Eat: Low Carb-friendly Taco Soup

There is so much conflicting information out there about PCOS, but one thing most everyone can agree with is that a diet low in simple carbohydrates can be helpful. This is a favorite low-carb recipe for our family! It doesn't hurt that it is one of the simplest recipes in my collection.

 

Taco Soup

• 1 lb lean ground beef or ground turkey
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 3/4 cup water + water as needed
• 1 Taco Seasoning packet or 3 TBSP of your favorite taco seasoning (Here's my favorite!)
• 2 cans Ro*tel tomatoes
• 2 cans black beans
• 1 (16oz.) package of frozen green beans (or fresh if you have them on hand)
• Shredded Cheese (optional)
• Diced Avocado (optional)

1. Brown meat with onion and garlic until meat is brown and onion is translucent.








2.Drain, if needed, then add taco seasoning and 3/4 cup water and cook over medium heat until water is nearly evaporated.








3.Pour the meat mixture into a large pot, then add the tomatoes and beans. If needed, add a little water to cover. Cover and cook on medium heat for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.










4. Top with cheese and avocados, then enjoy!

This soup freezes well and reheats well. If carbs are of no concern to you, adding corn and tortilla strips or chips to the soup will make it extra tasty!

Eat, Pray: heart-shaped sandwiches and love

Anytime my daughter carries a packed lunch, you can be sure of two things. It will contain a sandwich made with whole grain bread and said sandwich will be shaped like a heart...or a flower...or a fish. I can't stand the thought of sending her off with a square or circular sandwich or even a square slice of cheese. Sometimes I build an entire theme, like a fish shaped sandwich swimming in a blueberry sea. I've even done 2am searches on Pinterest for the coolest bento boxes for kids; while my Southern upbringing and Future Homemakers of America days fully prepared me for pound cakes and dumplings, those Mickey Mouse bentos look like they would require at least a year of culinary training. Since I have trouble finding time to paint my toenails, the year of culinary training is definitely out.

I know it is just lunch, but I come from a long line of people who express love through food. My own working mother would get up in the morning and pack me a lunch of turkey and mustard on saltine crackers. I didn't eat bread, and after finding a big hunk of a buttery cheese substance in my spaghetti I had sworn off the tray lunch in the cafeteria. I took my lunches for granted then; you tend to take a lot of things for granted when you are raises by Super Mom. Now I look back and can feel the love my own mother had for me and I think of it every time I am wasting bread edges and cutting out that sandwich with a cookie cutter.

It sounds sweet, right? Does my child really care? Probably not. So why do I care so much? Since I became a working mom, I have become obsessed with doing all I can to make every day special and to ensure that, while someone else is actually sitting next to her during lunch, there is some sign of "Mama" at the lunch table. It has become my coping mechanism. The daycare deposit pales in comparison to the start up costs I brought on myself. She needed a mat? I wanted to make sure she had a coordinating pillow, blanket and nap mat cover with her name embroidered somewhere on it. She had to have her name on her water bottle. Sure, a Sharpie makes sense, but instead I was drawn to these personalized bands that wrap around the bottle. I stressed about every last detail before her first day and I don't really think she cares. I do.

I don't have time for therapy, but after hours spent on the road for my job I have finally determined the reason for my obsession with heart-shaped sandwiches and personalized nap mat covers. It is the same reason I come home tired from work but drags self to the park or to blow bubbles in the back yard, the reason I want every second I am with Lily to be quality. It's the same reason I forget the quiet moments are important, too. I absolutely hate missing that time during the day and I grasping at ways to make the most of the time I do have. It's how I cope.

In the end, does it make me a better mom? No. Could I put away the heart cookie cutter tomorrow without Lily even taking notice? Probably. Will I do that? No way. I need it, and I hope one day she looks at that sandwich and realizes that I made it just for her, just the way she likes it, with sun butter, jelly and a mother's love. Like the turkey and mustard crackers.

Eat, Love: Organic Foods on a Budget

 My grocery bill is getting higher and higher. I owe it all to Netflix. I am a documentary junkie, and Netflix has a ton of them available on demand. One night I was looking for a good one to watch, and I came across Food, Inc. That's when my grocery bill began getting higher and higher. A look behind the scenes of America's food supply is sad, sobering and just really gross. I had smelled the feed lots of West Texas and the chicken houses of East Texas, but the glance of the inside I got from Food, Inc. had an impact on me. 

I can't blame it all on Netflix. When Lily came along I began analyzing every factor of our lives, and food was one of those. We decided to start using beef and milk without added hormones as a first step. Study after study shows the age of the onset of puberty dropping; studies are not absolutely conclusive, but more and more evidence supports the idea that we are shortening childhood with the added hormones in our beef and milk. These added hormones make our dairy cows produce more milk and they make our slaughter cows get really big, really fast, but do we really want these hormones going into our kids? Just a side note: most other meats and animal product, like pork, poultry, and eggs, are free of added hormones due to government regulation.

I managed to move on from meat to produce. I was pretty sure I wanted to cut out pesticides along with the hormones. However, I didn't want to cut out hormones, pesticides and electricity; after looking at the prices on many organic foods I realized the electricity might just have to go if we were going to pay our big fat organic grocery bill. That's when I came across the Environmental Working Group's Dirty Dozen, the list of foods that contain the highest levels of pesticide residue. By purchasing organic on these twelve items, you can reduce your intake of pesticide residue by 80%. Here's the list:

The Dirty Dozen

1. Apples

2. Celery

3. Strawberries

4. Peaches

5. Spinach

6. Nectarines

7. Grapes 

8. Sweet bell peppers

9. Potatoes

10. Blueberries 

11. Lettuce

12. Kale/collard greens

EWG also has a list of foods with very low pesticide residue. These foods, called the Clean 15, are listed below and, in the opinion of your humble blogger and her bank account, are not worth paying those organic prices. 

Clean 15

1. Onions

2. Sweet Corn

3. Pineapples

4. Avocado

5. Asparagus

6. Sweet peas

7. Mangoes

8. Eggplant

9. Cantaloupe 

10. Kiwi

11. Cabbage

12. Watermelon

13. Sweet potatoes

14. Grapefruit

15. Mushrooms

 

Hope this helps! In the end, just do your homework and do the best you can by your family. Happy shopping!

 

For more information on foods and pesticides, check out http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/list/

 

Eat, Love: Flatout Pizza

 If you are like me, you are often discouraged by the nutritional value of most quick and easy recipes. It seems like you pay a price with inexpensive and easy to prepare foods. Sometimes it feels like you have to sacrifice nutrition for convenience. As a busy mom who values healthy eating habits for her toddler, I find myself searching for meals that can be prepared in a short amount of time while also packing some nutritional punch. Oh, and they have to taste good. :)

A staple in our kitchen for healthy and convenient snacks and meals is the Flatout Wrap. The Flatout Wrap is a nutritious, low carb, high fiber, trans fat-free flatbread that can be used in so many ways. The obvious use is to wrap up anything that would normally go between two slices of bread, but there are so many other great uses. In our house, we love to use Flatouts to make pizza. Here are a couple of different ways to enjoy a pizza using Flatout wraps. Please note that there are many varieties of Flatouts, but we usually go for the Light Original. These contain 9 grams of fiber and only 90 calories per wrap.

 

 

Flatout Plain Jane Pizza

Flatout Wrap 

Olive oil

1/4 c. Pizza Sauce

1/2c. Reduced Fat Shredded Mozzarella Cheese

Any pizza toppings you choose

 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put Flatout Wrap on a cookie sheet, brush with olive oil and bake for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and spread sauce on wrap. Add cheese and other toppings, then bake at 350 until cheese is melted.  At our house, one pizza serves one person. 

Tex-Mex Flatout Thin Crust Pizza

1 Flatout Light Wrap
1 tsp olive oil cooking spray
1/4 lb extra lean ground beef
2 Tbs taco seasoning
2 Tbs water
2 Tbs salsa
1/4 cup shredded 2% Mexican blend cheese
Shredded lettuce
1/4 cup diced tomatoes
1 Tbs fat free sour cream

On stove, brown ground beef in a skillet over medium-high heat; drain. Stir in taco seasoning and water; cook 2-3 minutes or until liquid absorbed. Cook lightly oiled Flatout in 350°F oven directly on grate for 7 minutes. On the Flatout, layer salsa, meat and cheese. Top with lettuce, a dollop of sour cream and tomatoes. Return to oven and cook 7 more minutes. Remove and cut into wedges. 

 

Eat: King Ranch Chicken Casserole

For a busy mom, a casserole can be a great time saver. Casseroles are awesome because so many of them can be made ahead and frozen. Here is a recipe for one of my favorites, King Ranch Chicken. 

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup margarine
• 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 can (10 3/4 oz.) condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 can (10 oz.) RO*TEL Diced Tomatoes & Green Chilies
• 2 cups cubed cooked chicken
• 12 corn or flour tortillas, torn into bite-sized pieces
• 2 cups (8 oz.) shredded cheddar cheese

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  In a large saucepan, cook pepper and 
onion in melted margarine until tender, about 5 minutes.  Add soups, 
RO*TEL and chicken, stirring until well blended.  In a 13 x 9 x 2-inch 
baking pan, alternately layer tortillas, soup mixture and cheese, repeating 
for three layers.  Bake 40 minutes or until hot and bubbling.  Serves 8.(recipe from RO*TEL website, texmex.net)
As far as freezing, this casserole can be frozen before baking, then thawed in the refrigerator and baked according to the recipe directions. Place a sticky note with the date and contents of the casserole, plus baking instructions so you don't have to reference the recipe. 
Here is a tip from Good Housekeeping that will save space and keep baking dishes ready to use:For perfectly shaped packages that stack easily, freeze foods in a casserole dish lined with heavy-duty foil (allow enough extra foil to cover the top). After the food freezes, remove the foil-wrapped food and use the dish for something else.

Eat: Crock Pot Roast

I love to be in the kitchen, but since becoming a mother I have found dinnertime to be the most challenging time of day. I want to spend as much time being mommy as possible, and after a long day at work I am desperate to make up the time I missed with Lily. On a less tender note, it is also very hard to crank out a gourmet meal when your child is finding ways to entertain herself, especially considering your child enjoys the taste and texture of dog food. It was time to dust off the crock pot and find other recipes that would give us lots of flavor. The clear favorite in our house is the crock pot roast.

The crock pot roast fits perfectly into the workday. You can put it on before leaving the house, then return 8-10 hours later to a tender roast. You can even throw in some potatoes and carrots so you don’t have to worry about sides. The best part is the prep requires very little effort; when I say little effort, I mean that I can get it all in the pot before I have even had my morning cup of coffee. I am barely able to walk to the shower without the coffee, so that should give you some perspective. Here’s a quick roast recipe:

Ingredients:

2-3 lb. chuck roast
Season salt (optional)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 packet onion soup mix
Several cloves of garlic
Several bay leaves
Water to cover

Sprinkle roast with season salt (Tex Joy steak seasoning is my favorite) and brown on all sides in a skillet over medium heat. Place roast in crock pot and cover with mushroom soup and onion soup mix. Cover with water and throw in garlic and bay leaves. Put the lid on and cook on low for 8-10 hours.

You can add potatoes to the roast in the crock pot or whip up some rice when you arrive home. The best part about a roast? You can eat it for at least one more meal and maybe even two. We love roast sandwiches, with leftover roast and provolone cheese on a toasted croissant. The most popular leftover roast dish in my house has to be enchiladas. The secret ingredient? Hatch 5 Pepper Enchilada Sauce. Here’s the recipe that will transform your roast into a delicious and simple enchilada dinner.

Ingredients:

Corn tortillas
Chopped roast
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese
Hatch 5 Pepper Enchilada Sauce

Dip corn tortillas in enchilada sauce, then place 2 tablespoons of chopped roast beef on each torilla along with 1 tablespoon of shredded monterey jack. Roll up each tortilla, place each on in a casserole dish and pour remaining enchilada sauce on the enchiladas. Sprinkle with a cup of shredded monterey jack and bake for 25 minutes at 350. We actually think the roast is better the second time around. Let me know what you think. :)