Taco Salad (Keto)

We eat taco salad almost every Tuesday in my house.  It's a very simple recipe, but we love it around here.  We cut up all the toppings and everyone can personalize their bowl.  Before I went Keto, I ate it over corn chips (like Fritos), and my kids still eat it this way.  I make 3-4 pounds of meat for my family of 6.  This recipe includes my homemade taco seasoning.  I make large amounts and use 3 Tbsp per pound of meat.

Ingredients
1 lb ground turkey (or beef)
1 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup water

Optional toppings:
lettuce
cheese
salsa
tomatoes
avocado
sour cream
guacamole
cucumber
black olives
corn chips (if you're not doing low-carb or keto)

Directions
Brown ground meat, drain, and return to pan.  Add all the seasonings and the water and bring to a boil but then reduce and simmer for 5 minutes.  Top with whatever taco toppings you choose.

Light Swedish Meatballs

I got this recipe off Gina's Skinny Taste, a Weight Watcher food friendly blog. They were very yummy! I wasn't sure if my husband was going to like these, but he did. My kids weren't crazy about them, but they liked the egg noodles I served them over. :-) Next time I want to try these with ground turkey since we like the flavor of ground turkey a lot. I will probably also double the recipe next time and my husband said he wanted more sauce. He likes a lot of sauce on his pasta. I did add some cornstarch and water towards the end because it didn't look thick enough to me, but I don't think I would do that again because it got almost too thick after cooling some.

Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil (I just sprayed my pan instead)
1 small onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 celery stalk, minced
1/4 cup minced parsley (plus some to put on top if you like)
1 lb 93% lean beef
1 egg (or use one of my egg-free options to the right)
1/4 cup breadcrumbs (I used Italian)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp allspice
2 cups beef broth (I just used a can)
2oz light cream cheese

Directions
In a large deep saute pan, heat oil on medium heat, add onions and garlic; saute until onions are translucent, about 4-5 minutes. Add celery and parsley and cook until soft, about 3-4 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes. In a large bowl combine beef, egg, onion mixture, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, and allspice. Mix well and form meatballs with your hands 1/8 cup each. Add beef stock to pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and slowly drop meatballs into the broth. Cover and cook about 20 minutes. Remove the meatballs with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add to blender with cream cheese and pulse until smooth. Return to pan and simmer a few minutes to thicken, then pour over meatballs. Garnish with parsley and serve over noodles or with toothpicks for an appetizer.

Makes 22 meatballs, 4 servings, 5 meatballs each.

WW points: she says 4 points, but I came up with 5 points, 1 per meatball. Go to her website, link above, if you want to know calories and other nutrition information.

Sweet & Spicy Little Smokies

Ok, so if you look at the ingredients, you might think, what in the world??? I know I've had something like this in the past, and when I remember looking up recipes for it, I thought the same thing. But trust me, these are really yummy and a big hit. If I was on the receiving end, I would think, "Amber, you have lost your mind!" These are sweet and spicy (not hot, just flavorful) and oh so yummy! You can make these with meatballs as well instead of the little smokies. Make your own meatballs or buy them premade. But, if you've never had these, you HAVE to try them. This made a LOT of sauce, so I will put on here what I used, but I think next time, for 4 packages of little smokies, which is a lot, I will use the medium jar of jelly and only 2 jars of chili sauce. I didn't need quite so much for this amount of smokies.

Ingredients
4 packages of little smokies (see note at top about this)
32oz jar of grape jelly
3 12oz jars chili sauceDirections
Drain your packages of little smokies of extra juice, and throw all of them in the bottom of your crockpot. Cover in the jar of grape jelly and spread around a little. Pour chili sauce over top of that, and turn your crockpot on high for the first 2-3 hours and then on low or warm just to keep them warm for your party. You can also do these on the stovetop if you want to get them done sooner, but you might want to throw them in a crockpot on low or warm afterwards to keep them hot for the party's appetizer. Stir well, dip a few out, and eat!!!

Crock-Pot Roast

This is the only way I like pot roast... I don't really know who's recipe it was to start with, but my Nana does it this way, and my mom does it this way, and I've seen the recipe online. I think everyone has a little different twist maybe, and mine is to make it in the crockpot. If you've never eaten it like this, you must! I know people who don't even like roast very much (me being one of them), but they like it like this. I will be posting an amazing rice casserole next that goes awesome with this!

Ingredients
1 whole chuck roast (you can use other pieces of roast if you like, but I enjoy chuck, and I can find some good chuck roast at Sam's)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 packet of Lipton Beefy Onion soup mix (or plain onion soup mix)Directions

Put your roast in the crockpot. I usually add carrots to go around it as well. Potatoes and onions go well around it as well. You can even put it in your crockpot frozen. In a small bowl, combine mushroom soup and onion soup mix. Mix well. If you have a very large roast, you can add 1/2-1 can of water and mix that in as well but it's not necessary. Cover your roast and veggies in this gravy, and turn your crockpot on low, and cook for 7-8 hours on low. Yes, you must do it this long. I once cut a big roast in half and cooked half of it on high for 4 hours and it was a little tough. I did the 2nd half of the roast, same piece of meat, on low for 8 hours, and it was amazingly different! It fell apart, it was so juicy, and you could cut it with a fork. Serve with rice (preferably rice casserole), or mashed potatoes and cover it all with the gravy from the crockpot! Yummy!

Pigs in a Blanket

My husband can't believe I'm posting this meal. I remember my mom making these growing up, and they are so fun and easy to do, I had to post them. :-) I figure maybe someone else will find them as fun as I did as a child and do now as a parent. My boys loved these, by the way!

Ingredients

1 package of little smokies or little polskas
1 package of crescent rolls
Directions

Unroll your crescent rolls and slice into small pieces (I cut each triangle into 4-5 pieces). Wrap your smokies in the pieces, put onto a cookie sheet, and bake according to the crescent roll directions on the package. Serve with ketchup and mustard. So fun!