Healthy Thai Steak Tacos

This is Jared, my husband. He does not get a lot of face time on the blog, but truthfully he has created some of the best recipes on here.

Check out this recipe that he created: Philly Cheese-Steak Pizza.

Since Jared loves steak but we are both trying to eat more healthy foods, this recipe from How Sweet It Is immediately caught my eye. When I saw that it included mangoes (Jared's favorite fruit), I knew I had to make it.

Don't be intimidated by the ingredient list, these are quite easy to whip up. And you won't even miss the cheese or sour cream that are the usual unhealthy additions to tacos.

Healthy Thai Beef Tacos
serves 3-4
printable recipe

1 1/2 pounds flank steak
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

marinade
3/4 cup light (canned) coconut milk
1 tablespoon sesame oil
4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro
1/3 cup sweet chili sauce

quick mango salsa
1/2 mango, chopped
1 shallot, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
2 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro
a sprinkle each of sugar, salt & pepper

tacos
1 teaspoon canola oil
8-10 corn tortillas
1/2 cup sweet chili sauce
1/4 cup peanuts, chopped
green leaf or romaine lettuce + fresh cilantro for topping

Sprinkle flank steak with salt and pepper. Combine coconut milk, sesame oil, chili sauce, garlic, ginger, sugar and cilantro in a bowl and whisk. Add flank steak to a ziplock bag or a shallow baking dish and pour marinade overtop. Refrigerate and let sit for 6-24 hours.

When ready to prepare, remove steak from fridge and let sit for 20-30 minutes. In a bowl, combine mango, shallot, jalapeno, salt, sugar and pepper, mix thoroughly, then set aside.

Heat a large oven-safe skillet (like cast iron) over high heat. At the same time, preheat the broiler in your oven. (You can also grill the steak if you wish.) Using a pastry brush, brush oil onto the skillet so there is only a very thin layer. Remove steak from marinade with kitchen tongs, placing in the skillet. Sear on both sides for 2-3 minutes.

Remove skillet and place is the oven directly under the broiler. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then flip and cook for 2-3 minutes more. This resulted in medium-rare meat for us, so cook for longer if you like your steak cooked more. Our steak was about an inch thick.

Remove skillet from oven, and place steak on a cutting board to rest for 15-20 minutes.

At this time, assemble your tortillas (warm them if desired), salsa, extra chili sauce for drizzling and cilantro. After the steak has rested, slice it into thin strips.

Assemble tacos as desired and eat! So flavorful and satisfying. My pictures really don't do this meal justice, I highly recommend checking out Jessica's blog at How Sweet Eats for some amazing pictures and more delicious recipes!

What fruit are you loving this summer? I can't seem to get enough of the cherries this year!

Corned Beef and Cabbage

This was my first attempt at making (and eating) Corned Beef and Cabbage. I was a little nervous, but it turned out so good! I purchased a 3 lb flat cut (versus point cut) corned beef brisket with spice packet and ended up with 4 hearty servings of food. As in it fed myself, my husband, our two kids, and two very hungry 19 year old missionaries, with just a couple of bites to spare.

Click here for the entire St. Patrick's Day menu and shopping list.

I adapted this recipe from one found on allrecipes.com.

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Corned Beef and Cabbage

3 lb corned beef brisket with spice packet
10 small red potatoes
5 carrots, peeled and cut into 3-inch pieces (or half a bag of baby carrots)
1 head cabbage, cut into wedges

Place corned beef into a large pot or dutch oven and cover with water. Sprinkle with the spice packet and place lid on pot. Bring contents to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. When the meat has about 45 minutes left, add the whole potatoes and the cut carrots.

Cover and cook until the potatoes are almost fork tender. Remove the meat and let rest on a plate, covered, for 15 minutes. Add the cabbage to the pot of vegetables, cover and cook for 15 minutes.

Place the cabbage in a bowl.

Slice the meat and arrange the potatoes and carrots around it. Serve with the cabbage.

Parmesan Pasta with Meat Sauce

This is a great, easy, satisfying recipe from my mother-in-law. My husband has been requesting this meal for a couple of months now so I was thrilled when I called his mom for the recipe and found out I had all the ingredients on hand! The only exception was the penne pasta, but I substituted thin spaghetti and all was well.

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Parmesan Pasta with Meat Sauce

serves 4

1 lb hamburger
salt and pepper
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 cans beef broth OR 4 cups water and 4 tsp (or cubes) beef bouillon
8 oz uncooked penne pasta (or another kind)
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup fresh shredded parmesan

Brown ground beef in a large skillet, drain off fat, and season with salt and pepper. Be generous with the pepper.

Add parsley and broth and simmer for 5 minutes.

Cook the pasta according to package directions, drain, and toss with butter and parmesan.

Place pasta in individual serving bowls and top with beef and broth mixture.

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 11.

Taco Soup

This is such a yummy, easy soup. Start it in the morning and no matter how busy your afternoon is, you'll have dinner waiting for you when you get home!

I got this recipe off of my friend Julie's blog, Real (Good) Cooking. The flavors are mild, making it very kid-friendly. If you don't have kiddos to worry about and like a bit of a kick, add a few drops of Tabasco.

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Taco Soup

serves 4

1 lb ground beef

1 medium onion, diced

1 packet of taco seasoning, or if you buy the big containers like I do, 2 rounded Tbsps

2 cans of diced tomatoes (with chiles if you have them)

1 can corn

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, and sour cream for garnish (optional)

Cook ground beef and onion together over medium-high heat until beef is browned and onion is translucent. Drain off fat.

Add half the packet of taco seasoning (or 1 rounded Tbsp) and 1/4 cup of water to the meat mixture. Cook and stir until seasoning is blended in and water is absorbed.

Place meat mixture in the bottom of your crock pot and add corn and juices, tomatoes and juices and the rinsed black bean. Sprinkle remainder of taco seasoning on top.

Add 1/2 cup of water (tomatoes will give off more juice while cooking) and stir.

Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. I loved how my house smelled while this was cooking all day!

Serve with chips, shredded cheddar cheese, and a dollop of sour cream!

 This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 9.

 

Pioneer Woman's Favorite Burger

I heart Pioneer Woman. I really do. Many times when I am making the menu plan I have to remind myself that I can't just pull all of my recipes off of her website. Well, I could, but it's probably not a good idea. For one thing, my readers would probably just defect to her blog if all I had were her recipes, because let's face it: her pictures are wayyyy better than mine and she's funnier. For another thing, have you seen the price of butter these days? I can't afford to only cook her recipes.

That being said, I did pull a couple of recipes from her site this week: the upcoming Ranch Style Chicken, Dilly Bread, and the topic of this post: PW's Favorite Burger.

Be proud of my health consciousness. I made burgers, yes. BUT... I skipped the potato chips and served them with Broccoli and fresh apples! Baby steps...

I do need to say one thing about this recipe. It was delicious but PW claims that even blue cheese haters will love it, and I have to disagree. The flavor of the blue cheese was still apparent and although my blue-cheese-hating husband ate the burger, I think he could have lived without the blue cheese. I love blue cheese and consequently loved the burger. But if you hate blue cheese, no need to be ashamed, just use another kind of cheese.

printable recipe

Pioneer Woman's Favorite Burger

serves 4

1 lb beef, shaped into 4 patties and seasoned with salt, pepper and tabasco

red onion, cut into slices

2 heaping Tbsp brown sugar

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

4 hoagie buns

1/4 cup mayonnaise

Tabasco

lettuce (whatever kind you like atop a burger!)

In a skillet, saute onion slices and brown sugar over medium-low heat.

Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until carmelized, about 10 minutes.

Lightly butter the buns and place face down on a hot griddle, toasting lightly.

Mix the mayonnaise and a couple of dashes of tabasco sauce until the desired heat is reached.

Meanwhile, cook burgers on grill. When they are getting close to done, add the onions and a small handful of blue cheese on top.

Spread the mayonnaise on the toasted buns.

Place lettuce on one side, burger on the other side of the bun.

Put both sides together and serve with your favorite burger side dishes.

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 9.

Braciole

I have been wanting to make Braciole (pronounced bra'zhul) ever since I watched the Everybody Loves Raymond episode where Deborah makes it. Up until this particular episode, the only thing she cooks well is Lemon Chicken, coincidentally also on this week's menu plan. So when Deb makes a delicious Braciole, Ray and Frank can't get enough of it and Marie gets quite jealous. Hilarity (including Deb dumping tomato sauce all over Ray's pants, on purpose of course) ensues...

So back to Braciole. There are all kinds of fancy ways to prepare this dish including expensive cheeses, prosciutto, currants, etc but I decided to start with a very basic recipe. I already had all of these ingredients on hand, just had to pick up the meat. I thought the result was simple and delicious, although I had company over when I served it so I neglected to take pictures of the finished product.

The above picture as well as the recipe is courtesy of Momma Hen's Kitchen. The pictures of the cooking process are all me, for better or worse.

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Braciole

serves 4

1 1/2 lb flank steak (also called round steak or London Broil), cut into 4 pieces

4 Tbsp minced fresh garlic

4 Tbsp freshly grated parmesan

4 Tbsp breadcrumbs (I used Italian seasoned, since that's what I had on hand)

salt and pepper to taste

3 Tbsp olive oil

32 oz spaghetti sauce

cooked spaghetti noodles (enough for 4 people, about 1/2 of a 16 oz box)

kitchen string

Pound out the steak until thin enough to roll (somewhere between 1/4" and 1/2" thick). Sprinkle each piece with 1 Tbsp each of garlic, parmesan, and breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper. 

Roll up each piece of steak and secure with kitchen string.

Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat and brown each roll of meat.

Once browned, place in saucepan with spaghetti sauce over medium heat. Heat until bubbling then turn down to low and simmer 2 hours, stirring occasionally. If the sauce starts to cook down too much, you can cover the pot with a lid.

Remove from pot, cut each roll into 4 slices and serve with sauce over spaghetti noodles.

 

Philly Cheese-Steak Pizza

This pizza was my husband's creation and it is delicious!! So simple to make, too, take a look.

printable recipe

Philly Cheese-Steak Pizza

serves 3-4

1 petite sirloin steak, about 1/2 lb

salt and pepper

canola oil

green pepper

onion

1 cup heavy cream

2 cups shredded cheese, your choice, we recommend Monterey Jack, Provolone, and/or Mozzarella

Pizza dough

3/4 cup warm water

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp yeast

Place dough ingredients in bread maker and run on dough-only setting.

Cut the onion into strips. 

Repeat with the green pepper.

Heat a tablespoon of canola oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle salt and pepper over a steak and place in skillet.

Cook for a few minutes on one side then flip. Add in vegetables and sprinkle some salt and pepper on them.

Meanwhile, in a separate skillet heat a couple of tablespoons of canola oil and several cloves of garlic over medium-low heat until the garlic starts to brown.

Cook the steak a few more minutes until brown on both sides and the vegetables start to brown.

Remove steak and vegetables to a plate, retaining the juices of the steak in the pan.

Add the garlic and canola oil to the skillet with the steak juice in it. Mash the garlic cloves.

Pour in 1/2 cup of heavy cream and season generously with salt and pepper. Cook and stir, sauce will begin to thicken. Add more cream to reach the amount and consistency you desire (if you like a more saucy pizza, put in a whole cup). 

Roll out the pizza dough and place it on a pan that has been sprinkled with cornmeal. Spread sauce over the dough.

Slice the steak against the grain in thin strips.

Sprinkle a cup and a half of cheese over the pizza, and top with vegetables then steak.

Sprinkle with remaining cheese. 

Bake in oven at 450F for 12-15 minutes, until crust is golden.

 

Serve hot with fresh fruit.

 

This recipe is featured in Menu Plan 7.