South of the Border Super Bowl Sunday

Had a  wonderful day off today—the sun was shining (finally), went out to eat with a good friend and had some amazing pizza, topped off the day with some Cold Stone coffee flavored ice cream, and now kicking back and finally getting around to blogging about the Super Bowl on Sunday.

Reading blogs this week I’ve seen a lot of yummy looking Super Bowl food—too bad we all couldn’t get together and swap food. But at least there’s always the option of sharing through a blog. We hadn’t really planned out what we were going to make Sunday because on Saturday I was snowmobiling from a.m. to p.m. and clocked out at around 200 miles—to say I was a little sore Sunday would be an understatement—ouch! I usually like to plan menus ahead of time, but I’ve found that last minute things can actually come together rather well—this was one of those times! It came out as more of a Mexican meal, hence the “south of the border” theme.

I have never had buffalo before, but since we had some on hand I thought why not use it for tacos. Here’s some surprising health benefits and a meat chart about buffalo I thought were interesting:

Buffalo meat has 3.5 times less fat than beef.

Buffalo meat is lower in cholesterol than beef.

Buffalo meat contains less calories than beef.

Buffalo meat has more iron and vitamin B-12 content than beef.

Buffalo meat has 35% more protein than beef.

Do you eat buffalo meat? I was highly impressed with the stats and ever more so with the taste—I would prefer this anytime over beef! Any recipes you have using buffalo?

Buffalo Tacos

Ingredients:

• 8 tortillas (see what I used below)
• 1 lb ground buffalo
• 1 can green chilies, drained
• 1 c chunky salsa
• 1/2 c green pepper, diced
• 1/4 c yellow onion, diced
• pepper to taste
• shredded pepper cheese blend, sour cream, taco sauce, and shredded lettuce

Directions:

• Spray skillet with nonstick cooking and brown buffalo on medium heat until cooked through (6-8 min). Add taco seasoning and water called for on package and mix thoroughly.

• Add in pepper, onions, salsa, ground pepper, and chilies. Cook until heated through.
• Shut off stovetop and cover to keep warm while you warm tortillas in microwave briefly.

I used Gourmet Tortillas Premium Light Healthy Flour Tortillas. No taste or texture difference in these compared to your standard tortilla, so why not just go the healthy route?

• Add lettuce, meat, and desired toppings to your taco, roll it up, and chow down—but don’t forget to make this delish cornbread for a side dish!

Black Bean Cornbread

Ingredients:

• 1 package Betty Crocker cornbread and ingredients called for on package—minus oil(not needed due to the sauce in the vegetable mix).

• 1 New Age Southwest Fiesta Blend frozen vegetable mix

Directions:

• Preheat oven to temp called for on package.
• Spray 8 x 8 inch pan with nonstick spray.
• Mix cornbread, egg, and milk thoroughly.
• Add in full bag of veggie mix and continue stirring.

• Bake for time called for on package.
• Let cool briefly, cut into 8 slices or 16 bite-size appetizer bites.

Stay tuned for the next three days—three days of tempting Valentine’s treats for the one you love—or heck, just you! :-)

Midweek Mexican

Hello Amigos!

Stopping by with a little south-of-the-border flare today! I love Mexican food—quesadillas, burritos, and salsa. Here’s some tips for eating healthier at your favorite Mexican restaurant:

• Choose soft shells vs. crunchy—they are baked and not fried.
• Go all out with salsa.
• Black beans are an excellent choice for most any dieter. They are low-fat, high in protein and provide plenty of fiber.

• Refried beans may sound like a good choice, but they are often prepared with lard and Mexican cheese blends, or even bacon, which really ups the fat and calorie content of what could be a healthy side.

• Con queso dips and nacho cheese are tempting toppers for chips, but they're both extremely rich and high in fat and calories.

• Switch to bean burritos instead of beef or cheese burritos and you'll be saying adios to lots of extra calories.

• Some better choices are: chicken fajitas, bean burritos, a sautéed chicken dish with peppers and onions (hold the cheese!), or a soft taco.

• Some popular dishes to avoid include: nachos, chimichangas, chalupas, taquitos, and chile relleno.

What are your healthy Mexican eating tips?

Since you don’t always have to go out to get a southern sizzle, I like eating Mexican homemade at times, even though I have not once ounce of Mexican in me..pasta+bread=Italian is all me! :-)

Vegetarian Tacos

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

• One 8’-12’ whole wheat tortilla
• 1/4 c Boca soy crumbles, or other meatless crumbles of your choice
• 1 Tbsp taco seasoning
• 2 tbsp FF sour cream
• 1/2 of a Roma tomato, chopped and seeded
• Handful of shredded lettuce
• 2 Tbsp black beans
• 1/4 c shredded Mexican cheese blend
• Add a dash of taco sauce to finish it up, my favorite below

Directions:

1. Mix taco seasoning with thawed Boca crumbles.
2. Pretty easy if you’ve ever eaten a taco—get out your tortilla, put lettuce, cheese and all the rest of the layers, topping it off with sour cream. Roll up that taco and chow!

Now if you want to eat a few tacos, instead of and extremely heavy side and dessert, a spicy Mexican soup can pair wonderfully with tacos—I am extremely happy with this soup recipe I came up with—enjoy!

Black Bean Taco Stoup

(It’s somewhat like soup, but somewhat like stew, hence the “stoup”)

Serves:4

Ingredients:

• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and cubed in 1’ cubes
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped
• 14.5 oz can Italian stewed tomatoes
• 14 oz chicken broth
• 7 oz black beans, rinsed from the can
• 2 Tbsp mild salsa
• 1 Tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 3 Tbsp taco seasoning
• 1 tsp basil

Directions:

• Sauté onion in a sprayed stock pot on medium heat for 10 minutes, or until translucent. Add bell peppers and sweet potato, reducing heat to low-med and continue to sauté for another 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and stir.
• Turn heat to low and add in all the rest of the ingredients except the beans, stirring after each addition.
• Simmer for 30 minutes then stir in beans.
• Serve with a dollop of FF sour cream if you wish!

And to round off this Mexican meal, head on over to the lovely Kelly and her blog to get the recipe for some Mini Cinnamon Horchata Cupcakes…adios!

 

Daily Giveaways

**Anoooother chocolate-covered giveaway for the chocolate monster within!**

**Gourmet popcorn flavors up for grabs here!**

**Crackers with a hefty dose of Omega' 3’s—two chances to get your hands on some here!**