Tales of a Tired Mom

Fresh Guacamole Plantain Cups

So whenever  I know that a snowstorm is coming, I always like to try new recipes that I have been thinking about but never actually attempted.

Spoiler Alert! This recipe is…

(She was fresh out of playing in the snow and ready for a yummy snack. She really enjoyed it!)

Naturally, what do you think about when its cold and snowy? I am daydreaming about being on a tropical island, the hot sun on my face, and a fruity drink in my hand.

Puerto Rican cuisine. OMG YUM.

My obsession with this food started when I was little. Our next door neighbors moved in when I was around 1 years old. They also had a little girl who was just 2 years old. To make a long story short, between our family and her family, there were 7 kids all very close in age. We joked our moms were having a baby competition. With all these kids running around, we were together pretty much every single day. We were and still are each other’s second family!

I would ALWAYS invite myself over when her mom was cooking homemade Puerto Rican food. Seriously, I  loved it. Nor was I ever shy about asking for another helping of rice and beans. And as we got older, we have shared a glass or 7 of homemade coquito 🙂

Here we are on our second trip to Puerto Rico together!

 

Now that you have the background story.

Sweet plantains (platanos maduros) and tostones. I couldn’t choose between having the sweet or salty so I decided I had to make both.

A trip to the farmer’s market to get a few plantains. When I got home, I sent her a picture and asked for her mom’s recipe for both. She laughed and informed me that they were not ripe enough yet. OOPS.

She said Goya makes some delicious frozen ones and she was going to bring them right over for me to try!

Change of plans. Now we are making…

Fresh Guacamole Plantain Cups

First let us make the fresh guacamole.

What we need: 

  • 3 avocados
  • salt
  • pepper
  • crushed red pepper
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • 3 cloves garlic (minced)
  • 1/4 chopped  red onion
  • 1/2 chopped tomato

What we need to do:

  1. Season the avocado with salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper to your taste. MASH.
  2. Add the lemon juice and mix.
  3. Then mix in the garlic, red onion, and tomato.

 

The instructions for the plantain cups said to fry them for 4 to 5 minutes. I always try to bake instead of fry whenever possible and these come out just as yummy when baked.

So I baked the cups for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. (If you would like them a little crispier, let them bake longer.)

Then just fill the cups with guacamole and serve with your favorite garnish. Mine was a hot and sweet pepper sauce!

Thank you Goya for the assist!

Next mission… my all time favorite… MOFONGO WITH GARLIC SHRIMP

 

Need another bite sized appetizer?

Try Homemade Eggrolls or 6 ingredient spinach tots !