Not Just Tacos Review & Free Ebook Link!!

The past two weeks I've been posting some delicious looking dishes from the book Not Just Tacos. 

I have quite a few cookbooks but none like this one! Seriously. 

I'm not a 'spicy' food lover and I honestly thought that Latin American dishes had to be spicy. Silly me! 

This book has drastically changed the way I look at preparing food. 

If you read the other posts about the dishes we've made, you'll know we've loved them all! Not one has been disappointing. As a matter of fact, we've been super shocked at how delicious they are! Cooking from scratch isn't new to me. Our family rarely eats boxed, processed foods any more. But one thing my cooking seems to lack is the flavor we've found in the recipes from this book.

Guess what- Shirley is offering this book for free as a download for 5 days only (September 16-20,203). Read through the rest of this post to find the link to get your free download. 

I received an autographed copy of this cookbook from Shirley Solis, the author.

This cookbook is sturdy, with thick pages, and beautiful photos. But it's more than just recipes for Latin American dishes. There are cultural facts for each country. Here's a list of the countries we 'visit' in this book:

*Mexico  *El Salvador  *Honduras  *Cuba  *Puerto Rico  

*Dominican Republic  *Haiti  *Guatemala  *Nicaragua  *Costa Rica  *Panama

*Venezuela   *French Guiana   *Brazil   *Colombia

*Ecuador   *Peru   *Bolivia   *Paraguay

*Chile   *Uruguay  *Argentina

Wow! 

All of the family went through this book, choosing recipes that looked and sounded like ones to try. I can't even tell you how many were bookmarked to start with! I had to shorten the list or we'd have been eating Latin American dishes every night. Hmmm, that may not have been a bad thing...

Here are some more yummy photos of dishes in this book-

I seriously love this book! I know you will like it, too. 

And now...here's the link to get your free download of this book for 5 days only! Feel free to share!! Click the image below.

This is such an awesome book that if you miss the free download, I highly recommend you make the purchase! You can order the hardcover book for $20.13 (retail $25.00), or the ebook for $9.99 (retail). 

If you'd like to see more about Not Just Tacos, visit the website, find them on Facebook, or on Twitter. 

*This post does include Amazon affiliate links. See Disclosure/Policies*

Mexico to Panama...

My food never {well rarely} looks like the photos in the recipe. This was our dinner last night. Tacos!

Loved it! So far there has not be a recipe we've tried that we've not enjoyed. The tacos were paired with pico de gallo {I'll call it salsa}. My dear hubby thought that perhaps it was a little heavy on the onions. We didn't use even all that it called for! Admittedly, we also didn't use cilantro or lime juice. We used parsley and lemon juice- totally different flavors! {I really dislike cilantro smell and taste- personal preference.}

We also had guacamole and sour cream with ours, not called for in the recipe. The kids also put shredded cheese on theirs. That's the good thing with recipes- you can tweak and change them to suit you and your family. 

This afternoon I made empanadas for the kids. Sorry, no photos of those! But they were huge! I used leftover steak from the tacos last night with chicken and turkey, all ground together. I make turnovers {what empanadas are really} all the time but with tuna and sometimes chunks of chicken. Made the way the recipe directed, these were even tastier. 

It seems all this food has way more flavor than I'm used to! I don't know what we're going to do when I go back to my 'usual' cooking! 

Don't forget the week of the 16th {that's next week!} there will be something special on my blog pertaining to all this food I've been sharing! It'll be worth the wait, I promise!

Oh, here's a bit of 'social studies/geography' for you:

Mexico is the most populated Spanish-speaking country in the world. 

It is also one of the top tourist destinations. 

Some of the popular locations include Puerto Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, and the Ancient Mayan and Aztec Ruins.

Panama is the only country where you can see the sun rise in the Pacific and set in the Atlantic! 

The Panama Canal is located here. 

The culture and cuisine is a mix of Caribbean, Spanish, Indian, Chinese and West Indian countries. 

Puerto Rico and Then Onto Mexico

Cuba -and now Puerto Rico and then Mexico!? Oh yeah! 

I won't say our family is full of fuddy-duddies when it comes to trying new foods but - oh who am I kidding!? We are a bunch of creatures of habit and we like our 'usual' foods. This book though is changing that! 

The photo above (sorry it's really not that great of a photo!) is from a dish from Puerto Rico. It's called Carne Guisada, or beef stew. I've made beef stew before- a few times actually. What makes this one different? It's got some kick! It has flavor that mine is usually lacking. 

We all liked this. It reminded me of chili, stew-style and sans the beans. 

Next stop is Mexico...for real tacos.

A Visit to Cuba...Well Not *Really*

Last night this family had a taste of Cuba. It was spectacular and delicious. 

(For all my THM friends/followers, this is so not THM-friendly!)

I was very surprised by this dish. Preparing and putting it together really did not give me much indication of its awesomeness. I was totally blown away by the finished product! 

I'm super excited to be able to share the book I got this from... in 11 days! I know- how mean of me to make you wait! It'll be worth the wait. I promise!

Here's a little information about Cuba that I learned while making this dish:

• Cuba was the first and last Spanish colony in the Carribbean
• Cuba, as a country, has the highest doctor-to-population in the world
• Even though Cuba is so close to Mexico, geographically, its style is more like that of Spain

Quiche! It’s What’s for Dinner

I was hoping to get a lot of photos to share in this post but nope, the dead battery syndrome struck again. I did manage to get a few though. They’ll have to do.

Do you know how hard it is to make pie crust?! Actually… I don’t think it is at all but a lot of the time that means it isn’t going to be the ‘perfect’ crust lol. Eh, we’re not that picky {we can’t be –I’m the cook! lol}.

Here’s what I do:

• 1 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup better butter {now this is 1 lb butter mixed with 2 cups oil- it’s better than butter *wink*}
• 4 to 5 TBS milk

Flour and salt get mixed together then the butter gets cut into that. It’s a little bit of a challenge with such a small amount of butter but a fork will do the trick. Once the butter is mixed in so it looks like crumbs, pour the milk in and mix all with the fork. When it is all about mixed it will mostly stick together. Form it into a ball with your hands. On a very barely floured surface and with a rolling pin, roll out until it is the size of the pie plate.

To get the crust to the plate without tearing, roll it around the pin to transport.

Here’s the crust after it’s been prebaked at 450*F for 8-12 minutes. It’s not beautiful but it’ll work!

In between making the crust and prebaking it, I turned the oven down to 325*F and made the quiche mix. I didn’t follow my recipe book very well {go figure} but here’s sort of what I did:

• 3/4 cup chopped {well it was cut up anyway} spinach leaves
• 1/4 cup chopped red onion
• 3/4 – 1 cup cut up sausage links {it called for ham- we never have that lol}
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cup cheese
• 1 TBS flour
• salt, pepper, garlic powder

You’re supposed to beat the eggs, add the milk, salt and pepper {and the recipe called for nutmeg- hmmm- I chose garlic powder}, then add the onions and spinach {honestly, the recipe didn’t even have spinach}. I eventually got them all into the same bowl. After I got those mixed, I used a clean bowl for the cheese and flour. I put in the cut up meat and finally the cheese mix. About this time the pie crust was done with its bake. I poured the quiche mix into the crust…and promptly had a problem. And not just that the batteries in the camera died.

   

My wall {imperfect pie crust- told ya} had sprung a leak. Thank goodness for cookie sheets! Now it’s cooking. Supposedly it’ll take 55 minutes {including cooling time}. I don’t think so. It’s been 45 minutes and it’s still runny. Good thing we don’t usually eat until 6:45pm; tonight will be no different!

It smells very good. Now I’m hungry. So…what’s for dinner for you?

Cheese Stuffed Turkey Burgers

Are you ready for a really strange recipe? It turns out really good, I promise! Maybe it isn’t that strange…

Ingredients:
1 lb ground turkey
2 eggs
1/2 cup instant mashed potatoes
1/4 cup quick cook oats
2 TBS wheat germ (that’s the strange part!)
1 TBS garlic salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp Mrs. Dash
1/2 tsp Italian Seasoning
1 TBS ketchup
1 tsp mustard
4 slices cheese OR 1 cup shredded cheese

Combine all ingredients except for the cheese. Split the mix in half (just push the halves against the bowl with a space between) and form 4 patties out of each side –8 patties in all. Place four patties on a plate, put a slice of cheese on each (or if you are using shredded cheese, top the patties with some cheese) and then put the remaining patties on top of the cheese. Crimp the edges together.

Cook either in a pan for 4-6 minutes per side on med-high heat or use a nifty grill for 7 minutes, like this one:

We don’t usually use buns or bread with our burgers (call us weird), but we get our carbs from the oats and potatoes I also use the oats and other ‘fillers’ because turkey does not seem to have the same texture as beef. I use the egg to bind it more but the liquid from the egg requires (in my humble opinion) some fillers to absorb it a little. That is where the potato flakes come in. The oats are to add texture.

I don’t normally use wheat germ but I saw it in the cupboard and being curious and experimental (haha with everyone’s food muahahaha!) I put some in. Why not!

This post has been submitted to The Christian Home, Issue 36, under Hospitality.

Toss Together: Vegetable Chicken Soup

What to make for dinner? I like to plan my meals but haven’t done so in um, well, it has definitely been too long.

What to make when you have V8 juice, a can of diced tomatoes and chicken breast? Unfortunately, we aren’t big on the tomato base but eh, what if that’s all you have? I did scrounge up (lol it sounds like I scraped it off of something…I had some left in a jar in the fridge) some chicken broth (made it myself) and a can or two of veggies.

I just thought this was interesting; all different brands lol.

Here is what I did with my findings:

In a large pot poured in V8 juice (should have used two- but that means taking from dh’s stash *wink*), chicken broth (from a can and my leftovers), dumped in diced tomatoes, cut green beans and carrots. The chicken I had to thaw and then I cut it into strips. Cooked in a little oil and seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder (my three most favorite ‘spices’) I cut them into chunks and added it to the soup.

      

I started the soup at about 3pm and we usually eat by 6:30pm. I figured that 3+ hours would be good to get the chicken flavored. The only thing I didn’t count on (and yet I knew better) was that the canned veggies are already soft and giving them a bath in soup only makes them soggy.

I like rice so I might cook up a little rice to toss in with my soup.

What’s your favorite ‘toss together’ meal?

I Made Bread!… and WWAT Days # 56 & 57

That is white/wheat bread. It is mostly white all purpose flour but it has some white whole wheat flour as well. It turned out bee-you-tee-ful! And tastes scrumptious! It was made with Red Star yeast and honey instead of sugar. It’s so nice when a loaf of bread turns out so well…feels good And for me, it’s been awhile.

I’m also working on the sourdough starter. Here’s a photo or two of it two days ago and now:

    

I’m itching to use it! But it has at least one more day. It finally is smelling sour and not just nasty

Made beans for dinner. And since I’m in the photo taking/sharing mood here’s a photo of them before being cooked (I think beans in water are pretty )

…and after…What a difference! (not so pretty but sure tastes yummy! )

I might add that I used spare chicken..uh, parts..(which I had to carefully strain out before serving –should have made the broth before the beans- note to self!) for flavoring the ‘broth’ and also a can of chicken broth, a good dump of garlic powder, some salt and Italian Seasoning…and a cup or so of precooked rice (added the last 20 minutes of cooking). Oh! and cut up baby carrots.

And now onto what was done for school today… The kids worked almost entirely on their own. There were narrations and “Mom help me with this please” a couple of times but mostly it was all independent.

And you know, I’ve no idea what day of school today is! I mark off each day on a chart that I have but I second guess myself all the time. I keep thinking it’s less than it is but count it to farther than we’ve gone. At some point I might actually count it all…not right now. So on to it-

Lee:
Bible: Reading (Duet. 7 & Acts 9), verse (Romans 6:1-23), Mark Commentary (started chapter 9), Mere Christianity
Math: Life of Fred Beginning Algebra (Lesson 75 & 76)
History/Geography: Western Civilization (pages 326-328), Heritage History Classical Curriculum (British Middle Ages- Plantagenet Kings- reading), The Life of Christopher Columbus (finished)
Language Arts: Excellence in Literature (The Diamond Necklace), NaNoWriMo preparations (using the High School workbook
Foreign Language:  First Form Latin (Lesson 21, worksheets 1 & 2)Gov’t/Economics/Civics/Logic: Utopia, Whatever Happened to Justice? (chapter 24)
Science: Biology (pages 104-107, vocabulary)
Composer Study: Listening to classical music every day

Fox:
Bible: Reading (Numbers 32 & Luke 7), verse (Proverbs 6:16-19), Saints & Heroes (John Wycliffe)
Math: Algebra the Easy Way (page 17-30, did exercises and end of chapter problems #2-34 even)
History/Geography: Heritage History Classical Curriculum (reading)
Language Arts: 30 minutes of reading (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow), The Age of Fable (1/3 chapter 33), The Hobbit (second 1/2 of chapter 12
Foreign Language: First Form Latin (Lesson 21 worksheets 1 & 2)
Gov’t/Economics/Civics/Logic: The Fallacy Detective (Lesson 2), Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? (chapter 12), Young Marines
Science: Murche’s (Lesson 23), The Story Book of Science (chapter 19)
Penmanship: Pictures in Cursive
Composer Study: Listening to classical music every day

And now…I’m going to get off of here. Goodnight!

Turkey - It's STILL What's For Dinner!

Thanks to Heidi @ Reviews & Reflections, I've got a new recipe to try with the turkey. The name really describes what they look like but I'm hoping they are good! Their called Uglies! The recipe is at Allrecipes.com.

I'm going to make them with the ground turkey and my homemade biscuits and maybe twice as much cheese ;) Hopefully, I will update this post afterward to let ya'll know how they turned out!

Oh, and while I'm sharing recipes, head over to The Simple Life for a few 'DIY' recipes. That syrup one looks tasty :P Of course, my pancakes are so good (or my kids are so well trained haha!) that they don't need syrup ;)

Turkey - It's What's For Dinner

http://www.printactivities.com/Mazes/Shape_Mazes/Turkey-Maze.html

I really wanted a photo of a turkey that hasn't been cooked... but this is probably more acceptable. We aren't having turkey in the traditional sense- like Thanksgiving dinner. Nope. We are having turkey, bean (and rice) and cheese burritos.

Last month, Tristan @ Our Busy Homeschool posted a recipe for crockpot refried beans which I just thought was totally awesome. (That does have something to do with this post, I promise) At the time I had only a 3 quart crockpot, which work fine for the recipe, with a little tweaking. But for Christmas my hubby gave me a 7 quart crockpot! I was itching to use it for something. I'm going to admit that I did not use it for Tristan's crockpot refried beans (I had forgotten about it- yea, my mind goes in and out). I did make beans however. The original plan was to make bean soup. I added the beans and let them cook, then I added some spices and .... some rice. Well, the beans hadn't cooked enough for me to add the rice but I wasn't paying attention. By the time the beans were finally done, the rice was not visible. But it was a very thick soup!

I thought it was a little funny actually. I ate some of the beans with some cheese sprinkled on top and thought it was good. Well, I scooped the remainder (no one else ate any- grrr) into containers to put in the fridge. It was about this time that I realized because of the consistency, this could be used as beans for burritos, in place of refried beans. So I grated up some cheese and made some bean and cheese burritos. 

We had that for dinner one night and then I got the bright idea (oh, yes, I'm so smart hehe) that I would make freezer burritos. I put a sheet of aluminum foil on the counter, with a piece of saran wrap on top of that. The burritos went together nicely and first rolled in the saran wrap then the aluminum foil (and finally all put into a freezer bag) keeps them 'fresh'. 

Well, at Thanksgiving we were given 4 turkeys. God smiles on us :) We ate the first for Thanksgiving. The second I thawed after the first of the year to cook but silly me I forgot that I don't have a pan for it. So instead it got cut to pieces. What didn't get used (the edible meat) was put in the crockpot with some water, garlic, carrots and onions to make turkey stock. All the meat I cut up and put in freezer bags. But honestly I wasn't sure what to do with it.

I almost forgot about it! Good thing I didn't though- that would have been quite a bit of meat wasted! So today with my awesome food processor, I made ground turkey. I was doing this when Lee asked what would be for dinner and I really had no ideas. But a little later I was dealing with the remainder of the beans and making burritos for the freezer. It dawned on me that we usually use ground turkey for our meals that use meat. Why not make burritos with the ground turkey and the beans? Great idea! :) 

Simple turkey, bean and cheese burritos:
4 tortillas
.71 lbs ground turkey (cooked)
16 oz salsa
about 8-10 oz bean stuff
olives
and a lot of cheese :) 


The only thing really missing was a salad or some type of veggie. Kids are drinking juice so I feel better about that omission. 

Since we still have 2 whole 16 lb turkeys and 3 lbs of ground turkey, I figured it would be good to see what I can make with it. I like new ideas. Here is a blog with 25 Ground Turkey Recipes- some look really good.