Tonight's Dinner, chicken, avocado, bacon & blue cheese chopped salad.

Tonight's dinner turned out GREAT! I mean I knew it would, how could any meal that contains bacon and blue cheese not turn out fantastic? Well it also had all natural chicken, and some tomatoes and AVOCADOS! Oh and I guess I could mention the lettuce but you hardly even notice that.

This is what I made. (salad)

First I started the bacon while I washed and chopped the hearts of Romaine, and the plum tomatoes. I made sure the save the bacon grease to saute the chicken in. I add the blue cheese crumbles, chop up the bacon and then I made the salad dressing. I did alter the dressing just a tad, I didn't add the garlic as we like garlic, but garlic does NOT like us. Instead I did add just a pinch of garlic powder to the dressing. It still tasted wonderful.

I also forgot to buy the green onion but the salad tasted fine without it. I was a bit bummed, but I think instead next time I may try to pickle some red onions instead and put a few of those on top as a garnish. ;-)

Fork and Knife Nachos

It's pretty obvious, you'll need a fork and knife to eat these nachos! Unless you really want to get your hands dirty!

 What you'll need:
1 lb of ground beef or turkey
1 lb of thin sliced boneless, skinless chicken breast (or tenders)
1/4 cup of chicken broth or stock
1 can of pinto beans (or dried beans that have been soaked overnight)
1 package of 'taco', sharp-cheddar, or queso-blanco cheese
Sour cream
Tomatoes
Tortilla chips
[Seasoning for chicken and beef] Onion powder, garlic powder, coriander, cumin, paprika, (chili powder optional and to taste), salt and pepper. Make a mixture in a ramekin and use approximately 1 TSP of each spice, or add more or less to taste.
[Ingredients for guacamole-in-a-hurry]
2 avocados 1 lime, salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, onion powder to taste
*Or see my authentic guacamole recipe from a previous blog post here: http://sobe73.blogspot.com/2012/05/kristy-and-erics-tacos.html

What you'll need to do:
Start chicken in a crock-pot set to 'high' and half of the spice mixture. Since it's thin cuts of meat, this won't take long (Maybe 20-30 minutes).

Add the chicken broth so it doesn't dry out. If you don't have one, simply brown in the pan the same way you do the beef/turkey below. I like to use the crock pot because it makes it juicier and much easier to shred.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

Brown the lowest fat beef/turkey in a pan, drain any additional fat while browning. When it's nearly done, add the other half of the spice mixture.

Drain the beans and rinse and place over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes until the beans are warm.

Spray a large cookie sheet with canola spray and line with tortilla chips.

When the chicken is done, remove from the crock pot/pan and shred with two forks. Top the tortilla chips with the chicken and beef and then top with the beans. Cover with as much or as little cheese as you like and bake in the oven until the cheese is melted, about 10 minutes.

*Prepare the guacamole and start dicing your tomatoes to top the nachos.

[Dice the avocado small so it's easy to mash, squeeze the juice of one lime, add salt, pepper, onion powder, cumin and coriander to taste and then smash well with a potato masher until it's the desired consistency.] 

When the cheese is melted, remove from oven and top the nachos with sour cream, tomatoes and finally, the fresh guacamole.

ENJOY!

11/13/10, Food Fight!

We thought perhaps it was time to start William on solid foods, well as it turns out, William didn't care for food much. We've never seen him make such a face. He didn't like the look of it, the feel of it, the smell of it or the taste of it. We put a tiny, itsy piece of banana on his tongue and he gagged, and then puked up a bunch of breast milk, and was pretty annoyed with us.
We tried avocado first but that just really irritated him. He was really disgusted with that. Since he refused to even open his mouth for it we switched to squashed banana and he didn’t want that either. We're doing baby-led-weaning, which means in a nutshell, the baby feeds himself what he chooses and when. You offer them 'real' food, like fruits and vegetables, and let them play with it and then they can choose to put it into their mouths themselves, or not. He did not do this. LOL...he played, kind of, but was instantly annoyed with the feel of the food. So I did go and try to put some in his mouth, which is when he said in no uncertain terms "NO"....so clearly he's not ready.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby-led_weaning

I’m thinking his tongue-thrust reflex is still there, since he pushed the food right out. Most babies will enjoy banana, which he clearly didn't. Breast milk is very sweet so sweet veggies and fruits usually work well but he just didn't seem ready to me.

http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/t032000.asp

I may try some organic brown rice cereal mixed with breast milk next week, just to see if he'll even put it in his mouth. I'm holding off on wheat for now, maybe another two months or so, it's a little harder on their digestive system and William has always had a pretty bad digestive system to begin with.
We got video of him refusing the food and making that awful face but it's taking a lifetime to upload, so I'll send it later when it's done. It's on Facebook right now though.
Enjoy the pictures!