Asian Style Sloppy Joes

Sloppy joes with a twist!

Although I don't think I'm quite done sharing recipes that may have been made in the old house, this is the last recipe I made in the old house. We brought the leftovers over to our new house (a whopping 2 miles away) and ate it while we were trying to unpack everything. I'm actually really glad that we had leftovers because it's so difficult to unpack a kitchen and try and find anything for at least the first week. Not to mention, this was in mid-April 2020, so still in the very major disruption of COVID and it was hard to find some foods because of supply chain issues. I was lucky to be able to make this recipe and to have it tide us over during our move!

Also as a note, I'm still not really on a good schedule where I can fit in blogging. I'm in the midst of my first tax season as a new accountant and even though I'm not a tax accountant...there is still plenty to do for prepping things for clients to do their taxes.

Easy Taco Salad with Homemade Cilantro Lime Dressing

Taco salad is classic but this one comes with a homemade cilantro lime dressing with tomatillos!

Hello, readers! I apologize for the lack of regular posting lately - life has been wildly busy. Honestly, just throwing in work for me has eaten up any time I had to do anything at a leisurely pace. Add in also volunteering with the high school marching band on Friday nights and I'm straight exhausted every weekend but also trying to catch up on all the things I have not done during the week. I'll continue to keep posting but it is going to be much more sporadic. At the time, I plan to at least get a post up each Monday. If I'm able, I'll post more (keeping to MWF schedule), but no promises!

Now this recipe - taco salad is taco salad. It's kind of a no brainer really. However, this one sets itself apart with the homemade cilantro lime dressing. It really makes the whole dish. I want this dressing on everything forever.

Summer Grilled Corn Salad

The perfect summer side dish for any cookout - bright, fresh, and light!

I have some side dish recipe saved to try but I honestly usually forget about them. I tend to like to just make a couple vegetable, carb, and/or starch sides and call it a day. But I made this last summer and it is one of my favorite things ever. I love sweet corn and especially enjoy fresh sweet corn cooked on the grill. I love that this is just a ton of veggies. I did not make the avocado cilantro lime dressing but chose to use some of the elements of it so that Nick would eat it. He doesn't do dressing.

Loaded Turkey Taco Salad

Load up your taco salad with all the fixings and a homemade cilantro lime dressing!

I've been making a lot of Taco Tuesday meals with turkey lately. Part of that is due to my hereditary high cholesterol kicking in and the other part is that ground turkey doesn't taste too different from ground beef with taco seasoning mixed in, so it isn't this huge "culture shock" of a different protein. I really enjoy this particular salad recipe because there are no tortillas to fuss with and I love salads. I also love that there is corn and beans plus a homemade cilantro lime dressing that is super quick to make.

Spicy Chicken & Avocado Tacos

A super simple chicken taco recipe loaded up with avocado and creamy cilantro lime sauce.

So I initially had this post almost ready to go and then realized that I remember making these and looking at it and going...where's the heat? How is it spicy? So when I did the marinade, I chose to add cayenne. Otherwise there is literally nothing that adds any bit of spiciness to the recipe. This is a really simple way to make chicken tacos and has lots of bright flavor from the lime. I love the creamy cilantro lime sauce a ton.

Quick 20-Minute Chicken Tacos

Find the recipe on The Recipe Jackpot

Carne Asada Street Tacos

Why have regular tacos when you can have street tacos with grilled carne asada!

I've mentioned many times that my husband has been obsessed with authentic Mexican food after traveling to San Diego for work over the past few years. I am fairly certain he lives on tacos while he's there. I know my tacos at home will never come close to the authentic food, but I do try and they are really tasty still. So these tacos were a hit because honestly you cannot go wrong with steak tacos. Plus the toppings that go with are pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream, and cotija cheese.

Queso Smothered Chicken Fajitas

Find the recipe on The Recipe Jackpot.

Created using The Recipes Generator

Turkey Taco Salad + Meal Prep Instructions

This is a great and healthy taco dish that is perfect for meal prepping into 6 ready-to-go portions!

I just want to start out by saying this actually supposed to be a meal prep food. However, in 2020, there was absolutely no reason for me to meal prep. I'm going to leave the instructions on how to do this for meal prepping if that is something you are looking for. We ended up just having this for dinner and it was fantastic. I have spoken here and there about how we are making the switch to subbing turkey for red meat here and there to help with my borderline high cholesterol (hereditary - yay!).

Cranberry Jalapeno Dip

Sweet, spicy, and tart - this dip has it all and it's the absolute best!

You'll have to excuse these pictures, but they were taken in Christmas 2019 when my family was in Florida in a small airbnb (which we thought was supposed to sleep 11 - which was a stretch - it was so small. We thought the kitchen would have all the tools we would need, but it was really sparse (also a stretch in the description). I wanted to use a food processor and have a chunky salsa, but ended up having to puree it in a blender. Regardless of the method and how I had to adapt, this salsa was absolutely the best. I loved it so much. The family did too. You get sweet and tart from the cranberries, heat from the jalapenos, and cream cheese to offset the heat just a little and add a bit of savory to the whole thing. We used pretzel crisps because they are our favorite dippers!

Buffalo Chicken Burrito Bowls

This rice bowl has tomatoes, corn, black beans, avocado, plus buffalo chicken to boot! So many great ingredients for an easy dinner!

I hope everyone had a lovely, safe Thanksgiving! I'm looking forward to this next month of blogging that leads to the final Countdown deal I do each year. If you're a fellow blogger looking for the Countdown info, I'm actually not going to host this year. I'm just going to do the round ups but please feel free to leave your round ups linked in my comments of those posts!

Today's recipe is one of the recipes I've had for years and years and didn't make it. I feel like I do this a lot and then kick myself when I finally make it because it's a new favorite and I could have been enjoying it all along. We have been loving avocado and queso fresco lately, so it was nice to see those in a recipe and this is definitely something we will make and enjoy for years to come!

Mexican Meatball Soup

If you've ever wanted tacos in soup form with all the toppings, this soup is for you!

In these recipes, I can find the ingredients list a little overwhelming. However, what I like to do for prep is get all the spices measured and mixed together in a bowl. I like to get all my ingredients out and separated by where in the recipe I need them. It makes it so much more efficient when all is said and done to make the recipe when a little bit of preparation is done. I love how packed full of veggies this recipe is and I think the toppings work together with the soup so well too. It's like tacos but in soup form and I love it!

Loaded Nachos

Nachos and cheese is classic, but why not load them up with fresh pico de gallo, avocado, and more!

Now that I'm Team Avocado, I've been trying to eat them as much as possible. They are also supposed to be a good food for when you have high cholesterol, so that's also a bonus. I was (for the longest time) the only person who would eat avocado, but after Nick took almost a year's worth of business trips to San Diego where he got very authentic Mexican food, he has also taken a liking to avocado. These nachos are the best because they are loaded with avocados and all the other best toppings, like fresh pico de gallo, lots of cheese, cilantro, beef, and beans!

Slow Cooker Ropa Vieja

This slow cooked Cuban-style braised beef will make your house smell insanely good!

Ropa vieja is Cuban braised beef - I'm not sure why all of a sudden I put so many Cuban foods (hopefully authentic) on my meal plan, but I really enjoyed trying a new cuisine.  This beef was so tender and packed full of flavor. It was served up as recommended with white rice and black beans - definitely suited to pair with the braised beef. The house smelled insanely good while this slow cooked in the crockpot!

Applebee's Fiesta Lime Chicken Copycat

This Applebee's copycat chicken is topped with a Mexi-ranch sauce, pico de gallo, and loads of cheese!

I just posted the cheesecake I made for my sister-in-law's birthday last year and today I get to post the dinner she chose. Sometimes I'm lucky enough to get to make dinner that the birthday person wants and she requested copycat Applebee's. I had heard of this dish, but never looked into it to see what exactly was on Fiesta Lime Chicken because I always order the same thing there (Quesadilla Burger). I was so happy to make this recipe because it surprised me in the best way and I'm glad my sister-in-law asked for it.

Cuban Chicken & Black Bean Quinoa Bowls

Quinoa and black beans topped with spicy, tangy chicken, mango, and fried chili bananas!

I cannot speak to the authenticity of this dish that is dubbed Cuban, but I can speak to how delicious it is. I know that not everyone thinks fruit goes with savory dishes, but I feel like those people haven't tried the right dish. I personally love fruit in savory dishes, but I have to admit that I wasn't sure about bananas in a savory dish because I don't really like bananas a ton. However, my skepticism was met with surprise and I enjoyed every component of this dish: the seasoning on the chicken, the quinoa and black beans, and the bananas and mango. It was amazing! I did make a slight adaptation with subbing lemon juice in for the orange juice because my oldest is allergic to oranges.

Fresh Homemade Salsa

It's so easy to make salsa at home and you have the freedom of changing up the ingredients to fit your personal tastes!

I don't make homemade salsa very often and every time I do, I wonder why I'm not making it all the time. We love salsa and it definitely does not go to waste. The recipe itself takes very little prep or effort and wah-la! Fresh, homemade salsa. What I think is fantastic with homemade salsa is that you can control the heat and the other flavors you like and don't like. We love lots of garlic and cilantro, but I could totally see someone omitting them if that's not their thing. We usually do a full 3 jalapenos because more spice, please! If you don't like spice, do 1 jalapeno - or even no jalapeno. It's up to you!

White Chicken Chili Dip

There is nothing better than chili except chili in dip form! Dip vegetables, crackers, pretzels, and more into this delicious appetizer.

When I was first out on my own, I learned how to make white chicken chili from my mother-in-law and we had it ALL. THE. TIME. We don't eat it much anymore but I saved this recipe because I knew we would love it and chili in dip form sounded amazing! This is a little different than the white chicken chili I make - I don't do bell peppers or corn in it, but I think that's what makes this so darn good and obviously different enough to be a dip and not the actual chili. But I'm not gonna lie, I kinda want to add corn and bell peppers to the chili recipe because this kinda blew my mind and the two ingredients really just fit with the white chicken chili flavors!

Chicken Fajita Bowls

You won't miss tortillas a bit when you enjoy chicken fajitas in a bowl.

I am thrilled to share this recipe today because it's one I whipped up myself. It's nothing super innovative, by any means, but I still enjoy it and it's definitely a nice change of pace for Taco Tuesdays. Plus it isn't a boring plain chicken fajita. I'm obsessed with cilantro lime rice and try and make it as often as I can as a side, but it was the perfect base for this "burrito" bowl.

For the first time in my life, I'm having to do a little bit of a diet. I went for a yearly check up and, unfortunately, my bad cholesterol is high and my good cholesterol is low. It does run in the family, so I am a little nervous that I may be trying to change and it won't do much good. But I'm still definitely shifting what I eat, exercising, and attempting to lose the last bit of my baby weight (can you still call it baby weight after 4 years? It's a stubborn 10 lb!). I did some research and I actually do eat a good bit of what helps lower bad and raise good cholesterols. I am tracking calorie intake and snacking less. AND I'm going to be eating less red meat and pork products and may try to learn how to cook salmon - something I've never done.

It's going to be a little hard since during my last two pregnancies I really gained an aversion to chicken. I rarely crave it anymore and sometimes I do get downright nauseated by the thought of eating it, even if I do actually enjoy many dishes. It's a mind over matter thing for sure. It is another reason I was so happy to come up with this recipe. I love burrito/fajita bowls and this is a fantastic recipe to have in my arsenal.

Foil Pack Creamy Salsa Verde Chicken

Taco Tuesday in a foil pack in the oven - this salsa verde chicken is mouthwateringly delicious!

I tried quite a few foil packet recipes last summer because I really love Hobo Dinner and make it frequently and wanted to expand our horizons. This chicken recipe is probably my absolute favorite chicken foil pack recipe I have made so far. I am basically game for anything with rice, black beans, corn, cilantro, and lime at this point.