Introduction: What I am Doing Now

I am spending some time with my sister in Texas, and I am really enjoying having a lime tree that never runs out of limes just outside the door.  Having a pool at my disposal is not all that bad either. 😉  While I work on building a freelancing career, I am also acting as my sister's personal chef most of the week, which means lots of fun food to blog about. I will be posting about other things besides recipes, but the old blog was about food, so I am going to start this one off with some foodie thoughts.

A typical week starts with a fresh roast of some sort.  At least two times during the week, I take portions of the roast and make them into a completely new dish by pairing it with different vegetable and making a new preparation out of it.  I always have extra made for an easy lunch the next day, and then make something different for dinner.  I will be highlighting some of these cycles in an occasional weekly round up.

Roast chicken and white rice one day turned into fried rice and simple salad the next day.

One of the things I have used the limes for is this great Tomatillo Margarita recipe.  The tree here is a key lime type tree, so I used at least 5-7 limes instead of 4.  They are very juicy, so I get a lot out of them.  Make the recipe, and you will never want a mix based drink again.  It also works well with fresh squeezed orange juice.  I did that one day when there were not enough limes.

Whoops, forgot the salt the first time, but it was still awesome!

Eventually I will phase out my old blog and save the posts. I did not do a lot of posting since I was very busy at the time. The best recipes I will re-post on this blog once I reformat them. I am still tweaking the organization for this blog, but it is time to get posting again!

Something that I cooked early on when I got down here that used the fresh limes was chicken tacos with a spicy red cabbage slaw. Like a lot of what I make, I look at what is available and pull something together. Overall the tacos were good.  My sister though they would be good with pineapple in the slaw.  I think it would also be good with some sour cream or crema. The slaw is best the same day. It gets hotter if it sits. (Recipe Note: I specify one brand in the recipe. My sister has it in her cupboard because she got it as a gift.  It is unique, so I have been specific and added a link.  There is no sponsorship for the site.  I just like being thorough.😉)

NB: I did take a few pictures when I made it, but I plan to get better pictures.  I will add when we make these again.

Weeknight Chicken Tacos and Red Cabbage Slaw

Preparation Time: 30 min.

Cooking time: 20 min.

Servings: 4-6 servings

Easy and tasty chicken tacos topped with a red cabbage slaw: you can make any variation on them based on what you have on hand. The inspiration for this meal was 'how I could use avocado, limes, and cabbage together?'



Ingredients:

• 2 Chicken breasts sliced thinly
• 1/8-ish tsp or less salt
• 1/4-ish tsp garlic powder
• 1/4-ish tsp cumin
• 1/4-ish tsp Penzsey’s Forward! seasoning
• 1 Tbsp bacon fat
• 1/2 of a medium red cabbage cut into thin shreds
• 4-5 tablespoons minced onion
• 2 stalks celery diced
• Juice of 1 orange and 2 small limes
• 1 avocado halved and peeled
• 1 large jalapeño finely minced
• 1/8-ish tsp salt
• 1/8-ish tsp cayenne pepper
• 4-6 Tortillas

Instructions:

1. Step 1 - Prepare the vegetable as described in the ingredients list. The avocado can just be pitted and pulled out of the skins. It will be blended in the dressing.
2. Step 2 - Blend together with a fork or spoon the orange and lime juices, the avocado, the jalapeño, salt, and cayenne pepper. When they are roughly mixed toss with the red cabbage, onion, and celery. The avocado will blend in fully at this point. Set aside.
3. Step 3 - Toss chicken in spices and sauté in bacon fat. While it cooks warm your tortillas in a separate pan and keep them warm.
4. Step 4 - Construct the tacos and add your other favorite toppings.