tacos Archives - Mamma's Cooking

Sheet Pan Shrimp

All over the internet you see sheet pan dinners. They are the new one pot meal. I have three sheet pans and they are well loved. I use them to cook wings, meatballs, shrimp, salmon, roast vegetables and not to mention all the cookies we make on them.

I usually make sure I have a bag of frozen shrimp in the freezer so that I can throw together a quick and easy meal. This is one of the simplest and tastiest recipes you can make.

Sheet Pan Shrimp

Ingredients

1 pound cooked frozen shrimp, defrosted

Juice of 1 lime

½ teaspoon of salt

Pinch of ground black pepper

1 teaspoon of agave

½ cup of diced red onion

1 to 2 diced sweet peppers (or broccoli)

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

½ teaspoon of salt

1/8 teaspoon of ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl mix lime, salt, pepper and agave. Toss shrimp in the lime mixture and let sit while you prepare the remaining ingredients. Combine onion and vegetables on sheet pan with vegetable oil, salt and pepper and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and add the cooked shrimp. Roast for another 10 minutes and serve over rice or polenta or inside a tortilla.

You can easily make this recipe solely with vegetables so it is easy to make this vegetarian, vegan and its already gluten free! It is such a versatile recipe! Let me know what you like to make on your sheet pans.

Taco Meatballs

Another Thursday in December means another meatball recipe for you to use as an appetizer on game day or part of a holiday buffet or to bring to a potluck! Meatballs are very popular and everyone has their favorite recipe. Here is a little twist that pairs Tex Mex flavors with meatballs.

Taco Meatballs

Ingredients

About 3 lbs ground chicken and pork (I use 2/3 pork and 1/3 chicken, you can use either all pork or all chicken or even turkey)

3 pieces of bacon, chopped finely or pureed in food processor

1 garlic clove, minced

½ Tablespoon minced jalapeño (or more if you want them to be spicy)

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 Tablespoon chili powder

½ teaspoon cumin

1 egg

1/4 cup of bread crumbs (use gluten-free breadcrumbs if making this gluten free)

6 to 8 oz of cheddar cheese, cut into ½ inch cubes

2-3 Tablespoons of vegetable oil

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl mix garlic, jalapeño, salt, pepper, onion powder, chili powder, cumin, egg and bread crumbs. Place meat and bacon (or oil) in a large bowl and add the egg mixture. Get your hands dirty and mix it all together. Cook a small patty of the meat mixture to taste and adjust seasonings if you need before stuffing and cooking the whole batch. Roll meatballs. Take a cube of cheddar and stuff it into the center of the meatball, making sure it is completely encapsulated by the meat mixture. Heat a large not stick-pan to medium-high, add olive oil. Brown meatballs and transfer to a baking rack that sits on top of a cookie sheet. Roast for 20 minutes. Serve or freeze.

Serve with taco shells, salsa and avocado or make a wrap with tortillas or serve as an appetizer dipped into guacamole or salsa. These go very well with my Tomatillo Salsa or Red Salsa.

A couple of new meatball recipes coming up. Only 2 more Thursdays left in 2016! Here are some meatball recipes from the past:

Sweet and Sour Meatball Recipe

Bahn Mi Meatball Recipe

Italian Stuffed Meatball Recipe

Meatballs, Plain and Simple

Super Easy Pasta Night

I keep hearing from friends and readers that they wish they could cook what I do. Truth is…you can. Yes, I love to cook. It is my passion and stress reliever, but I completely understand (and have those nights or weeks!) of not wanting to cook or not having the time to cook. I do make more complicated meals some nights, but everyone needs to have super easy meals that they can make with very few ingredients and with very little effort. I’ll be sharing some of my favorites over the next couple months.

I have been sharing my “theme night” meals (Breakfast for Dinner, Tex Mex Tuesday, etc.), to show how I keep organized and take the stress out of my cooking. Easy meals like this Pasta with Mascarpone can help change up your pasta night. This recipe is very easy and a new take on mac-n-cheese if you are looking for something a little lighter.

Pasta with Mascarpone

Ingredients

1 pound elbow pasta (use GF pasta or even roasted cauliflower if making GF)

1 – 8 ounce tub of mascarpone cheese

2 Tablespoons of grated parmesan

1 Tablespoon onion powder

1 teaspoon of salt

¼ teaspoon of pepper

1 to 2 cloves of garlic minced or 1 teaspoon of garlic paste

Red pepper flakes to taste, optional

Grilled, sautéed or cooked vegetables, chicken or shrimp, optional

Directions

Cook pasta according to directions on the box. Reserve the pasta water. Pour the pasta into a serving bowl. Add the mascarpone, parmesan, onion powder, salt, pepper and garlic. Add a ladle of pasta water, or more if needed to help melt the cheese and create a sauce. Serve.

This makes more than enough for a family of five as a main meal with some vegetables and leftover chicken. We usually have enough for all five of us for lunch the next day too! You can also use it as a side dish.

A great friend of mine (who just launched an AMAZING blog: Momma to Go), tested this one for me. She is a busy mom with 2 young kids so understands that dinner needs to be easy and needs to be good. This got a thumbs up! Thanks Harmony for testing and for the picture!

What is your favorite super easy meal?

While I’m singing praises of another blogger, I will remind you that Tuesday, October 25th is the release of Nicole Hunn’s Gluten-Free Small Bites, so you only have two days to get the pre-order goodies available here! I’ve already made good use of mine!

Taco Tuesday – Step Outside the Taco Shell

Theme nights are a really good way to organize your weekly meals and make meal planning easier. We joined the #TacoTuesday bandwagon a couple of years ago. The kids love tacos and I have a wide interpretation of “taco.” It is really more like #TexMexTuesday. Some nights it is nachos, literally just tortilla chips with melted cheese in the microwave, on a paper plate, with a salad or fruit on the side. Other nights if we have more time, it is enchiladas with homemade tomatillo sauce or stuffed peppers. I often use whatever protein we had over the weekend, like leftover grilled chicken or steak and whatever vegetables we grilled and throw them into a quesadilla.

Quesadillas

Ingredients
Tortillas (Our new favorite is Joseph’s soft gluten-free tortillas which I find at Target or Market Basket locally) – 1 to 2 tortillas per person depending on their appetite
Shredded Cheese (I used Cabot blocks and shred myself or task a child/spouse) – 1/4 cup per person
Canned black beans (I use Wegmans or Goya) – 1 12 oz can is more than enough for a family a five

Optional: sour cream or plain yogurt, fresh cilantro, salsa, sliced avocado with fresh lime juice.

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 or use your toaster oven. Assemble and cook for 4 – 6 minutes on each side on a cookie sheet.

TIP: If you don’t have tortillas, use taco shells, tortilla chips or butter lettuce. If you are making it GF, remember to check the labels on the shells and chips.

A recent favorite in our house was a spin on a traditional quesadilla: Chicken Bacon Ranch Quesadillas. Invented by one of my 6 year olds. All we did was add leftover grilled chicken and some cooked bacon to the cheddar. Cook according to recipe above and serve with ranch dressing and sliced peppers.

I often keep a bag of already cooked frozen shrimp in the freezer. All you need to do is defrost in cold water and then dry in between paper towels

Shrimp Tacos

Ingredients
1 pound of medium/large cooked shrimp
Juice of 1 1/2 limes
1 Tablespoon of sugar or teaspoon of agave
1 clove minced garlic
1 Tablespoon fresh cilantro
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients together and marinade the shrimp for 15-30 minutes while you prepare the taco accompaniments. Saute shrimp for a couple of minutes to heat through, if you want to or just use cold. Use for favorite taco shells and toppings then you are ready to serve! I love using feta and avocado.

TIP: If using fresh uncooked shrimp, marinade as above and then add 1 Tablespoon of butter and cook on a baking sheet for 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.

The options are endless. You can take this shrimp taco recipe and make it into a burrito bowl with rice and beans. You can also top the rice and beans with whatever other leftover veggies and or meat you have in the fridge. I’ll let you in on a secret. I lost the ability to cook rice when I went to law school. I cannot cook rice on the stove to save my life. I have only tried it once in the last 13 years after burning a few pots. I LOVE my rice cooker. My $15 rice cooker from Target. The rice always comes out perfectly and I don’t have to watch it. Instead I can battle through homework with the kids.

I have been making red salsa for almost 2 decades, since I worked at a Tex Mex restaurant in DC. It disappears quickly from the table at any gathering and is very simple to make. I passed the torch last year to my 8 year old daughter, who can easily make it on her own now. Since then, I have been experimenting with a green salsa made with tomatillos. It is tart and delicious and makes a great salsa, enchilada sauce or chilaquile sauce or sauce for grilled steak, chicken, fish or veggies.

Tomatillo salsa

Ingredients
2 Tablespoon vegetable oil
2 1/2 to 3 pounds of tomatillos, husked
1/2 of a large while onion, chopped
1/4 cup of chopped poblano pepper (use jalepeno if you want more spice)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Handful of cilantro
1 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
2 to 2 1/2 cups of water

Directions
Combine all of the ingredients, except the water, in a large pot on the stove. Turn the heat on to medium-high. Stir until fragrant. Should only take a couple of minutes. Add the water, stir occasionally and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes, until the tomatillos are soft. Either blend with an immersion blender in the pot or wait for it to cool and transfer to a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth and allow to fully cool. Refrigerate for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container.

Our #TacoTuesday turned #TexMexTuesday means I always have a plan for Tuesday nights and can adapt it to what our schedule is for that day, whether I have 15 minutes to prep dinner or an hour. You are only limited by what it is in your fridge or cupboard, but all it really takes is cheese 🙂 Send me your questions or share your ideas for #TexMexTuesday! Remember you can find me on Facebook, Instagram, on Twitter @mammascooking and now I’m also figuring out how to use Google + (if anyone wants to give me a tutorial, I will cook for you!).

Easy Entertaining and Introducing….Ask Mamma!

In another attempt to improve my blog, I would like to make it more interactive. As much as I love cooking, I love talking with people about cooking and sharing ideas. So this is the launch of Ask Mamma! If you have a question about what to cook for dinner when you have x, y, z ingredients on hand or what to make for your next playdate/dinner party/birthday party, click on my email to the right and I’ll answer.

I will post questions and answers for everyone to read (keeping you anonymous, unless you want me to include your name and/or blog)! We all have our own ways of cooking, so someone’s boring every Wednesday night meal, is someone else’s new discovery!

This past week I got a question from a reader about what to make for her son’s 4^th birthday party at their house (kids and adults present).

Mamma’s Answer

Making a dinner or lunch party for young kids…Here are three options:

(1) Mexican

Pasta salad – fun shapes for kids or the tri colored (I made one for the boys’ birthday party + added black beans, corn, tomatoes and feta and a mild honey lime vinaigrette). Cook 1 box of pasta, cool and then toss in a can of black beans (rinsed), about a cup and 1/2 of corn (use frozen, canned or fresh), about a cup and a 1/2 of diced tomatoes and about 3/4 cup of feta. To make the vinaigrette add equal parts (about a 1/3 of a cup) lime juice, white balsamic (or white wine vinegar) and olive oil. Whisk together. Then add 2-3 Tablespoons honey (or sugar if kids under 1 are going to be eating it), taste and add more sugar or honey if not sweet enough. If too sweet add a little more vinegar. Add salt and pepper to your taste, whisk all together and then toss with pasta.

Make your own taco bar – have peppers + onions at room temperature, either chicken or beef (I also did this for the boys’ party and made a beef roast in the slow cooker the day before and then just shredded it and reheated it for the day of the party), shredded cheese, salsa and tortillas. Let people build it themselves. To make the shredded beef or chicken, rub with salt, pepper, coriander, cumin and oregano. Sear meat in pan, then transfer to crock pot with 2-3 cups of beef or chicken stock flavored with coriander, cumin and oregano and keep on low until meat is cooked through (use a meat thermometer!). Once cooled, use a fork to shred meat.

Chips and salsa and guacamole for snacking.

Super simple. Make as much as you want or buy already made 🙂

(2) Greek

Meatloaf with greek seasoning (McCormicks make’s a great one) and feta (Rachel Ray has a great recipe that I wrote about here). I actually made this the other night but made meatballs instead of meatloaf. So good!

Tomato, cucumber and feta salad (onion optional). Dice a couple of vine ripe tomatoes, one cucumber and throw in a couple of handfuls of feta. Mix with a couple of splashes of red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. If you like raw onion, dice about 1/2 a medium onion and add in as well. I’m not a big raw onion fan, so I only diced 1/4 of a medium onion.

Yogurt sauce (make or buy). To make, add yogurt, minced cucumber, greek seasoning and a little lemon juice).

Serve with pita bread.
hummus, pita chips, carrots, cucumber, etc for snacking.

(3) Asian

Shrimp and pork lettuce wraps – Marinate cooked shrimp (I used frozen shrimp that had been thawed) + cooked pork or beef (grill or just cook with salt and pepper) + shredded carrots + shredded slaw (I buy pre-shredded) in a mixture of rice wine vinegar, white balsamic, sugar, lemon juice, ginger and olive oil. Marinate separately for at least an hour. (Can cook it all the day before and then just let it marinate starting in the morning of the party and serve room temp)

Serve with lettuce for lettuce wraps and I LOVE the Trader Joe’s Sweet Chili sauce for dipping. So good!

Coconut rice on the side with edamame if you like. Here is a good recipe I found on a blog I recently discovered, Weelicious.
Dried snap peas, shrimp chips, edamame for snacking.

All of these ideas can be made the day before, leaving you with less to do on the day of the party and may actually allow you to enjoy the party instead of being stuck in the kitchen!

Send me your questions!