Spicy yam & turkey tacos

Happy spring!

It’s been rather gloomy and rainy in Kansas City the last few days, but just knowing it’s now officially spring makes it all better!

Erik and I had a good Saturday.  Spent the morning working (me) and doing homework (Erik).  Our plan was to go on a date last night, but the weather was just too gloomy! We decided to put it off until it was a little nicer out.

Whole Foods

Thus, we decided to venture to Whole Foods and stock up on a few things. Since date night wasn’t happening, and grocery shopping was commencing, I decided to cook my new recipe of the week instead. In order to avoid starving, we picked up a slice of pizza on our way out of Whole Foods to tide us over until dinner. 

Spicy yam & turkey tacos

This new recipe was a winner! So far during Operation Motivation, our new meals have been baked spaghetti and meatballs, and regular lasagna, but this recipe has taken the cake!

It started out with some ground turkey.  We’ve never had this kind before, and I was happy with it.It’s from Diestel Family Turkey Ranch.  The turkeys at Diestel Ranch are naturally range grown, sustainably farmed, and humanely raised.  This recipe is adapted from Allrecipes.com

Ingredients:
-- 1 lb ground turkey
-- 1 large yam, peeled and chopped
-- 1 small onion, chopped
-- 2 jalapeños, diced
-- 1 TB chili powder
-- 1 TB extra virgin olive oil
-- 2 large TB minced garlic
-- 1 ts ground cumin
-- 1/4 ts sea salt
-- 3/4 cup salsa
-- Warm tortillas + any desired taco toppingsDirections:
-- Brown ground turkey meat in a skillet coated with olive oil until browed. 
-- Microwave chopped sweet potato for around 7 minutes (or until tender) in a microwave safe bowl, set aside.
-- Stir in the onion, minced garlic, and jalepeno to browed turkey and cook until veggies are tender.
-- Follow with the chili powder, cumin, and sea salt.
-- Fold in the sweet potato and cook until any remaining liquid evaporates.

Finally … enjoy!!I topped mine with low fat organic sour cream, some lettuce, and shredded cheddar cheese.

Thoughts:  The flavor was really good! I normally don’t like things too spicy, and this was perfect for me, just the right amount of kick. We will definitely have these tacos again, and I would highly recommend them.

The sweetness of the yam was awesome with the spiciness of the dish.  You won’t regret making these! (Though next time, I’ll add some freshly diced tomatoes to the toppings).
Bagel making post is on its way

How was your weekend??

Westside Birthday

Thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes today … Emails, tweets, Facebook, etcetera!!!
I definitely felt the love!!

Perfect Birthday Morning

I woke up this morning (one hour after my alarm went off … whoops!), and found a wonderful birthday card from my husband laying on my computer desk.  Great way to start a birthday!! I then jumped on the treadmill, worked for awhile, and decided since it was my birthday I’d make a fun breakfast.Pancakes!

I learned this morning that, at least for me, after two failed attempts, it’s virtually impossible to make pancakes in a stainless steel pan, ha. If anyone has a secret trick, I’m all ears!

Here’s how I made them:

Ingredients:
-- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
-- 2 tbsp ground flax
-- 1 tbsp raw cane sugar
-- 1 tsp sea salt
-- 1 tsp cinnamon
-- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
-- 3 tbsp vanilla greek yogurt
-- 2 cups milk of choice
-- 1 cup rolled oats

Directions:
-- Blend oats in coffee grinder or blender so they’re broken up a little
-- Mix together dry ingredients in bowl, and wet ingredients in another then mix two bowls together
-- Cook pancakes on low to medium heat, serve with toppings of choice, and enjoy!I topped mine with a melted chocolate + raspberry mixture. 

Raspberry chocolate glaze: Microwave dark chocolate chips together with frozen raspberries and a splash of milk on 50% power for 35 seconds … delish!

Birthday Lunch

Guess what a large component of my birthday lunch was??? I just couldn’t help it!

They were as good as ever!

Birthday Dinner

For dinner, Erik and I went out with Erik’s dad to Westside Local, which is quickly becoming one of our favorite KC restaurants.

I went with the quinoa dish:
Erik’s dad went with salmon:And Erik stuck to our favorite, the summit burger.  It never, ever disappoints:The food at Westside Local is always very, very good, and tonight was no exception. (Though I must say, I think the chef was favoring salt this evening, ha).

Overall, a wonderful birthday! Thanks again, everyone, for making it so great!I think Erik and I are going to go on a birthday date tomorrow, so the fun continues

I’m also going to be baking bagels tomorrow! It’s been awhile since I’ve made them and I’m quite excited about it.

What are you plans for the weekend??

Pick-me-up

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Truth be told, I never really cared much about St. Patrick’s Day because I was distracted by my birthday the next day, ha. 

I thought about making Irish soda bread this year to be festive, but I’ve decided on something else for my baked good of the week that I just can’t help but make instead.  You’ll see more on that later in the week.

Breakfast
 
Yesterday’s breakfast was nothing to write home about, but it tasted good none the less. 1 egg + 2 egg whites, Laughing Cow cheese wedge, and some toast with pomegranate jelly.

Izze

Can you tell I like Izze? Haha.  Having a fun drink in the afternoon helps me get through the lull and motivates me to continue working. Gotta love those random, little, but oh-so-helpful motivators!One thing I love about working at home is just being able to go to the kitchen, grab a glass of ice and an Izze, snap a picture on my desk, and keep working …

If you’ve never tried an Izze drink, grapefruit is a good flavor to start out with.  One of my all time favorites!
 
And for dinner, we had organic ground chicken “browned” with onions, garlic, turmeric, sea salt, peas, garbanzo beans, and cauliflower over top freshly cooked wild rice.It was quick, easy, and healthy but it definitely needed some cheese to flavor it!Spring is in the Air!Seeing how the above is the St. Patty’s Day temperature high for tomorrow here in Kansas City, I feel as though I can finally say Spring is in the air!!
A very nice early birthday present

What’s your go-to afternoon pick-me-up?

Dinner, weekend, & catch up

Wow, is it really Monday night already? Most of the day, I’ve sincerely thought it was Sunday.

Dinner

Our cupboards were kind of bare tonight, so once again, we had a Quick & Easy Pasta dinner. However tonight, I couldn’t seem to kick my craving for sweet potato fries, so I had both!I know I said I would only get these sweet potatoes fries once in awhile, but so far, it’s a little more often than that. Whoops, haha.
I created a makeshift ketchup ramekin using a Pellegrino bottle capOur weekend

My parents headed back to Nebraska this afternoon, and we had a busy, and good weekend.  It was complete with shopping, eating, quilt shops (my mom even found the “best” quilt shop ever, right, Mom?), lots of hard homework (Erik), a random virus on my computer (made all better by my dad, thank goodness), and much more!

Tomorrow, it’s back to the grinding board, and I need to get back to my workouts, I have been slacking!

Catch-up

And now, Erik and I are off to catch up on America’s Next Great Restaurant, and Secret Millionaire.
What are you looking forward to this week?? 
(My birthday is on Friday, so I’m looking forward to a birthday date)

Open windows

Happy Weekend!

Our weekend is off to a good start as my parents are going to be in town, and the weather looks promising.  Yesterday I even got to open my windows while I worked.  I love it when I can smell the spring air!

Quick & Easy Pasta DinnerFriday night’s dinner consisted of our longtime “go-to” easy meal.  It comes in many different forms, and changes a little each time depending on what’s on hand, but the general concept is pretty simple:

Ingredients:
-- Chopped vegetables of choice (just make sure to include onion as one of them!)
-- Olive oil
-- Pepper & sea salt (as desired)
-- Vegetable bouillon cube
-- Canned beans of choice
-- Cheese

Throw it all together:
-- Sautee veggies in olive oil
-- Add water + bouillon cube + pepper + sea salt
-- Cook pasta according to package instructions
-- Add desired amount of beans to veggie mixture a few minutes before pasta is done
-- Drain pasta, add desired amounts of cooked pasta and veggies into a bowl
-- Add cheese, stir, and eat. The mix tonight was one small onion, Brussels sprouts, kidney beans, and Penne pasta.  Easy, quick, and satisfying!

Baked good of the weekThis week I simply went with a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie for my baked good recipe of the week. Could have been better. I’ll wait until I have a better cookie recipe to share it.
 
And for my new “regular” recipe of the week I went with lasagna.  Sounds pretty plain, but believe it or not, I’ve never made regular lasagna, only zucchini lasagna. 

Pre-oven:Either way, we thought it turned out pretty good (fresh basil + fresh mozzarella … how could it NOT taste good?)

Last but not least

I don’t really “get” (aka understand) sparkling mineral water, but none the least, we found ourselves purchasing some Pelligrino the other day.  I decided it’s fun to drink when I’m working … somehow, it makes my day more exciting, ha.(But it won’t be replacing Izze’s place in my life!)

That’s all for me!

What are you looking forward to this weekend??

 

Cupcakes, cacao & sucanat

In case you hadn’t noticed, I recently updated my top blog tabs so check them out if you haven’t already! 

“Highlights”, “Kansas City”, and “Health & Fitness Tips” tabs are newly added, and the rest are updated. Enjoy!

Remember these, from my last post? I think I’ve made about 4 batches of them in the last week or so, no joke, ha.  We really like them around here.
I’ve shared a few as well, I promise we didn’t eat them all
 
So what exactly are these, you ask? 

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcakes

I followed the recipe exactly from its source, so I won’t post it.

However … HERE is the link so you can make them for yourself, if you so chose. Not surprisingly, the recipe comes from Clean Eating Magazine’s website. 
Cacao Powder

I thought it would be fun to highlight a few of the ingredients in the recipe.  First up, cacao powder.

What is the difference between “cacao” powder, and “cocoa” powder?  Cacao powder always seems to be found in health food sections, and seems to have a rap for being better than cocoa.

From what I have found they are actually quite similar, and there isn’t much of a difference. However, cacao powder refers specifically to raw, unsweetened powder whereas cocoa powder may still have small amounts of cocoa butter present for subtle flavor enhancement. Sucanat

Next up, sucanat.  I think it’s my newest favorite baking sweetener.  I’ve noticed that Clean Eating magazine uses it in a large portion of their baked goods, and I decided to finally try it.  Here’s a few things about it:

What is sucanat?
It’s a type of cane sugar that is naturally light brown in color.  It stands for SUgar CAne NATural.  Basically, it is a dried whole cane sugar that has not been processed or refined.

How does is taste?
Sucanat retains a molasses flavor, and is similar to brown sugar.

What are the health benefits of sucanat?
Sucanat contains less sucrose than white sugar because of its natural production method, retains more vitamins and minerals, and will have less severe effects on the body’s blood sugar levels.All I know is that sucanat and cacao powder (among other ingredients, of course) make a good chocolaty cupcake that goes perfectly with a fresh cold glass of milk.
They’re even good with a raspberry on top  Operation Motivation

It’s been a bit of a crazy week thus far, but despite that, I’m happy to report my two new recipes for the week are already cooked.  More on them to come later! 

Hope you’re having a great week!