Tacos

One of our favourite quick meals is tacos! Serve it with beans and you're all set with little effort. But I hate buying the pouches of taco seasoning, so why not make it yourself. I don't use the seasoning full strength like most people do, I like to use less and add 2 tsp of Mexican soup bouillon to give it a great flavour.


Taco Seasoning

1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp dry oregano
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt (omit if using bouillon)

Mix this together and store in a jar. 3 tbsp of this mix equals one pkg of the commercial seasoning.

To prepare the beef I fry up 1 pound of extra lean ground beef and a 1/4 cup finely chopped onion until no pink remains, stirring the entire time so there are no clumps. Add about 1 1/2 cups water, 1 heaping tbsp of the taco seasoning mix, and 2 tsp Mexican bouillon. Let this simmer until the water has cooked out.

Fry 6 inch corn tortillas in hot oil (I use canola). I first fry them flat for a few seconds and then fold them in half a fry a few seconds longer on each side. This way you get the nice folded style taco.

You are now ready to assemble your tacos. We like to add equal parts beef and pinto beans, I find the beans make them a little more filling and gives you much needed protein. Top with your favourite ingredients, we add lettuce and tomato and my husband likes to add pickled jalapeno peppers.

Enjoy!
Tina

Maple Rolls

My family had been asking or should I say hinting for some cinnamon rolls for a week already but I saw this recipe for Maple rolls and figured they might come close to what they were craving and it gave me something new to try.

I have had rolls similar to these before but they still didn't quite taste like what I remembered, they were good and I will make them again but I'll still search for the others ones that were unbeatable in taste!

Maple Rolls

1 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup oil
1 heaping tsp yeast
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
approx. 4 1/2 cups flour

Mix dough, stirring in flour until it pulls from the sides of the bowl. Continue kneading and adding flour until you have a nice soft dough but not too sticky. Cover and let rise for 1 hour, punch down and let rise for another hour. (I was running low on time so I only let them rise for another 30 minutes the second time around)

Roll dough into a rectangular piece. Mix 1/4 cup softened margarine and 1 tbsp maple extract, spread this over the dough. Sprinkle 1 1/2 cups brown sugar over top. Roll up jelly roll style and slice into 1" slices. Let these rise for 30 minutes, the bake at 350F for about 20 minutes or until lightly golden. When cool, drizzle with the icing and sprinkle pecans over top.

Icing:
1 cup cream
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/8 cup sugar
1 heaping tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp vanilla

Combine ingredients in a medium pot and bring to a boil until thickened. Stir in 1 1/2 cups icing sugar. Spoon over the cooled Maple Rolls.

Enjoy!
Tina

Roasted Potatoes

It is such a beautiful Spring day here, +23! So my mind was on BBQing but I wasn't sure what since we had burgers on Saturday, barbecued pork chops on Sunday and yet I still craved BBQ with the nice weather.

So I thought I'd try roasting potatoes in the grilling basket with grilled chicken breast to go with them and WOW! Were they ever good, my daughter is still sneaking a potato in every time she walks by, lol.
Seriously, if you don't have a grilling basket, run, don't walk, to a store nearest you!

Roasted Potatoes

5 medium potatoes, halved and then thinly sliced (I used russet)
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 medium carrots, sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup Italian dressing
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp basil

Toss this all together and roast on the barbecue until done, about 40 minutes. You'll notice in the picture that I sliced the potatoes fairly thin, simply because otherwise it would take too long to get them tender and they would start to burn on the outside. In fact I had a few that were a little too thick and they were still a little hard. I think slicing them about 1/8" of probably be what I did, maybe a little thicker.

Note: You will need to stir these frequently or you'll find them sticking, you might also need to add more olive oil or dressing if they become dry.

Hope you enjoy them as much as we did!
Tina

Grilled Vegetables

What's better than a beautiful warm day, burgers are on the grill along with the most delicious grilled vegetables. We could eat these at least every other day. We bought a grilling basket in the BBQ section at Superstore, everyone should have one of these! We bought the one with no handles, so it's really more of a bowl, we've used both and we like that you can close your bbq lid completely with this one and if you have the handled one your bbq is always open a little.

Grilled Vegetables

1 large zucchini, chopped
1 large onion chopped
1-2 red peppers, chopped
8-10 mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup Italian dressing
1 tsp olive oil

Mix the dressing and oil with the vegetables, I like to let this marinate for 10-15 minutes before we start grilling them. Grill on the BBQ for 20-30 minutes, depending on how well done you like your vegetables, stirring in between. We like our vegetables to be well done so ours are on the grill for about 30 minutes.

Enjoy!
Tina

Cheese Crackers

A while ago while I was browsing through some recipes I came across this recipe and I thought why not?! My kids love crackers for a snack and if I can make them far cheaper and preservative free I'm all over it. I used a small flower cookie cutter but if you had a fish cookie cutter you could make them to resemble those fish crackers that kids love so much.

The big test came after they had cooled and I asked my kids to taste one, well one quickly turned into as many as I would give me, lol.

The recipe said to cool the dough for an hour but I didn't have that sort of time so I baked them right away and they turned out really well. I also used only half the recipe because I was low on cheese but really wanted to try them, I was impressed with how many crackers I got with such little ingredients. In fact I might continue to halve the recipe, that way the crackers are always fresh. I also found the dough to be incredible easy to work with, rolled like a charm and cutting them with the cookie cutter went really quick.

Cheese Crackers

1 stick butter
1/2 lb cheddar cheese
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt

Drop all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until everything is blended. I just let it run for maybe 30 seconds, it actually started to form a dough on it's own. Remove and press into a ball of dough, you might find it a little crumbly but it should still form into a ball. On a lightly floured surface roll the dough to about 1/8" thick, you don't want these too thick. Use what ever cutter you want to cut your crackers. Bake at 325F for about 11 minutes.

*Note: I didn't have any cheddar cheese in the house so I used marble and they tasted great, they still definitely had a cheesy taste to them.

Enjoy!
Tina