Walmart Moms made with their Kraft Philadelphia Indulgence Chocolate Spread!

• Mini Brownie “Ice Cream” Cones with Creamy, Whipped Chocolate Mousse
• Triple Chocolate Icebox Pie
• S’More Dip

What do your kids like to eat for an after-school snack?

Disclosure: As a member of the Walmart Moms program, ModernMami™.com was compensated for this post. As always, all opinions, ideas, and stories are our own.

This is a sponsored post.

***Be sure to scroll down for the awesome giveaway!***

I was recently approached by The Motherhood for an opportunity to get together with a few local bloggers as part of the “Fabulous Summer of Flavor” challenge and cook a meal together using Lawry’s products. Unfortunately, as is the life of busy moms and bloggers, we were unable to find a date that worked for all of us. So, we did the next best thing and had ourselves a virtual potluck. That’s the beauty of social media and blogging; we can get together without actually getting together!

Our challenge was to collectively create a meal that fit the theme of “On the Go” and included the following Lawry’s products: Seasoned Salt, Balsamic Herb Marinade, and Seasoned Salt Marinade. Our Orlando team came up with an appetizer, main entree, and side dish that take about 40 minutes to prepare; not bad for a healthy, easy, and fast meal! Plus, the entree requires only THREE ingredients! After you check out these super simple recipes, be sure to scroll down for the chance to win some Lawry’s products, so that you too can create this quick and easy dinner!

Appetizer: Crostini with white bean spread, arugula and prosciutto

by Leigh of ThemeParkMom.com and me! (ModernMami™.com)
(Makes 20-30 appetizers, depending on size of your baguette)
Prep time: 10 minutes or less

INGREDIENTS
1 baguette, sliced into 1/2-inch thick slices
1 can cannelini beans (or other white bean, such as Great Northern)
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp. Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
Baby arugula (about 1/2 cup)
Thinly-sliced prosciutto (about 1/4 pound)

1. Toast your bread slices on both sides. This can be done in an oven, or the Florida summer method, which doesn’t require heating up the oven: Heat a dry skillet over medium high heat. Add bread slices and toast for about 30 seconds per side. Watch closely so they don’t burn.
2.  Make the white bean spread. Drain the liquid from the can of beans. Add to a food processor and puree. Add olive oil, Lawry’s Seasoned Salt and pepper and process until well blended.
3. Assemble the crostini. Spread about 2 tsp. of the bean spread on each baguette. Top with 3-4 pieces of baby arugula and a small slice of the prosciutto.

Main Entree: Balsamic Pineapple Salmon

by Amanda of The Mamma Mia Blog and Angie of A Whole Lot of Nothing
Serves: 4
Prep time: 10 minutes, plus marinade time
Cook time: 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS
(4) 4 oz. salmon fillets
Lawry’s Balsamic Herb Marinade
2 cups pineapple chunks

1. Marinade salmon fillet with Lawry’s Balsamic Herb Marinade (no less than 30 minutes)
2. Place salmon in baking dish
3. Cover salmon with pineapples
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 1/2 hour or until salmon flakes
5. Remove from oven
6. Drizzle with Lawry’s Balsamic Herb Marinade

Side Dish: Sauteed Asparagus

by Jen of The Suburban Mom and Jessica of The Unemployed Mom
Prep & cook time: 7 minutes

INGREDIENTS
Olive Oil
Lemon
Asparagus
Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
Grated Parmesan Cheese

1. Heat olive oil in saute pan (after cleaning asparagus).
2. Place asparagus in pan and then squeeze lemon juice on top.
3. Top with lemon zest and a few dashes of Lawry’s Seasoned Salt.
4. Turn the asparagus while cooking until desired tenderness.
5. Remove from pan then sprinkle fresh parmesan cheese, lemon zest and Lawry’s Seasoned Salt on top prior to serving.

ModernMami™.com Reader Giveaway

Enter for your chance to win a package of the following Lawry’s products: 16 oz Seasoned Salt, Balsamic Herb Marinade, Seasoned Salt Marinade.

How to Enter

Required entry: If you’d like to enter this contest, simply leave a comment below telling us how Lawry’s products can help you create an on-the-go meal.

Extra entries (optional):

Each of the following will count as 1 extra entry. You’ll need to leave a separate comment for each entry.

1. Follow @modernmami on twitter.
2. Tweet the following: Enter to win #lawrys products for your on-the-go meal from @modernmami! http://bit.ly/lawrysdinner #foodie #giveaway #contest #recipes
3. Receive post updates by subscribing to our RSS feed. You can do so either via email or through a RSS reader. Leave a comment saying you did so or are already a subscriber.
4. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
5. Like ModernMami™.com on Facebook.
6. Write a blog post on your own blog sharing the details of this contest. Be sure to include a link back to this post. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Monday, August 22, 2011 at 11:59 pm EST. You must be 18 or older and have a valid U.S. address to enter. Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.) Winner will have 48 hours to respond and claim prize, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.

Disclosure: I was compensated for participating in this challenge and working with Lawry’s and The Motherhood.

Photo credits: Amanda Keefer, Leigh Caldwell, and Jessica Kirby

Late last year, General Mills launched its first Spanish-language application for the iPad, providing more than 900 Latin-inspired recipes completely in Spanish. The app, Qué Rica Vida Recetario, is free and includes a variety of recipes, from appetizers to desserts. The Qué Rica Vida brand is General Mills’ Hispanic marketing platform, providing a Spanish-language web site and free magazine for consumers. You may remember I mentioned Qué Rica Vida last year after our introduction to the brand and highlighted them as a brand that gets it when it comes to marketing to Latinas and engaging Latina bloggers. Since their launch event in Miami, they have continued to support our digital Latina community and have been both personal sponsors to many bloggers, including myself, as well as conference and event sponsors; they sponsored both the Blogalicious 2010 conference and the ­¡Parranda! party I co-hosted during the conference.

The recipes provided in the app are all in Spanish, but you can find many of the same recipes in English on the Qué Rica Vida web site. What I like about the app is that you can search not just by category, but also by ingredient. The app also provides a conversion tool in case you need to figure out how to go from pounds to ounces or cups, etc. A fun aspect is that you can share each recipe via Facebook directly from the app, which is good for sharing with your friends and especially good for food bloggers to share with their communities. I’ve been playing around with the app for a few months now and wanted to share with you a few recipes that are quick and easy to make. This is important to me, because though I enjoy cooking, I don’t necessarily want to be in the kitchen for hours cooking just one meal. I grew up eating rice nearly every day, but I equally love pasta dishes. It helps that I find pasta dishes are just as easy and fast to cook as rice.

The following are a few pasta recipes from the Qué Rica Vida Recetario app that will give you a break from the traditional spaghetti meal. For the English versions, just click on each recipe’s name and choose to view it in English.

Espagueti con Pollo en Salsa de Chile Poblano (Spaghetti and Chicken in Poblano Sauce)

Ingredientes:

Modo de preparación:

Pasta Ramen con Carne y Verduras (Ramen Stir Fry)

Ingredientes:

Modo de preparación:

Fideos con Chipotle (Vermicelli with Chipotle Sauce)

Ingredientes:

Modo de preparación:

Do you have staple dishes that you often cook because they are quick to make?

Disclosure: Qué Rica Vida sponsored me to attend the Blogalicious 2010 conference.

All recipes courtesy of General Mills/Qué Rica Vida. © 2011 ®/™ General Mills

This is a sponsored post.

Growing up in Puerto Rico, I remember Easter being kind of a big deal. We went to mass dressed in our brand new Easter outfits and celebrated amongst family. Though we didn’t have any Easter-specific special dishes for our meal that day, we often did get together with extended family on Easter and shared a traditional Puerto Rican menu with foods such as pernil y arroz con gandules.

What I don’t remember are the traditions of the Easter bunny, receiving Easter baskets, or Easter egg hunts. I did not learn about any of those until we moved to Florida. That is when my parents began to do the Easter baskets for us, well really me, since my brothers were already too old for it.

Something else that changed after we moved to Florida is that we no longer had a big Easter meal with extended family. After going to mass in the morning, the rest of our Easter Sundays were spent much like any other Sunday. I asked my husband, and his family was much the same way. Of course, that means that we are now doing pretty much the same thing with our own family.

Sometimes I actually miss the fact that we got together with extended family and had a traditional Easter meal. I’ve been thinking more and more that we should start the tradition back up. So, perhaps next year, I will give it a try. Of course, keeping with our cultural traditions, the menu will include typical Puerto Rican and Trinidadian foods. Let me share with you what I envision will be served at our Easter meal.

• Pernil – Literally translated as roast pork shoulder, pernil is a staple of Puerto Rican cuisine and can be found on just about everyone’s dinner table for special meals, especially Christmas.
• Arroz con Gandules – This is a very traditional rice for Puerto Ricans. We eat it at most special occasions and family get-togethers. Here is a recipe for how to make arroz con gandules in a rice cooker.
• Potato Salad – I have never made potato salad, but it’s a dish I like quite a bit. It’s probably time I learn how to make it. I found a potato salad recipe on Walmart’s Easter Recipes page that looks simple enough.
• Macaroni Pie – Similar to macaroni and cheese, this is a dish from my husband’s native Trinidad that I’ve come to love. Plus, it’s very easy to make.

Hopefully next year we can celebrate Easter in a larger manner than we’ve been doing. This year, though, we’ll have another relaxed and laid-back day full of family time. No big meal is necessary when you’ve got that.

If you’re still planning your Easter meal, you can get more ideas for your Easter lunch or dinner on the Walmart site. They have a variety of recipes and some cute dessert options – like these flower cupcakes that I know my daughter would love to make with me.

Does your family have a big Easter meal? What do you traditionally serve?

Disclosure:  As a member of the Walmart Moms program, I was compensated for this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

This is a sponsored post.

When I think of tasty food, I immediately think of the Puerto Rican food I grew up eating. It equals comfort food for me. Of course, I eat other types of food as well, but the food from Puerto Rico that I know and love is first on my list. It’s also the food I know how to cook without needing a recipe. I have my mom to thank for teaching me; thanks mami!

A favorite meal of mine is carne guisada (or carne guisa as we Puerto Ricans sometimes say). It’s basically a beef stew, with different flavors than the American beef stew known to most. Puerto Rican carne guisada is normally served with white rice and is definitely a meal that hits home. The great thing about this meal is that it is inexpensive. Even when adding beans and plantains as I did, you still get a meal with a cost per serving of about $1.90!

Luckily, here in Orlando (as I’m sure is the case in other cities with a high population of Caribbean folks) I’m able to find all the ingredients I need at my local Walmart. This is convenient for me since I can do all of my grocery and household shopping in one stop, without the need for special stops at the local bodega, as my mom used to do when we first moved here.

I’m going to share with you the recipe for each item in the meal I cooked: carne guisada, white rice, red beans, amarillos/platanos maduros (fried ripe plantains), and tostones (fried green plantains). Both the carne guisada and the red beans use sofrito as a base. To see pictures and links for the basic ingredients used in Puerto Rican sofrito, click on over and read 5 Must-Have Ingredients for Cooking Puerto Rican Food. As with previous recipes I’ve posted, I apologize for the lack in detail with the ingredients and the steps, but it is true to how I and everyone in my family cooks. We do not measure and just go along pouring items into the pot.

Puerto Rican Carne Guisada/Guisa (Beef Stew)

Ingredients:

• Beef stew meat
• Adobo
• Meat Tenderizer
• Cooking Oil
• Sazón
• Tomato Sauce
• Tomato Paste
• Sofrito or Recaito
• Olives (use the Spanish salad olives with pimientos)
• 4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced or cubed

Steps:

1. Clean the stew meat and cut, if necessary, into smaller chunks. Add the meat to a large pot along with enough water to completely cover the meat. Season the mix with adobo and meat tenderizer. Cook uncovered on low-medium heat for about 40 minutes or until the meat is tender, stirring occasionally.
2. Add a serving-spoon’s worth of cooking oil. Not a tablespoon, but the bigger spoon one uses to stir a pot.
3. Add 1 packet of sazón.
4. Add 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce.
5. Add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste.
6. Add 1 tablespoon of sofrito or recaito.
7. Add 5-6 olives with a teaspoon of the vinegar from the olives.
8. Add potatoes and carrots.
9. Cover and cook on medium heat for about 20-25 minutes until the potatoes and carrots are tender. Stir occasionally.
10. Raise heat to medium-high for about 10 minutes to let the sauce thicken a bit, again stirring occasionally.

Arroz Blanco (White Rice) in a Rice Cooker

Ingredients:

• Rice (about 1 handful per person) – Note that this is plain, non-instant white rice.
• Cooking Oil
• Salt

Steps:

1. Put rice into your rice cooker’s pot and clean the rice. If you’re not familiar with how to clean rice, it just means that you run it under water a couple of times and pick out the dark grains, pebbles, etc. To do this:
   • Fill pot with water and press rice with your hands.
   • Pick out anything that’s not a rice grain.
   • Pour out water, being careful not to lose any of the rice.
   • Repeat a few times until water pours out clear.
2. Add water to the pot until the water sits just above the rice. (I’ve heard that normally it is a 2-1 ratio: for every cup of rice, you add 2 cups of water. I’ve never cooked it this way, as I don’t measure when I cook.)
3. Add a serving-spoon’s worth of cooking oil. Not a tablespoon, but the bigger spoon one uses to stir a pot.
4. Season with salt.
5. Stir.
6. Taste the water. If you feel it needs more seasoning, you can add a little more salt to your liking.
7. Cover and set the rice cooker to cook.

There will be no need to stir the rice while it cooks, though you certainly can do so once about mid-way through. Your arroz should be done in about 30 minutes or so. You will know it’s done when you taste the rice and it’s neither mushy nor tough.

Habichuelas Rojas (Stewed Red Beans)

Ingredients:

• 1 can of red kidney beans
• Cooking Oil
• Sazón
• Tomato Sauce
• Tomato Paste
• Sofrito or Recaito
• Olives (use the Spanish salad olives with pimientos)

Steps:

1. Drain and rinse beans from the can and pour into a medium saucepan.
2. Using the same bean can, fill to top and add to saucepan.
3. Add ½ a serving-spoon’s worth of cooking oil. Not a tablespoon, but the bigger spoon one uses to stir a pot.
4. Add 1 packet of sazón.
5. Add 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce.
6. Add 1 tablespoon of tomato paste.
7. Add 1 tablespoon of sofrito or recaito.
8. Add 5-6 olives with a teaspoon of the vinegar from the olives.
9. Cover and bring to a boil.
10. Once boiling, reduce heat to low-medium and simmer for about 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
11. Sauce should thicken a bit while cooking.

Amarillos/Platanos Maduros (Fried Ripe Plantains)

You can make amarillos, or maduros as other cultures call them, one of two ways. You can buy ripe plantains, peel, cut, and fry them yourself. Or, you can take a shortcut by buying them already peeled and cut in the frozen section. I’ve done both and normally prefer to buy fresh plantains, but opted for the shortcut version this time around. It really is as simple as opening the packet and either deep or pan-frying them in vegetable oil. A modern twist is to bake them in the oven, if you wish.

Tostones (Fried Green Plantains)

Similar to the amarillos, you can either make tostones from fresh green plantains or buy them frozen. I used to make tostones fresh, but with the busy lifestyle we lead, buying them frozen saves a lot of time.

To make them fresh:

• Peel the green plantain.
• Cut into thick slices.
• Soak the slices in salted water.
• Fry the slices until half-done. Deep frying works great, but you can also pan-fry them.
• Remove from oil and press into a flat circle. You can use a tostonera if you have one, or you can use the bottom of a bowl.
• Re-fry the tostones until golden brown.
• Remove from oil and place on paper towels to absorb the oil. Sprinkle salt on top for seasoning.

To cook frozen tostones:

• Open the packet and either deep-fry or pan-fry in vegetable oil.
• Remove from oil and place on paper towels to absorb the oil. Sprinkle salt on top for seasoning.

If you try this meal with your family, I would love to hear how you/they liked it! What are some favorite meals in your home?

Disclosure:  As a member of the Walmart Moms program, I was compensated for this post. As always, all opinions are my own.