Let’s Taco ‘Bout It (Black Bean Taco)

 

Blurry pic! My black bean soft taco.

How did it taste? Pretty okay. I ended up making two and I gobbled both of them up. The cheese and garlic powder gave it the bit of saltiness that it (or maybe I) needed due to the lack of meat. The red onions were not cooked too much; they still had some crunch to them, which I actually liked.

What should I have done differently? I definitely should have used better ingredients. Although my taco tasted decent, it was a little on the trashy side… maybe a step above Taco Bell? I didn’t really go all out on this one, and I feel a little guilty for that. The roma tomato and red onion were both fresh. However, I just bought pre-shredded lettuce and Mexican cheese. You can thank my laziness for that one. I should have just bought an actual head of lettuce and a block of queso and shredded it myself. Also, some cilantro probably would have been nice too (thanks for the tips, thesisterslice)!

I think I’m gonna go with “success” for this one… especially after last week’s failure!

Bean There, Done That (Black Bean Taco)

Now, I can finally tell people that I’ve made tacos before!

This is going to be a combo post folks. I’m going to combine the ingredients and process into one post since I haven’t been diligent enough and the week is almost over!

I went a little rogue and didn’t end up following any specific recipes. Also, I kind of just eyeballed everything, so I have no specific measurements. Sorry!

I ended up using your basic taco ingredients:

I used a red onion, a roma tomato, and some pre-shredded lettuce.

Pre-shredded cheese!

And some snack-sized flour tortillas.

Oh, and let’s not forget the star of the show. Black beans!

Again, I didn’t use any specific measurements… just my best judgement! You guys trust me, right?

Now let’s move on to how I put all of this together…

I diced up my tomatoes and put them to the side as a topping for later. I did the same to my red onions. I was actually thinking about just adding the onions as a topping as well. But since I was doing my own thing with this recipe…

Why not just mix in my red onions with the black beans? So, I cooked my onions and beans over medium heat.

Then I started thinking that maybe the beans and onions might not give the taco enough flavor, so I decided to add a bit of garlic powder!

After my beans and onions were finished, I topped the rest of my ingredients on my tortilla!

You can see the final product tomorrow in all of its glory along with my impressions. See ya!

No Doritos. No locos. Just tacos. (Black Bean Taco)

 

Yes, I’ll be cooking black bean tacos this week! The secret ingredient that is the legume will be replacing the beef (or whatever meat) in what would be an ordinary taco. That’s right, another vegetarian meal (I’m getting kind of tired of them!).

I love tacos, but the biggest appeal of the taco (at least to me) is the meat. So, I’d better cook up some damn good beans in order to enjoy this thing. Hopefully my black heart will be able to accept these black beans as a substitute. Please look forward to it!

Week 4: Black Beans

 

Black beans. Our next ingredient. They’re musical, or so I hear. Umm… I really have no idea what to say about them. Honestly. So… look for ward to our next dishes!

… to a Crisp (Mushroom Slider)

 

Yuck. Not yummy. Yuck.

The red onions and roma tomato? Awesome. Fresh. You can’t mess that one up. You just slice it up and you’re done. The garlic spread? It was a brand name… I don’t really remember which company, though. Hidden Valley? Whatever (that’s how I felt about the spread too. The bread? Well, it wasn’t great quality. I think it was a generic brand. It was… eh. Seemed like a means to end really. Just there to hold together the pieces. Now for the big mistake…

Wanna know what really ruined my mushroom slider? It’s the only ingredient left: the mushroom. Er, I shouldn’t say it was the mushroom itself. It was how I actually prepared it. Seasoning was probably fine. However, I burnt the damn thing to hell. When I took the portobello out of the pan, it was the saddest looking thing on this side of Earth. It was shriveled and burnt to a crisp. It was like eating bacon without the salty flavorful goodness of bacon. I guess next time I’ll lower the heat or cooking time. It was sad, but I learned something at least!

An Afternoon with a Fungi (Mushroom Sliders)

Like the title of my post? I always try to be as lame as possible.

ANYWAYS. I’m getting a little better at shopping for produce, if I do say so myself. I didn’t get lost in the labyrinth this time!

Once again, here is the recipe I used. And here is how the magic happened.

First, I tore off the stem of the portobello (aka Frankenstein’s mushroom). Pop! Easy and clean.

Then, I suffocated the poor thing in sandwich baggie. Don’t worry he had about 1/4 cup of balsamic vinaigrette to keep him company. I let that sit for about 30 minutes.

Prepped the veggies. One slice of red onions made enough for my two sliders. One or two slices of roma tomato per slider is probably a better idea than cutting five like I did.

…

Watch TV for 28 minutes.

…

Tossed my shroom in the pan on high heat for 10 minutes, turning it over halfway through.

 

Meanwhile, I put some garlic spread on both sides of my slider buns.

After the mushroom was done, I cut it into fours and put all the ingredients together! Pretty simple right? You’ll see the result tomorrow! As for me, I’m going to take a nap in the middle of the day like a bum.

Little Bun, Big Mushroom

Today’s recipe for mushroom sliders comes from Mr. Food!

Our little recipe serves about four people with two sliders per serving. That comes to eight! Eight sliders! That’s about as far as I got into the math curriculum at school.

Pretty, isn’t it?

Here’s our list of ingredients:

• 2 large portobello mushrooms, stems removed
• 1/4 cup of balsamic vinaigrette
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
• 1/2 cup of garlic herb spread
• 8 slider buns
• 8 tomato slices
• 8 red onion slices

I did modify it a bit, since I don’t really feel like eating eight sliders. Ended up just lowering it to one serving (two sliders). I also decided to use roma tomatoes since they’re pretty small. I’m not really sure what the difference is between roma and regular tomatoes are, but hey, my palate probably isn’t refined enough to taste any varying significance anyway.

Nothing too fancy or too difficult to prepare. I say this’ll be an easy one (cross my fingers)!

Oopsie!

Sorry! I flubbed up the schedule.

I had barely any time this week to cook and post! Finals and celebrations and such. I’ll definitely have some time to start posting this upcoming week, though. So sorry again for running off course. See you guys soon! I promise those mushroom sliders will be coming right up.

Catch you soon!

Portable Portabella (Mushroom Sliders)

 

HOORAH! Mushroom sliders!

Yeah, that’s what I’m making this week. Mushrooms are a pretty meaty vegetable… well fungus, I guess. So, it’d be perfect to substitute the beef in a slider with a mushroom right? Probably easier to cook too.

Why the hell do they call them sliders anyway? Is it easier to slide down your throat? Hmm… Dirty thoughts. And that’ll be all for this post. I hope you guys look forward to this week!

P.S. After this week, my finals will be done! Gone! Conquered! So expect the utmost quality of posts coming up. I know, I know. I’m setting myself up for failure.

Week 3: Mushroom

Hey Everyone!

I see that Eric did not post a video for the eggplant challenge (Lame, am I right?) Just kidding, as I haven’t posted ANYTHING. I know, and I apologize. I actually want to thank Eric for an amazing job in keeping everyone informed of our unfortunate, current life obstacle (some strange institution called school), and for actually keeping up with the promised cooking schedule. I’ll be sure to post everything (videos, included) once I have more time, and Ryan will do the same.

ANYWAY, no more excuses and explanations. This week’s secret ingredient: MUSHROOM. That’s right, every Californian has experience with ‘shrooms, and we wish to embrace the culture this week… legally. So, join us on this magical journey, as we try to add our fungi friends to our culinary repertoire.