Don't Skip the Tex-Mex!

Tex-Mex is one of my favorite styles of cuisine. Yesterday at Shop and Stop (yes dear readers, we have no Wegman's here) I found Mission soft-flour tacos.... carb-balanced. For folks on weight watchers, that's 2 pts. per flour taco. The numbers are: 3 g. fat; 19 carbs, 5 protein...and get this... 13 g. of fiber. That's 6 net carbs. I don't know where they are hiding the fiber, I can't see it and I can't taste it.

Yesterday we had shrimp stir-fry but while I had everything out, I got chicken strips ready using a skillet, pam butter spray and seasoning. Today I will shred the chicken, and mix it with salsa, and a can of Old ElPaso refried spicy beans, which have no fat whatsoever. The number for the spicy beans for a half cup are: 5 g. protein, 16 g. carbs, 5 fiber, which comes out to 2 WW plus points. That's 4 for an entire cup. You can also add other left over veggies to the mixture, and I usually use a tablespoon of taco spices.

Now my housemate prefers this made "enchilada" style, with the tacos rolled up, more salsa on top, covered in cheese, and placed in a hot oven (covered with foil) for 20 minutes. I may eat one soft taco with lettuce/tomato, or sometimes I just eat the bean mixture on top of a salad. You can also use this mixture on nachos for other folks while using it in a more healthy way for yourself. Actually, some of those multi-grain taco chips aren't horrible in content, I just choose not to go there with the salty snacks. I find a regimen works better for me.

If you have a great Mexican style recipe to share with us that promotes health, you can either add it to the comments, or you can attach it to an email to me (robinsbooks@aol.com) and be a guest blogger. Happy Sunday!

Fancy up the Vegies

A couple of years ago I bought a medium-sized microwave steam pot from Pampered Chef and now it's the most overworked tool in my kitchen. Yesterday I sliced a pound of carrots (we like them for leftovers) sprayed them with Pam cooking spray, added some Mural spice and sea salt, 3 tablespoons of water, and microwaved them for 7 minutes. Wow, sweet and tasty and they were not cooked to mush.

Which reminds me, the new Penzey's spice store opened up at the mall so we've already made a trip. Lots of new spices to try. What I love about Penzeys is the spices taste so much better than the cardboard-tasting stuff available in supermarkets. Whether it's chili, taco or smoked salt, there's just such a difference. Mural of Flavor is our very favorite, it's a blend of shallots, onion, garlic, lemonpeel, citric acid, chives and orange peel. Its salt free and works on chicken, pork, fish, vegetables and even popcorn.

I think it's easier to stay on a diet when you eat spicy food. It makes up for the scrumptious flavor you miss eating low fat foods, like I have to do. I think good cooks know about spices and how to use them. Penzeys always has new spices to try. This week we visited the shop at the Palisades mall and bought a new spice called Northwoods seasoning for chicken and fish (I'm eating a lot of lean proteins). You could probably make your own, the ingredients are: salt, paprika, Tellicherry black pepper, thyme, cracked rosemary, granulated garlic and chipotle. It was delicious on Cornish game hens.

They also had great gift boxes, including grill master, pepper-lovers (with or without the mill) and chocolate lovers. Lots more too. I bought up a bunch to use for gift baskets. What kind of food are you cooking up?