Intermittent Fasting Day 5: Mexican Feast Friday

Are there many better ways to end a long, strenuous week than with a Mexican feast on Friday? Nope. Not that many!

Want: Tacos

Have: Most ingredients… or so I thought.

I took these out of the freezer with the intention of using them for my taco shells…

…then realized that they were freezer-burned and inedible. Then I remembered that Fallon said that she uses Best Pitas for everything, including quesadillas, so why not as taco shells?

I put them to the weight test to see if they matched the 48g serving size:

49g? Close enough! They’re only 90 calories each, 62mg sodium, and have a very short list of ingredients, starting with stone-ground whole wheat and water. Pretty impressive, and cheap, too. Just $1.49 for 6 of them.

While I was rummaging through the freezer for the unusable tortillas, I came across several Quorn products that I bought. I have three freezers that I keep filling up, but use very little of what I buy! Very, very bad habit that I am seriously working on breaking. Ok, I haven’t been trying that hard, but I’m making progress.

I was going to use ground turkey breast, but it was frozen and then I found these Quorn meatless, soy-free crumbles and decided to use them up being I bought them MONTHS ago.

They have a short list of ingredients: Mycoprotein (88%), rehydrated egg white, malt extract.

They’re virtually flavorless, so I had to flavor them. So I summoned the king of cooking flavor: The onion!

Finely chopped because Dustin doesn’t love onions like I do, so I more or less hid them so they were undetectable.

Then, I added the onions to a nonstick frying pan with 2 TBSP EVOO, the Quorn grounds, 1.5 cups water, cumin, paprika, dash of cayenne papper, black pepper, and Lo Salt light salt.

While this heated, I had a jar of Pace picante that Pace sent me back in October chilling in the snow on the back deck!

Worked like a charm! Yay for making use of the mounds of white stuff surrounding us.

ShopRite had some gorgeous baby arugula the other night, so I threw a salad together while the picante chilled and Dustin stirred the taco “meat.”

I thought it would be fun to put out tortilla chips and salsa like they typically do in a Mexican restaurant.

I also picked up a container of full-fat Fage Greek strained yogurt when I was in ShopRite. The full-fat variety is simply incredible! It’s so rich and creamy, WOW! Can’t believe I snubbed it for so long.

Arugula and Goat Cheese Salad

• ~3 cups baby arugula
• 1 oz goat cheese (80 cal)
• 1 TBSP extra virgin avocado oil (or olive oil) (120 cal)
• Splash of balsamic vinegar
• 2 TBSP Maple Grove Farms strawberry balsamic dressing (30 cal)
• Salt, optional

- Lightly toss arugula with oil, vinegar, dressing, and salt. Top with goat cheese.

Tacos:

• Two 100% whole wheat Best Pitas with about half a cup of Quorn taco “meat” each, topped with about 1.5 oz Cabot New York extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded romaine lettuce, Pace Picante, and Fage Total Greek strained yogurt

The tacos turned out fantastic!!! We were both surprised that the Quorn “meat” grounds actually tasted and had the same texture as ground beef, only not as greasy. Of course, they weren’t as “good” as Taco Bell, but really, what is? LOL

I could only make it through one of the giant tacos. I was FULL! I had 6 chips + picante, and all of my salad, though. The salad was so delicious that I probably would have been happy with that alone. YUMMMY!

Intermittent Fasting Day 5 of 7 Menu One cup tea with NuNaturals vanilla liquid stevia drops At least a gallon of water throughout the day Spoonful of Fage Total yogurt About half an ounce of Cabot New York extra sharp cheddar cheese One Quorn taco on a whole wheat Best Pita with Cabot cheddar, Pace picante, romaine lettuce, Fage Total yogurt Arugula salad with 1 TBSP extra virgin avocado oil, 2 TBSP strawberry balsamic dressing, splash of balsamic vinegar 6 Garden of Eatin’ blue corn chips with Pace picante 2 squares Godiva dark chocolate with almonds Starkist low sodium albacore pouch with 1 TBSP Hellmann’s olive oil mayo on ciabatta bread with romaine lettuce Granny Smith apple Bite of (spoiled) Siggi’s yogurt

I was so disappointed later on when I discovered that my (expensive!!) Siggi’s yogurt went bad!

It usually lasts for a long time, but I guess I didn’t notice that it was so close to expiring when I bought it at Mother Earth’s last week. $7 bucks wasted! *sigh* I’m usually pretty diligent about checking expiration dates, too, and the one time I assume it will be good for weeks is the one time it’s not. Lesson learned!

I planned to have the Siggi’s with fresh blueberries, bananas, and slivered almonds for my snack, but that wasn’t happening, and I was turned off to other yogurt by that point, so I had a tuna sandwich and a Granny Smith apple instead.

Are you good about checking expiration dates? Do you eat things past their expiration date? I do sometimes, depending on what it is. I usually let my nose and taste buds be my guide if it isn’t clear by the way it looks. Like cheese, for instance. I find that most dairy lasts a few days past its expiration date, but not always, as seen above with Siggi’s. I guess I live on the edge!

Tagged as: arugula, Cabot cheese, cheese, dinner, Fage, Garden of Eatin's tortilla chips, goat cheese, intermittent fasting, meatless tacos, Mexican food, Pace Picante, Quorn, Quorn grounds, salads, Siggi's, tacos, vegetarian, vegetarian recipes, vegetarian tacos, yogurt