A different kind of taco meat.

Mexican food = my fav.

Ok, maybe it’s second fav (right after Italian)… but it’s pretty high on the things I’d like to eat this very moment list, that is fo sure.

Whenever I make tacos at home, I always go with ground turkey or ground beef and a packet of taco seasoning.  It’s tasty and super duper easy, of course, but it can get a teensy bit boring week after week.

Then I stumbled across this Cooking Light recipe for Chicken and Black Bean Stuffed Burritos.

Enter totally tasty un-boring taco meat:

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This was pretty darn easy to pull together, and the meat is tasty and versatile.  Perfect for busy season batch cookin!

All you need to do is combine the following together in a saucepan and bring to a boil:

  • 1/4 cup water
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper

Once it boils, stir in 1/4 cup of sliced green onions and 1 pound of shredded chicken – you could use rotisserie chicken, but I just grilled a large chicken breast up on the George and gave it a good shred using two forks.

And just like that, the meat is done!

I planned to make a burrito, but the tortillas I had at home were teeny tiny so I decided a quesadilla was the way to go:

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This is 1/4 of the chicken:

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A top a Trader Joe’s Low carb tortilla:

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Plus 1/4 cup black beans, 1/4 cup fresh salsa, and 2 tbsp fat-free cheddar cheese:

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Then I tossed another tortilla on top, and popped that puppy back on the George.  I let it hang out on the grill until it was crispy and the cheese was melty, then I sliced the quesadilla up and served it up with a dollop of plain Greek yogurt (FABULOUS sour cream substitute):

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So yummy!

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Stats on the quesadilla:  350 calories, 36g carbs, 7g fat, 42g protein, 17g fiber

The next night, I decided to use up some of the leftover chicken by making a huge arse salad.  I used 4 ounces of the chicken and all the same toppers as I did with the quesadilla and just threw everything a top a bed of mixed greens:

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Hello two totally tasty totally healthy dinners that DO NOT taste like cardboard!  I truly believe you can throw ANYTHING on top of lettuce and call it a salad 🙂

Stats on one giant salad: 275 calories, 19g carbs, 4g fat, 35g protein, 5 fiber

So in summary, this meat was just as easy to cook up as ground meat, but had a TOTALLY different taste.  And it was delish on tacos, quesadillas, salads.  Two thumbs up in my book!

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Cheeseless Quesadilla?

What do you call a cheeseless quesadilla?

Is it just a dilla?  What about a cheeseless quesadilla with beans?  A habadilla? 

Something to ponder…

Quesadillas are one of my favorite fast-fix dinners.  I put a lot of random things in my quesadillas, and I’m convinced that you can sandwich pretty much anything in between a tortilla, throw it on the george foreman grille, and have near instant glory in your mouth.

Take this dinner for example.  I started off with 1 Tumaro’s low carb tortilla topped, 1/4 cup fat-free refried beans and 2 ounces grilled chicken:

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Plus 1/2 a cup of frozen calabacita mixed veggies that I defrosted in the microwave:

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5 minutes of quality time with the george:

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Naked quesadilla:

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Veggies for toppin’

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Add 2 tbsp of fat-free sour cream and you have yourself magnificence on a plate!

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Stats on the habadilla:  264 calories, 38g carbs, 3g fat, 33g protein, 12g fiber

 

 Mmmmmm beans……  Love them.

 

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