For those Mexican food-lovers in the Southern California area, there is an amazing annual event coming up, the East LA Meets Napa gala organized by AltaMed.  I highly recommend it!  This event brings the tastiness of local Latino owned Mexican food restaurants and wine that is made in Northern California, Napa to be exact.  I had the pleasure of attending a preview tasting for the event at Loteria Grill a few days ago and let me tell you I made sure I had a bite of everything it had to offer.  I attended East LA Meets Napa last year and wouldn’t miss it for the world this year.  I am so proud of AltaMed for providing many underserved communities with quality care for the past 41 years.  This organization continues to prosper and grow bringing more people/families the health care they need.  Support this amazing event by buying a ticket now.  It’s a win win.  You won’t be sorry because the food is amazing, the wine is sublime and all proceeds go to getting more people healthcare by AltaMed.

Chef Jimmy Shaw was a gracious host and his Tacos Bilingue were some of the best tacos I’ve ever tasted.  Beef tongue and pork tongue divided by a slice of avocado.  These are the tacos I’ll be looking out for!

It all takes place at Union Station (800 N Alameda St in Los Angeles) Friday, July 19th from 6p.m. to 9p.m. For tickets, click here!

Here are a few photos from last years event.  Hope to see you there!

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by ViSalus. All opinions and recipe are my own.

A friend of mine is on a diet, and is looking for ways to slim down but still keep all her favorite treats in place. I’ll have her at my house over the holiday weekend, so I needed to make sure she would be satisfied with her treat. I didn’t want her to feel left out while everyone else got to eat cake or cookies. I racked my brain for a while, thinking maybe I should make her cheesecake bites, or lowfat chocolate cake. Then after talking to her those ideas seemed to decadent for her weight loss plan. Luckily I had recently got a bag of ViSalus shake mix and a couple of new paleta molds. I thought what if I make a banana visalus mixture and freeze it into paletas then dip them at the tip in a chocolate? I knew that would make her happy since she loves banana and chocolate. I called her and told her all about the ViSalus product, how it is gluten- free, lactose – free, low fat, contains non-GMO soy protein, and low sodium. I then told her I made paletas out of them and they are DELICIOUS, she said she was so thankful cuz she has a hard time finding something great when everyone else is eating dessert.

Ingredients for Banana Paletas:

• 3 – super ripe bananas (if they have brown spots they are even better to use.)
• 1 – cup almond milk
• 2 – rounded scoops of Visalus Vi-Shape Nutritional Shake Mix -Sweet Cream Flavor
• 1 – cup dark chocolate chips (melted)
• 1/4 – cup chopped peanuts

Directions:

1. In a blender add in bananas, almond milk, and Visalus Vi-Shape Nutritional Shake Mix. Blend on high till smooth.
2. Pour mixture into paleta / popsicle molds, then insert sticks and freeze over night.
3. Prepare a cookie sheet with piece of wax paper on it.
4. Melt down dark chocolate chips, either in a double boiler or microwave.
5. Remove paletas from the freezer, then unmold them.
6. Dip the tip of the paleta in melted chocolate, then sprinkle with chopped peanuts.
7. Place dipped paletas on the cookie sheet and place back in the freezer for one hour.
8. Enjoy!