Lime Chicken Soft Tacos

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast meat - cubed
• 1/8 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/2 lime, juiced
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 10 (6 inch) flour tortillas
• 1 tomato, diced
• 1/4 cup shredded lettuce
• 1/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
• 1/4 cup salsa

Directions

1. Saute chicken in a medium saucepan over medium high heat for about 20 minutes. Add vinegar, lime juice, sugar, salt, pepper, green onion, garlic and oregano. Simmer for an extra 10 minutes.
2. Heat an iron skillet over medium heat. Place a tortilla in the pan, warm, and turn over to heat the other side. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Serve lime chicken mixture in warm tortillas topped with tomato, lettuce, cheese and salsa.

Triple Pork Sliders

With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend, you'll need some snack for the game.  While they're throwing around the old pigskin, try the triple pork sliders.  With spicy mayo and chorizo, these will definitely kick the game up a notch.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds ground pork

• 1/2 pound fresh Mexican chorizo sausage, casings removed

• 1/4 cup finely grated pepper jack cheese

• 1 small shallot, finely chopped

• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped

• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 8 slices applewood smoked bacon, cooked crisp

• 16 small dinner rolls, sliced in half

• Curly leaf lettuce

• 3 sliced plum tomatoes

• Smoked Paprika Mayonnaise, recipe follows

Smoked Paprika Mayonnaise:

• 1/4 cup mayonnaise

• 1 tablespoon smoked paprika

• 1 teaspoon hot sauce (recommended: Sriracha)

Directions

1. Preheat a flat top grill pan to medium-high heat.

2. In a medium bowl, mix the ground pork, sausage, cheese, shallot, garlic, and salt and pepper, to taste. Form the meat mixture into small equal-sized patties.

3. Cook the burgers for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Remove them from the pan and serve on split rolls with a half a slice of bacon, lettuce, tomato and Smoked Paprika Mayonnaise.

Smoked Paprika Mayonnaise:

Mix all of the ingredients together in s medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until serving, allowing the flavors to meld. Can be made a day ahead.

Sausage, Potato and Kale Soup

Ingredients

• 1 pound bulk Italian sausage
• 4 cups half-and-half
• 3 cups cubed potatoes
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 cups torn kale leaves (bite-size pieces)

Directions

1. Heat a large soup pot over medium-high heat. Crumble sausage into pot; cook and stir until browned, about 10 minutes. Drain and discard grease.
2. Stir half-and-half, potatoes, chicken broth, milk, onion, oregano, and red pepper flakes into sausage, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to low. Simmer until potatoes are tender, about 30 minutes.
3. Season with black pepper; stir kale into soup. Simmer until kale is tender, 10 to 15 more minutes.

Bento Boxes

It’s back to school time!  When it comes to the daily grind of the school year, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by your schedule.  Sometimes, we tend to take shortcuts when it comes to packing lunches for our kids.  Lunchables might be a quick solution, but how healthy are prepackaged meals?  Well they can be really healthy if you make them yourself.

Let me introduce you to the humble bento box.  Bento is a single-portion takeout or homemade meal common in Japan.  A traditional bento holds rice, fish or meat, with pickled or cooked vegetables in a box-shaped container.  The word “bento” originates from a Japanese word meaning “convenient”.  There are two characteristics that make bento boxes a unique style of boxed lunch.

The first is the boxes themselves.  In fact, these stackable boxes have made their way into many American homes as plastic containers.  The key is that they stack and are self-contained (see photo).  In Japan they range from disposable plastic containers to beautiful, handmade wooden containers.

The second characteristic is how the boxes are prepared.  A typical bento consists of small portions of multiple items all tightly packed and arranged to look pleasing.  Usually a bento will at least have a fruit, vegetable, meat, and a starch like rice or bread.  Bentos can be elaborately arranged in a style called “kyaraben” (character bento) to look like anime or cartoon, comic book, or video game characters.  They even have bento design competitions!

The benefit of bento boxes is that they can be prepared in advance (or at least individual components).  This means you can do most of the prep work one day a week instead of trying to spend a ton of time each night/morning.  Give these time-saving boxes a try this school year.