Food Friday! Yum! I'll try to share some of my food and snacking habits during this pregnancy on Fridays. This week it's going to be pita pockets with ground beef. It's basically like a taco, but in pita pocket form. Why I like this so much? Taco shells break on you, and you can typically stuff these things pretty good. Plus, I've got almost every food group in one bite! You can't beat that! BTW, I never measure, but I'll give you the jest on how to make one of these.
The meat part!
I like to use the leanest ground beef there is. Of course you can use ground turkey, pork, chicken, whatever protein that floats your boat.
-Brown your meat throughly (being pregnant I always make sure things are cooked well done) I like to sprinkle just a little kosher salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Drain all the fat out, yes all of it! the meat will look dry, but we'll fix that later on.
-Once it's drained, add chopped onion, I like to use a medium to large size one, but I like onions. Use more or less depending on your own taste. Add 1/2 bulb of chopped garlic. I know, you're thinking it's a lot of garlic. I love garlic, it's good for you and tasty. Cook it until the onions are soft and a little transparent.
-Now to add the seasonings. I eyeball this, typically just sprinkling it to cover the top of the meat. Add, a little salt, fresh ground black pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, chili flakes, cumin, coriander, paprika, sugar, and more cayenne if you like it spicy. Seasonings make it flavorful, but be careful to not use too much salt or sugar. I typically will only do a couple of pinches of kosher salt, and add maybe 1 1/2 tablespoons of sugar. I have to watch my sodium and carb intake.
-Mix everything evenly, making sure all the seasoning is incorporated into the meat well. Now add a little bit of water, just enough to make the beef moist. Usually about 1/4 cup will do,but it depends on how much beef you cooked in the first place. Another option is to add some fresh salsa, something low sodium, low sugar, fresh if you have it.
-Now let it all sit and mingle together for an additional 5-10 mins. Sure, you could've just used taco seasoning mix and got something similar, but I always find it way too salty, and who needs all the extra junk they put in those things.
CHOP, CHOP, CHOP!
Put whatever veggies you like into your pita pocket. However for this recipe I prefer the following chopped:
-Lettuce, the greener the better
-Pepper, green/red/yellow
-jalapeno
-tomato
Other items to include: sour cream, shredded cheese, and saracha hot sauce.
Assembly, teamwork now!
I would suggest buying whole wheat pita pockets. In my case I bought whole wheat low carb pita pockets. I guess they use a low carb recipe when they make their pitas. Compare how many carbs are in one pita serving, it'll vary from brand to brand. Mine happens to be 17 grams of carbs in one pita. Which means for me, I can have about two of them, which is more than enough.
-Cut the pita in half. I like to stick them in the toaster on the lowest setting to get them warm.
-carefully open them, spread a little sour cream in, add meat (consider how much meat you should be eating, portion size is important, a little meat goes a long way in these things)
-I like to squirt a little extra hot sauce on top of the meat. Add some shredded cheese on top. Then add the veggies.
-The idea here is that your pita pocket is probably should have 80% veggies, 15% meat, and 5% dairy (cheese & sour cream)
Chow down and Enjoy!
0 comments:
Post a Comment