Taco Salad

Unfortunately, Van refuses to nap on a schedule. He usually takes one 2-hour nap a day but it is entirely up to him when he will take it. This means I have to be creative when making dinner. Some days the only free time I have is from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm so I need a meal that I can prepare ahead (during his nap). Taco salad is one of those meals. You can chop the vegetables, grate the cheese, and cook the meat then store it all in the refrigerator until dinnertime, when you assemble everything. Another reason I love taco salad is because it is a delicious way to sneak veggies into your diet. I listed all the veggies Michael and I like in our taco salad but you can omit or include anything your family will eat: olives, squash, onion, shredded carrots, etc...

Serves: 4 large servings
Start to Finish: 30 minutes
Recipe By: Amber Brunson

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey you can use ground beef, but turkey is a little healthier for you
1 pkt taco seasoning
1 (16-oz) can kidney beans
1 bag Frito's Chips
1/4 cup cheddar cheese, grated
3 hearts of romaine lettuce or 1 head of iceberg lettuce
1 (8-oz) can corn
1 cucumber, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 avocado, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
Catalina salad dressing

Directions:

1. In a skillet cook your meat over medium heat until browned. Many times I will cook up twice as much ground turkey (enough for two meals instead of just one) and refrigerate to other half to use later in the week. It saves time and I don't have to heat up my kitchen again later. Cooked ground beef/turkey can be safely refrigerated for 3-4 days and frozen for up to 4 months.
2. Add taco seasoning to your skillet according to package directions.
3. Add kidney beans to your skillet heat through
4. Chop your lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, red bell pepper, and any other vegetables you are adding.
5. Grate cheese
6. Here you can refrigerate each of your items for assembly later in the day
7. To assemble your salad: add Frito's Chips, meat mixture, lettuce, vegetables, top with Catalina dressing, and sprinkle with cheese.

The Rantings of a Frustrated, Pregnant Woman

A Preface for my Rantings:

• Having been pregnant before, and taken a variety of prenatal vitamins, I can tell you not all prenatals are created equal. Some come in multiple pills so you have to swallow a whole bunch of things, some have added stool softeners to help with the increase in iron, some have extra amounts of this or that. But for the most part they all have the basics that every soon-to-be-mommy needs. I prefer the vitamins with DHA supplements, having done some research and appreciating all the benefits of such supplement. Basically, DHA is Omega 3 fatty acid commonly found in fish, but can be derived from other sources.

I had received a sample of prenatal vitamins from my doctor this last visit, along with a prescription for the same pills. No doubt the doctor gets some sort of kick-back from the supplier if he prescribes them. It doesn't worry me to much because I know those vitamins are not the only good ones out there; so I can shop around if I want to.

Well, I popped one of those little pills out of its case and, before I could even get it in my mouth, the smell hit me. It was awful! It smelled like a fish that had been spoiling for days. I called my husband in to see if he would smell it. (I am not sure why we want other people to smell horrible odors but we all do it. Maybe it is so someone else understands just how bad it really is.)

We read the nutrition label together. Let me list the ingredients for you: sardines, anchovies, fish, and soybean oil. Yep, right there on the label ... anchovies. I almost lost my lunch just reading it. What genius came up with the idea to feed a pregnant woman fish oil? Is there anyone on earth more nauseated or prone to throw up than pregnant women? What about with more indigestion or aversion to specific foods? I can't think of any. Who would take one of those pills when they know they are going to be tasting fish every time they swallow for the rest of the day? That is to say they even get the pill down in the first place. I am guessing the person who came up with that brilliant idea has never been pregnant or, if they have, did not take the pills they invented.

That weekend I went to the store and purchased a brand of vitamins that had the same amount of DHA but contained no fish oil. They are made from sunflower oil and rosemary extract. They taste kind of like cherry Dr. Pepper. The people making these pills have it figured out.

Kitchen Gadget: Part I

I think it is great when someone comes up with a kitchen do-hickey that makes life easier. And, I am lucky enough to be married to a man that likes to buy me these fun kitchen gadgets. Since I love looking at them in the store I figured I would blog about some that I already have, in case anyone else finds them interesting and wants to know if they work or not.

My criteria for a good kitchen thingamabob is simple:

1. It needs to be relatively small. I don't have a lot of room in my kitchen and anything larger than a grapefruit might as well be called an appliance, not a gadget.
2. It needs to be a creative way to improve a process I am already doing. If it doesn't actually improve the process or, if it creates more work for me, then it is a waste.
   

Mike got me this little guy as a Christmas stocking stuffer last year, it is a "brown sugar bear". It is made from terra cotta and is about the size of a business card, I think it is adorable. You soak him in water before the first use and then you put him in your brown sugar container and it keeps the brown sugar from hardening. It works well! I haven't had a problem with my brown sugar since. This little gadget is cute and fun, but if you don't have one and your brown sugar hardens you can always just throw a piece of white bread in the container and let it sit overnight. It will soften right up. This trick also works with cookies that hardened because they were left out (it doesn't remove the stale taste on old cookies, sorry).






















If you are interested in one you can find them almost anywhere that sells kitchen tools (like Bed, Bath, and Beyond or Target) they cost approx $3.50. I think they are cheaper if you buy them directly from the company that makes them. They come in different shapes, too: a maple leaf, an apple, a mouse, a bee, a chef, and a gingerbread man.

Soy Sauce Substitute

For Melissa and her great kids
I taste-tested several different recipes I found on the internet. The recipes I found were created in an attempt to cut the high sodium content out (very admirable). This recipe was the best tasting; believe me, I tried four and some of them were pretty bad. However, none that I tried really tasted like soy sauce. Soy sauce is basically salty so, let's face it, if you remove the salt you no longer have soy sauce. The beautiful thing is, if you are not trying to cut the salt just the allergens (like soy or wheat) you can add the salt back in and get a really good non-soy sauce! If you are going to do this, add Kosher salt in 1/4 tsp increments and taste-test. By the time I got to 1/2 tsp it was plenty salty for my taste.

Serves: 1 cups
Start to Finish: 15 minutes
Recipe By: Allrecipes

Ingredients

4 TBSP beef bouillon
1 1/2 TBSP water
4 tsp balsamic vinegar You can substitute apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar has a more dynamic flavor for this recipe
2 tsp dark molasses
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp white pepper You can use black pepper, white pepper is simply more aromatic
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Clean glass jar and lid (I used an old spaghetti sauce jar, because that is what I had on hand. But if you get a soy sauce jar it will have the right kind of spout on it)

Directions

1. In a saucepan over medium heat, stir together the beef bouillon, balsamic vinegar, molasses, ginger, white pepper, garlic powder and water.
2. Boil gently until liquid is reduced to about 1 cup, about 15 minutes.
3. Pour into jar and refrigerate
4. Shake well before using, can store in refrigerator indefinitely








Sodium Information for Comparison
Kikkoman Soy Sauce --------------------------------------------------------920mg/TBSP
Kikkoman Less Sodium Soy Sauce -----------------------------------------575mg/TBSP
Soy Sauce Substitute Recipe ------------------------------------------------332mg/TBSP
Soy Sauce Substitute Recipe plus 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt --------------------392mg/TBSP

Beef and Broccoli Stir-fry

I love Chinese food! But when you buy it in a restaurant it can be heavy and greasy making it rather unhealthy for you. One of the incentives to cooking Chinese food yourself is because you can limit the amount of oil you use when cooking and still get the great flavors you love. Another way to make sure your family is eating well is to serve your food with steamed rice instead of fried rice. Note: To make it easier to slice the steak very thinly, place it in the freezer for 20 min, wrapped well in plastic.

Serves: 4 (However, in our house it only serves 2, because Mike will eat several servings)
Start to Finish: 1 hour
Recipe by: Martha Stewart Food Magazine

Ingredients:

1 lb flank steak (cut diagonally, across the grain)
1 large head broccoli (steams trimmed, peeled, and cut)
1 TBSP cider vinegar
1 TBSP sugar try using brown sugar, too; for a subtle change in flavor
3 TBSP apple juice try using pineapple juice, too; for a subtle change in flavor
1/4 tsp pepper
1 TBSP cornstarch
1 TBSP peanut oil You can substitute Canola oil if you don't have peanut oil
3 TBSP light soy sauce
3 garlic cloves (minced)

Directions:

1. Slice your flank steak in long, thin strips at a diagonal across the grain. Cutting your meat this way will improve tenderness because you are breaking up the fat marbling or "grains" in the meat. By making your cut at a 45 degree angle you are increasing the surface area of the meat, which is important for thin cuts of meat like a flank steak.
2. In a shallow Tupperware container, combine the cider vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, apple juice, pepper, and garlic cloves to make a marinade for you steak
3. Add the meat to your marinade and place in the fridge for 15-20 minutes
4. Meanwhile, wash and chop your broccoli and ...
5. ...start steaming your rice. I usually use a rice cooker and about 2 cups of uncooked rice to feed 4 people.
6. Remove steak from fridge. Transfer meat to a plate and reserve your marinade
7. Heat oil in a skillet over high heat
8. In two or three batches cook steak until lightly browned, about 1 minute a side. This happens fast, do not walk away from your pan. Add meat, flip meat, set meat aside, repeat until all meat is cooked.
9. Remove meat, set aside, and keep warm
10. Add 1/2 cup of water to your pan to stir up the browned bits on the bottom of pan
11. Pour water and browned bits into your marinade Tupperware
12. Whisk cornstarch into your marinade.
13. In your pan, fry broccoli until bright green and crisp, tossing often. About 4 minutes. You don't need to add more oil here.
14. Add one cup of water to broccoli and cook until tender, about 6 minutes
15. Stir marinade mixture into broccoli and bring to a boil, stir until marinade thickens
16. Return steak to your pan, heat through
17. Serve over hot steamed rice