Hooked on Mexican? Apparently!

I think that we are hooked on tacos, yet we haven't eaten actual tacos in about a month. Over the course of our relationship, we've created Sweet Potato Tacos as well as Slow Cooker Taco Meatloaf and now we've made Texas Chicken Burgers, which have the flavor of tacos.

Texas Chicken Burgers

Makes 4 servings

Nutritional Facts (per 1 serving):

201 Calories, 8.4g Fat, 70mg Cholesterol, 665mg Sodium, 115mg Potassium, 4.3g Carbs, 1.4g Fiber, 1.9g Sugars, 24.6g Protein, 42.6% Vitamin A, 12.8% Vitamin C, 2.0% Calcium, 8.2% Iron

Ingredients:
1 lb. Lean Ground Chicken Breast
12 Baby Carrots
1 small Zucchini
1 tsp. Cumin
1 Tbsp. Chili pepper
1 tsp. Sea Salt
1 tsp. Cajun Seasoning

Steps to create:

1. Dice up the baby carrots and zucchini. 

2. Once diced, blend them finely in a food processor with the ground chicken breast.

3. Divide the mixture into 4 equal parts and form patties. Try and make the patties thin, with the thinnest area in the middle for equal cooking time.

4. Cook on a griddle, in a skillet, or on a grill.

5. Cook on each side for roughly 3-4 min. Do not smash down the patty while on the grill or it will lose any juiciness and become dry.

6. After flipping a second time, if you want to add cheese, feel free to do it 1 min before removing and use the below listed tip to melt it.

7. Let stand for 2 min., serve and enjoy.

Tip:  So I've been dying to try this trick I saw Bobby Flay use on a cooking show to melt the cheese on a burger, rather than the typical slice of cold cheese or microwaving it. So when the opportunity presented itself, I took it. Right before the burgers were ready tonight, I grabbed out some shredded cheddar cheese and covered the top of my burger. I pulled out a small metal mixing bowl to use to capture the steam. Unlike Bobby, I didn't have a squirt bottle to quickly circle the burger patty so I improvised. I grabbed a glass, filled it with about 1/4 cup of water. I slowly circled the burger and then as the steam started to kick up, I covered the burger. After about a minute or two, I grabbed the bowl to remove it (yea dumb move on my part) and about burned off my hands it was so hot. But below is the pleasant result I got from my first attempt at melting the cheese on a burger by steaming it.

Let's play a quick game. If you keep up with our blog, you probably already know I'm a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy and Jesse is the veggie lover. So with that in mind, how hard is it to figure out who's meal is which?

Obviously, mine was on the left and Jesse's was on the right. I had a Texas Chicken Cheeseburger with chipotle roasted potatoes and baked beans. Jesse topped her burger with tomato, mayonnaise, and slaw. She also enjoyed some slaw on the side as well as baked beans. Jesse will have to write up the slaw recipe; she used a bag of shredded cabbage but created a vinaigrette type mixture to combine with the cabbage rather than using mayonnaise.

Don't fear, even with Jesse's famous "coma nap" she takes every Friday for two to four hours, we still got our cooking in and made it to the gym for a nice hour and fifteen minute workout. Sometimes I think she thinks I'm a little overboard when we head to the gym at 10 pm for an hour.

Another Birthday for Jesse!!! And Stephen's isn't far behind :/

Over the past weekend, Jesse celebrated her birthday. She undoubtably did not enjoy making that leap of age into the late twenties. I really have no room to talk, I'm already in my late twenties and have accepted that I'm not going to get younger in age by number, but I can get younger, faster, and stronger in ability of mind and body.

I never realized what kind of girl I fell in love with, apparently I didn't notice she is a four year old trapped in an aging body who is over the age of twenty one. What makes me have this comment?? Oh just the fact that the breakfast she asked me to make her on her birthday morning was a banana cake batter protein pancake with sprinkles baked inside, topped with bubble gum flavored icing, sprinkles, & candles.

Even though she is a kid when it comes to her birthday, apparently I have blonde hair that is just colored wrong. Last night I cooked a dinner for Jesse and my parents. How simple is cooking chicken wrapped in bacon?? Not only did I mess it up, I burned the heck out of the first two pieces of chicken.

My only defense was that I was using my cast iron skillet for maybe the third time, used a little too much extra virgin olive oil, and had the temperature raised too high for too long (I didn't think the skillet would heat up that quickly).

I will admit that there are no pictures of my disaster, only because my plate did not resemble the fact I was eating chicken wrapped in bacon, but Jesse made some delicious twice baked potatoes. She'll have to give the recipe just in case you don't already know how to do it, like me.

Unfortunately for the two of us, we've been rather busy and fell off the healthy eating and working out schedule we had created. Fear not, we will be jumping back on the wagon after this weekend and/or whenever we get back from Houston for my birthday weekend.

Valentine's Day

Stephen and I had a great first Valentine's Day together. He didn't have (aka, skipped) school and came over before I left to go to work, so we were able to have a nice lunch pulled together from our food prep/grocery trip on Monday. I had mashed tuna and avocado spread on honey whole wheat bread topped with alfalfa sprouts, a tomato, and some canteloupe. Stephen had a ham and cheese sandwich on the same honey whole wheat bread. We both had water to drink.

I'll get veggies into this boy eventually.

Jesse's Lunch

Stephen's Lunch

After lunch, I had to go to work; I teach from 12:30-3:15 on Thursdays. Stephen went and ran the levee on LSU's campus.

Isn't it pretty? I, unfortunately, had to skip the run didn't have time to get a workout in after school.

Stephen sent me two dozen red roses to work. Aren't they gorgeous? I mean, if a girl has to go to work instead of go for a run on a gorgeous day, she should at least get flowers, right? 

So pretty! I'm pretty traditional, so I
love red roses!

When I got home, we exchanged the rest of the gifts. I got him a cast iron skillet (he wanted it, I swear! My mom got mad at me because it isn't a "romantic" gift). 

Um, what's not romantic about a gift that lasts a lifetime?

Stephen bought me dangling pearl earrings and a pearl necklace and he printed some pictures of us from Mardi Gras to put in my empty picture frames.

I'm wearing the jewelry that he bought me
in this pic

That picture frame had seriously been empty
since April 2012

After exchanging gifts, Stephen told me to go ahead and get ready because he was going to take me to New Orleans for dinner instead of going to the place he had in mind in Baton Rouge. Once we were on the interstate, I asked if I could guess where we were going (I knew we were going for Italian in a suburb of New Orleans). Stephen said yes, and I immediately shouted "Semolina's!" He was surprised I guessed so quickly and delighted when I followed that guess with "I LOVE Semolina's!" (We've never eaten there together).

Stephen had Lasagna (so good! I moused a
few bites)

I had Chicken Enchilada Pasta (even better
than Stephen's dish)

We also shared a bread pudding for dessert. The rum sauce was to. die. for. I may or may not have eaten more sauce than actual bread pudding... on a spoon. by itself.

We ended the night back at my apartment just cuddling on the couch before Stephen had to go home. A perfect day.

Playing footsie :)