Taco Bowls

I've gotten a new kitchen gadget and I keep telling myself I need to start blogging food again so that when I want to re-create something I've got it written down. We shall see. In the meantime, here is something fun I did this past week.

I love having taco salads in the cool tortilla bowls, but I have discovered that my body does not like wheat very well and some of my children are showing the same signs I am. So, instead, I found a way to make little corn tortilla taco bowls. I have done them in a frying pan and this time I did them in the deep fryer. I think they frying pan works better, personally. Anyway, this is what I do. First you have to heat your oil up. You will also need something to form the bowl around. I find that a baby food jar is a good size and with all the babies I've had I can usually find one lying around somewhere. Once the oil is hot you put your tortilla in and push it down in the middle with whatever you are using to form the bowl. I'll just say baby food jar. So, push the middle down with the baby food jar and leave it in there for about 30 seconds. I have found that a pair of tongs works great for placing the jar and removing it. After 30 seconds you can remove the jar and your bowl should hold it's shape. Let it continue to fry for about another minute before flipping it over and cooking the other side. Fry until it is a light, golden brown.

Once it is cooked you can drain it on some paper towels. Then, fill with whatever you like. This time I took meat, beans, and some acorn squash and seasoned it all with taco seasoning. Then I topped it with lettuce, cheese, and salsa. The squash gave the meat and beans a nice, thick consistency and with the taco seasoning the kids didn't complain too much about me sneaking in squash. In fact, if someone hadn't said something I bet most of them would never have even known.

This Week's Basket 1-22-15

I am so excited for this week's basket! I can hardly wait to figure out my menu for next week.

Celery

Corn on the cob

Napa cabbage

Cauliflower

Green bell peppers

Tomatoes

Jalapeno Peppers

Carrots

Yukon Gold potatoes

Blood oranges

Thai Coconut

I think the coconut will be the hardest to figure out what to do with.  What would you do with a coconut?

Eggplant Parmesan

One of the best parts about participating in Bountiful Baskets is getting to try new fruits and vegetables that I wouldn't have otherwise. I have discovered that I really like Eggplant Parmesan, or at least this recipe for it. I prefer my homemade sauce, but my kids find it a little spicy, so I also used some store bought sauce.  I adapted this recipe from one from The 17 Day Diet.

Ingredients:
2 eggplant
3 whole eggs
4 Tbsp water
Parmesan cheese (I used some powdery stuff and some grated stuff)
garlic powder- to taste
2 cups of marinara sauce

Directions:
Peel the eggplant and then cut into 1/4 in slices. Crack the eggs and whip them with the water until frothy. In a shallow dish, dip the eggplant slices in the egg, then into the Parmesan cheese, pressing cheese into the eggplant. Spray a baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and place eggplant in a single layer on the pan. Sprinkle with garlic powder if you so desire. Place pan in an oven that has been preheated to 400 degrees and bake for 30 minutes, turning after 20 minutes.  Eggplant should be golden brown and cooked through. Next, cover with the marinara sauce and cook for another 20 minutes until eggplant is hot and sauce is bubbly.

Verdict:

Yum! All of the kids ate it.  My 2yo liked it the best. I served this with some green beans that I sauteed with hazelnuts and butter.  My 9 yo preferred the green beans to the eggplant, the rest of the family liked the eggplant better than the green beans. I ate the leftovers for lunch the next day.

Unstuffed Pepper Casserole

I have blogged about my Stuffed Bell Peppers before and my family really loves them, but I noticed that they would just eat the stuffing out of them and then throw the pepper into our chicken bucket.  I was tired of wasting so much food (even though the chickens loved it), so I decided to deconstruct it and turn it into a casserole.  Here is what I used this week:

Ingredients:
3-4 cups cooked rice
3 bell peppers
3 cups cooked beans (1 quart size jar of homemade canned)
2 cups salsa, or canned tomatoes (1 pint size jar homemade canned)
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
grated cheese
ground meat, cooked (not shown)
1 cup sour cream (not shown)
1 Tbsp taco seasoning if using canned tomatoes instead of salsa

Directions:

Chop up bell peppers into bite sized pieces. Add the rest of the ingredients, saving some cheese to sprinkle on top. Put in a casserole dish and sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese. Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Verdict:

My kids love this! I have also used quinoa in place of the rice before and all but one of my kids eat it that way also. Any color pepper works, so we just use whatever comes in our Bountiful Basket. Some of the kids will still pick out the peppers, but at least this way I know less food is being wasted than when it was a whole pepper.

Menu for the Week

In case you didn't know, I homeschool.  That means I have all of my children all day, every day, just about.  We love it and it is the right choice for our family, but it does mean that I am responsible for all of their meals. So, when I make a menu, it isn't just for dinners, it is breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Here is what I've come up with for this week.

Breakfast:
Sausage patties, eggs, potatoes
Bacon, eggs, potatoes
Hashbrown casserole with sausage, cheese, peppers, green onions
Bacon, eggs, potatoes
Hashbrowns with sausage gravy, eggs
Daddy's Breakfast on Saturday (usually omelets)
Cereal

Lunch:
Unstuffed Pepper Casserole
Gluten Free Macaroni and Cheese with Broccoli
Fried Rice
Corn Chowder
Must-Go soup
Hot dogs and french fries
Whole Chicken in the crock pot

Dinner:
Eggplant Parmesan, green beans
Red Enchiladas, salad, beans
Sausage Stuff, quinoa, salad
Baked chicken, fried zucchini
Pizza- sausage, pepperoni, whatever other topping we find, salad


There are a couple of evenings where we are either eating out or just having leftovers this week.  Also, while I have a menu plan that I post on the refrigerator, it is subject to change if I don't get to the store in time or someone in the family accidentally eats one of the main ingredients the morning before I want to cook it. Life happens. Hopefully this week I can get some of these meals on the blog for you.  I'm really looking forward to eating the yummy produce that we got in our basket.

Bounty for 1-8-15

Check out this beautiful basket.  I am so excited to plan my meals for this coming week.  My goal is to get back into posting recipes here.  I can hardly wait to see what delicious thing my kids and I come up with for this basket.

Orange bell peppers

Broccoli

Eggplant

Yellow Onions

Zucchini

Red Potatoes

English Cucumbers

Cherry Tomatoes

Grapefruit

Strawberries

This Week's Basket 11/13/2014

I know it's been a while since I posted one of these.  We closed our site for a little while, but now we are up and running again every other week and on Thursdays instead of Saturday.  I really like having pick-up on Thursday night and leaving my Saturday open to do things with the family.  I also really missed my group of friends that I had made at my basket site so it's been good to see them again also.

So here is what we got this week:

Fuji apples

Jonagold apples

Cucumbers

Oranges

Asparagus

Watermelon

Carrots

Bananas

Green onions

Radishes

Red Potatoes

Now to make a menu plan for all this goodness.