Cinco de Mayo is just around the corner so begins my first week of festive dishes to make. Of course Cinco de Mayo is not the only time of year to make tacos and margaritas. I personally believe in a monthly celebration of tacos and margaritas so be sure to make these year round!
I have never met a taco I didn’t like but these carnitas tacos just might be the best I’ve ever made. This recipe starts with a big ole’ hunk of pork shoulder that almost looks too good to cut up (almost).
It has been snowing here nonstop for over 24 hours and will keep snowing for an additional 24 hours… I have to say this is Spring time like I have never experienced before. I only wish this happened during the week and not during the weekend leaving me with a strong case of cabin fever!
Luckily I knew this storm was coming and stocked up on plenty of food to cook, keeping me occupied. While I have much more exciting foods to make than broccoli, I think the broccoli just might be the unsung hero of this snowy weekend.
Before I start baking excess amounts of cookies and sweets for Christmas time, I’m trying to eat as healthy as I can in hopes to offset all the sugar soon to be in my life. While I know eating healthy doesn’t exactly work like that, I like to think that thinking like this helps me eat more vegetables anyways. I also find it’s a lot easier to get your daily dose of vegetables when you have plenty around ready to eat. So for these reasons I decided to roast up a large batch of Brussels sprouts, carrots, sweet potatoes, and red onions.
Look how beautiful all these vegetables are! I’m a big believer of the idea that the more color you have on your plate, the healthier you are eating. Since all these veggies are in season it means the you are also getting the freshest and best tasting varieties than if you were to buy them at different time of the year.
With Thanksgiving being this past weekend, I hope everyone had a wonderful time eating all the food possible and spending time with family and friends, I know I most certainly did. Since I was traveling I went on a little hiatus due to the fact that things can get a little hectic over the holidays and I felt like I didn’t even get a chance to sit down much. Only on the plane did I sit for an extended amount of time and I doubt I have to convince anyone here how uncomfortable that is. Nonetheless, I had a great Thanksgiving full of family, food, and even got to go to the beach!
Returning to Colorado from Florida was a big change in temperature and it was necessary to cook something warm for the cold weather. Enter in this turkey, kale, and brown rice soup. I also decided it was time to make this soup because of all the indulgent food that I have gorged on for the past 5 days. A healthy meal was desperately needed and this recipe is full of veggies!
Carrots, peppers, onions, garlic, and kale to be exact. Not to mention it’s made with ground turkey and brown rice which are two things I never feel guilty about eating. You could of course swap out the ground turkey for another ground meat of your choosing and swap the brown rice for another grain like quinoa. I like this combination though because the brown rice adds a nice nuttiness and turkey is always my go to ground meat of choice.
There are always go-to recipes that you can make any day of the week. This is one of those recipes. I came up with this recipe years ago when trying to think of something healthy to make and have leftovers to easily pack for lunch. I’ve seen lots of stuffed pepper recipes, but they are usually made with rice and ground beef. This recipe swaps quinoa and ground turkey to make it something you can feel good about eating. Add in some kale and tomatoes you have a real winner!
I actually ran out of tomatoes so I added a 1/2 cup of crushed tomatoes instead. Sometimes adaptation is the best skill a cook can have!