Tag Archives: food

Sweet potato-apple dish

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Sweet potato-apple dish

We love sweet potatoes in our house. We especially love this sweet potato-apple dish. My mother-in-law started this dish, but I’ve changed it a bit. Her version has cranberries, and while I love cranberries, they aren’t always readily available. I normally just make it with the potatoes and apples, but this past few times I’ve added in the pecans. It’s like a nice fall evening in your mouth. (I even made myself laugh with that one)

Sweet potato-appleI just wanted y’all to see my awesome photography and photo styling skills. Maybe I should start a new hobby.

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Sweet potato-apple dish

Ingredients

  • 3 large sweet potatoes
  • 2 apples (I use Gala apples, but you choose what you like best)
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 3 TBSP stick butter (the real stuff, not margarine and not in a tub)
  • 3-4 TBSP pecan pieces (optional)
  • sprinkles of cinnamon
  • sprinkles of nutmeg (optional)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rinse sweet potatoes.
  2. Leaving the skin on, cut sweet potatoes and apples into cubes. Place into a 8x8 baking dish. Cut butter into thin pats and place in with the potatoes and apples. Be sure to stick some in the middle. Sprinkle the brown sugar and spices over the top and lastly, top with pecans.
  3. Cover your dish with aluminum foil and cook for 45-50 minutes.
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I know, I know. It’s not Tex-Mex or Mexican food. Pick your jaw up off the ground. ;)

 

 

 

 

tarahsig

Tex-Mex Chicken Salad

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Tex-Mex Chicken Salad | Real {Cheap} Housewives of Texas

And again, with the Tex-Mex food. We clearly have an addiction to it.

I found this recipe at Weight Watchers. I did change my version. I never use fat free/reduced fat anything. They seem appealing but they only add in more stuff (typically sugar or sodium) to make the stuff taste decent enough to eat. Just don’t do it, use the real stuff. The original also never mentions exactly how you should eat it. A typical chicken salad you eat on bread. This Tex-Mex chicken salad (which we’ve had twice) is best on a bed of lettuce or salad mix.

Kids loved it, husband loved it and my parents loved it. My brother was on the fence even though he had two helpings. I’ll say it’s a winner.

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Tex-Mex Chicken Salad

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 pounds uncooked boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/4 tsp chili powder
  • 1 small sweet red pepper, chopped
  • 1 small green pepper, chopped
  • 2 medium uncooked scallions, sliced
  • 15 1/4 oz canned yellow corn, drained and rinsed
  • 1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
  • Salad Mix

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF (I have boiled it as well)
  2. Place chicken in a glass baking dish and bake until juices run clear, about 25 minutes. Cut into bite size pieces.
  3. In a medium bowl, combine mayonnaise, sour cream, cumin and chili powder.
  4. Stir in chicken, peppers, scallions and corn; mix well. Gently fold in beans; cover and chill at least two hours. Yields about 1 cup per serving over your choice of salad mix.
  5. *Optional - add tomatoes and/or avocados
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tarahsig

Spiked pulled pork

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Spiked pulled pork

I bet you’re asking me why it’s called “Spiked pulled pork”? Last weekend, while I was at Pinterest Party I sent my husband a text asking him to put the roast in the slow cooker at noon so we could have it for dinner when I got home on Sunday. I sent him the very simple directions to follow. He okayed and did it.

Fast forward to Sunday night when I arrived home, after the Pin Party and going grocery shopping. We get everything all together for dinner and to the table. I’m pulling the pork apart, commenting on how tender it was. Literally falling apart as I touch it with the fork. He makes no comments, we sit down to eat, I take a bite. It might be the best pulled pork we’ve had in a while.

He happily announces “Oh I added a little to it. It didn’t look like it was going to cook well with just the BBQ sauce so I looked up and saw the vodka on the fridge.”

At least he didn’t make it spicy. And … he did cook.

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Spiked pulled pork (crockpot/slow cooker)

Ingredients

  • Pork shoulder (also known as pork butt, I don't ask why.)
  • BBQ sauce (I use Austin's Own or Weber brand - neither have HFCS)
  • Vodka

Instructions

  1. Cover bottom of the cooker dish with some BBQ sauce.
  2. Place pork roast on top of BBQ sauce and pour BBQ sauce over the top of the roast
  3. Add a 1/2 cup to cup of vodka (or in his words "Pour freely")
  4. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, turning over a few times for perfect tenderness
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And I’m really not kidding when I say its probably the most tender, fall apart pork I’ve had.

tarahsig

Taco Turkey Casserole {recipe}

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Taco Turkey Casserol

When Heather and I discuss recipe on blogs, we often mention our thoughts on the pictures of the food. People, if the food doesn’t look appetizing, don’t capture it on film, er … Camera Roll/Photo Stream. There are foods that look awesome in pictures. Burgers? Yep. Cupcakes or cakes? Yes sir. Casseroles? OH hell no. They are NEVER pretty. Ever. Just don’t worry about the picture of them.

With that established, there is no picture of this Taco Turkey Casserole but Megan at Honey We’re Home has a picture. It’s a pretty decent picture. I’ve taken her recipe and stepped it up a notch. It’s a simple recipe with 4 ingredients, but my version has 2 more to mix in.

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Taco Turkey Casserole {recipe}

Ingredients

  • 1lb Extra lean ground turkey (Jennie O is my choice)
  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 cup Brown rice (I used instant)
  • taco seasoning
  • 3/4 cup all natural sour cream (Lilly's or Breakstone are good choices)
  • 1 cup Colby Jack cheese

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven 275.
  2. Brown the ground turkey. Then I add the seasoning and black beans to the meat. Cook the rice the same time you're browning the turkey. Combine the cooked rice into the meat. Stir for a good and even mix, then add sour cream and cheese, save some cheese for the top. Pop in the oven for 15 minutes, just enough to melt the cheese nicely.
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We clearly like our Mexican food here in Texas. We’ve got a Walking Taco Casserole, Taco Soup, Taco Salad, and Beef Taco Penne Pasta Kickasserole. After reading that list, we clearly need to branch out on the food we eat.

PS. on the kid scale – One had seconds and would have had thirds if he hadn’t been drawn in by M&Ms, another cleaned his plate and I’m just thankful that Savannah eats a meal instead of drinking her way through life these days.

tarahsig

Quick Taco Seasoning {recipe}

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So as I’m putting together my menu for the week, I added a taco casserole on the menu. This meal has been on the menu the past 2 weeks but was NEVER made. “Awesome, I have all the ingredients!”, I thought to myself. Yeah, you should ALWAYS double check on that. I went to grab my taco seasoning that I always get from the “Ethnic” spice section. I look for the white lid, and find a pork rub and some cajun seasoning. Well, crap. Then I realized it’s not too hard to make a quick taco seasoning.

Quick Taco Seasoning | Real Cheap Housewives of Texas

 

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Quick Taco Seasoning {recipe}

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp chili powder
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp onion powder
  • 1/4 tsp of red pepper flakes
  • 1/4 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper

Instructions

  1. In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Store in an airtight container.
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This would be great to use in Taco Soup – Heather’s Way.
tarahsig

Fort Worth Food Park

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A week and half ago, Heather, Kevin and I went to Fort Worth’s awesome Food Park. This particular weekend they were having a dog food drive for Homeward Bound. I, personally, forgot the dog food, but Heather, as always, is on top of it and brought some.

Our first truck to stop at was Red Jett Sweets to make sure we got our dessert. Heather had a Red Jett Velvet cupcake, while Kevin and I chose to be more adventurous, trying The B.M.T (bacon + maple together!). Next, it was to decide what to eat. The trucks for the night definitely gave us a range of food choices – Simply Dosa, salsa limon, Gepetto’s Pizza and Easy Slider Truck.

slidersandpizza

Kevin decided on pizza as his dinner choice.

“First time I had Gepetto’s Pizza. The crust was the best part. Perfectly cooked. The onions were awesome. I normally don’t like onions but theirs were great. Perfect amount of cheese, pepperoni, and sausage. It was probably eight to ten inches around, cut into four pieces.” -Kevin

I’ve had Gepetto’s Pizza prior to this outing and I thought it was great then. Glad to hear from Kevin his thoughts are similar. It’s really a good pizza, and he’s so right about the crust. It was my favorite part as well.

Heather and I, so much alike in so many ways, both wound up at Easy Slider. We each got 3 sliders for $10. Not so shockingly, each got 2 that were the same – Sweet & Lowdown and The Roadside. I also tried the French Revolution and Heather’s 3rd one was the Nutty Pig, which I must say is completely NOT something she’d normally order, but I don’t think the Sweet & Lowdown would be something she’d order either.

roadside_slider_sm

sweet_and_low_down_slidersm

nutty_pig_slider_sm

 

 

 

 

 

The French Revolution does not have a picture as it’s a specialty. It was my second favorite. Heather and I both really liked the Sweet & Lowdown. There’s something about the strawberry jam and goat cheese that just made that burger. It was so good, that I can still taste it and now, I want one. We all tried the Nutty Pig, and surprisingly, a burger with peanut butter on it, not too bad. NOT too bad. My least favorite was most definitely The Roadside. I didn’t even finish it.

I don’t eat beef very often anymore so eating these were a bit of a risk for me. I’m glad I took the risk. I’m definitely going to get some more of that Sweet & Lowdown, maybe even my own Nutty Pig.

Now for the cupcakes, you remember, the ones we bought first. We didn’t eat them first though. We were at least adult about that decision.

redvelvetcupcake

The Red Jett Velvet was just that – red velvet.

The B.M.T, however, oh my goodness. I’m beginning to think that bacon should just be in EVERY.MEAL.FROM.NOW.ON. Seriously. The bacon was in the actual cupcake and the maple icing on top. YUM! It worked so well together.

“Cupcake. The icing looked like dog crap but obviously (I guess) tasted better. Bacon was an unexpected flavor but I thought it was perfect with the maple flavor. A breakfast cupcake, for sure.” – Kevin

**In Kevin’s defense, the way cupcake shops “present” the icing is a bit on the “dog crap pile” side. We both really loved the cupcake as a whole though. :)

Sadly, there is no picture of said awesome cupcake because we were clearly eager to stuff our faces with them. Next time, maybe.

What did Heather think of The B.M.T?

ExpressiveHeather

 She messaged me WHILE I was typing this to say she didn’t like it. Hmph.

If you haven’t been to a food truck park, or even had food from a food truck, you are truly missing out. I’ve had grilled cheese from one of the trucks, and you know what — BEST grilled cheese I’ve ever had. Not even kidding. Find out if you have in food trucks in your area and try it out. The trucks here in the DFW travel back and forth between Dallas and Fort Worth. That’s pretty nice because you have the opportunity to try new ones occasionally.

Speaking of the DFW area — moms, moms-to-be, dads, grandmas and pas, there’s a new consignment sale happening in Grapevine in April. These consignment sales are awesome and Growing Growing Gone is sure to be a hit just like others. If you’re in need of new baby/kids items (clothes, toys, just about anything you can think of), plan to attend April 19-21 at the Grapevine Convention Center. See, it’s even located right in the middle.

tarahsig

Mediterranean Chicken Pasta

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mediterranean chicken pasta

 

I have made this healthy meal twice now and both times I’ve done a “step” wrong (cooked the artichoke hearts wrong or didn’t keep the juice from the artichokes). Guess what? It still tastes excellent. All three children ate it and loved it. Okay, so 2 of them love it and one just moderately likes it and probably just eats it because it is what I served. This is definitely a keeper for our house.

 

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Mediterranean Chicken Pasta

41

10 minutes

25 minutes

35 minutes

4 servings

347 Calories

9g fat (1g saturated)

Ingredients

  • 6-ounce jar marinated artichoke hearts
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 12 ounces skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
  • 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
  • 1/4 cup chicken broth
  • 1/4 cup dry white wine (or just double the chicken broth like I did)
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
  • 1 7-ounce jar roasted red peppers, drained and cut into strips
  • 1/4 cup pitted Kalamata olives
  • 3 cups hot cooked campanelle or penne pasta
  • 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (optional)

Instructions

  1. 1. Drain artichoke hearts, reserving marinade, and chop them. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat; add chicken and garlic. Cook and stir until chicken is brown. Add the reserved artichoke marinade, broth, wine, and dried oregano.
  2. 2. Bring to a boil; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, 10 minutes. Stir in chopped artichokes, roasted peppers, and olives.
  3. 3. To serve, spoon chicken mixture over pasta. If desired, sprinkle with feta cheese. (and don't just BUY the feta cheese, actually use it. Unlike me.)
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Have y’all tried any of the recipes we’ve shared? I tried Taco Soup Heather’s Way, but I’ll change mine to “Taco Soup Heather’s Way made Tarah’s way” with ground turkey and less tomatoes.

tarahsig