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Spicy Lettuce Tacos

Spicy lettuce tacos. So delicious, so easy to make, and not a lot of calories, so it’s a big win across the board. My mouth is still burning, though. So worth it.

I wanted to continue to work on taking breads out of my diet. Horrifying, I know. But there’s something about using lettuce as a taco shell that really isn’t that bad. A lot of it has to do with texture. Romaine lettuce holds its shape, where Iceberg lettuce would flop in a second. Plus, Romaine is easier to work with.

So, when I decided to continue my question for tortilla-less tacos, I decided to go with a bit of a kick for spicy lettuce tacos.

Into the skillet went one tablespoon of olive oil and a quarter cup of diced flank steak. To that, I added a teaspoon of cayenne pepper and a teaspoon of garlic powder. As the steak cooked, I topped that with a dash of black pepper. I considered adding more cayenne, and did end up dashing some on in the end, which is probably  what made these spicy lettuce tacos so hot. Hint, the extra cayenne was a bit much in the end. I may have over thought I could handle the spice.

So I plated the meat over some freshly washed and dried Romaine lettuce, then topped it off with diced sweet onions and tomatoes. Super easy to make and not too bad for you either.

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Food, Savory

Avocado Steak Lettuce Tacos

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Kick the carbs to the curb.

Even though it’s been cold out, I’ve been thinking of summer. Yes, I totally rock my knit pom-pom hat like a champ, and scarves are my best friend, but I miss laying out on the beach in my bikini. So instead of making a heavy, coma-inducing meal for myself, I opted for what I’d enjoy on a hot summer day.

I started by sauteing a quarter cup of fresh salsa (diced Roma tomatoes, sweet onions, and green peppers) in olive oil. Add a teaspoon each of cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and black pepper. When the vegetables are cooked down (the tomato will start to fall apart and make a sauce), add a quarter cup of diced steak. Cook the meat through.

I plated this on cleaned Romaine lettuce and topped it with a slice of avocado. Delicious!

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Food, Sweet

Chocolate Chip Shoe Pancakes

So when Nemo came through last weekend, I got a little stir-crazy. The weather reports kept saying that we had to stay off the roads, we’d be buried in foot after foot of snow, and there might be power outages. Looking back on it, that was a little bit of overkill. Especially since our power didn’t flicker, our roads were clear until about 7 p.m. on Friday night, and my car miraculously had no snow on it in the morning. I apparently have a snow-repellent car. Everyone else on the street had to shovel out their buried cars.

So on Saturday morning I had two choices, either forego breakfast because I was lazy, or make pancakes. The later would require me to be creative since, heck, I just can’t make a simple meal. Also, my friend L bought me the most adorable cookie cutter for my birthday that had fashion shapes – a ballgown, a sheath dress, handbag, and high heeled shoes. They gave me an idea – peanut butter chocolate chip pancakes!

Chocolate Chip Shoe Pancakes

Need (This makes 4 servings, cut in a quarter for a morning breakfast for yourself):
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon of smooth peanut butter
1/4 cup chocolate chip morsels
&
Any cookie cutters you have to make shaped pancakes

Mix milk, butter, peanut butter, and egg. Slowly add in the dry ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips.

Heat a skillet on the stove and keep on medium-high heat. Spray pan with Pam or coat lightly with vegetable oil so the pancakes won’t stick. Place cookie cutter on the pan and spoon in pancake batter into the mold. You’ll want to fill it just a quarter of the way up. It’s because the pancake will rise.

Cook until small bubbles appear, flip pancakes. I keep it in the cookie cutter, but that’s your call if you can get it out without ruining it. Cook for another minute or two.

Pull off the pan and push the pancake out of the cutter. This might take a few tries to get it right, but if you have a cutter that has smooth edges (shapes like hearts, squares, gingerbread men work best), you shouldn’t have a problem.

Serve with maple syrup. Yum!

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Food, Savory

From One to Horse – Bacon Ham Egg Scramble

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We went a little overboard with the breakfast scramble.

“How hungry are you, from one to horse?”

Yup, that’s how we were determining how much breakfast to make. If you’re wondering, I responded with “cat.” It seemed logical at the time, but we still ended up with too much food. I’m wondering what we would have made if I had said “horse.” I’m thinking we would have needed more than a quarter pound of bacon.

I also learned this morning about Epic Meal Time – an absurdly high-caloric online show. I’m not going to lie, I was half between disgusted and half wanted to eat the huge mounds of food they were making. It’s slightly ridiculous… okay, it’s absolutely ridiculous. I heard there may be an epic meal night in the future, and I’ll tell you, I’m terrified.

On that note, we made a less than heart-attack-inducing breakfast. Started by prepping the veggies -diced one whole red pepper and a small sweet onion.

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Rule one, find a sous chef to prepare all the vegetables.

I also may have gone a little off my regular meal plan when we opted to cook the veggies in bacon grease, but seriously, who is going to say no to bacon? It’s bacon! First cooked up a quarter pound of bacon and drained most of the grease from the pan, but left enough to saute the onions and red pepper. I also added about a teaspoon of ground black pepper. Probably could have added more.

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Cook up bacon, because it’s good.

Cooked down the veggies, trying to carmelize them. That took about 8 minutes. Then we added some diced up ham, I think it was three thin slices. Gave that a bit of a a cook through and added back the bacon into the pan. Then came the eggs. Tried to be healthy with only putting egg whites in for half the eggs and keeping the rest whole. Topped it with a handful of shredded “fancy” cheese and we had ourselves a mini epic meal.

Ended up with a handful of pictures from the morning chaos:

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Chopped up way too much onion for the scramble.

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Oh hey, just ignore the unwashed hair and ridiculous grin. I was having too much fun.

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So much goodness in one pan.

 

Gather
1 medium red pepper, diced
1 small sweet onion, diced
1/4 pound bacon
3 slices of ham, diced
3 whole eggs
4 egg whites
1/4 cup shredded cheese (we used “fancy” cheddar mix, because, well… we’re fancy)
ground pepper to taste

Cook bacon until crispy. Remove from pan and drain almost all of the bacon fat, leaving enough to saute vegetables. Cook onions and red peppers down until carmelized. Add ham until heated through. Add back in bacon, as well as all the eggs. Add pepper to taste and cook scramble. At the end, fold in cheese. Serve.

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