Weekly Food Prep – Tacos and More!

Okay, here you go…another session of making your life easier. My goal here is to help you save time and still eat healthy, so you can go spend all your new-found free time doing things that you want to be doing instead of worrying about what’s for dinner. This, this is what’s for dinner:

Ground Turkey “Taco” Style

Yeah, turkey. In my world, ground turkey is the best invention since…well, since ground beef! It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s as tasty as you make it! I always have some in the house for when the mood strikes me. So, grab your turkey and do this: Saute it in a good sized pan and then drain off the juice. Add a chopped onion, a small can of chopped, roasted green chilis and stir it all up. Keep sauteeing so the onion gets soft. Season it with garlic salt, lots of fresh ground pepper, cumin, oregano, and chili powder to taste. If you’re feeling extra rebellious, add some cayenne pepper! Now you have it, do fun stuff with it.

Ham and Vegetable Frittata

This was sort of a fling-it-together kind of thing for me. I had some leftover ham, broccoli that needed eating, and some sweet peppers. What to do? Well, make a frittata, of course! Super easy…crack 10-12 eggs into a large bowl with 1/2 cup of milk or water. Whisk them up and then add all of your trimmings, along with some salt and pepper. Dump your concoction into a greased square pan and bake it at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let it cool and then cut it into squares. You now have yourself a super easy breakfast treat, or snack. Side note: you can use just about anything in this, think sausage, bacon, green onion, cheese, salsa, chorizo, spinach, tomatoes, potatoes, etc. Get crazy, get creative!

Smashed Black Beans

Beans, beans, the magical fruit…lalala, you know how it goes. Seriously though, beans are a magical part of my life. They’re cheap, they’re healthy, and they’re delicious!!! I always have a couple of bags of dried beans in the pantry, either black or pinto, but you can really use just about any bean that you prefer for this. To get this going, pour your beans out into a large pot and sort them. Sometimes you’ll find little rocks or dirt clods. I also like to pull out the funky looking dried up beans. Rinse them 2 or 3 times and soak them, overnight if you can. For me, soaking is sort of optional. It seems to cut some of the cooking time, but if you don’t have time, don’t worry about it. Now, throw that pot on the stove and crank the heat. Let the beans boil for a good hour, stirring now and then. Keep an eye on the water level, you want it just above the beans so they don’t get too dry. I like to add chopped onion, a can of chopped tomatoes and some garlic. Wait to season them until they’re soft enough for you to taste, then add a bunch of garlic salt, oregano, cumin and a few healthy splashes of your fave hot sauce. Once they’re soft, either leave them as is, or use a potato masher to smash the hell out of them. They’ll look like refried beans, but without the fried part. There ya go!

Meal Ideas

Tacos – Put your ground turkey, a little cheese, chopped cilantro, green onion, and salsa on a corn or flour tortilla.
Breakfast for Dinner – Grab that Frittata, warm it, sprinkle some cheese over it and serve with a big green salad.
Black Beans and All the Things – use your black beans as a side dish for the tacos, as a soft, pillowy bed for your Frittata, or just eat them all by themselves. You’ll be happy you did.

Shopping List

Ground turkey – I usually grab the 2lb “family” size for good measure
Onions
Chopped green chilis in a can
A dozen eggs
Ham, bacon, sausage, etc.
Broccoli (or whatever veggies you want to use)
Beans (black or pinto, or whatever)
Can of chopped tomatoes
Garlic