Recipe: Taco Meat

Hello again, my clean-eating, crunchy lifestyle lovin' food peeps!

In my last post, I talked about prepping to make clean eating easier during your work week. Did you try it? How did it go? I'm betting that it was a relief not having to scramble or even think when you are running around getting everyone ready for the day.

Anyway.

I promised this recipe, didn't I?  It's because I love you...no really.

Way back in the day, when I was a baby cook, coming off the Lawry's packaged taco meat seasonings mix
 (remember that stuff???  Have you looked at the SODIUM content in those things?!?!?!), I learned from my mom that she used Pace Picante Sauce as the main flavoring in her taco meat, and IT. WAS. GENIUS. I did it that way for years.  Just brown up some ground beef, throw a jar of Medium Chunky Picante sauce, cook it down a little and call it done.

And one could still do that, if one was pressed for time, couldn't one? I should really stop talking in the "one" person, shouldn't I?

When I started my clean food journey, I was a little leery of this product. How many chemicals did it have? Surprisingly, the ingredient list was pretty clean. Now, I don't have a jar in my pantry, so I can't say for sure, but honestly, you could do worse.  If you are just starting out, have minimal time, or are just not into prepping EVERYTHING when you are cooking, I say try it. The Pace website doesn't have the ingredients fully listed, but this is what it does say:

Amount Per Serving (serving size) = 2 tbsp (30 mL)
Calories:10
Fat Calories:0
Total Fat:0g
Cholesterol:0mg
Sodium:230mg
Total Carb:3g
Dietary Fiber: 1g
Sugars: 2g
Protein: 0g

% Daily Values**
Vitamin A 2%
* The nutrition information contained in this list of Nutrition Facts is based on our current data. However, because the data may change from time to time, this information may not always be identical to the nutritional label information of products on shelf.
** % Daily Values (DV) are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.

So, adjust for the jar, add a pound of ground meat, be it beef, chicken, or turkey, and call it moderately clean eating.

However, I also have a full on recipe for those of you who like to know exactly what you are putting into your bodies, and it's pretty yummy.

Taco Meat

• 1 lb ground beef, chicken, or turkey
• 1 quart canned tomatoes (I use my own home-canned, but store bought will do fine)
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1-3 bell peppers, all colors of the rainbow!
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• Chili powder
• Cumin 
• salt and pepper to taste

 Directions

1. In a large skillet cook the onion and bell peppers in a little drizzle of olive oil until mostly softened.
2. Add the ground meat and your spices
3. Cook the meat until brown, breaking up the larger chunks to get the flavor of the spices all over
4. Add the tomatoes and cook down to desired consistency. 

Serve with with lettuce as wraps or over shredded lettuce or cabbage as a taco salad.

Holds for a week in the fridge.

Note: for those of you on the Auto-immune protocol, omitting the tomatoes and peppers will not adversely effect the taste of the taco meat. I'd also omit the chili powder, but the cumin? it would break my heart to leave that out.  Cumin powder is ground up seed from a plant in the parsley family, so I don't know if that will effect your protocol.  I'm thinking not, but I'm not an expert.

Go forth! Eat your Tacos! And then come back here and tell me about it!

A Salad Bar in Your Fridge

If you follow us on our Facebook Group Page, I make a big deal about "Prepping Sundays!" The reason for that is, with my hubby and I working during the week, if there aren’t enough “grab-n-go” types of items we will make bad food choices.  

We can’t be trusted.  At.  All.  Not. One. Bit. *shakes head*

We find that we have to have the food ready and available, so the fear of it going bad will compel us to eat it, rather than hitting a fast food drive-thru or ordering take-out on those days when we are just plain worn out after work. Nothing like a little guilt to keep us on the straight and narrow, right?

Right???

So I started taking at least one afternoon out of the weekend, and cooking, chopping, and “prepping.” I say afternoon, but depending on what's cooking for the week, I'm usually in the kitchen for most of the day. If that's intimidating to you, then I don't know what to tell you, because I certainly don't have the time to prep all my meals just before I eat them. But if you can do it that way, I totally give you big props.

I try to work up a flexible menu, but mostly I work with what I have in the house, be it freezer, fridge, or pantry, along with whatever I've been able to buy on sale or from the farmer's market. I say flexible menu because I'll prep for the makings of 2-3 dinner dishes, with leftovers for lunches, and work out something for breakfasts to use Monday through Friday.

For example, daHubster will make a gallon of yogurt for us, and I'll make sure we have berries or some other fruit to add to it for breakfasts. We do have on our diets, because we can tolerate it, and find that yogurt in the morning is a good no-thought breakfast for us.  I've also make various egg muffins or breakfast casseroles that will take us through the week.

Lunches can be trickier for us, because I don't always have leftovers from dinner the night before to carry through to the next day. I've developed a "Salad Bar" scenario that works for throwing together a quick lunch that's both healthy and satisfying.

For example. My favorite Go-To lunch is a salad topped with taco meat and jalapenos.  And I try to push a salad at dinner time a few times a week. So that would mean I prep a lot of salad makings:

• Clean and slice up a couple of pounds of carrots
• Clean and slice up at least a head of celery
• Clean, dry, and shred 2-3 heads of Romaine lettuce and or spinach
• Clean, dry, and slice up a bunch of green onions

I put them all in individual containers or baggies.  Each day, I grab a handful of each and throw into containers for daHubster and I to take to work. I also put a couple of spoonfuls of taco meat into another container to heat up at lunch time, and then throw the meat on the salad, top with pickled jalepeno slices, and use a splash of the pickle juice from the jar as "dressing".

YUM.

Hey don't judge me on the pepper juice. I love that stuff.

Other options for adding to your potential salad bar (especially if you have a hard time adding food fats to your diet) are:

• Hard-boiled eggs that have been sliced or crumbled
• Olives
• Sardines or anchovies
• Olive oil
• tomatoes
• peppers
• really, any other veggie you like in salad

If taco salad isn't your thing, and you prefer to have a salad dressing, pre-making a vinaigrette is totally doable! If you haven't done it before, it's super easy, and will last awhile. You can totally  mix it up week to week, and change spices as the mood hits you. You just need:

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• Olive oil
• Vinegar: your choice of red wine, apple cider, or even white in a pinch
• a few drops of honey to reduce the acidity of the vinegar (optional)
• Dijon mustard
• spices of your choosing. I like garlic, onion, etc. but the sky is the limit!
• salt

I've found a good ratio of 2/3's vinegar to 1/3 oil is a good mix. throw it all together in a glass container with a good sealing lid, and shake before you pour.  When you first mix it, I'd give it at least an hour for the flavors to meld before eating.

If there's interest, I'll post my taco meat recipe at a later date.

The key word here is prepping. Have it done, so you don't have to think about it.  Now, I have some chopping to do....

Recipe: Breakfast Egg-a-muffins

In my head, I actually call these "Egg-a-Mooby-Muffins" in my head, because of Kevin Smith's films, but I don't want to get sued for copyright infringement, so I shortened it to Egg-a-muffins.


But don't be fooled, there's no muffin-isms in these cute little breakfast beauties. They are baked in oven tins for the purpose of grabbing and going during the busy work week. Because if you are like me, you can't be bothered to make yourself breakfast every single day. Heck, I'm lucky to get out of bed in time to shower and get dressed before going to work.

I'm sure my co-workers mentally thank me for at least doing that. Heh.

Anyway, I promised to put up this recipe a few weeks ago, and I slacked.

*Hangs head in shame* 

But here you go, better late than never!

The original recipe is lost in time, in an old copy of The South Beach Diet. It's where I first read about it, but I'm sure if you dug up an old farm wife from just after the Depression Era, I'm sure they were doing something like this. I mean, yes, it's a light bulb moment when you realize you can (in one shot) cook yourself week's worth of a protein-packed hearty breakfasts in a compact little muffin-like disk, but that's personal. Especially when you really think of the ways to shake it up and add your own personal touches to each little one...

Egg-A-Muffins

What you need:

*6 eggs, scrambled with 1/2 to 3/4 cup of a liquid to stretch out your eggs.  This is dependent on your dietary restrictions and/or taste preferences. You can use milk, cream, unsweetened almond milk, chicken stock, or (bleh) water.

*Spices mixed into to you scrambled eggs: Salt, pepper, garlic, no-salt seasoning. What ever floats your boat. I won't tell anyone about your deeply perverted love affair with cardamon if you don't tell about mine with cumin. Srsly.

This batch I used sliced chicken, and bell peppers

*Any left-over meats you have laying around, such as chicken, beef, pork, lunchmeat, sausages, etc. Seriously, use up what's in the fridge and feel all smug that you put it to good use instead of letting your kid take it to school as a science experiment.

*Any veggies you enjoy in scrambled eggs or a quiche. Or again, any veggies you have leftover from a meal that you want to salvage into something else.  I've used bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, celery, broccoli, etc.  Get crazy and make a pretty rainbow concoction, because the colorful the more health beneficial, right?

*Optional: a pinch of shredded cheese for each muffin tin. If you are paleo or don't do cheese, don't sweat it, it's not integral to the recipe. It's more of a garnish than an ingredient.


What to do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F
2. Grease a muffin pan with coconut oil
3. Add a enough of your chosen meat to cover the bottom of each muffin cup
4. Pile the veggies on top of the meat, spreading them out evenly amongst each cup
5. Pour enough egg mix to fill each muffin cup 1/2 to 3/4 to the top. I find that a ladle from a gravy boat is pretty close to the perfect measuring device.
6. Stir the egg mixture thru to the bottom
7. Add the pinch of cheese if you are partaking
8. Pop in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes until the tops are starting to brown, and a knife poked in comes out clean.

 The eggs will rise a bit as they cook (they will also fall after you take them out of the oven, but it's not a souffle, so don't get depressed when they deflate).

let them sit for about 5 minutes after taking them out of the oven, then release them from their pan. Don't wait until they are completely cook to take them out, as they tend to stick.

I divvy them up into containers for breakfasts for DaMan and I. I found that 2 egg-a-muffins were a filling meal.

So, one 12 muffin tin equals 6 meals. Not too shabby!