Taco Salad

After all of the sweets I ate for Valentine's day, my body was craving a salad.  Does that ever happen to you, or am I the only one who craves a salad?

But I wanted a salad with substance.  A salad with meat!

Enter the taco salad!  It has meat and beans, but is also loaded with tomatoes, avocado, cilantro and romaine lettuce too.  It can be topped with some freshly grated cheddar and a dollop of sour cream.  But if you are avoiding dairy, those ingredients are easily left out!

Taco Salad
Inspired by Clean Eating's "Taco" Bowl Recipe (Jan/Feb 2012 issue)
Ingredients:
For Rice:
2 C brown rice, cooked
4 oz Ro-Tel Tomato Sauce
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp oregano

For "Salad":
1 lb extra lean ground beef
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 C water
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 head romaine lettuce, washed and chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 C fresh cilantro, chopped
juice from 1 lime
1/2 avocado, cubed
optional: sour cream (or plain Greek yogurt), grated cheddar or Monterey Jack
Instructions:
Combine the rice with the remaining ingredients in a sauce pan over med-lo heat.  Heat through, and then remove from heat and set aside.

In a large skillet or stock pot, cook the ground beef until brown.  Add onion powder and the next 5 ingredients.  Stir to combine and evenly coat the beef with the spices.  (If desired, add 3-4 T of Ro-Tel Sauce to meat mixture).  Add in the beans and stir in the rice mixture.

Scoop our desired amount of rice and meat mixture and place on dish or in bowl.  Top with lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice and avocado cubes.  Serve with sour cream and grated cheese if desired!

Updated: I'm linking up to the linky party at Delightful Order

Wednesday Edition: What's New

Finally I have a new ingredient for you!  It's been a few weeks since I have had a new ingredient, and I don't think that this one disappoints in taste, but it may disappoint a few of you in the "freshness" category.  You see, the new ingredient is canned chili!

I typically do not buy prepared food, and especially not chili since I love making it from scratch.  But last week, with an impending hurricane, I stacked up on canned goods.  One of them being chili.  Not one for letting food go to waste, I decided to make up a recipe and see what happened!

Yumminess is what happened!  Yumminess!  It was really quick to throw together (I used leftover rice) and I used only one baking dish, so minimal clean up.  What do you think?  Are you a canned chili fan?

Chili and Rice Casserole
Ingredients:
2 C cooked rice
1 can (14.5 oz) of chili (I used Hormel Vegetarian chili)
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes with juice
1 can (14.5 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
1 C frozen or canned corn
2 T fresh cilantro, chopped
1 C kale, stems removed and chopped into tiny pieces (this is optional.  I threw it in to get veggie nutrients!)
2 tsp. chili powder
optional: 2 peppers sliced (I used one red and one green)
optional: shredded jack or cheddar cheese (I didn't have shredded so I just used slices!)

Instructions:
Combine the first 8 ingredients into a baking dish.  Top with sliced peppers and cheese.  Bake at 350 F for 30 mins or until desired brownness is reached.

the casserole without the cheese

my pathetic slices of cheddar cheese!

I have to say, I was surprised at how good this turned out.  It's been added to my list of things to make on a regular basis!

Updated: I'm linking up to the blog hop at Serenity Now and the blog hop at Homemaker in Heels!

Another Slow Cooker Meal: Red Beans and Rice

I tried this recipe out earlier in the week.  Well, I kinda made-due with several of the ingredients.  It was super easy to make, but I think that if I make it again, I will follow the recipe verbatim. 

The recipe is from Southern Living magazine and can be made on the stove top or in the slow cooker.  Since I was going to be in meetings all day from work and then traveling too and from a client that is almost in the next state, I wanted dinner to be ready when I got home.

Red Beans and Rice

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried red kidney beans
• 1/2 pound andouille smoked chicken sausage, thinly sliced
• 3 celery ribs, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
• 3 cups uncooked long-grain rice
• Garnish: sliced green onions

Slow Cooker directions: Stir together first 7 ingredients and 7 cups of water in a 4 qt slow cooker.  Cover and cook on HIGH for 7 hours or until beans are tender.  Serve with rice.

My substitutions: turkey kielbasa instead of the sausage and cajun seasoning instead of the creole seasoning.

It looked pretty good when I made it:

And the house smelled delicious when I got home! 

I served with carrots!

But, the kielbasa had no taste and overall, the dish was kind of bland.  So next time I make it, I will follow the recipe verbatim and probably make it on the stove top.  Let me know if you make it according to recipe and how it came out!

Winging It

I really do not want to go to the grocery store this week.  I typically like going grocery shopping, but my local Stop & Shop has been totally reorganized and I don't agree with the layout!  And it takes me about double the time to do my shopping.

Instead of making a list of what we would eat for dinner and then going grocery shopping I picked up some food when I went to BJ's this weekend.  I bought chicken breast, london broil, a three pack of kielbasa (!), strawberries, spinach, sweet potatoes and Chobani yogurt.  And milk and cream.

So, I am totally winging it this week.  Everyday's dinner will be a surprise!  Even to me.

First up: Sunday night.  That was easy - grilled london broil, sweet potato and spinach salad.  Yesterday, Monday, was a little trickier.  Even though we had a lot of leftovers from Sunday, I didn't want to eat that again.  Plus I usually pack leftovers for lunch the following day.

To figure out dinner for Monday I went to www.allrecipes.com and searched the recipes by using their "Ingredient Search".  Have you used this?  It can be hit or miss, but it is a pretty neat tool since you can type in the ingredients you want to use and exclude the ingredients you do not want to use.

I typed in: kielbasa.  (remember - I bought a THREE pack!!!) 

I came up with Sausage and Lentils:

Ingredients:

• 3 C water
• 1 cup dried lentils
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 8 ounces fully cooked kielbasa or Polish sausage, sliced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Combine water, lentils and onion in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, and cook for about 15 minutes. Add sliced sausage, and season with cumin, salt and pepper. Simmer until lentils are tender, about 5 to 10 more minutes.

The best thing (I think) about AllRecipes.com is the comments.  The comments to this recipes said it was a little bland.  So I made the following changes:

• used shallot and 1 large garlic clove, sauteed in olive oil along with kielbasa
• added 1 tsp. chili powder and 1 tsp. cumin after the shallot, etc. had been sauteed until tender.  I sauteed the mixture a little more until fragrant
• added lentils and water (I used 1.5 cups lentils to finish my bag so I increased the water by 1/2 C at first)

Then, after the desired cooking time was up, I thought the dish looked, well - a little brown!  So I quickly diced up the single carrot I had in the fridge and threw that in as well. The lentils were still a little crunchy anyway, so after I added the carrot I poured some water in and covered the pot and set the burner to low.

And this is how she turned out:

Without carrots - brown :-(  With carrots - color!

I got rave reviews from the Husband and the Toddler!  So the recipe is definitely a keeper.

She couldn't get the lentils in her mouth fast enough!