Friday, January 3, 2014

Taco Salad

We usually make this for lunches, so my recipe is set for a large serving, enough to feed 2 adults for a week

6 cups black beans (it comes out to 3 cans) rinsed.
4 lbs 85% ground beef
1 1/4 C taco seasoning

Cook your ground beef, drain the fat, and then add in your rinsed beans and taco seasoning along with the water recommendations for that amount of taco seasoning based on the instructions on the package.  Let simmer for a little bit until the water reduces.

This recipe yields 14 cups, and we use 1 cup per serving.

It comes out to 5995 calories for the entire batch, or 428 calories per serving.  If you need to lower your calories you can either opt for a less fat ground beef, or try a ground turkey.

Now for the rest of the recipe.  We always calculate this in 2 parts, the meat mixture, and the salad part.  It makes it easier to play with.

Add each cup of meat and bean mixture to the following.

1/8 C shredded cheddar
3C shredded iceburg (or lettuce of choice)
2T taco sauce
1.5 oz plain greek yogurt (we use this in place of sour cream)
1/2 medium tomato, diced

The above is 144 calories.

If the whole thing is too much like "mush" for you, and you need something similar to a crouton for your salad, crush up a few tortilla chips and mix it in to add some texture to your taco salad, but realize these aren't included in the calorie count.

Grand total for calories?  572!

Sweet and Sour Chicken

So, as we do most things around here, this recipe makes a batch.  Approximately 14 cups worth.

3 red peppers, sliced
4 yellow peppers, sliced
2C Sweet and Sour Sauce (We use Maui Mountain, when I can't find that I settle for a Hawaiian marinade)
2 24.5 oz jars of pineapple chunks in juice (separate the juice from the pineapple and reserve 1/3C )
3T cherry grenadine
6 chicken breast, cubed.