Pico Sliders

I don't know about you, but when I am trying to eat healthier, I am sometimes have to trick myself.  Like eating 2 sliders makes me think I am eating more than 1 hamburger.  I know, I am an idiot.  At least the part of me that believes it's different is an idiot anyway.  I guess if it results in eating cute food like this, then idiot it is.  I don't care.  These are pretty healthy.  We used 95% lean beef, reduced fat provolone cheese and the pico de gallo with avocado.  Not to mention the quick wheat slider buns.  They taste delicious and make you feel good about eating a burger.  And Tyler was happy because he is always complaining that we don't eat enough red meat. :)

Navajo (Indian) Tacos

Where I grew up, we always called them Navajo Tacos, but when we lived in South Dakota, they were Indian Tacos.  It doesn't matter what you call them, they are good.  This is my version of it.  I am not going to claim it's an authentic Navajo or Sioux Taco but it's delicious.  This last time I made them I decided to top them with Pico de Gallo and Guacamole, but I really didn't like the way it all came together.  I think the lime in the two sides really didn't go well with the chili.  In the end, I ended up eating mine with just diced tomatoes and avocados (and, of course, the sour cream, cheese and lettuce).  Sometimes the simpler it is, the better it tastes, I just have to be reminded of that every now and then.  Remember in the chili post when I talked about doubling the batch of chili and freezing half?  I think this would be a great use for the chili in the freezer.  If you don't want to make the scones, I have used frozen, thawed bread dough (Mrs Rhodes) before and they were almost as good. :)

Chili

 A couple people have brought to my attention that I need more healthy recipes on the blog. So I thought I'd post a recipe for chili.  With sour cream and cheese on top. :)  You can leave it off if you find it offensive.  However, I don't find it offensive, I find it lovely.  I really like this chili recipe for a few reasons.  It's really easy, it really fresh tasting and delicious, it's really healthy (if you just eat the chili by itself), it doesn't take a ton of ingredients, and it keeps so well.  Leftover chili is just as delicious, or maybe more so than the first day.  Tonight, we served it with cornbread and can I just say that it's the first cornbread I have made from scratch that I LOVED, but more on that tomorrow.  Chili is the kind of thing that would be good to double the batch and freeze half.  And I think I have a recipe coming up that you can use the frozen half for. ;)

Hamburger Soup

This is a great soup and in our rotation of favorites.   It's really quick, easy and inexpensive.  The original recipe calls for ground beef, but I usually substitute ground turkey.  The recipe is intended to use garden vegetables but I rarely have since we haven't really had a garden.  If you have garden-fresh corn and tomatoes I bet it would be even better.

Hamburger Harvest Soup
Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey (or ground beef)
1 med onion, chopped
6 cups water
8 beef bullion cubes (or tsps bullion, or substitute water and bullion for beef broth)
2 carrots, chopped
14.5 oz can stewed, diced Italian style tomatoes (or 1.5 cups fresh tomatoes, diced)
2 cups frozen (or fresh) corn
3-4 diced potatoes
2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
3 T sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
Serve with mozzarella or Mexican-style cheese.

Directions
Over med-high heat, brown turkey and onion until turkey is done and onion is tender.  Add remaining ingredients and cook until potatoes are tender.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 8

Great served with Dinner Rolls.

Adapted from The Essential Mormon Cookbook

Spaghetti

Spaghetti is always a big hit at our house.  It's one of my comfort foods and I think I have forced everyone else to love it, like it or not.  I used to buy 3 different kinds of tomatoes and would make sure I simmered the sauce for at least an hour.  While it was good, I realized I didn't have to spend all that extra time or money.