Sweet and Spicy Cabbage Tacos

The sweet potatoes, carrots, and cherry/grape tomatoes adds some sweetness to the heat from the ground beef seasoning. If you like dishes that give you a little kick while also providing you with soothing sweetness (thanks to the sweet potatoes in particular), give this a try.

Sweet and Spicy Cabbage Tacos

1 lb grass-fed ground beef

6 leaves of green cabbage, carefully removed from the head of cabbage (you don't want any tears in your taco "shell")

1/2 sweet potato, diced

1/4 onion, chopped (I'm not a huge fan of onion, so feel free to add more if you like it)

1/2 cup carrots, chopped

1 cup broccoli florets,

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup cherry or grape tomatoes, sliced in half

1/4 cup red bell pepper, chopped

Taco Seasoning (http://adventurepaleo.blogspot.com/2012/05/guacamole.html)

1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (add another 1-1 1/2 tsp if you really like spice)

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp oregano

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic salt

1 tsp pepper, freshly ground - See more at: http://adventurepaleo.blogspot.com/2012/05/guacamole.html#sthash.Nekjm48U.dpuf

1. Mix the taco seasoning and raw beef together in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in the fridge for an hour or so.

2. Remove the seasoned beef from the fridge, and toss into a pan on medium heat. Once the meat is thoroughly cooked, drain the fat and transfer the beef to a paper towel-lined plate.

3. With what fat remains in the pan, throw in the sweet potato, onions, carrots, and broccoli, but don't add the mushrooms, red bell pepper, or tomatoes yet. Sprinkle with salt and cayenne pepper for a bit more flavor. Cook for 5 minutes. (I know that I'd usually cook the onions until they turn translucent before adding other veggies, but I figured that that these veggies all could do with roughly the same amount of cooking time and I didn't feel like doing this is too many stages).

4. Add in the mushrooms and tomatoes, cooking for a couple minutes.

5. Then return the ground beef to the pan. Heat for a couple more minutes or until the beef is thoroughly warmed.

6. Add a couple spoonfuls of the ground beef mixture to one of the cabbage leaves, curl up the edges, and dig in.

Guacamole

I bought a car today! I've been researching for the past few months and finally went in to the dealership. I stuck with Mazda. I'm excited and relieved that the whole buying process is complete! After all the excitement I wanted something easy to make.

Lazy Guacamole
1 avocado, mashed
2 tsp lime juice
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp pepper, freshly ground

Take all of the ingredients and mix. Enjoy. There are also alternatives which include tomato chucks or onions, but I was worn out after spending 3 hours at the dealership buying my car. Thus, my super lazy avocado-only guacamole. I served it with some ground beef that I seasoned with the following:

Taco Ground Beef
1 lb local grass-fed ground beef
1 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp pepper, freshly ground


I hope y'all had as exciting of a day as me!

Moving makes me disappear

You may be wondering what happened to me that kept me from posting for the last few days. Last Friday I moved into my new apartment and I cleaned everything before I moved in, including the tops of the kitchen shelves (I didn't originally intend to, but I saw just how dusty it was up there so I HAD to clean it). I hired movers for Friday evening to get all of the big stuff like my couches, table, and bed. I helped move some of the boxes and I have massive bruises to prove it.

On Saturday, some of my amazing friends helped me. The friends that show up on moving day are true friends! I have a few things left at my old place, like clothes and shoes to bring to Goodwill. LR and I still need to clean up our old place.

My new place is currently in an annoying state of unrest and messiness. I'm roughly half unpacked. I've almost finished putting all of my kitchen stuff away, but I have some work to do on my bedroom and bathroom. I realized just how much I need to finish unpacking this morning as I was getting ready and had to paw through a box labeled "Bathroom" to find my makeup and bobby pins.

I finally went to the grocery store today. I've been putting it off until after I settled in. This meant that for the past few days, I've been living off of Lärabars and nuts. I've had one bar for each meal since Friday. My stomach has not been happy with me. So today I finally cooked something. I made a taco salad for dinner: ground turkey, iceberg lettuce, green cabbage, grape tomatoes, and red bell pepper. My giant bowlful has made me very satisfied. Here's what it looked like: