quick and easy taco salad

Friday night, I met a couple girlfriends at Pure Taqueria in Inman Park. I'd been to the location in Woodstock once, but had never tasted the food. So Friday night, I splurged and sampled the queso gringo, crispy taquitos, sangria and skinny margarita.

Everything was amazing. The queso...well what female doesn't like cheese?! The entrée was quite large, and I was able to take home half of it for dinner the next night. The sangria was cheap and tasty, thanks to the splash of grapefruit soda. And the skinny margarita, though pricey, was well worth the no-guilt feeling on the way home. According to the menu, it was just tequila, agave nectar and lime.

But every once in a while when you're female and struggling with a Mexican craving, you'd like the option to appease your tastebuds as well as your waist line. Enter Easy Taco Salad.

Easy Taco Salad

Ingredients

• 1 to 1.25 lbs lean ground beef
• 1/2 cup of water
• 9-ingredient taco seasoning (recipe)
• spinach
• shredded cheese
• salsa
• tomato
• avocado

1. Prepare taco seasoning according to recipe. We've tried a couple different recipes in the past, but this is the best one by far. Just make sure you have all the seasonings on hand.

2. Brown beef, then drain.

3. Add 1/2 cup of water and seasoning mix to beef.

4. Mix with spatula and return to medium high heat, allowing mixture to simmer 3 to 4 minutes.

5. Fill bowls with spinach, then top with meat mixture, shredded cheese (except for strict paleo-ers), salsa and tomatoes. I'd highly recommend sliced avocado on top; somebody just happened to eat all of ours earlier in the week.

PS--James has to use our small mixing bowl because our regular bowls aren't large enough. We don't normally eat out of metallic bowls :)

And what's so great about this meal is that it's easy to pack up the leftovers for a couple days lunches.

move over creme brulee...a new dish is in the house

I love cooking and trying new recipes. Making personal-sized Chicken Delight this weekend got me to thinking about other dishes I could make in small sizes.

While perusing TJMax during lunch, I discovered two sets of four ramekins, which together totaled $9. Hard to say no to such a good deal. So I managed to leave the store buying only those sets (no small feat), while daydreaming about of all the possibilities.

During the last few years, I've grown to love creme brulee, the traditional ramekin dish, but decided that the chocolate cake from the weekend was enough of a sugar high to last me a month. (Don't hold me to it though). Instead, I opted for a mexican recipe of sorts. I found a recipe for taco ramekins online, and adapted it to fit my needs. I bought a box of gluten-free Bisquick last week at the store, so this was my chance to try it out.


Gluten-Free Mexican Ramekins
I used eight small ramekins, plus a James-sized one for this recipe. Be sure to preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1/2 large onion
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1.5 cups gluten-free Bisquick mix
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1/2 cup salsa
• 1 cup shredded cheese
• avocado

1. First, dice your onion and sauté with ground beef. Adding in some bell pepper would be good, too. We just didn't have one on hand.

 2. Place Bisquick in small mixing bowl and begin to add water (little by little) until mixture becomes doughy. You may not need the full 1/4 cup of water. The texture will be a bit crumbly. That's because the wheat flour is substituted with rice and potato flour.
3. Then, add large spoonfuls of dough into greased ramekins and press down into bottom and sides with your fingers .

4. Then spoon in meat and onion mixture.

5. Next, spread salsa on top, followed by cheese and diced tomato.

6. Place directly on oven rack and bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
7. Garnish with avocado and enjoy.

Paleo peeps can omit the Bisquick and cheese, and add more veggies.