Mexican Food Cooking Extravaganza!

Happy Summer!!!  Man...it feels so good to have finally made it to summer break!  Today officially ends the first week of my summer break and I have to say that it was a very busy week!  I had tons of errands to run.  Mainly errands that I had put off for the last couple weeks of the school year because I knew that I would have more time to get stuff done when summer started.  I also completely cleaned our house from top to bottom and it felt so good to get that done!  I clean every other week...but I deep cleaned this week.  With having three dogs, their hair seems to get into the tightest spots.  During the school year, I just don't want to spend an extra couple of hours or even a day sometimes cleaning the blinds, light fixtures, doors, and baseboards.  So, I usually put it off until I know I'm going to be home for an extended period of time.  Now that that's all done, I feel like I can relax a little bit more!  I also had homework to do...of course!  But thankfully I turned in my last assignment last night so I can spend the weekend not having to worry about homework!  I also wanted to get all my homework done before the weekend because we are going to some of our very dear friend's wedding tonight in Dallas.  Adam and Erica are getting married tonight at a beautiful vineyard and it is going to be a blast!  Lots of college friends will be there and several of our best friends will be there as well.  She is going to be such a beautiful bride!

So, since it's summer time, that means that I have tons and tons of time to spend in my kitchen experimenting with new recipes!  Monday was Memorial Day and so I decided to cook a complete Mexican food dinner. I have been becoming extremely addicted to food blogs here lately and I have found some amazing recipes on all of them.  My recipe binder is about to break from all the recipes I've printed off.  Cody came home and saw me adding to it the other day and told me that I really have a recipe addiction problem!  But...at least he gets to benefit from all the yummy food that gets cooked!  So, on the menu were all new recipes that I have never tried before.  Which, can be somewhat intimidating because you don't know  how they taste or if you could alter them to make them better.  It's also scary because if all the food turns out not so good, not only have you wasted a lot of money, but you've also provided a yucky dinner to your family.  Never a fun thing to have happen!  Ok, back to the menu.  Here's what I made:

Chili Relleno Casserole (For the Love of Cooking Food Blog)
Avocado Corn Salsa (For the Love of Cooking Food Blog)
Charred Vegetable Salsa (For the Love of Cooking Food Blog)
Cheesy Chili Cornbread (Tasty Kitchen Food Blog)
Mexican Rice (From a Bag!)
Julio's Chips (The only kind of corn tortilla chips this family buys...yummy!)


All the veggies that went into the charred veggie salsa.  I also added garlic and cilantro after I broiled these on high for about 15 minutes.  There's nothing like homemade hot sauce!

The spread of Mexican food dishes!  Just looking at this makes me want to go right in the kitchen and make it all over again!

I had to get close up's.  On the left is the Chili Relleno Casserole and to the right is the Cheesy Chili Cornbread.

Here's the Charred Veggie Salsa and the Avocado Corn Salsa.  Delish!  I have to say that the kitchen...well really the whole house...smelled so good after the veggies had been roasting all day and after all this had cooked.

 My mom also made an enchilada casserole (a family recipe) and some pinto beans.  My little brother is one extremely picky eater and he wouldn't have eaten anything that I cooked, so mom made those things for him.  We had tons of food and everyone loved all the new recipes.  We also had lots of yummy leftovers, that are now all gone!  I will have to make all of those things again!  It was a great way to kick off the summer and spend a day with the family at home!

I also want to say a special thank you to all the men and women who serve our country and put their lives on the line each and everyday to protect us and give us our freedom.  We are so blessed by each and everyone of you!