I have a always held a hard and fast rule about Christmas decorating. That rule states the earliest a person should decorate thier home for Christmas is on Thanksgiving evening and preferably not until Black Friday. Every year I see Christmas items in the stores when it isn't even Halloween and it drives me crazy. However, it is 2020 and nothing is as it should be. So many plans and things that should bring joy have been lost. While I wouldn't give up our family time that has expanded from being home we missed a lot of things that we planned. I wanted to take my girl to her first concert (we were pricing Kids Bop tickets back in February). We planned to go visit family for Easter that live over 500 miles away. There were trips to the beach that only happened once instead of all summer long. Play dates that were cancelled. I am sure all of us have things that didn't happen because it is 2020 and everything just stopped this past March.
Given the 2020 factor I broke my own rule this year. Over the past week I have taken out my Christmas tree and most of my indoor decorations. I still won't break my rules for outdoor decorations at this point. I haven't completely gone off the rails. That said, when my daughter came home from school last week and saw that I had started decorating on my lunch break the grin was so wide. When I promised to trim the tree on Sunday she squealed and did a full on happy dance. With all the things that we couldn't do this year I can give her this. We can bring the joy and wonder of Christmas into our home a full month earlier than planned just to see that amazing smile.
And yes, those are Christmas light headbands. Anyone that knows me well understands I have a great love of hats, headbands, scarves or anything else I can put on my head. Maybe one day soon I'll post about my collection.
Another joy I brought to my daughter this weekend was her favorite food. She LOVES tacos. She is picky in that she prefers ground beef rather than chicken, steak, fish or shrimp as her protein but if it means a taco she will still have the others just to get her way. She also loves when I put all the taco fixings in a bowl and add a plate of tortilla chips so she can dip as she wants or pour it over as nachos. Given that I also craved those nachos but was trying to keep away from the tortilla chips I made my own with a vegetable base rather than corn chips.
First let me tell you about my taco meat. I did say my girl preferred ground beef but I didn't say it was just ground beef. As with most other foods in our home I try to both stretch out the amounts for the sake of our budget and I also try to make things a bit healthier or add vegetables where I can without sacrificing flavor. When I make tacos I use a few ingredients just for the beef. I do start with a pound of 80/20 ground beef and 2 packets of store bought taco seasoning. I also grab dried lentils, a can of petite diced tomatoes and a bag of frozen seasoning blend (usually chopped onions, peppers, celery and parsley).
In a small saucepan I will add about a cup of lentils and an equal amount of water and bring the heat up to medium. These I will let cook down until there is very little water remaining. At the same time I will brown the beef & frozen seasoning blend together and drain any fat/liquid off when it is browned. Then I will add the canned tomoatoes, lentils, taco seasoning and some water letting it simmer just a few minutes. Not much in the way of extra steps but this adds some flavor from the peppers & onions and adds some legumes into our diets when no one is much interested in eating beans in our house.
Once we have our taco meat ready it is time to get ready to make some taco bites! Preheat the oven to 385°F. I used zucchini and mini sweet peppers for mine but you can use whatever vegetable you like best and will be able to hold it's shape while loaded with toppings. Honestly, the sweet peppers were my favorite for this but zucchini is my favorite vegetable in general so to me they were all delicious. I sliced the zucchini into rounds and I sliced the mini sweet peppers in half lengthwise. They were then placed on a parchment lined baking sheet and topped with the taco meat. Then I topped with exactly 1 serving of reduced fat Mexican blend cheese. For me it is so easy to overindulge in shredded cheese so I tend to be very careful of my measurements here.
I baked these only for 10 or 15 minutes until the vegetables were not quite raw any longer and the cheese was melted. Then I topped them with my Creamy Jalapeno Dressing, diced tomotoes and chopped scallions. They were so tasty that I ate them twice in the same day and enjoyed every bite. The best part is, of course, that I also got my plate of nachos without having to break down and cheat just to have that taste. It may not have the crunch of tortilla chips but all the flavors I was looking for along with the fun of bite sized finger food was there.
If you haven't read how to make my Creamy Jalapeno Dressing check it out at https://pamperedlinny.wixsite.com/coffee-required/post/creamy-jalapeno-dressing. So simple! Just put everything in the blender, taste and adjust seasonings as you desire and store in the fridge.
Ingredients:
Taco Meat
Sliced Vegetables
Reduced Fat Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese
Creamy Jalapeno Dressing https://pamperedlinny.wixsite.com/coffee-required/post/creamy-jalapeno-dressing
Diced Tomoatoes
Chopped Scallions
Directions:
Preheat oven to 385°
On a parchment lined baking sheet layer vegetable slices
Top slices with taco meat
Top meat with shredded cheese
Bake until cheese is melted and vegetables are no longer raw, approximately 10 to 15 minutes
Remove from oven and top with dressing, tomatoes and scallions.
Enjoy!
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