Tostadas with Homemade Salsa and Guacamole

I hope everyone is having a great Thursday! Last night for dinner we had tostadas. I had some corn tortillas at home, so I used those to make our shells. I put a little olive oil on each side of the tortilla, then sprinkled them with a little salt and cumin. I put them in the oven on 350 and baked them for about 10 minutes or until the bottoms started turning brown. Once the bottoms were brown, I turned the broiler on to get the top slightly brown. You have to stay right with them, and keep an eye on them, or they will be burned before you know it. I probably only had the broiler on for a minute, and the shells were ready to take out. I'll take these shells any day over the store bought ones!

I cooked some canned, organic pinto beans, then mashed them to use as refried beans. I topped the beans off with some homemade salsa, lettuce, our home grown Roma tomatoes (peeled and chopped), homemade guacamole, and some of my cashew cheese. I am happy to say that Tony had a vegetarian meal last night. It would have been vegan if he would have left off the real cheese. :o) I do believe these tostadas were better than the ones I made the last time.

Here's my salsa recipe:

1 (14 1/2 ounce) can tomatoes and green chilies (rotel)

1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes

4 green onions (chopped)

3/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

pinch of sugar

2 tablespoons fresh cilantro (chopped)

1/2 lime (juice)

In a food processor, process the onions and cilantro for a few seconds. Add both cans of tomatoes, garlic powder, cumin, salt and sugar. Process all the ingredients until well blended. Pour into a bowl and mix in the lime juice. Cover and place in the refrigerator until you're ready to eat.

I made some simple guacamole last night. It was just enough for two people, but I still had a little left over, which was just enough for my sandwich today. I used one avocado, one green onion one Roma tomato, 1/2 lime (juice), salt and pepper to taste. My husband used to beg me to try guacamole when we would go out to a Mexican restaurant and that just wouldn't happen. Finally, one day I gave in and tried it, but still didn't care for it. Every time we would go out to eat Mexican, I would try it again. I started liking it a little more each time, now I LOVE it!

I had a strawberry banana smoothie for breakfast this morning that was not very tasty. Tony ran by the store yesterday to pick up some bananas, but all they had were green ones....I mean GREEN bananas. I never thought that a green banana could change the taste of a smoothie, but it did! I managed to drink it all, but it was NOT the best! Hopefully the bananas

will be more ripe for tomorrow. I put them in a paper bag to help them ripen faster. :o)

~Peace~