Crispy Taquitos

Crispy Taquitos (SNAP recipe)

Serving Size: 3 taquitos

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups Pico de Gallo

1/2 cup cooked, finely chopped chicken

1/2 cup no salt added corn, canned or frozen, thawed

1/4 cup chopped green onion

1/4 cup green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup shredded, reduced fat cheddar cheese or Monterey jack or queso fresco

corn tortillas (the little ones)

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 425 F.

2. In a medium bowl, combine 1 cup Pico de Gallo, chicken, corn, green onion, green pepper, and cheese.

3. Soften tortillas on the stove top or in the microwave oven, and spoon a heaping tablespoon of filling onto the center of each tortilla. Roll up tightly and secure each with a toothpick.

4. Place rolled tortillas seam side down on a baking sheet and brush each lightly with oil. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until crisp and lightly browned.

5. Place 3 taquitos on each plate and serve with remaining Pico de Gallo.

Tips and changes

I used salsa instead of pico because that's what I had. I was a bit worried they would be to moist, but it worked out fine.

Did not use bell pepper because I did not have it.

Mine made about 16 taquitos.

Probably don't need the toothpicks if the taquitos are seam side down.

I heated tortillas in the microwave between two damp papertowels for about 30 seconds. I did four at a time. I have never used the little corn tortillas before and quite a few of them did crack after I rolled them.

I served them with a Cesar salad, but a vegetable crudite would be good or any other type of salad.

Sausage Pasta

This isn't a SNAP recipe or anything from our curriculum, but it has become a staple in our house. I modified it from a recipe found on allrecipes.com. It's easy to make and could even be done with some pre-cooked ingredients. Bear in mind that this a "throw together" recipe. Not everything is exact.

Sausage Pasta

Ingredients:

1 (ish) pound of Italian sausage - pork or turkey

Half a box (ish) of whole grain penne or rotini

1 cup (ish) of Great Northern Beans

2 cups (ish) of fresh spinach

one can diced tomatoes, well drained

Grated Parmesan (not the canned stuff)

Directions:

1) Brown sausage in quart pan.

2) When sausage is almost done, add beans.

3) While pasta is cooking, stir in spinach to meat and bean mixture so it has time to wilt. Also add drained tomatoes at this time.

4) Drain pasta and add to the meat mixture. Sprinkle with Parmesan and enjoy!

Hints:

I cook up a bag of Great Northern beans and have then in the freezer. This way, you always have them on hand and can just take out as many as you need.

I don't normally drain my sausage as the stuff I buy isn't very fatty. Plus it gives things a bit more flavor since this is a sauce-less dish.

More veges could be added, but we are happy with this concoction at the moment.

NuVal: Worth the Hype?

I first heard about NuVal Nutritional Scoring System through a webinar at work. NuVal scores foods using some complex algorithm, taking into account a variety of nutritional factors and dividing the good by the bad. According to the website and the beginning of our webinar, foods are place on a 1 - 100 scale. These numbers will eventually make their way into grocery stores and be listed by the price tag. Right now, they are only in select stores (mainly in southern Minnesota) but more are on their way. Since it's located next to the price tag, you can also figure out which food is the better value. If both bags of chips are a 24 on the NuVal scale, you then look at the price per ounce and get the cheaper one. I was SO excited about this system as healthy food purchasing can be a nightmare for people who don't have nutrient knowledge. I even have the knowledge, and it takes me 20 minutes to pick out a new cereal.

Like I said, I was excited. Then we got about 3/4 through the webinar and the following numbers showed up.

Bread 2-81
Canned Vegetable 2 - 100
Cereal 4-100
Cookie 1-40
Cracker 2-87
Egg and egg substitute 26-67
Frozen Vegetables 22-100
Produce 24-100
Meat/Poultry 24-53
Milk 4-91
Pasta 11-91
Salty Snack 1-52
Seafood 36-89
Juice 1-82
Snacks/Granola 1-42
Yogurt 22-99


That's right folks, not all the foods are scored on a scale of 1 -100. Seriously, they made this great tool and then confused it all up! I had originally thought, "Great, I'll just go to the store and have all my groceries be a 70 or higher, that should be healthy and easy. No such luck. Thank goodness I'm in the know. I will now have to take my little cheat sheet in with me to the store when it comes to my area. I have emailed the folks at NuVal as to why this is, though I have yet to receive a response.

Book I'm Loving Now

Well, this blog might evolve to include a variety of things. Since I commute an hour each day to work, I listen to a large variety of audio books. My newest selection is Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I have listened to a few of her fiction books and was excited to find this one hanging out near the recipe books at my library. The book describes the Kingsolver family deciding only to eat locally grown foods. This means no fruit in February, mainly dark green leafy's and asparagus in the spring, and waiting patiently for their foods to come into "season". What?! Foods have a seasons! Yes they do, though you would never know it by going to the grocery store. Being able to buy any food anytime also involves a great deal of travel by that food. Like the Mexican asparagus we had for super last night. My husband seemed unphased by the fact that this tender little early spring vege had traveled thousands of miles to get to our table. And the bitter taste proved it. While it might be difficult to eat only in season or get boring, it seems the Kingsolver family is doing it well. And man do the recipes they mention sound fabulous and fresh.

How was this great feat accomplished?
The Kingsolvers live on a small farm in Southern Virginia. They have chickens and turkeys and what sounds like a rather impressive garden plot and a variety of fruit trees. Along with their own crops, they also got to know their local farmers and attended the farmers market. This last bit can be done by anyone. Might it take some work? Yes. Is it worth it? You bet! The food doesn't have to travel eons to reach your mouth and you are supporting local business. Some might think it's expensive, but think how many of our taxes subsidise the commercial farms, the petroleum industry, and the seed "makers" that have nearly eradicated heirloom plant varieties. Another way to support local business is to join a CSA or Community Supported Agriculture. CSA's offer food deliver during the growing season. For a certain dollar amount, you get one box every week (or what ever delivery option you choose) filled with fruits, veges, and sometimes meat. Some CSA's also make their farms available for pick all you can events for freezing and canning. The upfront cost seems large, but when broken down by week, very reasonable. Some insurance companies also offer incentives to join CSA's. For more info visit Localharvest.org.

Nutrition and eating well can be a confusing ocean of information. Standing in the cereal aisle for 20 minutes trying to decide on a new cereal, then just going back to oatmeal, can take a lot of extra time. Companies "lie" about the nutritional information in their foods or make it look healthy with advertising. A new system called NuVal is coming out that gives a score to foods. The higher the score, the more nutritionally complete it is. I just saw a Webinar on it today, and will post more on it once I am able to get my multitude of questions answered. So how does one eat well with all this information bombarding you? Good question. Personally, I think the more whole, unprocessed choices we make, the better it will be for us. Does your supper contain 30 ingredients, 3/4 of which you can't identify or pronounce? Or does it contain 10 ingredients, half of which are seasonings and all of which you can pronounce and know how it grew. Excellent things to think about next time you are planning your weekly meals. Or should I say, "Here's some food for thought."

Quinoa Black Bean Salad

I have taken the quinoa plunge and enjoyed it very much. I was a bit hesitant to try it as a few of my sisterfriends said it was super repulsive and some have said it is fabulous. It's also $12.00 for a pound at my grocery store. Luckily, I found a 14 oz bag for $5.00 at Jubilee. I also have seen it online much cheaper, so will now be putting in an order. Quinoa is a great food because it is a whole grain and a great source of protein. Unlike other grains, the protein in quinoa is complete, meaning it has all 9 essential amino acids. Quinoa is an ancient grain once considered to be "the gold of the Incas" and was used as a major energy source for their army. Quinoa was nearly wiped out when the Spanish invaded South America. The Spanish made it illegal for quinoa to be grown as a way to control the South American natives. Makes a person wonder what other great foods have been lost to the conquering of the world. More info on quinoa can be found here.

I did use a SNAP recipe this time, which can be found by clicking the title of this post. It basically ended up being a very hot, fresh salsa. It went well with the dried out slow cooker pork roast ( I'm not too good with pork) and roasted potatoes we had for supper last night. I put some in my scrambled eggs this morning which was also delicious.

Changes I made:

1. Did not have any cumin so I used 1/4 tsp cayenne instead.

2. Could not find ground coriander at Walmart so left it out. Really, how often
would I use it anyway.

3. Probably used 4 TBS of cilantro because I pretty much can't get enough of the stuff.

4. Used 2 10.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes with green chilies added. I should have drained them a bit better as there was a bit of liquid at the bottom.

5. For the fresh green chilies, I chose serrano, because I don't know the difference. As I was cutting them, I told husband that they don't smell hot at all. I then proceeded to use my thumb to scrap out seeds. A few minutes later, thumb was in a bit of pain so I stuck it in my mouth. Yes, the peppers were hot and my thumb still hurts a bit. Moral of the story: if you are a wimp, wear gloves.

Additional info as of 3/11 - This dish gets hotter as it sits! If I made it again, I would leave out the chilies. They about killed me.

African Chicken Peanut Soup

My first recipe isn't from SNAP. I was going to use just those recipes, but there are just so many great recipes out there. I made this soup for my MAC/NAP participants last night. Everyone enjoyed it, even the 93 year old volunteer, though she initially thought it was too spicy. The salsa and cumin could be left out and it would still taste great. I used canned chicken because it's easier, but left over chicken would be great. Many people commented that they could not find the peanuts. It only uses creamy peanut butter, but peanuts added would be good or used as a garnish. This recipe makes 10 one cup servings and would most likely freeze very well.

African Chicken Peanut Soup

1 1/2 cups cubed peeled sweet potato
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup diced green or red bell pepper
2 garlic cloves minced or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 cups chopped cooked chicken breasts
1 cup salsa
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 (16 oz) cans fat free, low sodium chicken broth
1 (15 oz) cans low sodium chicken with rice soup, undiluted
1 (15 oz) can black beans drained
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

Place a large pan coated with cooking spray over medium heat until hot. Add sweet potato, onion, bell pepper, garlic and saute 5 minutes. Stir in chicken and the next 5 ingredients (chicken through beans) and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add peanut butter. Stir with a whisk and cook 2 more minutes.

10 one cup servings: calories 274; sodium 437 mg; fat 8.6g; carb 23.3g

It cost about $17.00 for the ingredients (yep, I lost my receipt already, my sisterfriends will understand) so it would be about $1.70 per serving.

Can you really make cheap, healthy meals?

The answer is yes. Might it take a bit more time, sure. Anything worth having takes a bit of effort. Once you cook more at home and use whole, healthy ingredients, it becomes second nature. While learning what is healthy to eat and how to put it together might take some practice, the pay off is worth it in the long run. My job as a Nutrition Education Assistant (ironic as I assist no one) is to help individuals and families learn to choose healthy foods and make them into delicious meals and snacks. My test recipes don't always turn out, but the point is to try. Once you have a cache of 15 to 20 good tried and true recipes, one simply has to rotate them through the month, trying new recipes when time allows. I get many of my recipes for classes from the SNAP ED website. There are hundreds of low cost, healthy meals on this website, but only a handful have reviews or have been rated. I have decided to cook my way through them (yes, I know, very Julie and Julia) so that I and my fellow NEA's have a resource to turn to. I will do my best to add flavor suggestions and alterations when needed. Hopefully this blog turns out to be a useful tool for others in my profession. If not, I get to make and eat lots of yummy, different foods.