Foodie in Training

It's no secret that I love to eat.  In the last year or so, Ed and I have tried to be really conscientious about making our own food and really reducing anything processed.  Every week we make a menu for ourselves that includes all three meals, and every Sunday we go shopping for those items.  We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but we feel more nourished, healthy, and its something we enjoy doing together.

I'm still a pretty strict recipe follower, at least the first time I make something.  I'd like to get to the point where I can just throw things together, but at this point I'm just pleased if what I put on the table resembles the picture in the recipe.  It's the process, not perfection.

I get recipes from  few different places, but my consistent go-tos are Cheap Healthy Good and Real Simple.  They are guaranteed tasty, take less than a half hour to prepare, and most of the time the ingredients are well within our budget.

Tonight's dinner came from Real Simple, and while the chorizo isn't terribly good for you, it was tasty.

Sorry for the lighting here, I forgot to check my white balance.

For this, all we need is a pound of chorizo, a potato, a few radishes, half a red onion, cumin, cilantro, lime juice and (not pictured) black beans.

Chop up the onion into small peices, about a quarter inch and cook it with the chorizo, until the potatoes are tender (about 15 minutes.)

While that tastiness is cooking, dice the radish and onion.  Mix the beans (it calls for a 15 oz can, but we only buy dried beans.  We ended up using about a cup dried, because when they rehydrate, they about double in size.) with the radish and onion, add lemon juice, cumin, cilantro, salt, pepper, and a smidge of olive oil.

Once the meat is cooked and the potatoes are tender, serve everything together on a tortilla!  We added avocado slices, a dollop of sour cream, and hot sauce (because we could subsist on hot sauce alone).

Because we use dried beans, the whole process from start to finish took about an hour and a half.  But if you used canned beans, it would only take as long as the meat and potatoes needed to cook, about 15 minutes.  How simple!

It was tasty and there is more than enough leftovers for a couple of lunches.  Perfection.