Breakfast tacos

This morning we were in a conundrum.  No milk for baking some GF donuts (of which the mix has been in the pantry for a few months, but the donut pan was just purchased). Yesterday after leaving work my focus was on getting home in the 32 degree weather with spitting rain (read: icy roads). I now know why so many people make a run on the grocery store...they can't remember what they have at home!

Last night I used the last of the milk for the Bisquick GF pancake mix.  This morning there is some ice on the car, driveway and roads and having milk doesn't seem that necessary!  I do have hemp milk for my smoothies, but I'm not adventurous to use that in breads for a first time recipe. 

Instead, this morning we had breakfast tacos with our new taco holders.

Scrambled eggs, Jimmy Dean sausage (the beige package which is MSG and preservative free) and then built upon heated corn shells which was accomplished using the nonstick skillet with a quick swipe of olive oil.

Order of the build:

Corn shells with a bit of cheese to make the sausage stick.
Cooked sausage
Scrambled eggs
Cheese
Diced scallions/green onions
Chopped cilantro
Sliced cherry tomatoes

Then the hubby put mustard top of his and I thought that sounded good, so I did the same.

Wow. So great. Nice to eat soft shell tacos in the house at the table and not the kitchen counter! The tacos stayed warm and didn't get cold, which was a worry of mine on the metal taco holders.
The mustard was a flavorful compliment.

Definitely a meal to repeat.

Dinner will be something other than eggs.  I'm looking at a beef stew in the crockpot!

Chicken Soup

The Mike had asked if we had any soup in the cupboard and I hadn't bought any in sometime. I did head to the store on Sunday and bought some gluten free/organic soups that we can heat up (with ingredient lists that  are not scary).

Thursday night we had some ice and the weather turned cold (and frightful). . .
After the snow came on Saturday evening/Sunday morning we had about 4 inches of (delightful) fresh powder.  The Mike went out snow-biking (wide tire bike) and I baked away in the kitchen (banana bread, cookies, rice krispie treats--the box now says "gluten free made in dedicated facility!)

Three hours later The Mike came home from his bike ride, cold, but not frozen, and I whipped up some fresh Hershey hot chocolate to warm his body.  Then we had some of the soup I bought at the store with UDIs bread grilled cheese sandwiches.

Later, when the cookies were done baking, I made this chicken soup for Sunday evening.

Chicken cheese soup

I modified a recipe I had printed off the internet for Chicken Tortilla Soup and sadly, the page I had printed out didn't have the webpage/owner on it, so I cannot give credit. However, since I modified the recipe, I can say this one is my own.

I used three Just BARE Chicken breasts (14oz package), cooked those in the stockpot. When they were done, I removed them and --when cool--cut into small cube

To the hot pan I then added:
1 diced onion
 and heated until translucent.

Then I added:
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
2Tgarlic

When these were all in the pot and had been stirred/heated to let the flavors of the spices come out, I added a can of diced tomatoes, two small cans of diced green chiles. I added in the cut up chicken.  

I let that heat up/simmer while I made the 'roux'/thickening agent.  The recipe calls for 1 cup room temp milk, so I just microwaved it for 30 seconds or so and got it up to room temperature. [If you're doing a paleo version, you could use other milk, or just chicken broth at this point]

In a small pan, I melted 2T butter [or ghee, or coconut oil], added 2 T of tapioca flour, mixed that together until it thickened, then poured in and started whisking the milk into the flour mixture.  I added in a cup of shredded cheese at this point and whisked that until smooth. [you could leave out the cheese]

Then I poured all of this into the mixture of the chicken/tomatoes/onion and stirred well.  At this point I added in about 16 oz of chicken broth and then brought all of the soup up to a small boil and then simmered for about ten minutes.

I served with sliced avocado, crushed corn crackers ( Food Should Taste Good® is what we had on hand).

You can finish off with sour cream, shredded cheese, diced fresh tomatoes, diced cilantro, guacamole or whatever interests you!

I'd say it took about 40 minutes from start to finish, but I wasn't really watching the clock.

The soup would be fine without the cheese if you're doing a paleo recipe

Colorful chicken soup for the holiday season

 Ingredients/shopping list:

Chicken ( I used 14oz, you can use more or less)
1 diced onion ( I used white onion since it was a chicken dish)
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
2Tgarlic
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 small cans of diced green chiles

1 cup room temp milk [other milk or extra chicken broth]
2T butter [ghee, or coconut oil]
2T of tapioca flour
1-2 cups shredded cheese (I used cheddar)  [this could be omitted]
16 oz of chicken broth

Toppings:
sliced avocado
crushed corn crackers
sour cream
shredded cheese
diced fresh tomatoes
diced cilantro
guacamole

or whatever interests you!

Shrimp pizza and a beautiful sunrise

Tuesday I had wanted to have shrimp for dinner and planned to use Ellie Krieger's  Baked Shrimp with Tomatoes and Feta dish.  We've made this recipe several times since I discovered it in a magazine a few years ago.

I did some grocery shopping and then came home and put my feet up. I didn't really want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Then inspiration hit, and I decided to make the recipe for a pizza. On one prior occasion we thought to make it a pizza, but it was too liquid-y.  I had the regular Chebe roll mix on hand and used that for the crust, rather than the pizza crust as I didn't want the pre-seasoned mix to not compliment the feta/dill seasonings.

I sauteed half a red onion and three good size portabello mushrooms (which have potassium as well as Vitamin D), added in the full garlic the recipe called for and then added just one can of diced tomatoes.  I added about two tablespoons of dried parsley and a tablespoon of dried Dill.  I brought that up to a boil so the liquid would reduce. Then I added in the medium size shrimp to cook up a bit.

While the onions and mushrooms were cooking down  I prepped the Chebe mix. Then, when the product was reducing down, I rolled out the dough on parchment paper to cook on my pizza stone.  I tried to get most of the tomato mixture on the crust and then place the shrimp on most of one half of the pizza (so the left overs wouldn't have shrimp on it).  Then I placed what feta cheese was left in my house on the top, along with torn pieces of provolone slices. 

Just out of the oven

Dinner is served

In order to make the dinner a little better for us, I sliced up a cucumber. We didn't plant any and our neighbor is getting sick of them, so we are getting some garden fresh cukes for free (yeah!)

Dinner ingredients: Tomatoes, mushrooms, red onions (antioxidants), shrimp, with feta and provolone cheeses, atop with a tapioca crust. Cucumbers.

 

My return from yoga Tuesday morning brought me the sunrise (off to the right of the photo) with large green katydid-like bug.  The back end is more pointy like a grasshopper.  I'm not sure what this bug is, but we had one on our screen door Monday and this one on the bridge on Tuesday.