smalltownhealthyliving

Ah Cinco de Mayo.  I don’t really know much about the holiday, only that it is not Mexico’s Independence Day.  To Americans, it is apparently the day to celebrate Mexico’s culture… mostly food and beverages.  Great excuse for a party!

 

I’m going to rewind for a second.  Friday night was fun- I got to give a presentation about healthy eating and smoothies to Cathy Corkery’s yoga class.  It was so much fun because we actually made some smoothies.  A couple of them freaked out a little when I threw the handful of spinach in, but bless their hearts they all tried it.  And they said they enjoyed it, now whether or not they were just saying that, I’m not sure.  I had fun.  

 

Now Cinco de Mayo.  We started off our day by working in the office.  Tyler got to hang out with his friend Brooke (supervised by Erica of course) while we worked.  Then the prep began.

 

I had set out a chuck roast to use for the carne asada, but I really should have just used some sirloin steaks or something, because trimming that chuck roast was a pain in the butt. I think I have carpal tunnel now.  Here is the link to the recipe I used to adapt my own recipe.  I’m sorry I didn’t take any pictures, I was running around doing a hundred things at once so I didn’t get a chance.

 

Carne Asada

1-2 pounds Chuck Roast, thinly sliced into small chunks

Juice of 2 Large Oranges

Juice of 2 Limes

3 Garlic Cloves, minced

3 Teaspoons Seasoned Salt

2 Teaspoons Chili Powder

2 Teaspoons Coriander

2 Teaspoons Cumin

1 Teaspoons Pepper

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

Place meat in a 8×8 glass pan and cover with the seasoned salt, chili powder, coriander, cumin, and pepper.  Rub the seasoning mix into the cubes of meat.  Mix together the citrus juices and garlic and pour over the seasoned meat.  Cover, and refrigerate overnight, or 4 hours at the very least.

Heat cast iron skillet and add 1 T olive oil.  Cook the meat until desired level of doneness. 

 

 

It was kind of a pain to actually juice the oranges and lime, but I’m sure if you wanted to save a little time you could just use concentrates.  The seasoning was excellent though, and I could have eaten the whole plate.  Everyone else said they liked it too.

 

Here is the one sad picture I have, and you can’t even see the meat since I covered it with cheese and salsa and beans.

 

   

Now the real fun… homemade strawberry margaritas!!  Little bit of effort to these, but I HIGHLY recommend making these.  It’s about a billion times better than the syrupy sugary mixes that you get at the store. 

 

Now that’s not to say this does not have sugar in it.  It does.  I did not try to “health-ify” this recipe.  Maybe someday, but it’s hard to top this (here’s the link to the original recipe from How Sweet It Is).

 

Fresh Strawberry Margaritas 

recipe for one margarita, can easily be multiplied

2 ounces Triple Sec

1 1/2 ounces Tequila

2 ounces lime juice

2 1/2 ounces strawberry simple syrup [recipe below]

lime + fresh strawberries for garnish

salt + sugar for the rim

Rim the ridge of your glass with a lime wedge and dip in a mix of margarita salt + sugar or one or the other. Fill the glass with ice. In a cocktail shaker, combine tequila, Triple Sec, simple syrup and lime juice with ice, and shake for about 30 seconds. Pour over ice and squeeze in lime slices and add a few strawberries.

For strawberry simple syrup: combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water, bring to a boil and let sugar dissolve, then turn off heat and let cool completely. Combine 1 cup simple syrup + 1 1/2 cups slices strawberries in a blender and blend until combined. If you’d like, you can strain the mixture over a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds.

This recipe can be easily doubled, quadrupled, etc. Since everyone’s tastes differ, add simple syrup 1/4 cup at a time and go from taste. I also suggest buying the lime juice if you plan on making a pitcher (or 2) considering you’d have to squeeze a billion limes to get enough juice.

 

 

Couple notes on what I did: I made them individually, one at a time in my handy shaker.

 

 

That seemed to work the best.  I used frozen strawberries and it tasted great, just make sure to thaw them a little before blending with the simple syrup.  Be sure to use clear tequila- “blanco” tequila- and make sure it’s 100% agave.  I did use lime juice concentrate (the stuff in the little squeezy limes), so I’m sure using fresh squeezed lime juice would just send this through the roof.  I was just sick of juicing stuff for the steak.

 

 

Just perfect.

 

I only had one since they were a tad on the strong side.  Followed it up with a Corona.  And then a glass of wine on our deck while we relaxed and stared at the super moon.

 

 

Today I started off the morning with another new recipe- a yummy frittata.  I adapted this recipe from a bunch of different ones, just depended on what I had on hand.

 

Caramelized Onion and Pepper Frittata

1 white onion, diced

1 red pepper, diced

1 green pepper, diced

6 eggs

1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated

1/4 cup chopped ham

1/2 tomato, diced

2 tsp olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Over medium-low heat, heat oil in a cast iron skillet. Stir in onion and cook until slightly brown, about 8 minutes. Add peppers and cook 5 more minutes.  Season with salt and pepper and cook 3 more minutes stirring occasionally.  In a medium bowl whisk eggs, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. Stir in ham and then pour over veggies, making sure the eggs cover all the veggies.  Sprinkle tomato on top.  When edges begin to set (about 2-3 minutes), move skillet to oven.  Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes, until the middle is set.  Serve warm.

 

 

 

 

Believe it or not I actually got some cleaning done this weekend.  Should have taken a picture of how gross the floor was in Tyler’s room.  He’s never really in there unless he’s in bed. 

 

I also managed to get to the gym today.  I’m starting my bootcamp workouts all over again.  This time the workout was actually easy, so I found myself having to increase the weights quite a bit.  Guess that’s a good sign.

 

Here’s what the little guy did most of the weekend:

 

 

 

 

Tyler is pretty skinny, so you’d probably never believe that he just eats constantly.  I can’t even list all the food he had this weekend.  Anytime he’s fussy, it usually means he’s tired or hungry.  And if he’s hungry he just shovels it in.   

 

About that… we were helping him put some change in his piggy bank today and let him put a couple quarters in.  He started to shovel one in his mouth and we both yelled “NO!” and swiped it away really quick.  That was the end of that and of course he started bawling because we yelled.  Think someone needs to have a chat with Uncle Jake about what happens when we swallow quarters.

 

Supper was more chicken on the grill with some steamed broccoli and some garlic noodles (from a box, blah).

 

 

Can’t wait for the series finale of Desperate Housewives tonight!  That’s pretty much my guilty soap opera pleasure. 

 

I’m off… hope you had a great weekend… softball league starts this week- get pumped!!