Mexican Fiesta Volleyball Team Potluck

I’ve been on the same indoor co-ed volleyball team for the past 17 years now. Though many players have come and gone throughout the years (minus Tim whom I’ve played with since the very first day I put the team together!) one thing is constant, well maybe two: volleyball and a team dinner at the end of the season to celebrate the occasional championship and always another fun season completed.

But as we’ve gotten older and have grown relationships, families and busy jobs, this sometimes gets a little difficult to do. Take for instance last season – after several unsuccessful attempts to plan one, the new season began w/o ever having had one. I had some major making up to do this time around, so team dinner #1 was a families (ie kiddies)-included Mexican Potluck dinner at my house. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to attend, but I *think* we still had a pretty good time.

The day of the party was a crazy busy day. Normally, I’m a total plan-aheader, having everything staged and ready to go by at least the night before, but this time around, somehow, I hadn’t even gone grocery shopping by the day of. DOH! Perhaps I got a little cocky because I’ve made Mexican dinners a million times over and this was, after all, a potluck!

With that said, I had to go to the grocery store two different times, clean my entire house, which, by the way was a COMPLETE disaster and required a fair amount of work. Plus I squeezed in a couple hours of ice skating with my girls and just hanging out, right smack in the middle of the day. FUN! The crazy girl in me originally thought I could even squeeze in some lunchtime sand doubles volleyball action, but luckily I came to my senses and decided not to. Whew.

Anyway, worked like a mad woman for most of the day (minus the occasional FB distraction – it really is evil sometimes) up until party time with occasional bouts of stress and doubt I was going to get everything done in time. When the time came, though, it was all good. I don’t know about anyone else, but I HAD A BLAST! I have to say that I just love my team, win or lose (and this year, it was lose)! But, because I was having so much fun hosting and laughing and teasing and eating, I neglected to take a single picture of food. So here are some pix staged the day after what was made/served.

Before that, though, I have to show you my fabulous decorations:

I actually had chili pepper lights on-hand and even hung them, but in my harried state, I never got around to finding an extension cord and plugging them in. Bummer. You can just imagine how beautiful they *would* have been though, right?

Ok, back the food. We’ll start w/ the Sangria Recipe I found on Allrecipes.com. I dared to try a new recipe on party night because I figured how could I go wrong when it rated 5 stars (the max) out of 855 reviews?!?

This is what was left, probably because Jeffipooh (yes, that’s what I like to call my hubby sometimes) was busy muddling some Mojito’s using the mint he grew in our backyard:

This was the delicious salsa our middle Glen made. It’s one of his specialties and I just don’t think he’s gonna share the recipe. Not to rub it in, but it’s the bomb and I’m so glad he and his wife, Kenja, didn’t spill a bunch of it in the back of their car this year!

Next up are the chicken “burritos” aka Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken Tostadas I threw together in my crock pot. I topped mine w/ rice, salsa, cilantro, red leaf lettuce, sour cream, cheese, dice pickled jalapenos and several dashes of green Tobasco sauce, but you can top yours w/ whatever YOUR heart desires. Served on a giant tortilla compliments of our outside hitter Matt & Mike.

I served it with a side of refried black beans topped with more cheese that setter Tracy and hubby Gregg brought. Along with it was of one of my favorite AND healthy dips: South Beach Diet Black Bean Dip. It’s from the South Beach Diet Cookbook printed in 2004. I can’t find a free copy of it online so won’t post it, but this is an awesome cookbook. I haven’t made a recipe out of it that I didn’t like! Everything is healthy and surprisingly yummy. These chips, brought to us by Matt & Mike once again, were Tostito’s Hint of Lime variety. I found myself unable to resist its charms. Seriously addicting.

Next, there’s the Slow Cooker Mexican Lasagna that our other setter Randall and Lea made. Unfortunately, no picture was snapped before it was gobbled up but here’s the recipe picture. I asked Lea for the recipe which turned out to be my BentoBloggingFriends Corey Valley’s of FamilyFreshMeals. WOW! How crazy cool is that?!?! She’s famous!

Pretty isn’t it? Good too.

And now, here’s dessert! The last time I hosted this crew for a Mexican fiesta, I served “homemade” sopaipilla sundaes for dessert. I painstakingly deep-fried tortillas and dusted them with cinnamon sugar. It was really yummy but a lot of work! I wanted to make sopaipillas again but I just didn’t have the time to deep-fry, so I opted for quick. Still looks pretty good, don’t ya think? AND, it was still oh soooo gooood!

Believe it or not, this sopaipilla sundae was crazy SO easy to make. First, we started with the vanilla ice cream our outside hitter Josh brought. Next, we drizzled some Homemade Magic Shell I made on top – yes, HOMEMADE! It hardens within a minute of putting it on ice cream! Finally, we topped it with whipped cream along with Stacey’s All-Natural Cinnamon Sugar Pita Chips on the side, which are addicting just by themselves.

Missed you guys who couldn’t join us and already looking forward to dinner #2!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Feel free to make my day by leaving me a comment, following my blog via email, Facebook or Instagram. The more the merrier, of course!

Christine, aka happyvballgirl : )

To check out items used in my posts or some of my favorites, simply click here: “Products I Love“. Purchases made using these links earns me a little extra cash to support my bento habit, which Hubby certainly appreciates! So, THANK YOU, should you choose to purchase any of ’em!

Disclosure: This blog contains affiliate links. ; )