Sweet Plantains with Coca Cola Recipe (Platanos en Tentacion)

Hola Amigos: Today I'm sharing with you an easy recipe to prepare Plantains! I can't get tired of this delicious and versatile fruit! No matter the stage of it's life cycle, it's good! To make this recipe you need to have the plantains as dark skinned as possible, almost black or black! It's o.k. they are not spoiled, they are perfect for this dish!
Dark plantains are easy to find at your grocery store. By the time they are out in the shelves for us to purchase, they are already brownish yellow, after that it takes only a couple of days for them to turn black.

Platanos en Tentacion or Sweet Plantains are an almost mandatory side for all of our meals. Much like fries in America or Tortillas in Mexico, plantains are loved green when they are a salty snack or like in this case, sweet and cooked slowly in butter and sugar, your favorite fruit juice or Coke. When you eat them all the time, variety is important!

A few weeks ago I made a batch to go along with my Rice and Beans with Coconut Milk, perfect together, as every meal needs a little bit of sweetness to make it even better!

If you had plantains before, let me know what's your favorite way to have them! This is just an easy recipe with a a few ingredients for days you want to have something different and tropical as part of your lunch or dinner but not necessarily as a dessert or smoothie. Hope you guys are having a great week! Keep in mind my friends, everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos

Lizy

Sweet Plantains with Coca-Cola

Ingredients:

3  Ripe Plantains

4 TBSP Butter or Margarine

1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

1 Cinnamon Stick

Coca-Cola 

Directions: 

Peel the plantains and cut them in 2"-3" pieces. In a large pan, melt butter and brown the plantain pieces. Add sugar, cinnamon and enough Coca-Cola to cover the plantains. Cook plantains on low heat, covered until they are soft and the sauce has caramelized. About 20-30 minutes. Serve hot. Enjoy!

Prep and Cook Time :20-30 minutes                                                           Serves  4-6

Sharing my sweet side dish at these Fabulous Parties:

Lady Behind the Curtain

Cheesy Baked Mostaccioli Recipe

Hola Amigos! After cooking all week, we all feel like taking a break on the weekends, and the best way of doing it (and cheapest) is to cook a casserole big enough to feed an army and tasty and satisfying for your soldiers not to mind reheating leftovers the next day!
Mostaccioli is a favorite. My grandma used to called it Macarrones Asados! She made the most delicious food ever, well I think we all  believe our grandma's are the best at everything anyways, right? I'm sure they are!

I asked my readers on FB how they have theirs, with meat as a main dish or plain as a side, but you know Facebook, No One gets to see what you post there unless a) you have a large fan base b) you pay to promote your status, or c) your  family and friends love you so much they keep up with what you do. I'm blessed and proud to have option C . I got 2 answers, one from my friend +Diane Kaul blogger at Giraffe Legs and she likes it as a main dish with meat in it, delicious and with endless options and the other one from my sweet adoptive little "sis" and blog designer,  Brooke, creative at Uplifted Designs who likes it as a side. Knowing my boys, I decided to play it safe and make a big casserole as a side.

This is a common recipe, everybody has their own little extra special ingredient and that is what I'm interested on exploring. New possibilities and tastes for a classic!

My motto bake 2 freeze 1 applies to this dish, only don't bake  it after you are done preparing it, freeze it well sealed right away and then bake it for that day you are scratching your head for what to have for dinner!
They all liked it  and I was able to stay out of he kitchen for the weekend a win win situation in my book if you ask me!

Thank You for visiting the blog today! I wish you all a healthy and productive week! Before you leave don't forget to let me know what makes your Mostaccioli extra special and a hit among your family and friends! Big Hug and remember my friends, everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,

Lizy

Cheesy Baked Mostaccioli 

Ingredients:

2 Cups Uncooked Tube Shaped Pasta

1 Jar (24 oz) Spaghetti Sauce of your choice

1 (10 3/4 oz) Condensed Cheddar Cheese Soup

1/2 Can Milk

1 Large Egg, Beaten

2 Cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Shredded (about 16 oz)

1 Cup Cottage Cheese

Pepper. Salt and Garlic Powder to taste

1 Cup Cheddar Cheese "Pringles" Chips, Crushed

1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven at 350 F.

In a large saucepan prepare your pasta with plenty of salt in the water as indicated on the package. Once drained, place it in a large mixing bowl and start adding ingredients to it mixing after each ingredient is added carefully not to break the pasta. After the last cheese is added, the cottage cheese, check the pasta for flavors and add the condiments, pepper and garlic powder to taste and extra salt if needed.

Pour the mix in 2 separate, previously greased baking dishes. I used (2) 9x9 dishes.

*If you are going to freeze one baking dish, cover the container well and freeze. Remove from freezer, thaw in the refrigerator add the toppings after it thaws and  you are ready to bake it.

Top the remaining baking dish with crushed chips and Parmesan cheese. Bake for 45 minutes. Let it rest and serve with salad, garlic bread and enjoy!

Prep Time 20 minutes                      Cook Time 45 minutes                       Serves 8-12

Sharing my Easy Cheesy Baked Casserole at these Fabulous Parties:

Gina's Craft Corner, Little House Living, Feeding Big, The Princess and her Cowboys, Love Bakes Good Cakes, Lady Behind the Curtain

Rice and Beans with Coconut Milk Recipe

Hola Amigos! I really wanted to make the first post of 2014 memorable! Perhaps an awesome and gooey dessert or a 5 star meal, but after getting and digging a foot of snow the first 2 days of the year and with temperatures today -5 without windchill, the only kind of food I can think of is good old fashion comfort food, nothing fancy, just good!!!!

This rice is very common in the Atlantic Coast of my country. Folks there eat it as part of their daily diet with saucy chicken or spicy escovitch fish! I had mine with a hamburger patty in a spicy onion and mushroom sauce, my 1-2-3  version of Salisbury steak!

Add extra beans with butter if you want! I know, not the leanest and healthier thing to eat but it's good I tell ya! On the plus side, it's a side dish rich in fiber!

You can taste the sweetness of the coconut on every bite but by no means the rice is sweet, just a hint!
As a side, serve it with something definitely sweet, yellow plantains, mine I soaked in coke, that's why they are a bit on the dark side.

Now that we all had a taste of the sunny Caribbean, let's go out and do some more shoveling! (hopefully not)! I hope you guys are having a wonderful first week of the year! Remember that everything could be memorable and taste even better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,

Lizy

Rice and Beans with Coconut Milk Recipes

Ingredients

1 1/2 Cup Long Grain White Rice

1 Can Coconut Milk

2 Cups Chicken Broth

1 Can Red Beans, drained

1 Can Pinto Beans, drained

1 Chicken Bullion (dissolved in broth)
2 Cloves Garlic Minced
1 tbsp Butter

Directions:
In a large pot on medium high heat, melt butter and toss minced garlic until slightly golden. Remove from pot. Add rice, coconut milk, broth and beans. Stir Cook uncovered until the liquid evaporates. Cover, low the stove temperature to medium and cook for 12 minutes. Stir the rice first with a large spoon and then with a fork to separate the grains. Cook for another 15-20 minutes until grains are soft. Serve as a side and enjoy!

Total Cook Time: 30 minutes

Sharing my Homeland's Caribbean Cuisine at these Fabulous Parties:

Tartertots and Jello, Th Best Blog Recipes, Home Maid Simple, The Shabby Nest, Six Sister's Stuff, What's Cooking with Ruthie, Made from Pinterest,Swe Licious Home Decor, Becoming Martha, Walking on Sunhsine, Flamingo Toes, 504 Main, Navy Wifey Peters, Twigg Studios, Nifty Thrifty Things, Will Cook For Smiles, Suburbs Mama, Lines Across, The Chicken Chick, This Gal Cooks, I Should be Mopping the Floors, Smart School House, Ginger Snap Crafts, All She Cooks, Lady Behind the Curtain, Ducks' n a Row, Kitchen Meets Girl, My Girlish Whims, Memories by the Mile, My Snippets of Inspiration, Gina's Craft Corner, Little House Living, The Princess and her Cowboys Love Bakes Good Cakes

Fresh Cherries and Hibiscus Holiday Sauce Recipe

Hola Amigos: Today I'm mixing it a little bit and sharing with you a twist on side dish eaten by all throughout the holiday season, Cranberry Sauce. This year since I'm not hosting any of the holidays for family and friends, just my guys I get creative freedom when it comes to dishes and do things outside the can.

We only serve or eat cranberry sauce of juice when we have guests or we are sick, lol. This time of the year coincides with summer in my country so we instead of cranberry juice we have Hibiscus Cooler or "Saril" very popular drink around the holidays there. As refreshing and vibrant colored as Cranberry Juice Cocktail only a bit spicy since we add ginger to the infusion! Anyway, it is this Hibiscus Cooler concentrate infusion what I have used to prepare the base of this sauce.

It's not only good by itself, but goes great with ice cream, cake, pancakes anywhere where you use sauce you could use my plain Hibiscus Sauce.

To make it more festive and to resemble the whole cranberry sauce thing, I made a little cherry reduction with some sweet Moscato and mixed it all up!

The result made me skip dinner because I just got a bowl of my favorite ice cream and pour this still warm over it and at it all! Oh my guys! this stuff is addictive!

You can taste the sweetness and tartness of the hibiscus with notes of ginger and a bit of the Moscato on every cherry bite! yumm

I made enough of the hibiscus sauce to use for future recipes and this particular combination makes about 1 1/2 cup of goodness to have with your turkey or ham.
Thank you so much for visiting the blog today! I hope you enjoy this recipe a little bit our of the ordinary but delicious and easy to make. Remember my friends, everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,

Lizy

Cherry and Hibiscus Holiday Sauce
Ingredients
For the Hibiscus Infusion and Sauce
1 Cup Hibiscus Flowers
6 Cups Water
1 Inch piece Ginger, peeled
1/2 Cup Corn Syrup
8 TBSP Sugar
1/4 Cup Fresh Orange Juice
2 TBSP Cornstarch
Directions:
In a large saucepan, bring 6 cups water to a rapid boil. Add hibiscus flowers, remove from heat and cover with a lid for about 20 to 30 minutes.
Using a large colander, separate the infusion from the flowers, but do not discard the flowers. They will be use to prepare something delicious soon.
Add 2 cups of the infusion, ginger, corn syrup and sugar to saucepan on medium high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
Combine orange juice and cornstarch and add it to the infusion mix, continue cooking until the mix begins to boil, reduce heat at cook for abut 5 more minutes until the sauce coats a spoon. It will thicken a bit more as it cools.Remove and discard  ginger piece and  remove the sauce  from heat.
For the Cherries
1 Cup Fresh Cherries (could be frozen too), pitted
4 TBSP Moscato wine
1/2 tsp Orange Zest
In a small hot saucepan, add wine, cook for about 1 minute until the alcohol evaporates. Add cherries and orange zest. Cook until  the wine reduces to almost nothing, about 8 minutes. 
Add Hibiscus sauce to the fresh cherries, mix until everything is well blended. Serve and Enjoy!

Prep Time   20 minutes                           Cook Time 13 minutes                            Serves 2 Cups

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The Chicken Chick, Under the Table and Dreaming, Coastal Charm, Between Naps on the Porch, The Plaid and Paisley Kitchen, Cooking for the Seven Dwarfs, A Pinch of Joy, Create with Joy, The Tumbleweed Contessa, Kathe with an E, Feeding Big, Home Stories A to Z, Hun...what's for dinner?, Our Table for Seven, The View from 510, Mandy's Recipe Box, Nap-Time Creations, Chef in Training, Pint Sized Baker, Lady Behind the Curtain, Ducks'n a Row, Fluster Buster, The Taylor House, Ginger Snap Crafts, Diana Rambles, Sweet Haute, Juggling Real Food and Real Life, My Turn (for Us), Craft Dictator, Tatertots and Jello, Rain on a Tin Roof, Huckleberry Love, Craft-O-Maniac, Skip to my Lou, Say Not Sweet Anne, Alderberry Hill, Boogieboard Cottage, Mad in Crafts, Frugality Gal, Carrie This Home, Smart School House, Kleinworth & co, Homemade Ginger, Memories by the Mile, All She Cooks, Kitchen Meets Girl, My Girlish Whims, Pink Box Recipe, The Best Blog Recipes, Artsy Fartsy Mama, Craft Dictator, Sweet Haute

Bacon and Cheese Cornbread Recipe

Hola Amigos! For the next couple of weeks it's most likely we will be eating a lot of  corn bread! All kinds of cornbread, some spicy, some sweet, some that are hard as a rock and best fed to the birdies in the yard, corn bead in  stuffing, in muffins you name it! This is my super easy and savory recipe with a twist from all the other corn breads you will have these season.

There is no flour measuring, no creaming of the corn or using the can stuff, just mix a few ingredients, most of them in your pantry at this moment, bake and enjoy.

It has the things my guys love to no end, bacon and cheese! I added the things I love a bit of smokiness spicy and broccoli! I know it's different, but so good!...believe me when I say this was one veggie that wasn't picked out of the plate like it happens almost on regular basis here by my little one

Give this Corn Bread a try and mix in the elements you love the most, if you are not a fan of broccoli, leave it out and substitute it with your favorite one or add corn! This is a very flexible recipe and that's what I love about it, gives you the foundation for you to do it your way and make it your own.

Thank you for your visit today, I hope you include this quick recipe as one of the many holiday dishes you will have this season! Remember my friends, everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,

Lizy

Bacon and Cheese Cornbread Recipe
Ingredients:
2 (8.5 oz) Jiffy Corn Muffin Mix
1 (8 oz) Package Cottage Cheese
1 Cup Cheddar Cheese
1 TBSP Chipotle in Adobo Sauce
4 Eggs, beaten
4 Strips of Bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 (8 oz) Package Frozen Broccoli 
1 Small onion, chopped 
1/2 Cup Butter + 1 TBSP extra
Directions:
Pre-heat oven at 350 degrees. Melt butter in a 9 x 13 inch pan. 
In a medium skillet melt 1 TBSP butter and saute onion until transparent. Remove from skillet.
Mix all the ingredients and add saute onions. Add this mix to the previously buttered baking pan. Bake for 45 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Serve warm and Enjoy!

Prep Time 5 minutes                                                                 Bake Time 45 Minutes                          

Sharing my Savory Corn Bread Recipe at these Fabulous Parties:

The Plaid and Paisley Kitchen, Between Naps on the Porch, Feeding Big, Watch Out, Martha!, A Southern Fairytale, The Gunny Sack, Our Table for Seven, Hun...What's for Dinner?, Chef In Training, Home Stories A to Z, Nap Time Creations, Mandy's Recipe Box, Sugar Bee Crafts, Cozy Little House, Ginger Snap Crafts, My Sweet Mission, Lady Behind the Curtain, A Bright and Beautiful Life, Gina's Craft Corner, Sweet Haute, The Brambleberry Cottage, Lamberts Lately, The Mandatoy Mooch, What's Cooking Love?, Katherine's Corner, The Crafty Blogstalker, Saving 4 Sx, A Glimpse Inside, Made in a Day, Simply Dream and Create, Consider me Inspired, Artsy Fartsy Mama, Living Well Spending Less, Gingerly Made, White Lights on Wednesday, The Girl Creative, The Answer is Chocolate, Becoming Martha, The Best Blog Recipes, Tidy Mom, French Country Cottage, My Turn (for Us), Juggling Real Food and Real Life, Home Maid Simple, 504 Main, The Shabby Nest, The Pin Junkie, The Craft Dictator, Kitchen Fun with my 3 Sons, Not Your Ordinary Recipes, Living Better Together, In the Kitchen with Jenny, The 36th Avenue, Today's Creative Blog, Cheerios and Lattes, Made from Pinterest, Twigg Studios, Nifty Thrifty Things, Flamingo Toes, Life on Lakeshore Drive, I Should be Mopping the Floors, Will Cook for Smiles, Titi Crafty, 2 Crochet Hooks, My Mixing Spoon, Under the Table and Dreaming, The Chicken Chick, Create with Joy, The Tumbleweed Contessa, Kathe with an E, The Taylor House

Yuca Frita-Yuca Fries

Hola Amigos! Happy Weekend...this is a make up post for the absence of Quicky Friday yesterday, so I worked really hard trying to find something fun and different for you to enjoy.

I found what I was looking for in a very odd looking root, Yuca! yes,,,if you are tired of your usual french fries or  even sweet potato fries...keep reading, you are going to love these.
Yuca, also known as cassava, manioc or mandioca is a shrub from South America, Africa, Asia and any other tropical weather region. It's root is rich in starch which makes it a main source of carbohydrates. When it's dry and powdery is called Tapioca (I'm sure you have heard and tried this before).

I was happily surprised that one of my favorite restaurants, Bahama Breeze serves them as appetizers under Crisp Yuka Fries (this spelling is actually the name of a Mammoth from Yukatia, a whole different thing, but it sell I guess, lol). So if you happen to be at a Bahama Breeze, after reading this post perhaps you'll feel more comfortable ordering them.

This is a Pic of Crisp Yuka Fries from Bahama Breeze

The location of the restaurant is quite far from where I live, so since I like them so much I made my own batch as I'm showing you here so you can also make them at home if  you see this funny looking root at your local market.

Yuca Frita- Yuca Fries

1-2 Yuca Roots

oil for frying 

salt, pepper or lemon pepper to taste.

First you need to take a good look at your yuca so you can assess  where to cut it in chunks, you know, 3 or 4 chunks out of one, pretty much the same thing you do when you have to cut a potato or a squash.

Once they are cut, peel the thick skin until they are all white, again, just as you would do with a potato.

(I went and cleaned these chunks a bit more after this pic)

Drop them in a large pot with salt and boil them until they are soft but still somewhat firm (imagine you are making a potato salad and not mashed) about 20 minutes.

Remove from heat and drain them, let them dry on paper towel for a minute or 2, cut them in little chunks while your heating up the oil in your fryer.

  Fry them until they are crisp and golden brown.Sprinkle them with salt, or if you want a little bit of pepper or lemon pepper to kick them up a notch.

Listo! 

They are so good! As a snack by themselves with some ketchup if you want.

As a side dish with your hamburgers

or instead of hash browns for breakfast

They are addictive I tell you...if my picky 4 yo loves them you would too!

Hope you enjoyed this post and give my Yuca Fries a try this weekend. Remember, everything tastes better with a Pinch of Love!

Besitos,

Lizy

Sharing a tropical snack at these Fabulous Parties:
Spatulas on Parade

Life on Lakeshore Drive
Flamingo Toes
Chatting over Chocolate
Under the Table and Dreaming
Couponing and Cooking
The Chicken Chick
Top This by Leanne
A Humble Creation
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Sugar Bee Crafts
Nap-time Creations
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Clippie Dips
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Rattlebridge Farm
Happy Hour Projects
Not Your Ordinary Recipes
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