Inspiration

We all have that one thing that inspires us to be a better person!  

I am sure you can guess what my inspiration is! He came to us on November 9, 2014.  He is the most beautiful thing I have ever laid my eyes on!  Jaxson Boyd Deaver (aka Mom's inspiration!)

For a long time, I told people I did not want to bring a child into this world, for many reasons, but one huge reason was that I did not want to teach a little one nothing but how to eat horribly and become obese!  I vow to teach this young man how to be healthy!  Back to lean eating for us at the Deaver house!  

Colors of the Rainbow

Bye Bye Skittles! We are tasting the new rainbow!  We have been out of town for 5 days, and we did not have countertops for a few days before we left, so I was soooooo excited to get to the grocery store today!  

These are a few fruits and vegetables that we bought at the Trader Joe's in Albuquerque before we headed home and at our local Market Street.  You can see here that I have a love for tomatoes!  3 out of the 11 shown above are tomatoes! Can you spot them??  

(Check out our new counter top too!)

Cauliflower Crust Pizza!

Quote from the Mr. - "I would never have known this was cauliflower if I hadn't watched you cook it!"  You could trick your family into a serving of vegetables with this one!  It was AMAZING!  Do yourself a favor and try it!  


Easy steps too!  

Shred about half a head of cauliflower.  (should make about 2 cups)
Microwave the cauliflower (dry) in a bowl for 8 minutes.  

Preheat oven to 450. 

 
Combine 
1/2 tsp of garlic salt, 
1 tsp of dried oregano, 
1 egg, 
1 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese, 
and the cauliflower as soon as it is done.  

Press this mixture in a 9in. pie pan as the "crust."  Bake at 450 for 13-15 minutes.   

Then turn the oven to "broil." Top the pizza with your favorite toppings.  I used a tomato-basil marinara sauce, pineapple, ham, and black olives, but may try bbq sauce and chicken next time. 

Broil the toppings for only 3 or 4 minutes!  Wha Laaa!  The best, healthier pizza you will ever taste!  

 
 

Breakfast for Dinner...or for breakfast!

I am ALWAYS looking for new, healthier recipes these days!  I stumbled across a recipe for Huevos Rancheros!  Those of you not from the Southwest, that would translate as yummy breakfast goodness that is awesome anytime of the day!  (or "ranch eggs" in Spanish!)  This traditional dish is usually two fried eggs on a fried corn tortilla with red or green enchilada sauce, served with a side of pinto beans and tortillas to soak up all the goodness. 

This Huevos Rancheros meal was made for a dinner one night and served with a side of Jicama Hash Browns. 

The following Huevos Rancheros is a recipe I found on Pinterest! (find my boards to follow here:  http://pinterest.com/hillaryd/) The website Pinterest sent me to for the recipe was http://bevcooks.com/2012/03/huevos-rancheros/.

Of course I leave stuff out or add stuff when I cook, so here is what I used for 

2 servings of Huevos Rancheros with Black Beans:

about 2 Tbsp of EVOO (split for two different pans)

1 can black beans (drained and rinsed)
1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp ground cumin

2 Tbsp salsa (I used Salsa Bob's Hot Sauce-Hot)

4 eggs

2 tortillas if desired (You will see in the pictures that we used tortillas, but decided it would be just as good without the tortillas!)
coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

Then for the side dish of Jicama Hashbrowns:

1 medium jicama (WHAT? I know! Just scan the labels in the vegetable department! Looks like a large, tan turnip!)

1/2 yellow onion (original recipe called for 1 whole onion)

1 medium bell pepper

salt and pepper as you like

(original recipe called for 1/4 cup of water too, but I do not believe it is needed)

First I added the Tbsp of EVOO to the pot with the black beans and stirred in the chili powder and cumin.  Heat (low) these and stir occasionally.  Beans will get real soft and you can just give them a little mash with the wooden spoon you are using. Lower heat and keep warm while you want to top with freshly fried eggs right at the end!

Then I sauteed onion and bell pepper in just a drop or two of oil until tender...about 5 or 7 minutes on high heat.  

Then you want to peel and shred the jicama! I hate that I didn't photograph the jicama before my husband murdered it.  I LOVE new vegetables!  A friend, Casey Schaef shared this recipe me!  Thanks, Casey!  

Add the jicama when the onion and bell pepper are good and soft.  Then cook on medium to high heat as you want them to brown and crisp like original, potato hash browns.  

While that is cooking, mash the black beans occasionally and plate up the beans (on a tortilla if you wish) and fry two eggs for each plate of Huevos Rancheros. 

Cover the bed of beans with salsa and layer with eggs and top with more salsa, if you enjoy the heat like I do!  

 Don't let the tortilla size deceive your eyes here...they are maybe 4 inches in diameter...they are called soft taco, heart healthy tortillas.  
Serve with a side of Jicama Hash Browns and ENJOY!


ps...just after the picture, we topped our Huevos Rancheros with the Jicama side dish and cut it all up together and mixed it all with the runny eggs!  SO GOOD! (and too much for one person...we will only fry one egg next time, use half the can of beans, and not use a tortilla! We are still learning!)

Stuffed Turkey Burgers!

A few confessions for today:

1. This is the first time I have made stuffed burgers with ground turkey.
2. I piled sliced pickles on it AFTER the pictures you will see here tonight!
3. I do not count calories, nor am I concerned with that type of data.  
(Please accept my apologies for not including that information when I share our meals!) 
4. I used an ingredient that has ODD/unnatural ingredients tonight!


My house is known for these "stuffed burgers!"  I am never allowed to make a burger without it being stuffed.  If we are invited to grill at others' houses, I am asked to stuff the burgers.  It is so easy!  I have told people verbally about this stuffing process, but I am excited to share the steps in images so maybe others will actually try to STUFF their next grilled burger!   




I used a lb. of ground turkey and made three burgers.  I guess you can call these burgers 1/3 lb. patties!  


I added half a package of Lipton's Beefy Onion Soup mix to the ground meat. 

I mixed the dry soup mix into the meat...btw...ground turkey has a really weird, sticky texture, so make sure to do this right out of the frig or you will not be able to form the hamburger patties. 

Let that sit in a bowl in the frig again for a few minutes while you prepare the "stuffing" ingredients.  Tonight, I chose to stuff with bell pepper and mushrooms!  You can stuff your burger with anything your little heart desires.  I have done TONS of different things including shredded cheese, bacon, onions, bell pepper, mushrooms, black olives...but you could stuff anything your family likes on a burger.  I guess you could put pickles on the inside instead of on top of your burger!  hehehehehehe

I stuff raw ingredients, except bacon.  When I use bacon, I cook the bacon and crumble before stuffing.  I always try to chop the ingredients into small bits to insure that the veggies will cook while the burgers are on the grill!  
 

 Next, make two THIN patties with the meat. These patties should be made with the total amount you want to use to make ONE burger. Make sure to make both patties and lay one aside.  Top one of the patties with your stuffing.
 


 Lay the second patty on top of the stuffed ingredients and then start the motion of pressing the sides together to "hide" or "stuff" the veggies inside.  Once you get the sides closed up, press the patty all around and you will never be able to tell there is a surprise inside!  (sometimes I like to surprise my guests with a little bit of heaven in their mouth with the first bite of one of my burgers, but your grill master will need to know the secret in order for him/her to be careful when flipping the burgers!) 

 We also grilled asparagus with these burgers.  You can see my tips for asparagus on the grill in a blog from last month.  This has been a staple at the Deaver house since we have adopted our new way of life! I have refused to call it a diet! ;0)

White turkey meat should read about 160 degrees on a meat thermometer before you remove the heat.  I believe 165 or 170 might be ideal, but the meat will rise 10 degrees even after you remove it from the grill.  If you wait until 170, then you will have dry, over-cooked meat! 


And wha laaa...you have stuffed burgers!  They are amazing!  We opted out of a bun this evening.  Sometimes we have at least the bottom bun!  We used a bed of lettuce, topped the burgers with a slice of pepper jack cheese and 1/4 of an avocado each, and threw a few grape tomatoes on the plate for a few more veggies for the day!  Remember we try to eat 5 servings of vegetables a day!  


ENJOY!

A fun side note:  Photos 3-6 above were taken by my husband, Josh Deaver!  He has really taken on the hobby of photography too!  He is amazing! Find him on fb or twitter!

 

Pork Tacos

Very productive Sunday today!  4 loads of laundry, vacuumed, planted vegetables, painted our old, old house address numbers, sprayed the yard for weeds (AGAIN!), and worked real hard on a crock pot recipe! LOL  *note my sarcasm on that last one!

Don't you just LOVE cooking in the crock pot!?  I do!  I read about a "Mexican Pulled Pork" here -  http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/2011/03/08/slow-cooker-mexican-pulled-pork-tacos/

I changed it up just a little!

I threw all of this in bowl together, gave it a little stir and poured it on top of a pork tenderloin in the crock pot for 6 hours.

1 small can of Rotel tomato sauce (mild - 8oz)
2 teaspoons cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
a generous sprinkle of  garlic powder

Pork should be at least 160 degrees when ready to eat!
I shredded the pork...mmmm...it was so tender! 

We layered a bed of spinach leaves on a small, fajita-sized "heart healthy" tortilla, topped with warm black beans, a tablespoon of Wholly Guacamole (spicy), and a pinch of 2% shredded cheese, and about a half-palm of shredded pork on each taco! (I ate two!)  Paired with 15 grape tomatoes and you have two servings of vegetables, one serving of lean protein, good fats from avocado, and carbs from your beans and tortillas.

 We will eat the left over pork on a bed of mixed greens as a taco salad! 

I cannot rave enough about Wholly Guacamole! I ALWAYS make sure we have these neat little packs in our fridge.  I LOVE spicy, and the spicy is great!  Check for their salsas and guacamole in your local produce department.

Grilling Asparagus

A few things I know about grilling asparagus:

1. It doesn't take long.
2. It dries out fast.
3. Solve that by rolling in EVOO and sprinkling with pepper prior to grilling.
4. Snap off ends instead of cutting! (Thanks Phil Curtis for that tip!)
5. You may lose some (ground or bottom of grill or otherwise!)
6. It will be the hit of the party.