Sides: Avocado Salsa

California has some of the best produce I've had the pleasure of cooking with. Everything seems to be ripened just right and it's always fresh.

This avocado salsa takes advantage of the great seasonal produce, and at the same time is super tasty and is a one bowl meal!

Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe medium sized Roma tomatoes, chopped
• 1 ripe medium sized avocado
• 3/4 cup of fresh, chopped cilantro
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon of lime juice
• 1 jalapeno pepper, minced and seeded
• 1 minced garlic clove

Great 1 step dish: combine all ingredients together and mash with spoon.

Serve with tortilla chips or as topping for dishes.

Home Cooking: Quick Vegetarian Chili

Another adapted recipe from Cooking Light-which is honestly a great resource. I like to play around with the list of ingredients, but for those purists, here's the real recipe: Quick Vegetarian Chili with Avocado Salsa

This can easily feed 2 people for 5 days and uses the handy Avocado Salsa recipe

Ingredients:

• Cooking oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 1 cup chopped green pepper
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles
• 2/3 cup uncooked barley
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained
• 1 (14.5-ounce) diced tomatoes with green chilies, undrained
• 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can vegetable broth
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (fresh is key)
• sour cream
• tortilla chips
• (optional) lime wedges

2 hours before meal time: cook the barley. The recipe originally calls for quick cook barley, but I couldn't find it. The regular stuff works just as good, but takes a bit of time.

Preparation:

Heat the oil in a soup pot at medium-high heat.

Add onion and bell pepper; sauté 3 minutes. Add chili powder and next 4 ingredients (chili powder through green chiles); cook 1 minute.

Stir in barley and next 4 ingredients (barley through broth); bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 20 minutes. Top with cilantro and serve with sour cream, lime wedges (optional), chips, and Avocado Salsa.

Techniques: Shredding Chicken

One of the most useful techniques I've come to appreciate is how to shred chicken. You don't need any fancy machinery or technical know-how, just two forks and some elbow grease. Chicken is very much a utility meat, and shredding is just another way to use it.

I start with thinly cut chicken breasts. Brown the chicken and once cooked, go to town with the two forks. Use one fork to hold the meat while the other pulls away from it.

I've used shredded chicken in soups and casseroles, but I'm sure there are a hundred other uses.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole

In honor of my move to the West Coast, I tried my hand at making some Mexican cuisine. I adapted the Green Chile-Chicken casserole recipe from Cooking Light . This is definitely not light, but it sure is tasty. I added jalapenos to give the dish a little bit of a kick. I also saved a bit of the soup mixture to add to the last layer.

For me, the prep took about 45 minutes and I had another set of hands for help.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/3 cups chicken broth


• 1.5 cups canned chopped green chiles, drained


• .5 cup jarred chopped jalapeno peppers


• 1 chopped, medium onion


• 1 cup sour cream


• 3/4 teaspoon salt


• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin


• 2 (10 1/2-ounce cans) cream of chicken soup


• 2 garlic cloves, minced


• Cooking spray


• 24 (6-inch) corn tortillas


• 1.5 lbs shredded cooked chicken breast


• 1.5 cups finely shredded sharp cheddar cheese, with extra for topping
  

Equipment needs:

• 2 large frying pans


• 1 Pyrex/casserole dish, 13x9


• whisk


• ladle


• cutting boards, knives

1. Brown the chicken in 1 pan. When cooked, shred the chicken using two forks




2. Pre-heat oven to 350 and coat pan with cooking spray


3. In the second pan, combine the first 9 ingredients (chicken broth to garlic), bring to a boil and continuously stir with whisk


4. Using the ladle, spoon a little less than 1 cup of the soup mixture on the bottom of the casserole dish, just enough to cover the bottom. Layer 6 tortillas, followed by 1/3 of the chicken, and 1/3 of the cheese. Do this 3 more times, with the last layer being chicken, cheese and the remaining soup mixture


5. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbly