Last weekend, I promised myself I was going to develop a vegan recipe, and out of the many I had in mind I figured pozole would be a good one to pull out since it’s prime soup season and also because I was home sick with a chest cold, and was in need of something warm and homey.
I’ve always enjoyed drinking the broth by itself when it comes to soups, so I wanted to make sure the broth for this pozole was good, especially since there’s no meat in this recipe. The base for pozole blanco typically consist of just white onion and garlic, but I’m taking a slightly different approach to this. Instead of a white onion, we’re using a yellow onion and we’re sautéing both the garlic and the yellow onion with Mexican oregano for a much more deeper flavor.
If you’re vegan, I hope you enjoy this recipe, and if you’re not vegan, you can still enjoy this recipe! Just add some chicken if you’re absolutely missing the extra protein.
If you’d like to see more vegan friendly and meatless recipes, let me know!
This post is sponsored by Rio Luna Organic Peppers, thoughts and opinions are my own.
Hola Hola Hola!
Can you believe 2019 is almost over? Today I’m sharing an appetizer fit for New Year’s Eve celebrations!
The weather here in California has been constantly warm, so I’ve been spending a lot of time this year grilling. For Thanksgiving, we actually decided to grill sirloin steaks instead of doing a turkey because it’s been so nice.
I’ll be hosting a carne asada for New Years Eve and one of the appetizers I’ll be making are these grilled chicken wings with cilantro chimichurri that get a tangy and spicy kick from the addition of Rio Luna Organic Nacho Sliced Jalapenos and their juice.
If you’re not familiar with Rio Luna Organic Peppers they bring you the highest quality organic peppers and chiles that have been used by professional chefs for years. They have a special heat index meter on the side of each label, so you know just how spicy the peppers are. Their peppers and chiles are also certified organic, GMO-free, kosher, fat free, low calorie and cholesterol free.
These wings are actually pretty easy to make, they marinate for an hour in a mojo comprised of orange and lemon juice, garlic and salt and pepper, grilled for 20 minutes and then tossed in the tangy chimichurri. If you have some extra time and ingredients, make a double batch of the chimichurri and use it to dress up a roasted chicken, or to use as a dipping sauce for just about anything you can imagine!
I hope you have a great rest of the Holiday season, and I can’t wait to come back next year to share many more delicious recipes with you.
We’re less than a week away from Christmas, and the excitement is building! Today, I’m partnering with Aldi to share a few recipes with you, they reached out to me with a task to create Christmas brunch with $50, and I’m here to share what I whipped up.
Aldi became one of my favorites earlier this year when one opened up directly across from my apartment. It very quickly became my go to while I was testing recipes for my cookbook because they have a huge variety of things with really great prices and their house brands are just as good, if not better than national brands. They also receive fresh produce daily, and they work with farmers and local growers to ensure the vegetables arrive from the field to the store in the shortest possible time. Annnnd you’ll see that their exclusive quality brands are always exceptional and their prices are always incredibly low without coupons!
One of my favorite things they carry is the Specially Selected Chocolate Chip Brioche loaf, which costs $3.89 at Aldi, in comparison to other stores where you could be spending more that $5 for it. Every time I stop by, I have to grab one so I can snack on it throughout the week. It’s soft, pillowy and sweet, and they have two different variations of it that make it perfect for both french toast and bread pudding, which is what we’ll be making today.
When I’m making brunch for a small group, I try not to make things complicated for myself. I keep it easy and simple by making something sweet and something of substance, and having friends bring a side so we all have something to contribute. The brioche bread pudding we’re making today comes together very quickly, and you don’t really need to add much to it because the brioche already has a sweet streusel and chocolate chips into it. The french toast also doesn’t really have to be dressed up because the chocolate chips take it up a notch.
I’m including my receipt so you can take a look at just how much I was able to grab for $50. Not only was I able to contribute the bread pudding and french toast, but I was also able to grab a bottle of champagne, two different types of juice, two different milk options, bacon, and eggs!
If you haven’t stopped by Aldi, find out where the closest one to you is here! I’m sure it’ll become one of your favorite stores too!
This post is sponsored by Kettle Brand Chips, thoughts and opinions are my own.
As Billy and I were driving up to Northern California to spend some time with his family for our nephews birthday, I kept getting flashbacks to my time in College Marching Band at Fresno State as we drove through.
If you’re a new reader, Hi, Hello, I’m Esteban and I used to be a band geek.
(Queue MTV: True Life opening credits)
Marching Band was everything to me when I was in High School. I’d spend a lot of my time practicing my instrument, trying to be the best musician I could possible be. Band taught me a lot about being responsibility and discipline, as I went on to lead the 150 member band as a Drum Major my senior year.
I had decided I wanted to stick with music, so when I was accepted into the Music program at Fresno State, I was thrilled. I remember how nervous I was when I showed up to my first day of band camp. It was a 300+ piece band, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to keep up, but I did! We began prepping for our first football game which would be in two weeks and we’d be playing a Michael Jackson tribute which I was so excited for.
That night we marched to the beat of the drums from campus to the stadium for our first football game of the season. We lined up next to the field, and the drums began to count us off to march onto the field. The crowd suddenly got quiet and then roared as the horns announced our entrance onto the field. It was a huge adrenaline rush, and it wasn’t like anything I had experienced before. I was excited, nervous, and a little worried I was going to forget the the music or the drill, but that feeling quickly faded away. College football games, and College Marching Band were so much, and they will always be one of my favorite things about my College experience.
Whenever the Super Bowl comes around, I find myself watching past performances and they always take me back to those moments on the field. Today, I’m partnering with Kettle Brand Chips to show you how to prep a burrito bowl bar perfect for the Super Bowl coming up! If you like to entertain, you probably already know it takes a lot of work to prep and set up for a gathering. Most of the time, if you’re doing all of the cooking by yourself, you end up missing out on the conversation because you spend a lot of time serving others and making sure everyone is well taken care of.
This burrito bowl bar takes care of all of that for you. All you have to worry about is setting up all of the options, and let your guests serve themselves, giving them the freedom to build their bowls as they wish. These set ups are great because you can get super creative with your topping options. For these burrito bowls, I’m including all of the classic fixings like beans, roasted corn, a very fragrant lime cilantro rice and I’m also including Kettle Brand’s new Spicy Queso flavor for the extra crunch.
