Queens Foodie Mama: cocoa powder

My family participates in Taco Tuesday. We loved the Lego Movie, as you can tell. Good thing is, we're eating tacos on Tuesday for dinner and not trying to Kragle each other. Tacos are one of my favorite foods. Since Tuesday is taco night, I try to make a different type of taco each week to spice up our menu. On a particularly busy night, a couple weeks ago, I introduced my children to Taco Bell's family pack of tacos with both soft and crunchy. Well needless to say, the crunchy tacos were a hit. Last week I tried to make my own crunchy tacos, and well they weren't as big of a hit. This week I decided to try and re-create the Taco Bell flavor, minus the weird ingredients that I knew had to be in those tacos. While researching the ingredients in Taco Bell crunchy beef tacos, I learned the main ingredients, the normal ones and decided I could use those as a starting point. Here before you, for your viewing and maybe your eating pleasure, is the recipe I came up with. These tacos were indeed delicious. I actually used fresh ingredients and no dried or powdered substitutes.

Oh my goodness, are those some beautiful looking tacos.

Ingredients:

12 Crunchy Taco Shells
1 1/2 lbs. Ground Beef
1 1/2 cups Whole Canned Tomatoes in Sauce
1/4 cup Water
1/4 Yellow Onion
2 Dried Chili Peppers
4 Baby Bella Mushrooms (You can substitute 1/2 beef bouillon cube)
1 clove of Garlic
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon Cocoa Powder
1 head of Romaine Lettuce
1 Tomato
1 cup shredded White Sharp Cheddar or Monterey Jack Cheese

Using a blender blend the tomatoes, cocoa powder, onion, garlic, mushrooms, chili peppers,
and water until smooth. I used my trusty Vita-Mix and created a very smooth sauce.
A little back story to adding the mushrooms. Mushrooms are high in the molecule
responsible for the umami flavor or beefy flavor. I used the mushrooms as a natural way to
boost the beefy flavor of the taco meat. If you want to, you could use bouillon instead.
Taco Bell uses autolyzed yeast to add beefy flavor.

Smooth sauce, see how pretty it is?

Pour sauce into small sauce pan over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Dice the tomatoes, cut the lettuce, and shred the cheese. These will be your taco toppings.
You may also add sour cream and salsa. We were out of sour cream. I know, for shame.

Cook the beef in a large skillet over medium high heat. If you have a wok spatula, use that, or a
flat wooden spatula. Cook and break up the beef into small chunks just until cooked through.

Add the sauce and stir to combine. Simmer for another five minutes to allow
flavors to come together.

I heated up our taco shells on a small cookie sheet in our toaster oven on low heat
before serving the tacos.

Spoon some of the beef mixture into the shell and spread some lettuce tomatoes and
cheese on the beef. Top with Sour Cream and salsa.

Enjoy!

Crunchy Beef Tacos

Ingredients:

12 Crunchy Taco Shells
1 1/2 lbs. Ground Beef
1 1/2 cups Whole Canned Tomatoes in Sauce
1/4 cup Water
1/4 Yellow Onion
2 Dried Chili Peppers
4 Baby Bella Mushrooms ( You can substitute 1/2 beef bouillon cube)
1 clove of Garlic
1 teaspoon Sea Salt
1/2 teaspoon Cocoa Powder
1 head of Romaine Lettuce
1 Tomato
1 cup shredded White Sharp Cheddar or Monterey Jack Cheese

Process:

Using a blender blend the tomatoes, cocoa powder, onion, garlic, mushrooms, chili peppers, and water until smooth. I used my trusty Vita-Mix and created a very smooth sauce.

Pour sauce into small sauce pan over high heat. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Dice the tomatoes, cut the lettuce, and shred the cheese. These will be your taco toppings. You may also add sour cream and salsa.

Cook the beef in a large skillet over medium high heat. If you have a wok spatula, use that, or a flat wooden spatula. Cook and break up the beef into small chunks just until cooked through.

Add the sauce and stir to combine. Simmer for another five minutes to allow flavors to come together.

You can also heat up the taco shells on a small cookie sheet, in a toaster oven or an oven on low heat, before serving the tacos.

Spoon some of the beef mixture into the shell and spread some lettuce tomatoes and cheese on the beef. Top with Sour Cream and salsa.

Enjoy!

This morning while my children and I waited for the repair guy to come and fix our fridge/freezer, we made muffins. I haven't made muffins in a long time, so I figured this might be a good quick breakfast for another day. I used a special blend of grains that Chef Brad (Grain Guy) grinds together to make what he calls Wonder Flour. The three magic grains are brown rice, spelt, and barley. These three together he says can be substituted for all purpose flour in cakes, cookies, and muffins. I was ready to try his advice today. Using my handy dandy now repaired WonderMill, I milled 2 cups of Nishiki Brown Rice, 2 cups whole spelt, and 2 cups pearled barley. Today's recipe started as a recipe for whole wheat chocolate chip muffins courtesy of King Arthur Flour, but I changed some of the ingredients.

That is a muffin packed with whole grain goodness, healthy cocoa, and chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 350 Fahrenheit

Ingredients for this recipe are: 1 1/2 cups Wonder Flour (white whole wheat flour also works),
1/2 cup cocoa powder, 1/2 cup milk, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 teaspoon
salt, 2 cups chocolate chips, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.