Mango Black Bean Salsa

This was a recipe I found online. It was a HUGE hit at dinner! I made it with the following recipe and it took NO time at all! You can (for you meat lovers) make fajita seasoned chicken to serve with this salsa and it is delicious as well! It's a quick easy summer meal, or a great snack/party food!

Mango Black Bean Salsa Ingredients:

1 mango, cubed

1/4 onion (I prefer yellow)

1/4 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped

1 can of rinsed black beans

1 can of rinsed corn

1 teaspoon garlic salt

In a medium bowl, combine all of the ingredients. Serve with tortilla chips, use as a taco filler, you name it! Prep time is about 10 minutes.

Additional Notes: I made this at the same time I did the fruit and vegetable salad, so I chopped the onion, cubed the mango, and chopped the parsley all at once to save on cooking time, and then put those 3 ingredients in the refridgerator until I was ready to make the rest of the salsa. I prefer frozen corn so I cooked frozen corn and then rinsed it with the black beans. Walmart did not carry uncooked black beans or I would have made them myself too. This salsa only has 39 calories per serving (without chicken) and makes 8 servings! The image shown is leftover after 4 people at multiple servings.

Early Friendly Tea Party

So yesterday was the big organic/fair-trade/locally grown if possible tea party.

Mission: Host a tea party using only fair-trade, organic, or locally grown products.

Mission Status: Relatively Accomplished!

Food:

Organic carrots and celery (not in season here yet, so not possible to get locally grown)

Organic and locally grown cucumbers

Whole wheat bread (non-processed)

Organic yogurt (used to make veggie dip by adding spices)

Non-processed cheese

Non-processed whole grain crackers

Beverages:

Organic fair-trade berry tea

Black tea, curtesy of Tazo (I added peach juice to flavor it from locally grown Porter Peachers).

Review: The bread was my biggest let down. I should have planned better about getting a hold of it. I will say though, the food tasted wonderful! Especially the veggies! Everything tasted fresh and full of flavor and I didn't end up spending more than I would have had I taken a junk food or non-organic approach! So I found it a great way to kick off my new life approach to eating well and supporting my local economy and farmers.

Looking Forward To: Meat. Where do I find local deli meat? What about thinks like summer sausage? Can I find an alternative?