Quinoa Black Bean Chili

Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
2 cups water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (19 ounce) cans black beans, rinsed and drained
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 tablespoon minced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 teaspoon dried oregano
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 cup frozen corn1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:
Bring the quinoa and water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the quinoa is tender, and the water has been absorbed, about 15 to 20 minutes; set aside.
Meanwhile, heat the vegetable oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion, and cook until the onion softens and turns translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic, chili powder, and cumin; cook and stir 1 minute to release the flavors. Stir in the tomatoes, black beans, green bell pepper, red bell pepper, zucchini, jalapeno pepper, chipotle pepper, and oregano. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, stir in the reserved quinoa and corn. Cook to reheat the corn for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, and stir in the cilantro to serve.


[This recipe is taken from allrecipes.com.]

Fresh Salsa

Ingredients:
4 14 oz cans stewed tomatoes (there are many different types of stewed tomatoes, try them all)
1 large onion
1 bell pepper
4-5 Cloves Garlic
Cumin
Cilantro
Mrs. Dash Table Blend
Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb
[Crushed Red Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
2 Jalapeños
1 Habanero ]*
1 Tbsp Vegetable oil
~4 oz Corn (canned or frozen)
~6 oz Black Beans

*Alter these ingredients as desired to satisfy different tastes for heat. Leaving in seeds greatly increases the heat. I generally use jalapeños or habanero, not both.


Directions:
1. Put about 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a small saucepan and bring to a low heat.
2. Sprinkle in Mrs. Dash Garlic and Herb/Table Blend, Crushed Red Pepper, Cayenne Pepper, Cumin (Be most generous with the Cumin) and finally about 5 chopped cloves of garlic. Make sure the stove is on a low enough setting not to burn the garlic.
3. While that simmers, gently blend the stewed tomatoes to get a salsa-like consistency. Put the blended tomatoes in a mixing bowl leaving a small amount in the blender.
4. Next, add the chopped onion, bell pepper, corn and black beans.
5. Put chopped jalapeño/habanero (whatever the amount decided), 2 tbsp of dried cilantro (1/4 cup fresh cilantro) and the simmered seasonings/garlic into the blender with the small amount of tomatoes. Blend to a fine saucy consistency. Add this into the mixing bowl and stir it up.


Enjoy this in burritos, with chips, with rice and beans, beans and rice or with ice cream.

Homemade Coconut Milk

First, acquire a few coconuts, preferably dried and de-husked. (The brown coconuts most are
familiar which have already been de-husked).

Find the part of the coconut with three soft holes (almost like indentations). Take a knife or nail
and twist a hole in one of the indentations. Drain the coconut. This will be the “coconut water”.

Next, use a hammer or an axe to crack open the coconut (or Belizean's use a machete).

Continue hammering the coconut until you have more manageable sized pieces.

Once the pieces are small enough, then shuck the coconut meat from the shell using a butter
knife. It should easily detach once you have a good knife hold under the coconut meat.

With a blender, puree a handful of coconut chucks in water until the mixture has a milk-like
consistency.

Then, take a strainer and place over a pot. Pour the pureed mixture over/through the strainer.
Squeeze the pulp until dry. This separates the liquid from the solid.

Re-use the coconut pulp several times in the blender (along with more water) to extract the
maximum amount of milk.

Repeat process until coconut chucks are gone.

Once all milk has been extracted and strained into the pot, place pot on stove and bring to a boil.
This will pasteurize the coconut milk. Set aside to cool. And then place in container of your
choice in the refrigerator.

Finally, enjoy!

A special thanks to Dawn Bell for teaching volunteer staff how to make coconut milk.