For entertaining, there’s nothing like a bar–a food bar, that is.\u00a0 Food bars don’t require gourmet cooking skills; just set out bowls of components.\u00a0 They also make it easy to navigate the myriad food preferences, sensitivities and allergies typical in groups these days.\u00a0 Just provide a good variety of components and guests can create whatever combinations fit their tastes and needs.\u00a0 Finally, because they get everyone involved, food bars are also plain fun, especially for kids.<\/p>\n
There are plenty of food bar options, from pasta and potato bars to pizza, sushi and lettuce roll bars.\u00a0 One of my favorites is a taco bar, made with soft-shelled corn tortillas from the local tortillaria.\u00a0\u00a0 Here’s the taco bar I set\u00a0 out just last week, when I hosted the monthly potluck for Boulder Media Women (recipes follow):<\/p>\n
Notes and Recipes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 1.\u00a0 Shredded Salsa Beef:\u00a0 <\/strong><\/span>This dish is embarrassingly simple:\u00a0 Brown a 3-4 lb. chuck roast in 1 tbsp. oil over very high heat, then throw in the slow cooker with a 16-oz. jar of your favorite salsa.\u00a0 Cook on low 8-9 hours, until the beef falls apart when pulled with a fork.\u00a0 Remove from pot and pull beef from bones and cut away fatty pieces.\u00a0 Return pulled beef to slow cooker, with salsa liquid.\u00a0 Serve with a slotted spoon.\u00a0 (Makes enough for 8-12 servings)<\/p>\n Timing Notes:\u00a0 If frozen, start thawing roast in the frig a couple days in advance.\u00a0 Be sure to get it cooking by 8:00 or 9:00 on the morning of the event.\u00a0 Pull the beef about 30 minutes prior to serving, then turn pot on high to reheat thoroughly before dinner.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 Slow Cooker Beans–I think slow cookers make the most tender and flavorful beans.\u00a0 If you’ve never tried this cooking method, here are a couple blog posts to get you started: \u00a0 How to Cook Dried Beans<\/a> and “Accelerated” Slow Cooker Beans<\/a>.<\/p>\n Timing Notes:\u00a0 The night before, start soaking the beans, then start them in the slow cooker mid-morning on high heat.\u00a0 They take about 6-7 hours.<\/p>\n 3.\u00a0 The Tacos:\u00a0 Of course store-bought tortillas can be used if there is no tortillaria in your area.\u00a0 Look for whole grain <\/em>corn varieties.\u00a0 Because corn tortillas harden as they cool, they need to be warmed before serving.\u00a0 Wet a cloth napkin or light dish towel, then wring it as dry as possible.\u00a0 Wrap about 10 tortillas inside and microwave about 1 minute, until soft and steaming.\u00a0 Avoid overheating or tortillas will toughen.\u00a0 Leave tortillas wrapped in cloth when adding to the food bar.<\/p>\n Timing Notes:\u00a0 Wait until everything else is ready before warming the tortillas.<\/p>\n 4.\u00a0 Leftovers? Don’t Worry!\u00a0 Mexican food leftovers are like gold.\u00a0 See my Tweets <\/a>from the last few days to see what I did with them.<\/p>\n 5.\u00a0 Mexican Rice and Fried Tofu with Green Peppers<\/a> I put this recipe in a separate post<\/a>, since this one is getting long. <\/span>Fried Tofu with Green Peppers is one of the variations explained in the Notes.<\/p>\n Here’s an added bonus with this entertaining menu:\u00a0 your guests get a wonderfully healthful meal without even trying!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For entertaining, there’s nothing like a bar–a food bar, that is.\u00a0 Food bars don’t require gourmet cooking skills; just set out bowls of components.\u00a0 They also make it easy to navigate the myriad food preferences, sensitivities and allergies typical in groups these days.\u00a0 Just provide a good variety of components and guests can create whatever … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,20],"tags":[84,174,209,267,383,521,571,589,591],"class_list":["post-736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-healthy-cooking-basics","category-recipes","tag-brown-rice-mexican-rice","tag-easy-entertaining","tag-food-bars","tag-green-peppers","tag-mexican-food","tag-shredded-salsa-beef","tag-taco-bar","tag-tofu-with-green-peppers","tag-tortillas","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2780,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736\/revisions\/2780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookhappylivehealthy.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}