Recipe: Italian Sausage Tacos with Chard and Zucchini

It's been awhile since I shared anything on this blog, but today I made this amazing dish and it needed to get posted.  

Before I share the recipe though, I want to give a shout out to two of the products that made these tacos happen.

Earth Galley Farms is a local farm that does Seasonal Produce Baskets weekly, and for a (very reasonable price) you get a ton of veggies to work with.  I often make salads for the week but I often struggle with what to make from the "non-salad" ingredients. 

Jimmy Bobby's Sausage Co is the husband of my boss at the Cafe that I work at.  He recently started making sausage to see at local markets and prides himself in the fact that he's just meat and spices - all natural.  And man is it delicious.

Ok now onto the recipe!

Italian Sausage Tacos with Chard and Zucchini 

Ingredients:

(to make about 4 tacos)

1 lb of ground italian sausage, divided (I used about 1/4 lb for my four tacos)

1 clove garlic 

2 leaves of chard with their stems

1 small red onion (Ok actually you really need like 1/2 of a red onion)

1 small zucchini squash (or half of a large one)

Salt, pepper to taste

oregano to taste

Feta cheese for topping

4 flour tortillas

Recipe:

1) Brown your italian sausage, if you are like me and plan on making more later, brown the whole pound, or just brown what you need.  Don't let it get fully cooked!!

2) While the sausage is browning, clean and prep your veggies.
Dice your zucchini into small pieces, Rough chop your chard and it's stems (but keep them separate). Dice or thinly slice your onion. Mince your garlic.

3) Once your sausage is about 3/4 done, add the chard stems, garlic and onion.  Saute for a couple minutes until the onion starts to soften

4) Now add the zucchini.  Saute for another couple minutes then add the chard leaves and your spices.  

5) Let cook until chard has wilted.  You may cover if you like, but you don't have to.

6) Warm your tortillas using desired method, then portion out your taco mixture into them.  Top with feta and serve warm !

** I bet these would be even better with homemade tortillas, which I have a recipe for, but didn't have time to make**

** Consider a dressing as well? Or adding other veggies. It's super open ended**

** The fact that I know the source of 90% of this dish makes me really really happy!**

Have a wonderful week!

Food Review: Marion's Kitchen Thai Kits

Today's post is a quick review of a product I tried last week.  

I recently purchased a Marion's Kitchen Thai kit at my local Kroger on clearance.  I had seen them before and was curious, but would never have paid full price for it.  So yellow sticker clearance made me pretty excited.  

These kits are designed just like any other.  They come with the sauces and seasonings, you provide the protein and veggies.  In this case, you got the curry paste, coconut milk, peanuts and spices.

Chicken (or protein) is sauteed in the paste, then the milk is added, along with potatoes and onion.  As it simmers, you add the peanuts and spices.  

 

After that it's pretty easy.  Let it simmer until you get it to a thickness you want - atleast 30 minutes.  

The dish itself is served best with rice, and I added broccoli to brighten up my plate. Something I wish I had done (that the box suggested) would have been to leave the Thai chilis completely out from the spices, they got way to spicy.  

Since I live alone< I eat leftovers all week.  One thing that made me was was out thick the sauce got over the course of the week.  I would like to find a way to keep that from happening again.

Overall, I would give this kit a 4 out of 5 starts.  The box does an odd job of explaining the product unless you know the chef.  Also, the price point is a bit high, even if it is "All natural".  The meal was great, but I felt like maybe it was missing something.  But I would buy it again if I could find it on sale.

~Lisa  

Recipe: Mini Pie Bites/Cookies

So it's been almost a year since I posted. I haven't had many recipes to share though, so I guess that's an excuse, right?

Either way, I want to get back into this, starting with this simple recipe inspired by a segment I saw on my local news a few weeks back.  The recipe they did was for "Fig bars" but I am calling these "Pie Bites" because that is really all they are.

Mini Pie Bites

Ingredients:
1 roll of store bought pie dough - thawed

(some packages come in two, so that can also work for a bigger batch)

Desired filling. Jam, pie filling, or any type of mashed fruit.

(I used apple butter)

Sugar/honey/cinnamon/etc to sprinkle on top. 

Recipe:

1)Preheat oven to 325

2)After thawing your dough, lay it out flat on a cutting board/cookie pan
3) Cut the best you can into small rectangles/squares.  Mine were about 1inch tall and 1/2inch wide.
4)pipe or spoon filling onto the center of each rectangle.

5) Fold each rectangle over so that it forms a nice seam. Take rolled/folded bars and place on a cookie pan (lined with parchment if desired)

6) Bake for approx. 10 minutes then remove from oven and sprinkle with toppings if desired. I drizzled honey and cinnamon

7) Bake for an additional 5 minutes or until golden brown.  Different sizes and fillings can affect your time.

Tips and ideas:

1) The video I saw used homemade fig spread to make a "Fig newton". You can use any type of filling you like, from homemade to store bought sugary stuff.

2) Same goes for toppings, whatever goes well with your flavors

3) If you are really ambitious, make the pie dough yourself also! haha.

4) Seriously, parchment paper. I never used it until I started a kitchen job and now I swear by it. More on that for a later post.

So easy and so delicious. I have already eaten half my batch!

Until next time!


~Lisa