Baby It's cold Outside, so stay in and enjoy a home-made Caribbean meal!

I was snowed in today. Thankfully I was off from work, because Wednesdays are my day off. But I'm pretty sure no one went to work today due to the crazy snow storm.The weather was pretty bad today, first time in years that New York City closed all the public schools including the City Universities. Oh for everyone who doesn't know, I finally started a new job. I work as a College/ Editorial assistant at a college. I'm pretty excited about it and so far everything has been pretty good. Everyone in my department is super nice and I enjoy the fact that most of my tasks include writing and editing. So it really is a blessing that this job came along my path.

I decided to make a really exotic meal for my family today. I made abuela's signature arroz con Habichuelas Negras (rice and black beans) along with my version of Cuban Coconut chicken. I found a couple of recipes for the coconut chicken, but a lot them required frying the chicken and than afterwards putting it in the oven for 45 minutes. I'm really not a huge fan of frying foods so I try to avoid it as much as I can. I only make the exception for plantains and other meals that really require it. So I grilled the chicken instead. The only problem was I was so distracted with the chicken and the beans, that my white rice dried up too quickly and wasn't rising. So mami had to save the rice, otherwise we would of had some really fluffy rice. I set the table real nice and the four of us sat as a family and enjoyed a very rich and appetizing meal.

Buen Provecho !

Abuela's Habichelas Negras (Black Beans)

Ingredients:
-2 Cans of Black Goya Beans, Premium
-1/2 an onion, red or green doesn't matter
-1/2 a green bell pepper
-1/2 a red bell pepper
-A cap full of olive oil
-Less than a cap full of vinegar
-1 tablespoons of homemade sofrito (check abuela's recipe under the asopao recipe below)
-About 3 gloves of garlic chopped and minced
-1 tablespoon of tomato paste
-1 packet of Sazon Goya seasoning (Con Culantro y achiote). Optional.
-1 cup of water
-Cilantro, cilantro Recao
-Vinegar
-Virgin Olive oil

Directions:
1. Get two cans of Black Goya beans and pour into a sauce pot.
2. Than pour about 1 cup of water into the pot.
3. Throw in 1/2 and onion, 1/2 a green pepper, and 1/2 a red pepper. Make sure not to chop them, just slice them in half and throw them in. That way when the beans are done you can take them out easily.
4. Add a cap full of olive oil
5. Than pour in a little less than half a cap full of vinegar. Just a tiny little bit.
6. Take about 3 gloves of garlic, chop and mince, and add about a teaspoon of minced garlic. No more than a teaspoon full.
7. Than add a couple of pieces of cilantro, I love cilantro so I added like 5 pieces.
8. Then add one tablespoon of tomato paste.
9. Taste it, if it needs salt add a pack of Sazon Goya seasoning (Con Culantro y Achiote). Optional.
10. Stir, bring down the flame and cover.
11. Let it sit for a couple more minutes, when it's ready turn off flame and remove onion, peppers, and cilantro.
12. Serve over white rice.

Johanna's Caribbean Coconut Chicken!

Ingredients:
- Depending on the amount of servings, use 2-8 pieces of skinless, boneless chicken breast tenders. I used 8, because the chicken tenders we had were small, so I wanted each person to have 2 each, and their are 4 of us that ate.
-1 tablespoon of Virgin Olive oil
-1 1/2 onion,chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
-1 green pepper, chopped
- 1 tablespoon of chopped, minced garlic
-1/2 (14 Ounce) can of Goya Coconut milk
-salt and pepper to taste
-Adobo
-Grounded or crushed Oregano

Directions:
-I don't usually season my meat with salt and pepper, I usually sprinkle some adobo on my meat and a little bit of grounded oregano. So first I seasoned the chicken tenders with that.
-Then In a large Skillet (I used a large electric skillet) add about a tablespoon of Virgin olive oil.
-Turn on the flame on medium, in an electric skillet put it on 350 degress.
-Add the seasoned chicken. And then add the chopped onions and peppers.
-Saute until the onions and peppers are translucent. Once the vegetables are translucent and the chicken starts to brown, add the garlic and coconut milk.
-Stir in garlic and coconut milk, once the chicken is cooked add salt and pepper to taste.