Taco Salad

My husband and I love Mexican food, from barely Mexican texmex to the more authentic mom and pop places that claim to have the real deal. This dish leans pretty far into the texmex court.

My fake it till you make it Taco Salad:

Ingredients:

Ground Beef
Taco Bell Seasoning Packet
Lettuce
Fritos Original Corn Chips
Salsa
Tomato, chopped
Mexican blend cheese
Sour Cream
Any other taco topping you like.

Brown ground beef, season with Taco Bell taco seasoning packet as directed.

Put lettuce into bowl or on a plate, top with salsa, tomatoes, taco meat, cheese sour cream and any other toppings you like. Add Fritos on top like croutons. And done!

Key Lime Pie

Key lime pie is my husbands favorite dessert. He can eat a whole pie all by himself, and he will if I let him. Key lime pie is very easy and very yummy. I use the recipe right off the Nellie & Joe's Famous Key Lime Juice bottle. I know that's cheating a little to use bottled juice. So if you want to squeeze all those tiny key limes, knock yourself out.

You will need:

1 9" graham cracker pie crust (store bought or home made, I've used both)
1 14oz can Sweetened Condensed milk
1/2 C Nellie & Joe's Key Lime Juice
3 Egg yolks (whites not used)

Combine milk, egg yolks and lime juice. Blend until smooth. Pour filling into pie crust and bake at 350º for 15 minutes. Allow to stand 10 minutes before refrigerating. Just before serving, top with freshly whipped cream and garnish with lime slices if desired.

This time I decided to make my own pie crust. It's super easy. I buy the graham cracker crumbs and use the recipe on the box. It's just crumbs, sugar and butter.

Angel Food Cake

I love Angel Food cake! It is so good and because it's half air and has no frosting it's not as bad for you as most other cakes. I use a version of my moms recipe which she has used for my whole life. This is a crowd pleaser and can be dressed up in so many easy ways. Add fruit on top and whipped cream or cut the cake in half and pull out some of the middle and fill it with sherbet for a chilly refreshing twist.

This time I just made plain angel food cake, no fruit, no whipped cream, no frills just cake.


Angel Food Cake

1 cup Cake Flour
1 1/4 cups Powdered Sugar
12 egg whites (yolks not used)
1 1/2 tsp Cream of tartar
1/4 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/4 tsp Almond extract
1 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Sift the cake flour and powdered sugar together three times.



In the largest bowl you have beat egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, vanilla and almond until they from soft peaks. Beat in the sugar a couple of spoonfuls at a time until stiff peaks form.



Sift the dry ingredients over the whites in fourths using an up and down motion and turning the bowl often.



Bake in an ungreased tube pan for 30 min.



After removing the cake from the oven flip the pan upside down onto the little feet and let the cake cool completely. I like to put a piece of parchment paper down on the counter under the cake just in case it's fluffed up enough for it to touch. If it's really fluffy and the little feet aren't tall enough you can set the pan on top of a wine bottle or set the little feet on top of coasters to give them a little extra height.



After the cake is cooled use a knife to cut around the inside and outside edges and then remove the cake from the outside ring. Then use the knife to cut the cake from the bottom of the pan and place on a cake plate, garnish as desired.

I was so excited about eating this cake I completely forgot to take a picture of the finished product. But I make this cake a lot so I'll update this next time I make one.

What's for lunch?

As I think I've mentioned I pack my husbands lunch almost every day. It usually consists of leftovers or a sandwich and a salad, or sometimes just a big salad and some snacks. He works long days, between 9 and 11 hours, so I try to make sure he has a few things he can keep at his desk to munch on through out the day.

I don't take my own lunch to work because of my "office" situation. I need that break to leave my desk and see a different set of walls for a little while. My husband works in a large office with a break room so he usually eats in there.

Today for his lunch I packed a Greek salad with lettuce, banana peppers, tomatoes, feta cheese, pepperoncinis and Greek dressing, we were out of kalamata olives which are his favorite part. Tortilla chips and white bean salsa, green grapes, two prunes, a low fat mozzarella cheese stick, a strawberry banana yogurt, a chocolate chip chewy granola bar and a pacific cooler caprisun juice.