Hold The Hamburger Helper!

This is so easy. Need a last minute healthy meal? Make these black bean soft tacos!

Whole Grain Wheat tortillas

1 can black beans, rinsed & drained
shredded white cheddar or monterrey jack cheese

fresh cut tomatoes and avocados

Place beans and cheese in wraps and roll up. Place in dish and bake for 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees.

Add tomatoes and avocado (You can add salsa and sour cream if you want) roll back up and enjoy!

Hint: Leftovers aren't so good...or maybe that was just my icky morning sickness..?

Note to self: Check your beans!! I made chili today and used a generic brand of beans. After opening I checked the ingredients (which I usually do in the store, guess not this time!) and it was full of unnecessary stuff, including high fructose corn syrup! I am buying organic from now on. I found the Whole Foods brand is only 10 or 20 cents more. Worth it to me!

Sneaky MSG Info

Here is great information about MSG (Monosodium Glutamate). It sure is sneaky. The end is pretty pro-vegan (which I am not), but the bottom line is that it is pretty surprising all this other stuff is or has amounts of MSG in it. Gross.

YOU MUST READ LABELS!!!
If is says, autolyzed yeast, yeast extract, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, hydrolyzed protein, or textureized vegetable protein, IT IS MSG.
If it says, maltodextrin, barley malt, whey protein, soy protein isolate (or words to that nature), IT IS MSG.
Gelatin (used in vitamin capsules) contains MSG.
Most smoke flavor or "flavorings" contain MSG.
Soy sauce, made from the fermentation of soy beans contains MSG and pure MSG powder can be added to cheaper brands of soy sauce to enhance its flavor.
Confirmed with Fearn Foods, the manufacturer of Spike, Spike contains MSG.
It is in vegetarian meat analogs, "hot dog analogs", soup broths, bouillon, and products using the words containing protein fortified, enzyme modified, rice syrup, brown rice syrup, citric acid, milk powder, dry milk solids, annatto, spice, carrageenan, guar gum, and lecithin (if from hydrolyzed soy products).
But wait, there`s more!Candy, drinks, gum, packaged salads with citric acid, low fat milk, stevia (if coupled with maltodextrin), Accent, Lawry`s Seasoning Salt, Torula Yeast, Adobo salt, Chinese Seasonings, and believe it or not, internal feeding materials and some fluids administered intravenously in hospitals.
So, what is one to do?Learn to cook and eat naturally, forget fast foods, processed foods, animal products and dairy products and eat an organic vegan plant based diet that is as much organic as possible.Let your spices be natural from foods and herbs. And above all, before you buy anything packaged and/or processed, YOU MUST READ LABELS.One more thing, politicians that receive campaign contributions from large food companies have made it so that legislation has been passed to NOT list MSG as an ingredient but to euphemistically use the words mentioned above.

2-For-One Meal!

I'm all about easy these days. So tonight you can make this Asian Chicken Salad, while easily marinating the chicken with similar ingredients for tomorrow's dinner! And both are so easy.

Asian Chicken Salad

Romaine Lettuce
1 small can mandarin oranges in juice not syrup, save the juice
slivered almonds
Your favorite dressing, maybe Asian or balsamic
Cooked chicken:
1 to 2 organic free range chicken breasts cut into cubes
pan fry on medium heat with grapeseed oil once or twice around the pan
about a half cup of Asian sauce, soy, teriyaki, tamari, etc. Low sodium & check my post on MSG **San-J Tamari is my favorite
a couple tablespoons of sesame seeds
Cook about 10 minutes until golden brown
Add to salad and you're all done!

I wanted to serve this with home made fresh spring rolls but hey...I'm pregnant.



Now, use the extra chicken breasts from the pack and trim, tenderize, and cut in half
Place in a glass baking dish
Drizzle 1 or 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil in a mixing bowl
1 or 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 to 2 tablespoons raw honey
3/4 cup of the same Asian sauce from the salad
Juice from the mandarin oranges
season with sea salt, pepper, garlic salt, ginger and parsley
Mix it up and pour on top of chicken.
Marinade in fridge overnight, turning breasts over in the morning
Grill for dinner, or you can bake it in the dish. If you grill, save the extra marinade, boil it, and use it as a sauce to dip the chicken in.

2 easy, healthy, light meals DONE. Yay!

Lack of New Posts!

Big announcement to all: We are expecting our 2nd child in May 2010! Thus the reason I have not been posting.....I have not been doing much cooking....been super tired! And why is it so hard to eat healthy when you're pregnant, especially during the first trimester? Ugh!

I think I am getting back into my groove, so hopefully that means more healthy home made meals and more posts. :)