simplecooking

Clean Eating Taco Salad

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Instead if normal tacos we have been eating a taco salad version of tacos as of late. It’s delicious and simple, right up my alley and you can modify to include whatever veggies are a hit in your house.

In a skillet brown your meat (we use ground turkey but you could use ground beef, venison or whatever meat you like).  When the meat is browned add in Taco Seasoning and about 1/8-1/4 cup of water and let simmer for 10-20 minutes so the meat sucks up the flavor.  Add this point I also like to throw in onions, bell peppers and a can of black beans to the meat mixture.  I also boil some corn kernels while the meat is simmering.  While the food is stewing on the stove I grate some cheese and cut avocados and lettuce.  If I have any taco shells I’ll heat them up.  (If I don’t I just use tortilla chips.)

To put together make a bed of lettuce, add your meat mixture, the corn, then garnish with tomatoes, avocado and cheese.  We also throw Salsa (and maybe a little sour cream) in the mix to.  Crumble up some taco shells or tortilla chips for some crunch factor and Bam . . . Clean Taco Salad.

Easy, peasy.  Cheers and Happy Eating!

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Alfredo with Chicken & Broccoli

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When I wrote Alfredo with Chicken and Broccoli on the food menu board, it sounded easy.  It sounded quick and delicious.  Delicious it was, easy it was, quick it was not. . . I don’t know if it’s because the babe helped me cook, but it seemed like this meal created much more mess than the usual and took quite a while too, but I thought I’d share it anyway as it is simple.

Steam some broccoli (and maybe some carrots too).

Boil Water for Pasta and Follow directions for the pasta of your choice.  We used Linguini because that’s what was in the cupboard.  On a side note: Italian pasta names are fun to sing and once I started singing”We are making linguini pasta” the babe chimed in and it was quite entertaining.  See, cooking can be fun.

Heat up the Alfredo sauce, (slowly on low heat.)

We had two leftover chicken breasts from earlier in the week so I cut them up threw them in a pan with some olive oil and let the babe help me shake salt and pepper, garlic, basil and grill dust seasoning on top.

I piled it on all our plates and Voila Linguini Alfredo with Chicken and Broccoli (and carrots).

As I write this it still sounds easy, but while I was cooking it I felt like it was taking forever. . .  I forgot to boil the pasta early and the chicken was cooked before the linguini had finished, so maybe that’s where I went wrong. . . and there were 4 pots, and two strainers and a cutting board to clean, so the mess was a bit more than normal. . . In any case, it’s not a horribly time consuming or complicated meal to make.

Cheers and Happy Eating.

Crockpot Pork

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Being a working mom is a delicate balance.  Cooking is a necessary evil when you want to eat healthy and you live on a budget.  While I have made peace with cooking for the most part, sometimes I go through stints where I don’t want to have anything to do with it.  Luckily for me I own a crock pot!  One of my favorite simple crockpot recipes is crock pot pork.

All it takes is 1 pork loin, 1-2 cups of water, and your choice of spices, and veggies (this of course is optional).

Put the pork loin in the crockpot and generously sprinkle on some spices (garlic, pepper, chili powder, tony’s, whatever you like) add enough water to cover the pork loin about ¾ of the way (about 1-2 cups depending on the size of your crockpot). I also like to throw in onion, red pepper, carrots and potatoes so I have a fully cooked meal when I get home.

Easy Peasy.

Cheers and Happy Eating.

Salmon with Asparagus and Couscous

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I am far from what anyone would call a cooking genius.  I honestly didn’t even really learn how to cook until I was almost 30.  I asked my husband on numerous occasions if he was certain he wanted to marry me because of all the women he had dated I was probably the one with the least culinary ability. This knowledge of the past women in his life made me feel inferior, so I buckled down and taught myself how to cook.  I started with a few recipes here and there and soon I found I could borrow this and that from a recipe and then jazz it up to my standards.  I found that chopping vegetables can really be rather peaceful.  I found that I didn’t mind cooking after all, (really it’s the cleaning part I am not so fond of).  While I still find myself googling terms my more advanced culinary friends like to throw around to impress (or confuse) me,  I have learned that some of the most flavorful meals I have cooked for my family have also been some of the simplest.  Here is one of my favorites.

Salmon with Asparagus and Couscous

Prep Time 15 minutes  Cook time 35 minutes (these are approximate as when you have a little person tugging on your pant legs at any given moment sometimes the prep takes a little longer)

For the Salmon

Place a piece of tinfoil in a baking dish long enough to wrap around the salmon.  Place the salmon in the tinfoil.  Drizzle a little Olive Oil over the Salmon (for those of you more technical about 2 TBS),  squeeze in half a lime, a few crushed garlic cloves, some salt and pepper, some basil and whatever other spices you may prefer, close the tin foil and pop in the oven.  Cook at 425° for 35 minutes

For the Asparagus

Wash and cut off ends of Asparagus.  Place the asparagus on a baking sheet. (For easier cleaning you could cover the baking sheet with tin foil.  Sometimes I do this and sometimes I think, no the environment girl, don’t be lazy, 2 minutes to clean the pan) Drizzle with olive oil, crush a few garlic cloves, squeeze the other half of the lime and sprinkle with parmesan cheese.  I put this in the oven when the Salmon has cooked for about 15 minutes so the Asparagus cook time is about 20 minutes (we like ours a little on the crunchy side)

For the Couscous

Follow the directions on the package.

Voila, a healthy, simple and relatively easy meal that even my non cooking sister can make, and is toddler approved.

Cheers and Happy Eating!