I'm not saying that you should just eat healthy before summer time, but it definitely gives a little boost of motivation knowing hot summer days are ahead of us. Since holidays are over and warmer weather is in the near future, we have decided to be a little extra mindful when preparing our meals. Not only are our meals changing but we have also gotten rid of snacks and stocked up on fruit, veggies, and nuts to snack on! Tonight for dinner for example, I made a delicious and Healthy Ground Chicken Taco Meat for dinner. Also, after our wholesome meal today, we went on a walk by the Erie Canal in Pittsford, NY on N Main St and we enjoyed every part of it.
One way meals in our house have changed is by limiting red meats. This means swapping beef and pork for chicken, turkey, and fish. Skinless boneless chicken breast, ground chicken and turkey, chicken thighs, and turkey steaks are some lean protein choices for nightly dinners.
I don't mind chicken and turkey, however, my husband prefers otherwise. The key to having a flavorful ground chicken and ground beef is seasonings! I'm not afraid to play around with different kinds of seasonings and in my opinion, that's key to giving lean meats a lot of flavor.
- Another way I keep dinner fun with lean meats is simply including them whenever a recipe calls for ground beef or pork, for example. I make a lasagna with ground turkey and whole wheat noodles to make it more nutrient dense and that way I avoid using ground beef. In my opinion, although it doesn't taste exactly the same, I think it's a much tastier option than eating plain ground chicken and broccoli.
Tonight's Dinner.
Tonight, dinner was taco inspired and it was super quick and easy to make. I cooked ground chicken with onions and seasoned it to taste like taco meat, without using taco seasoning. My seasonings of choice were cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, parsley flakes, salt, and pepper. For a carb, I made brown rice, cooked in organic chicken stock, seasoned with salt and pepper and fresh chopped parsley. Veggies are a must with every dinner and today, I made a super simple, yet very tasty, purple cabbage salad. I chopped purple cabbage, topped it with fresh parsley, and dressed it with extra virgin olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Everything taste amazing and everything came together in no time. The best part of this meals is that we have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
Ground Chicken Taco Meat
- 2 lbs ground chicken
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 medium yellow onion
- 3 teaspoons chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3 teaspoons cumin
- 1 teaspoon parsley flakes
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat and add onions. Cook until the onions are translucent,
2. Add ground chicken and sprinkle all seasonings over the chicken. Mix and cook until the chicken is fully cooked, about 12-15 minutes. Mix occasionally to break apart the chicken into smaller chunks.
Brown Rice in Chicken Broth
Start with cooking the brown rice first because it takes the longest amount of time. While the rice cooks, you can prepare your ground chicken taco meat and the salad. Cook the desired amount of rice in chicken broth per packaged instructions. The instructions on the rice packaging will usually say to cook in water. Simply substitute the chicken broth for the water for more flavor. Once cooked, add salt and pepper to taste. I topped the rice with sliced Greek olives because if you don't know by now, I add olives to almost everything! It gives the rice a nice surprise flavor and it goes great with the ground chicken taco meat. Lastly, I garnish with parsley although you can add cilantro instead.
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