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

Unstuffed Pepper Casserole

I love stuffed peppers.  LOVE THEM.  But I hate the many steps involved in making them.  So, the other night, I decided to use mini-peppers and make an "unstuffed" pepper dish.  No stuffing is involved, so it cut down on the number of steps.  Also, whenever I make the stuffed variety I always up with more stuffing than peppers.  I never know what to do with the stuffing - do I bake it alongside the peppers, do I just save it as leftovers?  I usually end up baking it (because I like it a little crunchy!) and serving it alongside the peppers.

Unstuffed Pepper Casserole

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef or turkey
2 C cooked brown rice
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes
1 jar of marinara sauce
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and pepper
24-30 mini multi-colored sweet peppers, washed, tops removed and seeded

Instructions

Pre-heat oven to 350 F.  Brown ground meat in skillet.  When done, combine the meat with the rice, diced tomatoes, about 3/4 of the jar of marinara sauce and the spices.  Stir to combine.  Spray a 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray and place the mini-peppers on the bottom of the dish.  Cover the peppers with the meat and rice mixture.  Add more marinara sauce on top of the meat and rice mixture if desired.  Bake in oven for about 25-30 mins or until the dish reaches your desired level of browning :)

AFC Note: You can use more or less rice depending how you like your meat to rice ratio.  Same thing with the sauce.  I love sauce, so I used an entire jar!

Baked Spaghetti Squash with Beef and Veggies

The husband and I are still trying to follow the Paleo diet.  It was hard when we had no lights, no fridge and no stove and the only thing open in the area were fast food restaurants.  But we got thru that week and we are slowly getting back into the Paleo rhythm.  The husband was doing so well on it - losing weight, feeling good!  I have to admit, I felt pretty good too!

So in my quest to find new paleo-friendly recipes, I came across this one on Allrecipes.com.  The original recipe (which is posted below) is not Paleo friendly since it has cheese and salt.  So if that is a concern for you, feel free to omit those things!

Baked Spaghetti Squash with Beef and Veggies
Recipe from www.allrecipes.com
Ingredients:
1 spaghetti squash, halved and seeded
1lb ground beef
1/2 C diced green pepper
1/2 C diced red pepper
1/4 C diced red onion
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 (14.5oz) can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 t dried oregano
1/2 t dried basil
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
2 1/4 C shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Place squash on a baking sheet, and bake 40 minutes, or until tender. Remove from heat, cool, and shred pulp with a fork.
3. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F . Lightly grease a casserole dish.
4. In a skillet over medium heat, cook the ground beef until evenly brown. Drain, and mix in the green pepper, red pepper, red onion, and garlic. Continue to cook and stir until vegetables are tender.
5. Mix the shredded squash and tomatoes into the skillet, and season with oregano, basil, salt, and pepper. Cook and stir until heated through. Remove skillet from heat, and mix in 2 cups cheese until melted. Transfer to the prepared casserole dish.
6. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven. Sprinkle with remaining cheese, and continue baking 5 minutes, until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

Salisbury Steaks

This is another meal that reminds me of what my mom cooked when I was growing up.  Except my mom would buy the frozen Salisbury steaks (sorry to rat you out mom!).  But they were so good.  I remember devouring them!

So when I saw a recipe for them in Better Homes, I knew I had to try it.  It calls for ground turkey, but I decided to do half ground turkey, half ground sirloin.  I did that for a few reasons: (1) I figured the turkey would be too dry by itself; and (2) I wanted to double the recipe and all I had was the ground turkey and the ground sirloin!

This recipe is awesome!  I mean really, I started to pick the mushrooms out of the sauce "just to taste" and it was down hill from there since I found myself stealing pieces of steak from my daughter's plate and taking spoonfuls of sauce out of the skillet.  I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if I licked my plate when I was done with the meal.  That's how much I enjoyed it.

Also, I was so excited about the meal that I forgot to take a picture of it plated.  So you will only see the final product in the skillet (and that picture was taken after we had eaten and I had started cleaning everything up!).

Salisbury Steaks
recipe from Better Homes and Gardens
Ingredients:
1lb uncooked ground turkey
1 envelope beef-flavored onion soup mix (half of a 2.2oz pkg)
2 T Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 T butter
2 C sliced mushrooms
1/4 C reduced sodium chicken broth
1/4 C dry red wine (or chicken broth)
1/4 C tomato paste

Instructions:

• In a large bowl, combine the turkey, 2 T of soup mix, and 1 T of the Worcestershire sauce and mix well.  Shape mixture into 4 oval patties about 1/2 inch thick.
• In a large skillet cook patties in hot oil on med-high heat for 3 minutes or until browned, turning once.  Remove from skillet.
• In the hot skillet, cook the garlic in butter for 30 sec.  Add mushrooms.  Cook and stir for 5 mins or until tender.  Add broth, wine, tomato paste, remaining soup mix, and remaining Worcestershire sauce.  Stir, scraping up browned bits.  (AFC Note:  I like a less tomatoey sauce, so I added more chicken broth and Worcestershire sauce).
• Return patties to skillet, spoon sauce over patties.  Cover and cook on med-low heat about 8 mins or until done.

I served the steaks with the white bean mash as suggested by BHG (recipe here) and some roasted butternut squash.  PERFECTION!!!

Updated: I'm linking up to the blog hop at Happy Hour Projects!

A Classic!

While I love summer, my favorite season is fall.  I love the cool air of fall, the leaves turning, the pumpkins . . . all of that.  I especially love cooking heartier meals that only seem appropriate in the fall and winter.  So as soon as the cool weather comes, I start planning to make some of my favorites that I haven't had since March.

And what was one of the first meals that I made?

Stuffed peppers!  Always a classic.  And kind of a good transitional meal since you can use peppers from your garden (if you have any left).  What I love about stuffed peppers is the fact that you can stuff them with anything.  In the past I have used couscous, chicken, sausage, rice, and ground turkey - not all together though!  But this time, I just made it the way my mom made it.  I consider this the classic way.  How do you make stuffed peppers?

Stuffed Peppers
Ingredients:
4 green or red bell peppers, tops taken off and seeds and ribs removed
olive oil cooking spray
1 lb ground sirloin
salt, pepper, onion flakes and oregano to taste
2 C brown or white rice
jarred pasta sauce
parmesan cheese

Instructions:
Pre-heat oven to 350 F.

Slightly soften the bell peppers by sticking them in the microwave.  (AFC note: It took me about three to four 30 sec increments to soften 3 green peppers.  Work in small time increments so you don't overcook.) 
Spray a large skillet with olive oil spray and add the ground sirloin and spices to taste.  Brown over medium high heat.  Meanwhile, cook the rice.

When the rice is done, add it to the browned ground sirloin and stir in enough pasta sauce to coat the rice and beef.  If you want your beef mixture to be saucy, just add more sauce!

Line your topless peppers up in a baking dish (AFC note: I used a loaf pan) and fill each pepper up with the beef mixture.  If you have extra beef mixture (like I did), you can put it in the bottom of the dish around the peppers. 

Top the beef mixture with some extra sauce.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes.  Devour!!

Savory Spiced Beef

I love flipping through magazines and finding new recipes.  I am usually drawn to the recipes that say they are "fast" or "week night".  And then I read through the recipes and think to myself "there is no way that I could do this recipe in less than an hour" or "there is no way that this is a 30 minute meal".  This is one of the main reasons why I stopped watching Rachael Ray's 30 min. meals.  If that girl is sweating and panting and balancing 20 things in her hands to get a meal done in 30 mins., I could only imagine what I would be like trying to do the same!!

But I love it when magazines publish tiny little recipes in side columns, or even in answers to reader questions.  Usually if a magazine doesn't have time to print a big write up about a recipe, I figure the recipe probably takes no time at all!  And usually that is right.  So when I saw the recipe for "Savory Spiced Beef" in a side column of Good Housekeeping's August issue, I figured I would try it. 

It is pretty good, really fast, and makes good leftovers! 

Savory Spiced Beef served with Brown Rice and Cantaloupe

Savory Spiced Beef
Via Good Housekeeping
Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 C peas
1/4 C water
1/2 C fresh mint, chopped (optional)

Instructions
In skillet, sprinkle beef with the cinnamon, salt and pepper.  Cook until browned.  Transfer beef to bowl.  Drain any fat from skillet.  To skillet, add garlic and cook for 30 seconds.  Add peas and water to skillet, heat through.  Stir in beef (and mint if using) and cook 1 minute.  Serve with rice.

Have you found a favorite "side column" recipe in a magazine that you love?