I have been using this roasted pumpkin seed salsa none stop as an spread on sandwiches, pita bread and quesadillas. It goes excellent with any veggies I chose to have my sandwiches with so I think I am going to be making this spread for time to come.

The thing about it to is that not only it is super easy to make but it is extremely healthy.

Pumpkin seeds are extremely rich in zinc, which is great for your skin especially to fight acne, which believe or not, at almost 40 years old I suffer from. Zinc carries vitamin A to your skin, which regulates your body’s hormonal balance.

It also facilitates programmed cell death, which is a natural part of your skin renewing itself. With zinc deficiency skin cells stick together instead of dying and sloughing off like they should, which leads to clogged pores.

Besides skin health zinc is important to your body in many ways, including immunity, cell growth and division, sleep, mood, your senses of taste and smell, eye health, insulin regulation, and male sexual function.

It is a bit hard to get all the zinc you need in your diet unless you consume beans and nuts almost every day. I always have a handful of pumpkin seeds each day for skin health so I always make sure I have them stocked in my pantry.

This is a great way to incorporate pumpkin seeds into your diet if you don’t like to have them plain.

For the pumpkin seed salsa visit my friends at Nuts.com Here is where I get all my nuts and seeds as well as baking flours, dried fruit and much more. It is the only place you need to shop for all your healthy cooking and baking ingredients.

Enjoy!

This recipe is sponsored by Nuts.com The opinions and text are all mine. The end.

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The holidays are just around the corner, which involves gathering with family, friends and eating tons of good food. These tortilla burrito cups are the perfect appetizer for any gathering as they are easy to make, tasty and the perfect size.

I served these tortilla burrito cups at a friends’ party last week. To tell you these were a success is an understatement. Everyone kept asking for the recipe and trying to understand how I was able to make the tortilla cups. The little cups were super simple to make. The can also be filled with anything you may like. This time around I did a burrito theme cup but next time I will see what I can come up with. The sky is the limit!

The tortilla brand I used for the #recipe, which is one of my favorite tortilla brands to use, is TortillaLand. What I like the most about these flour tortillas is that they are made from five simple recognizable ingredients – wheat flour, water, canola oil, salt and sugar, unlike many brands out there. They are also great in taste and texture. They are truly delicious!

You can purchase these tortillas at Costco Club. To make sure your local Costco Club carries them make you can visit this tortillafan locator link to find out the nearest one to you.

When you have located you nearest Costco Club make sure you go to the refrigerated section to find the tortillas. That is where they will be.

These tortilla burrito cups were really easy to make. They really look great as well so any time I have a gathering I will be taking these with me to share. They look so fancy.

While making the cups you only need about 15 minutes. All you have to do is cut the tortillas into quarters and bake them away. After that, if you don’t want to use them right away you can store them in an airtight container for up to two days.

There is also a giveaway that I am running in which I am giving away a $50 Costco gift card. All you have to do for a chance to win is:

•  Comment below and let me know what you would create using TortillaLand tortillas. The more creative the better!

Rules:

• You must be 18 yrs old to enter
• Only US residents
• I will announce the winner 12/26

I hope you get to make these tortilla burrito cups. I only made 24 but you can make more if you like. These are delicious, easy to make and great as an appetizer for the holiday season. #tortillalandholiday

Enjoy!

Tortilla burrito cups

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 16 cups

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

 

• 4 TortillaLand Flour tortillas, cut into quarters
• 1 cup brown rice, cooked
• 14 oz canned black beans, drained
• 1 tomato, chopped
• ½ red onion, chopped
• 1 oz fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 avocado, chopped
• 3 oz crumbled feta cheese
• 2 limes, juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Press tortilla pieces inside muffin tins. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until evenly browned. Let tortilla cups cool in the pan.

Once tortillas are completely cool divide the brown rice between the cups followed by the chopped tomatoes, onions, avocado, beans and cilantro. Sprinkle the feta cheese, and lime juice followed by salt and pepper over each cup. Serve immediately.

NOTE: You can make the tortilla cups 1-2 days ahead of time and store in an airtight container.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of TortillaLand. The opinions and text are all mine.

The post Tortilla burrito cups appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

For these cauliflower vegetable tacos I used my homemade blue cheese dressing I made a few days ago, however, you can use any other sauce of your choice. I used both blue cheese dressing and buffalo sauce for these tacos. So good…

Have you made your own tacos before? I couldn’t believe how easy these cauliflower vegetable tacos were to make. I actually found cauliflower really cheap at the grocery store so I wanted to try a new recipe with them. I love cauliflower so I am going to try to incorporate it into some of my recipes.

I have seen tacos done with large lettuce and cabbage leaves instead of soft flour tortillas. A much healthier version if you ask me. I have had them at restaurants before and to be honest I do prefer the vegetable wrap version. Will see what I can come up with all these choices.

On another note, fall season is just around the corner so I have device a menu plan to post plenty of pumpkin recipes this coming September. I hope you like pumpkin otherwise I think you are going to hate me this September. Pumpkin up and down left and right here in EG4L!

Anyhow, I hope you like this recipe. Of course you can use any sauce of choice as well as any veggies you may like. Tacos are super versatile so get creative and make it your own.

Enjoy!

Cauliflower vegetable tacos

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 4 servings

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

• 8 soft corn tortillas
• 1 cauliflower head, cut into florets
• 6 oz shredded coleslaw
• 1 avocado, chopped
• 1/3 cup blue cheese dressing
• 1.3 cup buffalo sauce

 

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375F.

Place the cauliflower onto a baking sheet and roast for 20-30 minutes stirring the cauliflower around once. Bake until soft and until it become brown around the edges (like in the picture)

Place the tacos on a Taco holder and place a tablespoon of blue cheese dressing followed by some shredded coleslaw, roasted cauliflower and avocado. Drizzle with more blue cheese dressing and buffalo sauce and serve immediately.

NOTE: You can use any other sauce of your choice.

Each serving equals to two tacos.

The post Cauliflower vegetable tacos appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

While the original recipe used ground beef I opted for a leaner kind of meat to decrease the fat content in the recipe. I also added some green  chopped peppers and used organic frozen corn rather than canned. I didn’t have to defrosted the corn prior to using it since it gets cooked once you add it to the pan.

Other changes I made to the recipe was to add some extra tomato sauce. We really like this type of dishes extra saucy, plus when mixing this casserole with pasta the extra sauce goes even better with it.

This gluten free turkey taco casserole can be served with tortillas chips or with pasta. I actually divided my batch into two so that we could have it two different ways. The first batch we enjoyed with whole wheat pasta and the second one with gluten free tortillas chips.

What I really like about McCormik’s taco mix, besides all the ingredients being real and natural, is that it isn’t overly spicy. My kids tolerate spicy food to a certain extend so this taco mix was perfect for them. Not to spicy at all.

No matter what your reasons are for choosing to skip gluten, McCormick is here to make sure that you don’t skip the flavor. Now, four favorite recipe mixes are gluten-free: Taco, Chili, Brown Gravy and Turkey Gravy – which means going gluten-free for any occasion has never tasted better.

This gluten free taco turkey casserole literally takes no more than 20 minutes from start to finish. If you are a taco flavor lover you will like this simple recipe yet hearty and filling. A perfect option for a quick family dinner meal.

Enjoy!

This is the mixture right before placing it under the broiler. You can also bake it if you wish but since the turkey was already cooked I just needed to melt the cheese. The broiler works quicker since all you need is 3-5 minutes. Just watch out for the tortillas not to get burnt. Mine got a bit toasty but we like them extra crunchy!

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by McCormick. All opinions are my own and I speak from personal experience. The end :-)

Gluten free turkey taco casserole

Yield: 8 servings

Total Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs organic extra lean ground turkey
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 package gluten free taco seasoning mix
• 16 oz can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 24 oz marinara sauce
• 2 cups organic frozen corn
• 1  cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 cup coarsely chopped tortilla chips, optional

Directions:

Cook the turkey in large skillet over medium-high heat. About 5 minutes. Drain the fat. Add the rest of the ingredients, except cheese and tortillas, and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 5 minutes stirring occasionally.

Place mixture into a 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese and tortilla chips and place under the broiler for 3-5 minutes or until the cheese has melted. You can serve this casserole with tortilla chips or with whole wheat pasta. We did both!

Adapted from McCormick

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Salads is one of our main dinner choices we eat 3-4 times per week at my house. I try to have a variety of salad recipes so that my kids and my husband don’t get tired of them. This vegetarian taco salad is one of their favorite salads. I don’t know if it is because of the tortillas or the thick creamy dressing. Either way I am glad they eat it with ease.

For this salad, I used gluten free taco seasoning from McCormick to make the dressing. I mixed it in with Greek yogurt to keep healthy, lighter and nutritious. The McCormick’s taco seasoning is made with natural ingredients as well as gluten free. It has no hidden MSG, fillers, preservatives or any fake ingredients, just plain old spices, which is what we like!

The dressing turn out great. A little bit thick but that is how we prefer it. If you like it more runny you can add a little bit more vinegar and oil or just water if you like to leave it lighter in calories. This dressing keeps well on a close container in the fridge so you can use it for any other type salads of your choice later on.

For a different version, if you like you can add any other type of vegetables to this vegetarian taco salad. I have added onions as well as some slice avocado and chopped cilantro before. You can’t really go wrong on the mix-ins. If you are not vegetarian you can even add some grilled chicken or some crumbled lean beef for some extra protein.

I have taken this vegetarian taco salad for lunch before, and as long as you mix the dressing right before eating the salad you should be fine. It will not get soggy, watery and nasty looking.

I have also used fresh spinach instead of fresh kale. Fresh arugula or any mix greens of your choice will work. I try to use different type of greens so I will stick with kale for a week and then switch my greens for the weeks ahead.

I hope you like this simple, healthy vegetarian taco salad. Even my two little ones enjoy it since they like the crunch that comes from the tortillas. They think it is fun and unusual to have corn tortillas in a salad but nonetheless they love it!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by McCormick. All opinions are my own and I speak from personal experience. The end :-)

vegetarian taco salad

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 4-5 salads

Total Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 6 oz fresh baby kale or spinach
• 6 oz corn tortillas, gluten free
• 14 oz canned black beans
• 8 oz sweet corn
• 5 oz cherry tomatoes, sliced
• 4 oz sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Dressing

• 1 cup Greek Yogurt
• 1 tbsp McCormick Taco Seasoning Mix
• 1 lemon, juice
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp Himalayan salt

Directions:

In a small mixing bowl add the dressing ingredients. Mix ingredients through and set aside. If your dressing is too thick for your liking you can add a bit more water.

Divide the tortillas between 4 large plates. Arrange the kale over the tortillas followed by the corn, black beans, tomatoes and grated cheese.

Divide the dressing over the salads and serve immediately. Store left over dressing in a close container in your refrigerator for up to 1 week.

The post vegetarian taco salad appeared first on Eat Good 4 Life.

I normally buy my quinoa in bulk at Costco because we go through this ingredient like water. We have been using brown rice quite a bit but a lot less lately since we are enjoying quinoa.

I kept this chipotle quinoa casserole vegetarian but if you like you can add some organic chicken breast pieces to the mix. It will bake nicely with the quinoa in the oven.

For the chipotle sauce, I bought mine already prepared at a local store but now that it is gone I intend to make my own for sure. It is so easy. All you need is chipotle peppers in adobo sauce mixed in with a little bit of tomato sauce pureed in your food processor and you are done. I will post a recipe for it soon.

For this recipe I used a 9×13 porcelain baking dish. Some of you have found that the mixture, when baking the other quinoa casseroles I have in the blog, is not big enough to fit all the ingredients in a 9×13 baking dish. I have remeasured my baking dish and I have gotten the same dimensions. I don’t know, maybe I am doing something wrong. If you have any other bigger baking dishes use them. I don’t want you to go through the hassle and transfer half your mixture to another dish.

If you have left overs this chipotle quinoa casserole recipe is great to freeze and have later on. I am making several recipes that I have been freezing for my busy days ahead because I am starting school very soon. Well, I am already studying so I am extremely busy and I don’t want to compromise the quality of our meals.

I hope you like this chipotle quinoa casserole. It is extremely easy, delicious and very healthy.

Enjoy!

Chipotle quinoa casserole

Miryam's original recipe

Yield: 6-8 servings

Total Time: 1 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 cups quinoa, dry and uncooked
• 8 oz frozen corn kernels
• 2 15oz canned black beans
• 1 lb canned marinara sauce
• 8 oz extra sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 8 oz mozzarella cheese, grated
• 1 cup chipotle sauce, see note below
• 2 cups cruciferous veggie mix, shredded, any other green will do
• 3 cups hot water
• 1 1/2 tsp Celtic salt
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.

In a 9 x 13 rectangular baking dish, about 5qt capacity as the quinoa will expand and need more room, add all of the ingredients and mix through. Save some of the grated mozzarella cheese, and cilantro to sprinkle over the top. Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake covered for 1 hour.

Remove the aluminum foil and sprinkle the rest of the cheese all over the quinoa and bake uncovered for another 30 minutes or until the quinoa is completely cooked. You may want to use your broiler for 2 minutes to brown the top a bit when the quinoa is done cooking. I normally don't do this step though. When the quinoa is done sprinkle the rest of the cilantro over the top and serve while still warm.

NOTE: You can make your own chipotle sauce by placing chipotles in adobo sauce in your blender with some tomato juice. If you use this make sure you add a bit less of it because it will be more concentrated. 1/2 cup of the sauce, depending on how spicy you want your quinoa, should be sufficient. If you choose to make your own chipotle sauce add an extra 1/3 cup water to the quinoa.

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