Tacos in a Lettuce Leaf

When I was growing up, we would have taco night regularly. I loved taco night. I would always stuff the taco shell as full of the various toppings as possible. And then I'd tilt my head to the side, open my mouth as far as possible, and take a bite. Of course all my fantastic toppings burst out the backside of the taco shell and the juice from the ground beef and salsa would start to run down the back of my hand and down my arm.

Delicious.

I saw this recipe for Lettuce Wraps with Quinoa and Black Beans, and it sounded a whole lot like tacos, so I knew I had to try it.



I mixed everything up in a bowl before I put it in the lettuce leaves.



Tacos in a Lettuce Leaf
by Keep Your Diet Real

My Changes:
No hot sauce.
I did add salsa (from a jar) after I took this photo.
I used Red Swiss Chard leaves instead of the Bibb lettuce suggested in the original recipe. With the chard, just cut out the thick part of the stem.

This was delicious and took me back to those days of having an overstuffed taco shell that dripped down my arm.

Kale and Cabbage Slaw

This summer is the season of color. Colorful jeans, colorful shirts, color in everything.

Even Target says so:


So why not color in food?



Kale and Coleslaw Salad
From FoodieCrush

My Changes:
Instead of using a coleslaw mix, I just bought a whole head of red cabbage and sliced up and used half of it.
I used my box grater to grate the carrots.
Instead of Marcona almonds, I just bought a bag of slivered almonds.
I used olive oil instead of canola oil.
I left out the sugar/agave entirely.
I also left out the caraway seed -- inadvertently. I thought I had some in the pantry, but I didn't.

This salad is delicious. It is definitely better the second day after the flavors have had a while to chill. The kale and cabbage will get a little bit softer, but even after spending three days in the fridge, it never got mushy or gross.

Curry Granola

I am always interested in granola recipes. Really granola for breakfast seems like such a good idea. Generally granola has nuts, so it's good protein and fat. That fits my requirements. Then I found a granola recipe that was grain free, so it was a great way to also eliminate the oatmeal.

The original recipe is by The Urban Poser.



And it made a whole lot.

Unfortunately, this granola would not stay as a bar. The original recipe suggested keeping it cold, but even that hasn't helped. So I either eat it with a spoon, or I dump it on top of oatmeal... yeah, about that whole oatmeal thing...






Changes to the Recipe:
I used raisins.
I used dates instead of honey.
I added a tablespoon of ground flax seed.

Juicy Monday -- Green-ish Juice

Happy Juicy Monday!

Sometimes vegetable juices don't turn out with the most appealing colors. Today's juice is one of those days. It would be a vibrant green color, but I used red swiss chard. So what I got was this.



And it also turned out to be a really foamy juice. I don't have an explanation for that.



Green-ish Juice
3 kale leaves
3 swiss chard leaves
2 celery
1 cucumber
1/2 green apple

As always, wash everything and run it through the juicer. Drink immediately.

Sesame Noodle Bowl

There are so many ways to find inspiration these days. I love being able to find recipes on Pinterest. I also love Tastespotting. People are so creative with their recipes and so talented with their pictures. Hopefully I will be able to get better.

Today's recipe comes through Pinterest and is from the blog A House in the Hills. It is a Sesame Noodle Bowl. 

This looked beautiful, sounded filling, and (most appealing some days) had a short ingredient list. So I tried it.



My Changes:
1. I couldn't find completely buckwheat soba noodles. Even the ones that said 100% buckwheat had regular wheat flour in them. Lesson: Read labels carefully. So I used rice noodles instead.

2. I used regular white sesame seeds. It's what I had.

3. Instead of soy sauce I used Bragg's Liquid Aminos. And inadvertently used a scant tablespoon instead of a teaspoon and a half. If you use too much liquid aminos, I would suggest less salt. It wasn't horribly salty, but it was a little salty.

4. I started trying to use a peeler on my carrots, and then I decided it would be easier to grate them, so I did.

The Verdict:
Delicious! I served it at room temperature and thought it was a perfect light, summery dish for this perfect summer time.

I tried a few more "posed" pictures.



Is it funny that I have purple chopsticks?



And these are the chopsticks that I bought in Tokyo.

Juicy Monday -- Carrot Juice

Time for another Juicy Monday. I hope that juicing makes you feel as good as it makes me feel. Although sometimes it is a struggle for me to think about juicing and I don't love cleaning out the juicer, I do love the juice.



I hope that you can see that vibrant orange color, even in my travel mug. I juiced this up, poured it in my travel mug, and headed off to the gym. It's just long enough of a drive for me to drink the whole thing by the time I get there. I should rephrase that, it's a drive with enough stoplights for me to have time to drink the whole thing by the time I get there.

Carrot Juice
5 carrots
1/2 or 1 whole green apple
1 slice of ginger root

A flavor note: the ginger root will add quite a punch. You do not need much and it can get quite overwhelming if you use too much. Start small -- less than a half-inch piece of ginger. You don't need to peel the ginger at all, just let the juicer do the work.

As always, wash the produce and run it through the juicer. Drink it immediately.

Cinnamon Roll Bars

As you can probably tell by now, I love to look at everyone else's food blogs. I have just a few that I read every day, but when I have some free time, I go scroll through several others.

One that I have mentioned here before is Chocolate-Covered Katie. Katie writes her blog about healthy desserts and I am always amazed at the ingredients she includes. I mentioned that I made her chocolate chip cookie dough dip here.

In my quest for new breakfast ideas (I mentioned the search here), I came across Katie's Deep-Dish Cinnamon Roll Pie, and thought that with a couple tweaks, it would be perfect for breakfast.

This was a more involved recipe than I realized on an initial read-through. Katie said "Blend all ingredients very, very well in a food processor."



My food processor is too small to handle a can of beans, let alone two and all the other ingredients.

So my modification was to blend each thing separately. I started with the oats, then dumped those in the bowl of my KitchenAid. Then I blended the beans, etc.

My Changes:
1. I used beans that I cooked and soaked myself. I used a cup and a half of garbanzo beans and a cup and a half of cannellini beans, for the grand total of three cups.

2. No sugar. I used 6 dates that I pulsed in the food processor. My dates were pretty hard (I might never buy that particular brand again), so I soaked them in water before I ground them up.

The Process:
As I said, I ground everything up individually in the food processor. Then I used my KitchenAid mixer to mix the ingredients together. I wasn't sure what kind of texture I was going for, so after I had everything mixed, I ran small batches through the food processor again until it was smooth.

The "batter" is really stiff and thick.



I actually had to press it into the pan to get it to spread out.



After I baked it, I let it sit in the pan for fifteen minutes, and then turned it out to finish cooling.



I sliced the 8x8 pan into 8 bars. Perfect breakfast size.