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Forget Taco Tuesday! Let’s do Taco Burger Tuesday!

By on September 23, 2016 in Main Dishes

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A few weeks ago our family was in Breckenridge, CO. It’s one of the most beautiful, peaceful places I’ve ever been and one of our family’s favorite vacation spots. Seriously, if it didn’t snow six months out of the year, we’d live there. Our first night there we ate at a steakhouse. Steakhouses are great for healthy eating because it’s usually really easy to order any cut of meat you want and a ton of veggies.

I saw a “Spicy Santa Fe” burger on the menu that looked delicious. I asked if they could serve it without a bun and they were more than willing (side note: most restaurants will happily serve a burger without a bun).  The burger was so amazing I wanted to recreate in at home. While I love the name “Spice Santa Fe” burger, It basically seemed like a taco in burger form to me, so I decided to just call it a Taco Burger.

I seasoned the meat with my Healthy Taco Seasoning (click here for recipe). This gave the patties themselves great flavor. Then add the toppings to the cooked patties and they tasted like a taco, but even better.

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We all used different toppings in our family, but some suggested toppings are:

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The rest of my family had their burgers on whole wheat buns, but I had mine on a lettuce cup. You could even serve it on a bed of spinach like a salad.

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Tender Slow Cooker Salsa Beef

By on July 29, 2016 in Main Dishes

I’m officially insane. Every time I try to simplify my life, I find something fabulous I need to add to it. My son has been taking piano lessons for three years. Plus he goes to karate twice a week and has cub scouts once a week. My daughter is in ballet and tap. Every Sunday I sit on my porch swing and think about how nice it is to relax and how we need to get rid of some activities in our lives. So what did I do last week? I signed my daughter up for piano as well. What’s worse is that it was my idea. She was content with ballet and tap but then I opened my big mouth and asked her if she wanted to take piano. She was thrilled! She’s been “practicing” every day since. The good mom in me is really excited for her. Learning music is important and she’ll love it. But the other side of the good mom is not so happy. I’ve added one more thing to our lives. Sigh. Oh well. It will all work out in the end. Or else I’ll die of exhaustion. Guess I won’t know until I try, right?

So for all you other insane moms out there who are also stretched beyond your limits, I have yet another slow cooker recipe for you. I believe the slow cooker was the best invention since 2-ply toilet paper. Some days, it’s the only way we have a warm meal on the table at dinner time. I can throw everything together in the morning and then come home from ballet or piano or karate or cub scouts or the therapy sessions I should sign myself up for and still be able to give my family a delicious, healthy dinner.

This salsa beef meets all the criteria of comfort food. It’s packed with flavor, tender and super healthy.

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This is another fabulous dump and go recipe. While that doesn’t sound glamorous, it’s way better than a bowl of cereal, which is plan B on busy days. Just pull out the slow cooker and add stew meat, carrots, stewed tomatoes, salsa, molasses and garlic. Then let all the flavors meld together. Mmmmmm. A word about salsa. You have to be careful when picking salsa. A lot has added sugar, but it’s still easy to find one that does not if you’re willing to read labels.

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Stir this together and cook the entire thing on low for 6-8 hours.

My husband eats this over rice, but my daughter and I like it over mashed sweet potatoes. Either way, you can congratulate yourself at the end of the day for preparing a delicious, healthy dinner for your family even though you spend your days as a taxi driver.

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Easy Cinnamon Apple Stir Fry Lunch

By on June 3, 2016 in Main Dishes

As I’ve mentioned several times, I love stir fry. Even though it’s May, today I was in the mood for the flavors of fall. That’s what I love about stir fry. You can eat the flavors you’re craving whenever you want.

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As usual, start out by cooking the vegetables in salt and pepper. Rather than take the time to cook and dice sweet potatoes on my own, I used these:

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These are one of the most convenient things I’ve found. Eating healthy often requires a lot of chopping, so these pre-cooked make it much easier.

Because I used pre-cooked sausages, I just had to cook them long enough to brown the outside and warm the inside. These chicken apple sausages are great to have on hand. We use them in salads, in eggs for breakfast and, of course, in stir frys.

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Who says you can only have cinnamon and sweet potatoes in the fall? Not me!

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Healthy BBQ Beef Kabobs

By on May 20, 2016 in Main Dishes

My husband hates most vegetables. I on the other hand, love vegetables. This makes it very hard to cook dinners, especially when I’d like to make them a bit healthier with added veggies. We found a great solution to our problem: beef kabobs.

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I load mine full of vegetables, and his full of meat.

The first thing to do is pick a meat. I pick whatever is cheapest at the grocery store. I looked at beef stew meat, stir fry beef and flank steak. That day, stir fry beef was cheapest (I used one pound). If steak is on sale, ask the butcher to cut it up into stew meat for you. They always say yes.

I cut the pieces in half so they were about 2 inches long each. I then marinated the meat using the same marinade I use on my Round Steak

Then, I picked the vegetables. I used only tomatoes, onion and beef on my husband’s, but loaded mine with tomatoes, onion, mushrooms, green pepper, pineapple and beef. I originally wanted to buy cherry tomatoes, but decided not to when I saw how expensive they were. Good grief! Instead, I halved roma tomatoes and cut each half into quarters. It worked just as well. I then assembled the kabobs on skewers. Soak your skewers for at least half an hour in water before assembling the kabobs. This keeps them from burning and your beef kabobs probably won’t taste all that great if they go up in flames.

My wonderful husband grilled them on the barbecue on medium-high for about 10-ish minutes. All grills are a bit different, so grill them until your vegetables are roasted and a bit black on the edges. Roasted vegetables are, in my opinion, the best way to eat vegetables. YUM!

The best part about this dish is how versatile it is. Load it up with whatever you like. I made my husband one kabob that was purely meat. Enjoy your beef kabobs!!

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Healthy Curry Stir Fry

By on April 22, 2016 in Main Dishes

I have another stir fry recipe today. I love stir fry because it’s a great way to use up excess or about-to-expire vegetables and meat. Plus you can flavor the mixture to fit your mood. This day, I felt like curry. This isn’t surprising since I could eat curry every day.

As is the case with most my stir frys, this comes together quickly in one pan. This serves one very hungry person or two people who are just sort of hungry. I tend to fit in the category of a very hungry person, so this is a great lunch for me.

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10 Healthy Meals On-the-Go

By on April 12, 2016 in healthy tips, Main Dishes

Tuesdays are crazy in our house. We leave the house at 11:45 and don’t get home until about 5:30 p.m. While there are some good protein bars and jerky sticks we can pack to eat on-the-go, nothing beats real, whole food. Yet it’s not always easy to transport or eat healthy food to eat while […]

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Healthy Taco Seasoning

By on April 8, 2016 in Main Dishes

Last week, we bought half a cow. We now have enough steak, stew meat, roast and ground beef to last quite a while. Not to mention liver. I think I’m going to need to do more research before we tackle that one. My kids’ reactions were very different. My 8-year-old son was appalled. I guess there’s something different about buying a pound of ground beef at the grocery store. Getting a cooler full of beef made it more real for him. He was shocked that we would eat an adorable cow. My 5-year-old daughter on the other hand, took a different stance. She wanted to meet and pet the cow before it was sent to the butcher so she could see what she was eating. She also now wants to know what part of the cow she’s eating. I’m not sure what sparked the difference in reaction but one thing is for sure; they are their own people with their own views an opinions. They never cease to amaze me.

On a different note (well… kind of different anyway) we had beef tacos last week. I wanted to make my life easier by buying a taco seasoning packet. Then I read the ingredient list and decided that wasn’t going to happen. Every seasoning I could find had sugar (sometimes organic, but it’s still sugar) and modified corn starch. What exactly is modified about it? The point is, I wasn’t impressed. I once again realized, that eating healthy means spending more time and is often inconvenient. But it’s also worth it.

So I decided to put together my own taco seasoning and the entire family was pleased. Plus, I can make a bit batch of this and it’s like having packets when I need them. It’s also easy to customize. I left out the chili powder because my daughter is really sensitive to spicy food. Even if a sauce is labeled “mild,” she’s not sold on it.

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The amount listed below is enough seasoning for one pound of meat. If you opt to make a big batch, just use around 4T seasoning per pound of meat.

You can add this to meat alone or stir in some tomato sauce or tomato paste. This is also a great seasoning for chili or taco soup.

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Homemade Sugar-Free Marinara Sauce

By on April 1, 2016 in Main Dishes

20150814_192438Prepare yourselves for a rant. As I’ve mentioned one, two or a million times, I get so angry when companies add sugar to things that don’t need sugar. Fruit is my biggest pet peeve (and why do we need to add sugar to nature’s sugar?), but sauces drive me crazy. A few weeks ago, I was making spaghetti for my family. I tried to buy some marinara sauce only to find they all had added sugar. Most have 5-7 grams of sugar per serving. As I was slamming jars back on teh shelves of the grocery store, I said to myself, (or possibly aloud. Going shopping with kids gives you a good excuse to talk to yourself while making it look like you’re talking to your kids) “I’ll make my own marinara sauce!” And I did. But my marinara sauce has less than two grams of sugar per serving. That’s just my way of sticking it to the man; or at least, sticking it to Ragu.

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Healthy One-Pot Italian Sausage Soup

By on March 25, 2016 in Main Dishes

2016-01-14 17.59.03It’s spring and I live in the Rockies. That means one day it will be 70 degrees and the next day, 30. And when it’s cold, I want soup. And this soup totally delivers on flavor. It has two, yes TWO different sausages. This is an important component in our house as my 5-year-old daughter’s favorite food is either sausage or bacon, depending on the day of the week. This also comes together in one pot which makes clean-up much easier.

Start by cooking the pepper and onion in avocado oil in a large pot. Then add in some ground Italian chicken sausage and cook it through. Add in some diced tomatoes and chicken broth and now sliced smoked turkey sausage.

Now the part that really makes it fabulous: pesto. Stir in 1/2 C of basil pesto. I use a pre-made pesto but feel free to make your own.

Let this all simmer together and then throw in some zucchini at the end and let if cook a bit longer. This keeps the zucchini from going mushy.

 

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