Yesterday Andrew and I allowed for a gym skip day due to the holiday (well that and Andrew was falling asleep standing and I was sore from my Monday gym workout). Since we had ample of time in the house I went all out in the kitchen. I put out some freshly made guacamole and some leftover salsa from an evening chip and dip party friends had brought over. For the filling we had basmati rice, black beans, fresh tomatoes and green onions. The night prior I sauteed garlic, a yellow onion, a Serrano pepper along with a red, yellow and orange bell pepper and then added salt, pepper, paprika and balsamic. The whole dish ended up being pretty spicy, but delicious. We haven't had these since last Summer when I was making zucchini quesadillas on the regular (Andrew still has an aversion to zucchinis, but not zucchini bread...that he would happily eat lots of).

Andrew made some homemade Margaritas courtesy of a recipe we found on AllRecipes.com. We squeezed all of our limes and lemons since we don't know what else we would use them. The drinks were pretty potent, and since we didn't have a lime wedge (we realized too late that we used them all for juicing), we added a jalapeno on the rim. We fancy huh.

After limiting myself to one entree in true Kasia fashion I started eyeing the kitchen to see what I could make for dessert. Plantains! I had them once at my girlfriends house and have been meaning to try them again. Granted I could have done without a recipe, but I did look at Minimalist Baker's "Coconut Sugar Caramelized Plantains" for guidance. My plantains were green and black, not yet yellow. I checked somewhere online and if you run it under warm water it will help soften the skin (you know if you are too impatient to wait like me...although I think it was never turning yellow because they have been sitting in our fruit bowl for over a week and all I got was some black). I peeled the sucker by cutting slits and then cutting some more. The 1st try was discouraging as I massacred the plantain so I threw it out. I then tried again with a bit more patience. I whipped out the cast iron pan that I had yet to use since receiving it at my bridal shower. With the brown sugar, cinnamon and pinch of salt I threw them on a pan with coconut oil. They caramelized perfectly. When we bit into them for some reason we were thinking we were going to taste sweet bananas. They taste more like dry dehydrated bananas. But, the caramelized outside was key, and I can see why the coconut cream is a nice touch. The after taste is also one that makes you going back for more. Or that could just be me since I can never have enough goodness in my belly.