FoodFash

Adventure Begins in the Kitchen

Loaded Nachos with Avocado Cream

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This avocado cream loaded nacho post is sponsored by FAGE Total Greek yogurt. All opinions included within this post are my own and based on my own experience.

Ever since Greek yogurt made an appearance on grocery store shelves, I’ve been a fan. Seriously, who can turn down thick, creamy, low-sugar yogurt? And it wasn’t much long after discovering Greek yogurt that I began using it as a substitution everywhere and anywhere. FAGE Total Greek yogurt was and is my go-to brand. The texture and flavor of FAGE is top notch and, beyond that, you can’t beat the simple, non-GMO ingredient list.

One of the easiest substitutions to make is replacing traditional sour cream withFAGE Total Greek yogurt. I’ve always used FAGE Total 2%, but love that FAGE Total comes in 5% {I’m all about good fat!}. It’s such a simple switch and, I find that, Greek yogurt has many more uses than sour cream so it’s always in my fridge. Nachos tonight, breakfast parfait tomorrow morning!

After years of sour cream swapping, I decided to get even more creative with Greek yogurt for savory dishes. Remember how I love good fat? Well I decided to add even more good fat to FAGE Total 2% by mixing it with avocados to create avocado cream {recipe below}. Avocado cream can be enjoyed solo as a chip or veggie dip or used to make nachos and quesadillas extra special.

My husband and daughter are now the biggest avocado cream fans. And my husband was super impressed with a dip/topping having so much protein and probiotics from the live active yogurt cultures. By the end of our loaded nacho dinner, he was already thinking of what we could make to incorporate avocado cream again.

I also enjoy getting our entire family’s input on ingredients for loaded nachos because they come out so much more impressive than when I make them on my own. My husband loves black olives and green onions and my step-daughter loves tomatoes – I’m typically a nacho purist and would have totally skipped over these ingredients!

Our loaded nachos ended up including: tortilla chips, Monterey jack cheese, cheddar cheese, black beans, black olives, tomatoes, green onions, pickled jalapeños, cilantro, and avocado cream. My biggest nacho tip is to take the extra time to create one layer of chips, add layers of all of your toppings, and repeat until you reach your desired quantity/height. I layered all of the ingredients except for the cilantro and avocado cream and put the nachos in a 400 degree oven for approximately five minutes, until the cheese was melted and the chips were warm.

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Scalloped Potatoes & Turnips With Gruyére

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Oh Thanksgiving! Or as I like to call it, casserole season!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday for many reasons. It’s the first of the major family holidays I grew up celebrating. It’s paired with a long holiday weekend. And it’s filled with so many bites {and I love bites}.

I’ve never been a huge turkey eater. But I’m also extremely attached to the way my family did Thanksgiving, especially now that I don’t make the trip back to Florida anymore. So that means, I always cook a turkey. And it also means that I cook very similar sides that are made from real food ingredients. While not everyone in my family is on the healthy eating train, everyone is headstrong about cooking with real butter, real milk, real cheese, and fresh vegetables.

And because, all year long, I’m a fan of sneaking vegetables into ordinary dishes, I created a whole food, sneaky veggie casserole that’ll leave you feeling totally satisfied this casserole season: Scalloped Potatoes & Turnips with Gruyere {scroll down for recipe}.

If you’re new to cooking with turnips, there are a few things you should know. Most importantly, turnips are different than potatoes nutritionally. Turnips contain over three times as much Vitamin C, one third as many calories, and one third as many carbohydrates as white potatoes. Texturally, they aren’t as soft as potatoes, which can be great in certain recipes because they don’t fall apart. And flavor wise, they get a little sweetness when cooked. Ultimately, I don’t recommend completely swapping potatoes for turnips unless you’re a seasoned turnip lover. But I completely recommend swapping portions of potato recipes to increase the spectrum of vitamins you’re consuming as well as lower the calories and carbohydrates of your dish without sacrificing the use of real butter, real milk, and real cheese.

I was able to purchase all of the ingredients for this recipe at the new Whole Foods Market 365 store in Cedar Park, which is a huge plus especially during the busy holiday shopping season. I get super frustrated when I have to go to a separate store to find items and it was a huge relief to see that turnips and chives were both available in the Whole Foods Market 365 produce department.

The prices at Whole Foods Market 365 were also noticeably cheaper. I was able to purchase every ingredient for this recipe, and mostly organic products, for $20.80. Had there already been flour in my pantry and milk in my refrigerator, the I would have only spent $15.42, which is quite the steal for a casserole made with quality ingredients.

And lastly, I really loved the feel of the Whole Foods Market 365 store. It was clean and orderly beyond belief. The produce department was top notch. For almost every grocery item I purchased, there was a store brand available. And!! Oh, and this is the best part. The Whole Foods Market 365 store in Cedar Park collaborates with local companies like Juiceland {cold pressed juice to order}, Easy Tiger {freshly baked breads}, and Snap Kitchen {healthy eats to go}. Overall, shopping at this store was as pleasant as it gets. I’ll definitely be making the trip to the Whole Foods Market 365 Cedar Park store {20 minute drive} as often as I can to load up on 365 products.

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Breakfast Taco Egg Muffins

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Tyson Foods, Inc. The opinions and text are all mine.

Growing up, weeknights were super busy. Between my mom bringing home work and my endless amount of homework, I don’t have too many memories of eating dinner together. But what I do have are loads of memories of eating breakfast together on the weekends. Whether it was stacks of pancakes, cast iron egg dishes, or bowls full of steel-cut oats, the two of us always made time for weekend breakfasts.

Fast forward to today, when I’m the adult glued to the computer. I try to make time for homemade meals during the week, but they are typically rushed. More evenings than not, I am in my own cooking world, scurrying to take pictures, while my boyfriend reads a book at the kitchen bar. We eat, we catch up about the happenings of our day, and then it is off to editing and writing.

But weekend breakfasts! Weekend breakfasts are still my time for a forced, but oh so welcomed, slow down. Before plans or chores or errands, there’s breakfast. And since we have my boyfriend’s daughter every other weekend, it has become increasingly more important for us to slow down to enjoy weekend mornings and each other.

And because I was comfortable in the kitchen at an early age, I like to make dishes that she {a 3-1/2 year old} can help with, too. These dishes are typically pretty simple and don’t require a lot of steps because my focus needs to be on her versus timing everything just perfectly. And that’s where this Texas-inspired “breakfast taco” egg muffin recipe using Jimmy Dean® Fully Cooked TURKEY PATTIES comes in!

Jimmy Dean® Patties, along with the other ingredients in this recipe, are super accessible and can easily be found at your local HEB. And since they are already fully cooked, they eliminate a few time-consuming and messy steps {like discarding hot grease!}. And for us, that means we get to the fun part of cooking, the assembly part, much more quickly.

There’s some prep work in this recipe that she’s not quite ready for, like shredding and chopping. But once I took care of that, whipped up the eggs, and evenly distributed the eggs into the muffin tin, it was her turn to sprinkle the cheese, onions, potato, and sausage on top of the eggs. And because the Jimmy Dean® Patties are already cooked, there is no worry of her handling raw ingredients! That means there is also no worry of undercooked meat within the egg muffins either.

These egg muffins are super easy to serve and fun for the entire family to eat. The Jimmy Dean® Patties give the egg muffins a wonderful savory flavor that makes the muffins feel fancy enough for a special occasion {like Mother’s Day}, but still simple enough for any old Sunday. And this recipe is simple enough to double, triple, or make ahead if you’re planning a get-together for a larger group.

 

Using Jimmy Dean® Patties chopped roughly fifteen minutes off of my breakfast preparation and cleanup time. That is fifteen minutes I was able to share between teaching the little one about cooking and engaging in conversation with my two favorite people. And it filled our bellies with a super protein packed breakfast so we could take on the day!

You can find all these delicious Jimmy Dean® products at HEB in the breakfast meats section of the refrigerated aisle. If you’re looking for more traditional breakfast taco recipe, click here for the Jimmy Dean® Fully Cooked “Breakfast Taco” recipe. And with this HEB coupon, if you buy Jimmy Dean® Fully Cooked Product, you’ll get a Large Egg 6ct free {expires 5/16/17}!

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Brined & Seared Pork Tenderloin

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This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #AllNaturalPork #CollectiveBias

Whether I’m making dinner on a Tuesday night for myself or on a Saturday night for guests, I get a ton of enjoyment from making a meal that feels special. Smithfield All Natural Pork Tenderloin is one of those cuts of meat that always feels special, but is easy enough to prepare on a busy weeknight. And since there is a good amount of inactive cooking time when preparing this tenderloin, there’s plenty of time to whip up a few simple, veggie-filled sides while the meat is brining/cooking {like the mashed cauliflower and sautéed zucchini/squash pictured above}.

Brining meat is also a very simple way to achieve top notch moisture and flavor. By soaking a piece of meat in a salty, flavorful bath of water, the meat absorbs the water and, as a result, loses less water during the cooking process. And more water yields an incredibly tender tenderloin.


In the theme of keeping this recipe simple with classic flavors, I created a brine with water, salt, Herbes de Provence, and sugar. Herbes de Provence is an herb mix that typically consists of savory, marjoram, rosemary, thyme, and oregano, all of which compliment pork very nicely. A step-by-step recipe can be found at the bottom of this post.

Smithfield All Natural Pork Tenderloin is perfect for my home because it doesn’t contain steroids, hormones, or artificial ingredients. And since Smithfield All Natural Pork can be found at your local Walmart, this tenderloin is also a convenient choice.

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #AllNaturalPork #CollectiveBias

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