Paco's Tacos

(Pacos Tacos - all loaded up)

Our honeymoon not only created our love for pico de gallo. It also created our summer favorite - Paco's Tacos!! When we arrived at our all inclusive resort for our honey moon, by the time we got checked in and into our room it was already past dinner time at the dining facilities. EXCEPT for an open-all-night place called Paco's. So we headed there the first time.

OH. MY. GOODNESS. We were in love - with the food. They had authentic Mexican cuisine at its finest. Everything tasted so fresh and delicious. They had tacos and quesadillas and everything else you could imagine. So on our multiple trips to Paco's throughout the week, I tried to figure out how to replicate Paco's Tacos at home. Here's what we came up with:

Paco's tacos filling

Paco's Tacos

2 chicken breasts
Juice of 4 limes
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
fresh cracked pepper

2 bell peppers - any color, sliced into strips
1 red onion, sliced into strips

In a large bowl, whisk together lime juice, cilantro, garlic cloves, olive oil and pepper. Reserve 1/4 cup of marinade in a tupperware container. Add chicken breasts to larger bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate to marinate for at least 2 hours.

When ready to grill, slice up peppers and red onion into strips. Create a pouch of tin foil. Put sliced veggies and reserved 1/4 cup marinade into pouch. Seal up pouch and put on top shelf of preheated grill. Grill chicken breasts for 6-7 minutes on each side until thoroughly cooked. Remove chicken and veggies from grill.

Slice chicken breasts into thin strips. Top tortillas with chicken and veggies then additional toppings as desired.

Enjoy!! Makes 4 servings.

***I did not calculate nutrition facts on this as it depends what you put on your taco.

Actually Delicious Turkey Burgers

I've been in search of the perfect turkey burger for quite some time. I found this turkey burger recipe a few months ago. Although it is tasty - it's not quite a replacement for a good old fashioned burger since it is more of a buffalo variation. When you get a turkey burger, it is important that the burger not be dry and that it be super flavorful as ground turkey can have a tendency to be bland and dry - yuck! So the search continued.....

A few weeks ago we had some friends over for dinner (Hey Amanda!!!) and I knew they would appreciate a tasty turkey burger. I searched high and low and found this recipe for turkey burgers on allrecipes.com. I scaled it down a bit to make 4 servings and altered the proportions of some of the ingredients. They were super tasty! I topped mine with lettuce, provolone cheese, onion and A-1 sauce. The rolls were homemade (although ended up not being blog-worthy) and I'll share the fresh green bean recipe tomorrow.

Keep in mind that turkey burgers, although not necessarily low calories, are a better option than a traditional beef burger. Turkey meat is lower in fat and saturated fat which helps make it a heart healthier option. Try them on the grill - your heart will thank you :)

Actually Delicious Turkey Burgers

1 pound ground turkey
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
2 Tbsp finely diced onion
1 egg white
1 Tbsp dried parsley
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
fresh cracked pepper to taste

Combine thoroughly all ingredients. Shape into four equal patties. Refrigerate at least 15 minutes to help hold their shape.

Cook on grill, 4 minutes on each side until thoroughly cooked. Try to avoid flipping them a bunch of times as they are prone to break apart.

Makes 4 patties. Each patty provides:

230 calories
11.3 g fat
6.0 g carbohydrate
0.6 g fiber
4.8 g protein

Patties would be even lower in fat and calories if you use
ground turkey breast instead of just regular ground turkey.

Southwest Turkey Burgers

I've been trying to utilize ground turkey much more often than ground beef in our diet. I usually substitute ground turkey in tacos or pasta dishes without any problem. BUT I've been hesitant to make actual turkey burgers because I feel that ground turkey really can lack the flavor that ground beef has in a burger. SO I went in search of a recipe that added plenty of extra flavor.

When I search for recipes I have a handful of food blogs that I often check first (they're listed in my blog roll). But I also try to find new and smaller food blogs by searching for the recipe type and the word blog in google. (Really creative, I know). So after looking through a bunch of options after searching "turkey burger blogspot" in google, I found Becoming Rooks. We already had a bunch in common, she likes to cook, run and is from the Cleveland, OH area (where I grew up!). So I thought I must like her turkey burger recipe!

I did make a few changes because I was using a pound of ground turkey and had a couple different spices on hand. But I knew her recipe would be good inspiration. My husband had two burgers and I was able to cut up the fourth patty on my salad for lunch the next day. I'll be honest - I wasn't the biggest fan of having buffalo sauce on my burger but when I substituted that with BBQ sauce, it was quite tasty! I'll let you decide your preference :)

A traditional quarter pound cheeseburger from McDonald's provides the following:

510 calories 26 g fat 19 g saturated fat 155 mg cholesterol 40 g carbohydrate 3 g fiber 48 g protein

In contrast to McDonalds, this burger uses ground turkey instead of beef saving over 16 g of saturated fat and saves over 70 mg cholesterol.

Southwest Turkey Burgers

1 pound ground turkey
2 Tbsp paprika
2 tsp chipotle chili powder
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 egg whites
4 oz. 2% colby jack cheese
1/4 cup buffalo wing sauce (I preferred BBQ sauce)
4 whole wheat buns (I used Aunt Millie's)

Combine paprika, chili powder, garlic powder and green onion. Add ground turkey and egg whites. Mix until thoroughly combined. Form into 4 equal sized patties. Put in refrigerator for 15 minutes to chill and set up.

Preheat grill to medium heat. Grill patties on each side for 3-4 minutes until cooked through. Top with cheese and allow to melt slightly. Toast buns and place patty on each bun. Spread with wing sauce (or BBQ) and enjoy!!!

Per burger (makes 4): 416 calories 16.3 g fat 2.8 g saturated fat 83.6 mg cholesterol 43.8 g carbohydrate 4.7 g fiber 35.8 g protein

Sweet and Spicy Grilled Chicken

In the summer, we grill A LOT of chicken. In fact, one summer we ate grilled chicken sprinkled with Montreal Steak seasoning with grilled green peppers, onions and potatoes probably 3 or 4 nights a week and we called it "summer meal". Since that summer, I've tried to be a little more creative with my grilled chicken.

My meal plan for the week called for grilled chicken with potatoes and vegetables one night so off I went in search of a great grilled chicken recipe. I found this recipe on Real Mom Kitchen for Sweet and Spicy Grilled Chicken and thought I'd give it a try.

To be honest, I made no nutritional changes to this recipe! The rub itself is pretty healthy and plain old chicken breast can't really be made healthier. The recipe does, however, call for a 6 oz chicken breast per person. Traditionally I recommend 3-4 oz protein portions at meals. I had a pretty hard work out after work on this day and ate the full 6 oz portion myself.... so I can't judge if you do too!

I did make one small change to the recipe. I didn't grill the chicken. See, we live in Michigan and we have this thing called CRAZY winters that last forever. And since it was December, I kind of forgot that we had moved the grill to the storage area since winter grilling on our deck is out of the questions as it is freezing and crazy windy all the time. So I seared this chicken in a dry frying pan instead.

Sweet and Spicy Chicken
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp paprika
2 tsp onion powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
5 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (6 ounces each... or I used chicken tenders)

Combine the first five ingredients; rub over chicken. Coat grill rack with cooking spray for grills or brush with olive oil before starting the grill. (Or just put it in a dry nonstick pan, like me). Grill chicken, covered, for 4-5 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer reads 170 degrees.

Makes 5 servings, per serving:

209 calories
2.4 g fat
6.5 g carbohydrate
0.7 g fiber
39.6 g protein