Pinterest Dinner #1 - Spicy Black Bean Wrap with fresh Salsa

I really enjoyed this recipe, mostly because of how fresh it tasted.  It is a good twist on salad.  And it is pretty filling too.  I did not use the sprouts as seen here (our store was all out :( ), but I believe they would make a great addition.  

The best part about this meal is that it came together in under ten minutes!  Great for if you are in a hurry!

Ingredients

Whole Wheat Tortillas

1 Cucumber

1 Tomatoes

Mixed Greens

1 can of Black Beans

2 medium Avocados

A pinch of Salt

Fresh lime juice or zest

First mash up your avocados in a bowl.  Get it to a spreadable consistency and then add a bit of salt and lime juice.  

Chop up all veggies into bite sized pieces.  Then take your tortilla and spread a little (or a lot) of the avocado and lime juice mixture.  Put on your desired amount of all other ingredients.  Wrap up and enjoy!

As a pre-dinner snack I made a chunky salsa.  Although I am not personally a huge fan of cilantro, this definitely hit the spot for the snackers in our house.  

Ingredients

1 heaping spoon of garlic (Caned or two cloves of fresh)

1/4 red onion chopped

1/4 bunch of cilantro (you can use more....again I like my cilantro to be muted)

3 tomatoes, diced

A dash of salt and red pepper flakes

Here is the best part, after chopping everything just mix it together in a bowl and put it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or more.  It stores really easy and goes well with chips!  All in all this part took me less than 10 minutes as well. 

Do you guys have any favorite clean eating wraps you enjoy?  Let me know about them.

The next meal I am going to tackle is sesame chicken in the crock pot!  Yum. 

How to Hold a Knife and De-seed an Avocado

One of the first lessons I was taught in my culinary classes was how to hold a knife properly.  I could not believe I had been holding it wrong for almost 20 years.  Here is how I had learned to hold a knife:

And here is how you are supposed to hold it:

At first it feels so strange to grip the blade.  But once you get used to the awkwardness, you have so much more control over you chopping and dicing.  The knife will slip less and your cuts will be smoother.  I must warn you that I would not hold any knife smaller than a chefs knife  like this.  Holding a paring knife like this might get a bit dicey.....haha do you see what I did there? 

Right, no more laughing at my own jokes. 

Instead here is a handy chart with some more knife tips:

My second tip of the day is how to de-seed an avocodo.  I had always tried to dig the seed out with a spoon.  That usually resulted in the seed flying across the room and landing on the floor leaving me with a mess to clean up.  Well one day when my Dad was visiting he showed me this trick - 

Take your knife and hit the seed with the sharp edge so it sticks.  Then gently twist the blade and the seed comes right out.  There is no launching of fruit, just a very calm removal and no mess!  

Well thats Pinteresting.....

Ok folks, so here is the deal.  For those of you who are on Pinterest I am sure that you know by now how easy it is to "pin" something and then forget about it.  I occasionally make something from my pins, but unfortunately many of them have gone un cooked or baked. 

 

It's time to change that.

 

Thus I am beginning the Pinterest challenge. Starting this Sunday, I am going to cook and bake my way through all of my pins.  That should liven up our menu a bit!  I will record it all here and don't worry I will include recipes and how to's.  Wish me luck.