Viva Mexicana!

Sam and I adore Mexican food, a statement I've made here before. Last night I had an opportunity to throw together a delicious healthy Mexican meal for Sam using only ingredients I had on hand.

Now I happened to have awesome limes from my Farm Box. Delicious avocados too. I also had Lacintao Kale and yellow onions, and a tomato from Mexico. Add that to a boneless, skinless chicken thigh and voila! Or, i mean, Ole! You have a fajita type meal that's hella good for ya.

First I made my guacamole - it's fattening, albeit healthy fats - so I only used 1/2 of a small avocado. I smashed it up, added lots of fresh lime juice, ground coriander (normally I'd use fresh cilantro/coriander), cumin, salt, pepper, and chili powder. I also added some finely minced onion and a dash of garlic powder (I didn't want to bite into raw garlic). I also added half of a slightly overripe tomato and it's juices. YUM! It turned out beautifully. I put it in the fridge with plastic wrap touching the top of the guac to keep it from browning and added some more lime juice on top too.

Then I made the Sauteed Spicy Lime Kale with onions and tomato. (Think of it in place of bell peppers). I quick boiled the kale for about 8 minutes, till tender, then sauteed half an onion (thinly sliced) in one tablespoon of olive oil till soft and golden, added one clove of minced garlic, lime juice (from half a lime), salt, the other half of the tomato and a some crushed red pepper flakes. I sauteed for a few more minutes, added the kale back in and mixed it all through. Mmmm, it was so flavorful and delicious and, as always, healthy. The flavor profile definitely screamed Mexican even though I've never seen kale in Mexican cooking. (Not that I am an expert in ANY way!).

I sliced the thigh meat into strips and cooked it over medium heat in canola oil spray. Before I cooked it I squeezed lime juice over the meat and added salt and pepper. Season season season!!

A dollop (1 tablespoon) of light sour cream (17 calories!) with a sprinkle of chili powder finished it off. Finally, I served the meal with one low fat, low carb tortilla (50 calories, 10 g carbs). Sam made his "mmm" sounds all the way through. Very satisfying for both of us.

SIMPLE SIMPLE SIMPLE but still healthy and tasty!

Sam is now taking evening Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu classes in the city every night, which means he won't be home until 8:30 or 9:30 depending on the night. This means I am not going to be cooking anything elaborate since I will be eating alone and then re-heating it for Sam.

So now I want stuff that's *easy* and healthy. But just because I now want dinner to be extra simple to prepare, I didn't want to skimp on the flavor. So for last night's dinner, I made the protein simple and used my farm box produce for inspiration and tons of flavor.

We got our latest organic farm box on Tuesday (I now get it every other week) - it had lacinato
kale, cauliflower, broccoli, assorted citrus (lemon, limes, blood oranges, mandarins, and navel oranges), fuji and pink lady apples, garlic, 2 tomatoes (from Mexico) and sweet potatoes.

I decided to heat up in the oven a boneless skinless chicken breast that we had bought already pre-cooked & frozen. 425 degrees in the oven for 18 minutes. I flipped it halfway through and squeezed a little bit of lime juice on it.

We still had avocados from our previous farm box (they were very unripe when we got them but were now about to be overripe). I thought about making a guacamole, but the blood oranges (one of my faves) from this week's box were too irresistible!!! I made a simple "relish" of diced avocado and blood orange with a little salt and lime juice and put that on top of the chicken breast to add a burst of flavor, vitamins and minerals, and a little healthy fat. I served it with steamed organic broccoli that I drizzled with a simple meyer lemon-dijon vinaigrette that had less than 1/2 teaspoon of canola oil (in addition to the juice from one meyer lemon, teaspoon of dijon, salt, pepper). I did that just to liven up the broccoli a bit.

Sam said he was expecting something really simple (read: boring) but was pleasantly surprised with my addition of the avocado/blood orange relish. Yay! Success. Stay tuned for more.

And I promise to post with pictures. Last night he was just too famished to make him wait and take a picture!



Then I

New Sides for a Favorite Entree

Not feeling too inspired these days so it was back to an old favorite. Panko crusted chicken with maple mustard pan sauce. Yum.

But this time we utilized the amazing brussels sprouts that came with our Farm Box. Wow, these light green gems were so sweet and delicious that I merely braised them in water and salt and then tossed them with a bit of unsalted butter and pepper to finish them off. Delectable.

I usually prepare a mashed sweet potato with this meal but we had butternut squash that Sam had picked up the week before that I wanted to use. I split the squash in half and baked it at 400 degrees, cut-side down for about 45 minutes. Then I melted one tablespoon each of butter and maple syrup and brushed that onto the squash and then popped it back in the over for about 5 minutes. Simple, delicious.