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.

Food Prep Monday

Today, Stephen and I had a cooking marathon. We decided to prep food for the week. This is something I've done quite often before, but today was the first time we've prepped together.

So, what was on the agenda? Chicken breasts seasoned with a local spice blend and cooked on the George Foreman.

Sweet potatoes roasted in the oven with salt and chipotle chile powder. Our latest obsession, but that's another post.

And a few other miscellaneous items: roasted asparagus, brown rice, brown lentils, hard boiled eggs, black beans, steamed broccoli (to eat with dinner tonight).

Brown lentils, hard-boiled eggs, roasted asparagus.
Yes, that lid is too big for the pot...
We make do around here

We also had a kitchen failure, but that's another post.

What do we intend to do with all of this food? Well, we are Catholic kids, so that means no meat on Wednesday or Friday. For my part, I fully intend to have rice bowls with some combination of brown rice, lentils, sweet potatoes, and black beans... quite possibly topped with some Greek yogurt. Also, mashed avocado and alfalfa sprouts on whole-wheat toast, maybe with some tuna.

I can't speak for carnivore Stephen.

Of course, we couldn't have done all of this without quite a large grocery trip. We spend about $150 (which is ridiculous for two people, we know), but we were literally out of everything. Seriously... bare fridge and pantry. We forgot to take pics of our grocery haul (again, we'll get better at this whole "we are bloggers" thing), but a few highlights are chicken breasts, sweet potatoes, asparagus, avocados, hummus, tomatoes, broccoli, local whole wheat bread, cage free eggs, turkey sausage, alfalfa sprouts, cantaloupe... yeah, that list could go on forever.

Now, we have a beautifully stocked fridge.

Prepped fruit, veggies, and meals;
almond milk, nut butters, Greek yogurt...

What was for dinner tonight? Well, you'll see...

His and hers, anyone?

Guess which plate is mine? You're right; the top left: brown rice with sriracha, grilled chicken, broccoli with lemon--all with a delicious Passion Tea Lemonade. Stephen had grilled chicken, roasted sweet potatoes, pretzels(?!), barbeque sauce, and broccoli with cheese (which, by the way, he didn't eat... I'm really trying with the whole "you have to eat your vegetables" thing). With a Coke Zero.

Do you meal prep? What are some of your go-to staples?