one pan mexican quinoa

So I'm trying to be a little bit more healthy. Emphasis on "little bit".

I really enjoy food. I don't go overboard, I'm good at knowing when I'm full and when to stop and actually quitting while I'm ahead, and I make sure to stay active. So I pretty much eat whatever I want. I realize this isn't always a good idea, even if I'm not preoccupied with my figure, weight, or ability to exercise, so sometimes I try to find a healthier alternative to something I already enjoy. Especially if I can't tell that there's a huge difference when I make a substitution.

I also have this bag of quinoa that is going to expire if I don't use it all in the next month or two. So, honestly, my desire not to waste food was the larger motivator than my health. But whatever.

So I searched for quinoa recipes. Most were way too healthy for my tastes (if tofu is a main ingredient, I'll pass), but I realized I could just add what I wanted and take out what I didn't. And then I found this recipe that was basically just switching out rice for quinoa. And it was delicious. I made some changes, I added meat (because we're carnivores), and voila. Dinner 30 minutes later.

Ingredients

• 1lb ground beef (of course, there are great substitutions for this. Or you can omit it entirely. It's still really good without)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 c quinoa
• 1 c vegetable broth
• 1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes (fire roasted is delicious, but. Use what you have)
• 1 c corn
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• salt, to taste
• pepper, to taste
• lime juice (1 lime is plenty)
• 2 tbsp cilantro
• 1 avocado, diced

1.  (If you're using meat) Brown the beef. Drain and rinse (I've learned that rinsing really gets all of the fat off. Less oily and gross that way). Set aside, and rinse out your pan.
2. Heat the olive oil over medium high heat, and cook the garlic and jalapeno for about a minute, until it starts to smell delicious.
3. Stir in quinoa, vegetable broth, beans, tomatoes, corn, chili powder, cumin, salt, and pepper. Bring it all to a boil, then cover it and reduce the heat to a simmer. Let it simmer until the quinoa is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Stir in meat, heat through, then add lime, cilantro, and avocado. Eat immediately.

If eating healthy always tastes this delicious, maybe I'll up my healthy food game. Just a little bit. 

Inside Out Tacos

Food has become our excuse to be social. Between the amount of traveling we do and the number of activities in which we've involved ourselves, we don't leave many opportunities to be incredibly social, especially on weekends. Our desire to be social, however, hasn't gone away, so we've tried to find ways to be social during the week. How? Inviting people over for dinner. We always have to eat, everyone we know also happens to really enjoy eating (let's be honest: who doesn't love eating?), and it definitely makes our weekdays more interesting. Some days I think it's pathetic that this is true, other days I think that we're brilliant. Depends on my mood. And how recently we've seen the friends we're inviting over.

Sometimes though, we don't really plan a night with friends. We just start to make dinner, something happens, and we have friends over. Not to make our other friends like we love them less because we plan for them, but these impromptu dinner parties are usually the best.

Earlier this week, my brother- and sister-in-law were coming over to plan a party (by this we mean the girls were planning a party and the boys were playing FIFA. They don't care what the reason is, if it means they'll end up at the same house with an xbox, they're in).  My sister-in-law texted me to ask what time they should come over, and I said, "We're just starting dinner. If you guys haven't eaten yet, you're welcome to come eat with us." It was already 6:30, and I had just gotten off the phone with my sister who had made a dinner recommendation when I whined about needing to make dinner and not having even a bad idea about what to make. She suggested this fabulous recipe, and I needed to run to the store because we'd just run out of chicken, but otherwise, I already had most of these things from other meals that week.

• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into halves
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil, divided
• Green onions, diced finely
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 3/4 c chicken broth
• 5 cups tortilla chips, broken into large pieces
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 1 c shredded cheddar cheese, shredded (or whatever you have. I usually have either a giant bag of Colby Jack or a smaller back of a Mexican blend. Both work great)
• 2 tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

1. Pat the chicken breast halves dry and season with salt and pepper.  Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large stainless steel (or otherwise oven-safe) pot over medium-high heat.  Add the chicken to the pan and cook until golden brown on both sides (your chicken doesn't need to be fully cooked right now, just the outsides.)  Transfer to a plate and set aside.
2. Add the remaining oil, green onions, garlic, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.  Cook just until it starts to smell wonderful, about 30 seconds (and it will smell wonderful).  Add the chicken broth, scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, and let it start to simmer. 
3. Stir in half of the tortilla chips. Put the chicken into the broth so that the chicken is covered as much as possible (I cut the pieces in half again, so that they cook faster and fit in the pot better) and cook over medium-low heat until cooked through, which is about 10 minutes.  When the chicken is cooked through, take the chicken pieces out, let them cool enough to be able to handle, and then shred the chicken. Put the chicken back in the pot. 
4. Add the tomatoes, 1/2 c cheese, and 1 tablespoon of cilantro. Stir in the other half of the tortilla chips until the chips are moist. 
5. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top and place the pot in your oven with the broiler on high for 2-3, just to melt and slightly brown the top. Top with the remaining cilantro and serve! 

My in-laws asked if they could bring anything, and I said, "It's kind of a casserole, so there's not really anything you can add... maybe fun drinks?" So they went to Sodalicious and bought us each a soda. Man, I don't even like soda very much and I love that place. 

This recipe has been passed around from blog to blog, and my sister sent it to me from a blog but suggested some alterations. I made some of my own alterations, and then I really wanted a different name. Throwing "casserole" into anything makes it sound less appealing to me, for whatever reason. So when we started to eat it, my husband asked, "What are we eating?" and I said, "It's kind of like the inside of a taco." But the shell is inside too. Inside out tacos? Duh. Why didn't they think of that a long time ago?!

Thanks Brid :)

meat and potatoes- variety with basics

So in the last five months, we've eaten a lot. If you can imagine. A jump roper and a pregnant lady. We make quite the hungry team.
I've been pretty thrilled with the energy I've had throughout my pregnancy, so fortunately I've still been able to enjoy cooking. Despite what I haven't shown on this blog. I really like to try new things, recipes others give me or random things I find online by searching for a list of the ingredients I want to use, especially when I'm not feeling terribly creative and don't have any ideas on how to mix things myself. But I also have some basic go-to ideas, formulas if you will for a quick, no-thought meal that still tastes like there was a lot of thought put into it. Marinades are great that way :)

The idea of marinating is, of course, that you let it marinate. If you're trying to think of dinner plans at 4:30 to eat a little after 5, overnight marinating is out of the question. But letting your meat bake in a marinating sauce, or really most kinds of dressings, gives your meat great flavor, even if it's not as rich a flavor as you would get from actually marinating. I also using this baking marinate method because we find random marinated and salad dressings on sale for a dollar or so, usually less than that, so we sample them. Why not? Once or twice we've found that they're a little strong for marinating (actual soaking it overnight), and the meat isn't very good afterwards. Baking instead of marinating makes the flavor not as strong- if you're experimenting, it's a safer method of not being disappointed.

So there's your meat. Thaw something that maybe you don't know what to do with (pictured: top sirloin  steak- we found in a small package that was barely enough to feed us, but it was perfect with a side) and cover it in a salad dressing (pictured: sun-dried tomato salad dressing). Let it bake at somewhere between 350-400 for about 30 minutes, depending on the meat of course, but across the board, this is pretty safe. Check it periodically, of course; some meats you want more done, some a little more tender.

Not the greatest picture in the world, but I always forget to take a picture until after we're eating. Oh well.

Then I have an assortment of four kinds of potatoes that I choose to go with the meat- mashed, wedged, baked, or twice-baked(pictured). None of them take quite as long as the meat does, so dinner can be ready all at the same time, but you can prep the potatoes while the meat is cooking. 

Mashed potatoes Everyone has their own recipe. I like to chop and boil potatoes, drain them, beat them with a little bit of butter and a little more milk. 

Wedged potatoes My sister taught me this one, and I use this style of potatoes all the time. Cut a potato into wedges (if it's a large potato, using two is too many for me and Jeremy, so maybe 3/4 of a large potato is a generous serving size for an adult), arrange them around a microwave safe plate. Sprinkle with whatever seasonings you like (I use a garlic pepper blend), and then put a generous tablespoon or two of butter in the middle of the plate. Cover with saran wrap. Put in the microwave for 9 minutes. Delicious.

Baked potatoes Stab each potato generously with a fork. Toss the potatoes into the oven around your meat tray (they'll  need roughly 15 minutes more than the meat will). You can also make them in the microwave- stab each potato generously with a fork, then put them in the microwave for about 12 minutes, flipping them over about halfway through (the time varies with the size of your potatoes and the power setting on your microwave, so you may need a little more or a little less time). 

Twice-baked potatoes There are lots of great recipes for these. I use a pretty basic and somewhat adapted recipe- Bake the potatoes (I usually do this part in the microwave), let them cool a little bit before slicing them open and scooping out the insides, leaving a potato canoe. Mix the potatoes with a tablespoon or two of butter, a little bit more milk (1/4-1/2 cup), bacon bits, and cheddar cheese. Spoon the spread back into each of the potato canoes, and stick them back in the over for another 15-20 minutes. 

Step 1: Meat and marinade. Bake for half an hour.
Step 2: Pick a potato style. Throw together while the meat's cooking.
Enjoy!