Simple Things

Sometimes I hear that people have a hard time eating healthy breakfasts because of the fact that they have no time to make something, or a decent lunch because of the same reason. Something that I think is very unfortunate because making simple, yet very tasty and nutritious meals is not that hard, or time consuming. And the best thing is that they become much less time consuming the more you make them!

When I'm in a hurry and I want to eat something filling, I make Steel Cut Oats, actually, who am I kidding? I make this all the time, not every day, but almost. I love it, it is the most delicious breakfast I can have, and it is so very easy. I have to thank my good friend Marian Frantz for this, without her talking about Steel Cut Oats a few years back I would have never been interested in them, and my mornings would have been a lot less delicious. Also, special mention, and much needed mention, goes to Alton Brown for his recipe, which I will make you look up over at the food network website, it is worth it (I don't follow it completely, but I base my stuff off his).

Making this takes me like 15 minutes, which is probably about the same time it would take me to drive to the nearest fast food place, place an order, and drive away with it, either that or a little less. And since I love to save money, and eat good quality food while saving money, I think it is worth it to make 15 minutes possible in the mornings to make this, I never regret it.

So, if you already looked at Alton Brown's recipe, don't look scared!  I don't follow it completely. I use only four ingredients: Oatmeal, butter, milk, water.

You may also have noticed his recipe says 45 minutes, I claim 15, huh? Why is that? Because I don't do one cup, I only do a few tablespoons, and, remember, I don't follow the recipe completely. You may also notice my picture it looks very watery, almost like cereal and milk, when I'm in a hurry I add some milk to cool it down.  With that out of the way, lets go on!

I am okay not eating super sugary stuff, so I don't add sugar, however, I do add fruits, dry and fresh. Sometimes both, sometimes just one or the other, the only right way is what I crave. Lately I got ahold of almond and vanilla extracts, so I add that too (while cooking it, one or the other). Every now and then, in the rare occasion that I do want it sweet, I add  maple syrup, but just a little bit.

The picture above has the following: Pear, Raisins, dry Cranberries, Maple Syrup, and Cinnamon 

Sometimes however, I just add a banana. Sometimes just raisins, sometimes apples, sometimes nothing. You can add anything, really. And it is one of the best and most delicious breakfasts I can wish for some mornings. Other mornings I do crave heavier stuff. Like egg burritos, but we'll talk about those later. :P

So, that's for the mornings. Sometimes when I'm really busy and don't have time during lunch, one of my favorite things to make that is simple, yet has a lot of flavor (in other words, I'm not in the mood of a simple sandwich) is a salad. All you need to do is chop, chop, chop. Which doesn't take that long, though don't speed through it, I don't want to be blamed for lost fingers or blood in the salad.

There's a very famous salad bar chain in San Diego, and possibly in other places too, I love going there. But, truth is, they are not that special, I love it because of how convenient they are, you just drop your veggies on your plate, pour your favorite dressing, or dressings, toppings, and voila, deliciousness awaits you. Lunch though is like 8 bucks or so, maybe more, and the drink is not included (not like it matters since I drink water). And again, I love that place, a lot. They have other things too, like soups and weird pizza like breads, good stuff, not great, but good.

However, making a similar salad at home is not that difficult or time consuming, and a lot more cheaper.  I will make a short and sort of inaccurate list, one that you can easily compare  when you go to the grocery store. It's inaccurate because I don't really remember the prices of everything! It also actually depends where you live, and what grocery store you go to. I go to a local grocery store that prides itself in getting the produce right from the local farmers, they recently changed their name, but they are also known for selling bulk beans, snacks, and very fresh produce. I ADORE them, however, I won't advertise them.

If there's something you have probably noticed on this blog is that I do not write out brands, or names of companies. I don't get paid for it, nor would I want to. But the point is that I do it intentionally, if you really want to know what I am talking about, feel free to contact me! I will share the information. :)

Anyway, to make my lunch today, I used a few vegetables, some snacks, deli stuff,  and some shitty brand dressing because I was too lazy to make my own.

I used:
Romaine Lettuce - 76 cents
Red Onion - Less than a buck
Tomatoes - Like 2 bucks per pound?
Cucumber -  3 for 1 dollar.
Mexican Squash-  4 for  1 buck
Bell Pepper - 3 for 1 dollar
Cheddar  Cheese - This one a bit expensive because it is good, forgot the price. But you can use whatever you have.
Turkey Ham - Again, not sure how much this costs, just your typical deli turkey stuff. Like 2 bucks?
Cajun Mix -   2.49 lb (bought 1/4 lb)
Shitty Brand Famous Dressing -  3 bucks?

If you add it up and divide it per meals, really, nothing is cheaper. Nothing out there can be cheaper than a home a made salad, even after adding a ton of vegetables, YOUR favorite vegetables. Even if you buy a really good dressing, I only add like one tablespoon or two  per salad, so it lasts me a long time.

The only hassle is washing the vegetables, and chopping them. But, maximum it would take you like 20 minutes. Can't take more. And preparing it, since you are tossing everything together, it can't take you longer than 2 minutes!

There's one unhealthy thing that I always do to my salads though, which is, I always season them. I always add salt and pepper. Always. I like it that way.

So today, that was my breakfast, and my lunch. Very fast, very fulfilling, decently healthy. When it comes to the salad, there's no reason for them to be boring and tasteless.

Don't have croutons? Don't stress! Have potato chips? Crush them, throw them on your salad. I had those Cajun Mix I always buy from the grocery store, it seemed right to add them so I did. Nuts? Go ahead!

Any vegetable you have laying around  can make a salad, and if you don't have any, then buy some! You can make anything with vegetables, sandwiches, soups. Get in the habit! You will not regret it.

So those are today's inspirations, hope it opened up your appetite, and made your meal planning a bit less stressful!

Fried Chicken Taco & Lentil Soup

Very rarely do I crave fried foods, I like them, but they are not my favorite. Not to mention, I hate cooking them because I get to see how much fat they absorb and how much fat I ultimately eat. This has nothing with being health conscious, as I have no problem eating fried food served to me that was cooked by someone else. I just feel uncomfortable at seeing the process, or rather, at being part of it. Yet, today, I had the desire to eat a fried chicken taco, and didn't really felt like leaving the task of doing this to someone else.

Since I had some free time I decided to go for it.


One taco felt like too little for a meal though, so I decided to make a lentil soup to go with it, and a simple radish salad to fill my plate visually (makes me happy), but also add a little companion to my taco. Something crunchy and salty. In the photo you will see some lettuce too, I wasn't planning on adding it, since the taco already had lettuce inside. But the plate just looked too sad with slices of radish and a taco, so I threw a little bit and seasoned it. Speaking of the photo, my apologies, it is badly framed and looks bad to me. Oh well, this is a post tagged as Daily Eats, there's not a ton of glamour involved in every living second that passes! Not in my life anyway.

The whole thing was very simple to make, even though it involved a lot of little things to be prepared. First I started by cooking the chicken in a pot by boiling it. Threw a clove of garlic clove in to add some flavor. I didn't salt it, but next time I will. I seasoned the taco in the end, so it wasn't lacking seasoning, but seasoning the meat itself would have worked better. The reason I don't, is because I usually only use the chicken I cook like this in salads, and I like to season the salad itself. Right? Wrong? Who knows. But it works well with salads, not as well in tacos. Which should have been obvious considering the chicken was the star of the play. But this is how we learn.

While the chicken was cooking, I chopped some tomato, Serrano chilies, yellow onion, and two garlic cloves. Fried the onion, garlic and chilies in a pot, and once they were ready, threw the chopped tomato in, let it cook for a while, then I dropped lentils in. I don't know why, but I like to fry my lentils a little bit with the rest of the veggies before I add the water. I feel I treat lentils the way my mom treats rice, she always fries it a little before adding the water. Seems to work!

Once I felt everyone made friends with each other in the pot, I threw some chicken broth in (I think it was a 1/3 cup), let it introduce itself with the rest of the vegetables and the lentils, and then I added water. Seasoned it, and walked away.

While my chicken and lentils were cooking, I shredded some lettuce, which is very important for what I had in mind with this taco, and I made some pico de gallo. I didn't set aside extra tomato or chopped onions for this because I suck at planning ahead sometimes, so I had to chop it again. In case you don't know what pico de gallo is, the way my family makes it, is as follows: Tomato, onion, serrano chilie, cilantro, salt and pepper. That's it. Nothing fancy, yet packed with so much flavor. Great for tacos, or to just top your grilled chicken with. Some people add lime, I don't care for that.

I did add lime to the other side I made, which was my little radish salad. I really felt I needed something on my plate to accompany my lonely taco (I made four tacos for my family, but I only ate one, I only wanted one). Very simple, yet very yummy and it actually accompanied my taco quite well. All I did was cut radish in slices, added lime juice, seasoned it and walked away.

 Delicious daily life cooking doesn't have to be complicated,. I don't think. Sure, it could be fancier, but I'll fancy it up on a Sunday!

Soon after this everything was ready. Well, the lentils were not quite ready, I tasted them and felt they needed something else so I dropped some butter in them, unsalted butter. Like I said, I'm not that health conscious when I'm on a mission to satisfy my palate. The butter just added something glorious to these already good lentils. I loved it. Anyway, I let the butter make friends with the other ingredients and in the mean time shredded my chicken. By the way, I used chicken breast for this, in fact, I wouldn't use anything else. Unless you cooked in the oven a whole chicken and have dark meat laying around you won't eat, then, hey, make a taco out of it!

Do you remember how I mentioned that I threw a garlic clove in the pot I boiled my chicken in? Well, I smashed it and mixed it in with the chicken. Mmmm! I seasoned the chicken after it was shredded, and I did something that I don't think I have ever done before. I fried a taco. I also did something wrong because it absorbed all of the oil I put on the pan and I cussed twice about it before I shrugged my shoulders in an attempt to not give a care.

I am told I need to fry stuff at higher temperatures for a less amount of time. Lesson learned!

There was mention that I don't fry stuff often right? Well, that was an inaccurate statement. I have never fried anything until now.

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I had a very specific vision as to how I wanted to build this taco, and it was as follows: Add the shredded lettuce first, top it with sour cream, add pico de gallo, add the home made salsa that was laying in my fridge (over kill? hah! Not at all), season it, and enjoy the beautiful sight before taking a bite. I actually did do that...

It was, in the end, a very fulfilling meal, and not as painful to make as I thought it'd be. The lentils were delicious, and the taco was perfectly crunchy. And that radish salad? It was the most perfect companion a taco can dream for (well maybe a cucumber salad would have been too!). Technically you can add it in the taco... but, like I said, the plate was lonely! The playground needed more kids!

It also was very fast meal to prepare, I think typing this blog entry is taking me longer than it actually took me to prepare my food, eat it, and clean my kitchen. I spent about 1.3 hours doing all that, and I'm about to hit the same length of time now typing this.

So, this is my second entry now, and I realize that I have not written ingredient lists, or even really details about how to make what I make. And to be honest, I don't think I will. I don't really find it attractive, or that interesting, my main intent is that out of my wall-o-text with a tiny picture in the corner, comes inspirations as to what to eat, and nothing more. But then again, so far these two things have been simple enough they don't require much explanation at all. The format may change in the presence of more complicated stuff!

Until then, go satisfy your palate with something yummy. Mmm!