Turkey taco filling

This filling can be used for nachos, tacos or just eaten with rice.

Ingredients:

1 small onion chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 t canola oil

1/2 pound of Aldi's frozen ground turkey ( this brand is the most flavorful and moist)

2 T Old El Paso - 40% reduced sodium taco seasoning

1t garlic powder

1t cumin

1t adobo

1 can tomato sauce ( can also use 1/2 a can of diced tomatoes)

1 cup baby spinach

3/4 cup chopped zucchini

1/2 cup chopped poblano pepper

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Saute the onion and garlic in about 1 t of canola oil. Add in the ground turkey and break into pieces. sprinkle the taco seasoning and the rest of the spices over the turkey. When the turkey has begun to cook, add in the spinach, zucchini, peppers and cilantro. Stir and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Serve as a nacho topping, taco filling or alone with rice.

Portuguese Sweet Bread

I tried making this bread again. I think I have found a better recipe. The first one wasn't bad, but this one was better. I add grated lemon peel, with a micro plane, for the lemon ingredient.

http://www.yankeemagazine.com/recipe/for/portuguese-sweet-bread/15


The texture is not like you would expect for a bread. It is very dense. The end product was delicious.

Beef Short Ribs

Beef short ribs are so easy. I just put them in a baking dish, pour a little soy sauce over the top, sprinkle garlic powder, adobo and black pepper. Bake at 350 degrees for about 1 hour until desired doneness. They always seem to turn out great!

Chicken Soup with a twist

For my chicken soup last night, I started with a simple stock: chicken, water, bay leaves and onions. After this had cooken for a while I added 1/2 a box of pureed butternut squash. I have also used frozen butternut squash in the past. At the end I added diced zucchini, frozen kale, spinach, left over potatoes, two packets of sazon and adobo to taste. We also added egg noodles at the end, that had been cooked separately.

It was delicious!

Chimichurri

I made a chimichurri sauce yesterday. It's pretty easy. I use a mini food processor.

3 cloves garlic - smashed

1/4 large or 1/2 small white onion

1/2 cup cilantro

1/2 cup parsley

1/2 cup basil

salt & pepper to taste

juice of 1 lemon

3 T olive oil

Put all ingredients in the mini food processor and process it until smooth. If the sauce is too chunky, add more olive oil.

So today I am also baking a bread. I found a great blog which lists bread recipes that have been posted:

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/

I am making the portuguese sweet bread below:

http://thespicedlife.blogspot.com/2008/07/portuguese-sweet-bread.html

The picture is the final rising. It will be baking soon. I can't wait...

Easy Lunch

Today I enhanced a packaged soup, like ramen. First I sauted some onions, garlic, red peppers, mushrooms and cilantro in a little canola oil. Add in water to cover, or home much soup you want. Break the ramen noodles. Add in the seasoning packet(s). I also added a little chicken stock with the water. If you need more seasoning, you can add salt/pepper, adobo or whatever is your preference. Finally I added in one of the oxtails from yesterday!! This was a great soup and very easy to make.

Look in the chinese supermarket for exciting varieties of ramen soup, the one I used was a thai style soup.

This is just a quick recipe for Ox-tail. I love them!

In a pressure cooker add 4 pieces of oxtail, 1 can of low sodium beef broth, 1 packet of sazon, 2 cloves of garlic smashed and two bay leaves. Stir the liquid to desolve the seasoning. Cook in a pressure cooker for 45 minutes once the pressure has built up. These are good the first day, but if you can wait, save them for the next day. Before heating up, remove the fat on top and heat up. Delicious!

We made this last night, but we are eating it tonight. I can't wait!

Last night I made a recipe out of the book Estofados y Guisos ( ISBN 84-8076-602-6) warning: its written in spanish!

The recipe I chose was for chicken with chickpeas. It is sort of a stew.

The recipe was for 8 portions, and I was only making two, so I cut it down a bit. Basically you saute the chicken, seasoned with salt and pepper, in a little butter ( i used olive oil) until browned, remove the chicken and add onion, garlic, carrot and celery and saute till soft. Put the chicken back in and add chicken stock, lime juice and marsala wine, I didn't have that so I just added white wine. Cook that on low heat for 45 minutes to 1 hour. At that point remove the chicken. Add the remaining sauce into a food processor and add a little bread crumbs to thicken. Pulse until pureed. Put the chicken and sauce back into the pot. Add garbanzo beans from a can that have been rinsed and the liquid discarded and sliced mushrooms. Cook for another 10 to 15 minutes. Garnish with parsley.

This was very good. The sauce seemed creamy without adding any cream.

So for my first recipe I decided to try a chicken piccata. I had recently had it at Maggiano's restaurant and was very impressed with the spinach! I used the following recipe:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-Piccata-with-Capers-10755

I did use extra virgin olive oil instead of the vegetable oil and I used the juice of one lemon, probably a little more wine, some sliced garlic and lots more capers. I flattened the chicken breasts a little, but they were fine as is. I didn't remove the chicken breasts when I was making the sauce, but it may have been good to remove them for a little and return them at the end.

I sauteed the spinach in olive oil and garlic and when it was finished I spooned some of the sauce over both the chicken and spinach ( and the pasta!)

This meal was very tasty and quick to prepare.

New Year New Blog!

I just started this blog today, so stay tuned for great recipes!