What we love: Tacos
What we don't love: Nuclear orange taco seasoning packets with 5 metric tons of salt and other scary chemicals, chopping, large piles of dirty dishes, extensive ingredients lists, eating dinner at 8:00 on a week night
That said, I give you :
Easiest. Tacos. Ever.
1 lb ground meat
4 heaping tbsps picante sauce
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
salt to taste
taco shells
toppings
Put all ingredients except shells and toppings in a large frying pan, over medium high heat, until meat is cooked through. Spoon into taco shells and adorn with toppings of your choice (I like torn up bits of lettuce, tiny tomatoes, plain yogurt, shredded "Mexican" cheese, and more picante sauce...not necessarily in that order)
Not much to say except, this recipe was good enough to draw me from my blogging slumber. I love to make my own hummus, but sometimes its a little hard to find tahini, and it can be a bit expensive. Enter goddess dressing. Essentially hummus without the beans. Tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and seasonings. It's easy to find, and only $1.99 a bottle at Trader Joe's. Because of this dressing I now have a recipe that only requires three ingredients and about five minutes of work. YES.
I will be honest and say, don't think it's as piquant as traditional hummus, but it's on the better side of decent. I also think it is easy to mess around with the flavoring (i.e. garlic, roasted peppers, etc.).
Three Ingredient Hummus
1- 15 oz can of chickpeas
1/3 cup Goddess Dressing (either Trader Joe's brand or Annie's brand)
1/2- 12 oz jar of marinated artichokes
Drain chickpeas and dump them into a food processor. Add the goddess dressing. Fish out about half the jar of artichoke hearts with a fork and add those to the food processor too. Add 2 tablespoons of the artichoke marinade to the food processor. Process for about a minute and a half, until it is smooth. Et, voila! Hummus! If it's too chunky or thick, add more dressing or marinade until it is to your liking.
1) THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who helped Greta and me raise $142 with our online bake sale!
2) This week has been incredibly busy! I had a lot of catching up to do after the bake sale. Luckily, in Florida, strawberry season is here! To me, the arrival of the first Plant City strawberries in these Boston grocery stores is the first glimmer of Spring. I have been fueling my days with the same breakfast all week: a simple yogurt parfait. It's an easy way to bring a little health, and I think a little luxury to even the busiest mornings.
Strawberry Yogurt Breakfast Parfait
1 cup(-ish ) plain Greek yogurt
5 or 6 Strawberries- rinsed, dried and cut into quarters
1/4 cup raw, rolled oats
about 2 tbsp honey
In your cup (or bowl) carefully spoon in the yogurt so the sides are clean ( it's pretty that way). Layer on the strawberries, sprinkle the oats on top and drizzle with honey.
That's it. Is that even really a recipe?
Anyway, I've been thoroughly enjoying it, and I hope you will too!
** bonus instructions...put on this beautiful cover of Bob Marley's "Is This Love" while you're eating your breakfast because you deserve at least three and half minutes of heaven to start your day.
Hello all! I have some very exciting news! My friend Greta is training to run in the Boston Marathon this year, and in order to do so, she has to raise at least $5,000 (her goal is $10,000!!) for Boston Medical Center's Pediatric Fitness and Nutrition for Life Program . A daunting task, I know. SO...I have decided to sell some of my homemade cookies right here on Eat to the Beat! to help her achieve her goal!
**Sidebar: (Yes, I realize how hypocritical it is to sell buttery, sugary cookies to raise money for a fitness and nutrition program. Just think of it as an exercise in moderation.)**
How it Works:
Head on over to the Etsy shop I set up for this event at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/eatothebeat . Every penny in the listed price of the cookies is going to be donated to Greta's fundraising efforts!
All orders must be placed by 12:00 a.m. on Feburary 5, 2012
Baking day is Sunday, February 5, 2012.
If you are local to Boston and would like to pick up your cookies, I'll be in the lobby of the Boston University School of Medicine L-building on Monday, February 6, 2012 from 2 pm- 7 pm.
OR
If would like your cookies shipped to you, they will be dropped off at the post office in the morning on Monday, February 6, 2012. Unfortunately I am a student and unpaid intern, so if you choose to have your cookies shipped, you will have to pay for that in addition to the price of the cookies. (Sorry!) I'm not sure about the rules for shipping food across international borders, so this offer will be limited to friends in the U.S. Shipping details are listed on the Etsy site.
Don't need any cookies but still want to help out?
You can go to Greta's fundraising page here to make a donation.
Okay, not really. As an avid baker/ food nerd, I follow the King Arthur Flour blog. Well, I made a comment on one of the blog posts and I got a reply! HOW COOL? Excuse me a moment while I take this time to geek out, and preserve this moment:
Here is the link to the original post; I'm the 6th comment! :o) Can you believe it? They thought I had a good idea! Fun times. Also, those cookies look TO DIE FOR, and I'm a molasses cookie junkie. Anyone who tries them out, let me know how it goes!
Until next time, keep on eating, keep on dancing!
(and remember the secret to perfect cookies, "cool it"!)
The recipe calls for browning some ground beef, but I've seen people have success with chunks or slices of beef. Or, you can really go outside the box and add cubed turkey breast, like I did. If you're using meat that's already cooked, just throw it in with the soup so it doesn't get dried out. Also, I subbed macaroni noodles for egg noodles for the first night, and used pad thai noodles for the left overs. Both were tasty. I think it wouldn't hurt to saute some sliced mushrooms with the onions as well...
Rapid Roastini
Trader Joe's sells some pretty good whole wheat gnocchi that do well in this capacity. I make them almost weekly. Most of the time I cook them as a healthy alternative french fries, but today I made these and smothered them in gravy as a side for roast chicken. Delicious. Nigella is a genius!
I did this with several batches of Christmas cookie dough. I have snickerdoodles in the picture, but it works well with any drop cookie, like chocolate chip! Not only was I able to exercise portion control, but I was able just bake up some cookies at a moments notice. I did so for a dinner party recently and it was so nice to arrive without any stress, on time, and with beautiful cookies!
Finally, I went to see one of my very favorite bands play their 10 year anniversary show for the hometown crowd, this weekend. It was a blast and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!
Last November, Brad and I went down to South Carolina to celebrate his grandfather's 90th birthday. The first night there was really cold, but we didn't mind because Brad's aunt Shannon made two enormous pots -nay, cauldrons- of delicious, hearty Turkey Wild Rice Soup and Broccoli Cheese soup. Of course, I HAD to have the recipes for both, and she was generous enough to share. Then, (also of course) I couldn't leave well enough alone and I tinkered with the recipe. I shared in my cook's notes the way I actually made the soup, but I changed the ingredients in the recipe as it's written here so they are easy to find. I encourage you to keep this recipe in mind around Thanksgiving next year so you can try it the way I had it tonight. Think of the recipe as basic chords of a jazz standard, and feel free to improvise as little or as much as you want.
Turkey Wild Rice Soup
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
1/2 cup wild rice
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 1/2 cups cooked, chopped turkey
1 1/2 cups frozen vegetables
1/2 cup pancetta cubes
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 tbsp butter
2 cups half and half
NOTE: There are lots of cooks notes to this recipe, so please read those before trying this recipe out.
In a large pot, over medium heat combine the stock, water, rice and green onions. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 35 minutes, uncovered.
Meanwhile, prepare the rest of your mise en place. In a small bowl or even in the measuring cup you used for the flour, add the salt and pepper to the flour and combine. On a plate or in a bowl, combine the turkey and the vegetables and set them aside. Also have your butter and, half and half measured and ready to go.
Then, in a large skillet (9 or 10 inches in diameter), cook the pancetta over medium heat until crispy. Turn off the heat and carefully remove pancetta from the pan and put in the bowl with the turkey and veggies while leaving as much fat as you can in the pan.
When the rice is finished cooking (after the 35 minutes is up), turn off the heat to that burner. For the burner with the skillet with the pancetta fat, turn the heat to medium low, and add the butter. While constantly stirring add the flour to the fat. Stir for about a minute to make a smooth paste. Then slowly add the half and half to the rue, stirring constantly to minimize lumps.
When the mixture is smooth and begins to thicken (it should almost look like alfredo sauce, or a rather thin country gravy...which is what it is), you'll know it's ready to add to the soup pot. Stir in the creamy mixture to combine it with the rice mixture. Turn the heat to low, and add the contents of the bowl with the turkey to the pot of soup. Heat a couple minutes longer until the soup is heated through.
** Cooks notes: This recipe is so flexible it's not even funny. When I made this soup today, I actually deviated a lot from the recipe above, and it still turned out great. I saved all the juices from my Christmas turkey which separated into a beautiful stock and a nice disk of schmaltz (aka turkey fat) in the fridge.I warn you though. The cold turkey stock from a roast turkey chills to the consistency of a gelatin mold, which can scare some people. Don't worry, it melts quite quickly to a velvety liquid base for your soup. If you are keeping it longer than about a week, before making the soup I suggest you refrigerate the stock over night to separate the fat disk out. Wrap the disk in foil. Put both in the freezer until...forever. Moving on. I substituted the homemade turkey stock for the chicken stock and the schmaltz for the butter. Also, I found wild rice to be $5 a pound at my local Trader Joe's, which is far more than I care to spend for rice. Instead I bought Trader Joe's Basmati Rice Medley- a mix of basmati rice, wild rice, dried herbs and dried veggies. It's $1.99 a pound, which is enough to 4 batches of this soup!
Can't find pancetta cubes? Think it costs too much? Already have bacon in your fridge? USE THE BACON! The recipe I based this one on, calls for 8 strips to be cut into bits.
Finally, I have made creamy soups (like the filling for my chicken pot pie) without the aid of fatty heavy cream (or half and half). However, I had some left over from making sweet potato pie and needed to use it up so I added it to the soup this time. I think you could be successful with just milk (we are a 1% household) added to your rue. It should be smooth and velvety but less rich. If you can't be bothered to buy dairy in addition to your milk, or you want to have a healthy alternative...I haven't tested it in this recipe, but I think it's totally do-able. If you do test it, let me know how it goes! :o)
