I received the Ninja Kitchen System 1200 for my birthday. The boys and I pulled it out of the box today and for it’s first test run we whipped up a batch of this salsa recipe I found on Pinterest. If you’ve been around this blog long, you know that my family doesn’t just eat salsa, we inhale it. It just so happened that A.T. came home for lunch today, so this one batch was gone in less time than it took to make it. We didn’t have the ambition to do our salsa garden this year, so I was excited to find this recipe calling for canned tomatoes instead of fresh ones.
Going from my $15 12-year-old Oster blender to the Ninja 1200 was quite the contrast. The boys and I all crowded around as I pressed the start button for the first time, and when we heard that purring sound as its blades cut through onions, diced tomatoes and garlic like a hot knife through butter, an applause broke out. Perhaps the boys are mostly just excited to know that they won’t have to listen to their mom cursing the blender under her breath as she beats it against the counter and splatters food all over the cabinets anymore. Or maybe they’re excited that they won’t find shards of wood and plastic accidentally incorporated in their smoothies when she tried to shove all the frozen fruit down into the blade with wooden spoons and plastic spatulas. Mostly, they’re probably just happy to see their mom happy–they’re sweet boys like that.
The flagship salsa batch was such a hit that my 10-year-old actually thanked God for the opportunity to make it while blessing the food at dinner tonight. Then, when A.T. went around the table at dinner asking everybody’s high-low for the day, several people mentioned the homemade salsa as their high. Did I mention we like salsa in our family? We definitely like this salsa.
Other things I whipped up in the Ninja 1200 today? Two batches of salad dressing, one batch of chocolate-banana smoothie, one batch of fudge popsicles, and another batch of salsa for lunch tomorrow. Hopefully those other recipes will come in another post. I still haven’t done a frozen fruit smoothie in the Ninja 1200, so I can’t attest to its smoothie skills yet, but I’ll be sure to let you know when I do.
For today, I’m including the salsa recipe, courtesy of Mountain Mama Cooks (pretty fitting name, since I’m a mountain mama myself) and adding a printable recipe for my mini binders. FYI: I omitted the Rotel, used a teaspoon of jarred garlic instead of fresh, substituted basil and parsley from my herb pot for the cilantro, use hot chili sauce in place of a jalapeno, used curry powder instead of cumin, and used the juice of a lemon instead of a lime. So, in other words, I used this recipe more as a guideline, but it was just because I didn’t have all these ingredients in my kitchen. But, now you know just how flexible this salsa can be and still taste good! Enjoy!
Easy Blender Salsa
Ingredients:
- 1- 14 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1- 10 oz can orginal Rotel
- 1/2 small onion, roughly chopped
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and smashed
- 1/2-1 jalapeno, seeded or not (depends on how spicy you like it)
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
- small to medium size handful of cilantro, washed
- juice of 1 lime
Directions:
Put all the ingredients in the base of a food processor or good blender and pulse to combine for 30 seconds or so until all the ingredients are finely chopped and salsa is desired consistency. Taste for seasoning and adjust to taste. Serve with chips or over tacos.
Check out this link for my printable recipe dividers that will work in any half sheet binders, including my mini binders.
