Not Your Mama's Taco Salad! (GF & DF)

Taco Salad is a staple at most fiestas.





As you can imagine I do it A LOT different than the norm.




No Doritos for this girl!  Of course no cheese (no one even misses it!)...and definitely more veges!




This is so delicious.... no one even realizes how healthy it is!  When I tell them what's in it they don't believe me.  Everyone always ask for the recipe, which got me wondering why on earth have I not shared it with you all yet?!

Miss Kat's Rainbow Taco Salad

1 bag of spinach
1 bag of baby kale
1 bunch of cilantro
1 C shredded carrots
1 red onion- diced
1 C diced sweet baby peppers
1 C sliced cherry tomatoes
1 can organic black beans- drain and rinse
1 jalapeno- diced
1 1/2 lb ground turkey
1/4 C  (or more- to taste) taco seasoning- I make my own, find out how here.
1 bottle of Original Western Dressing- (don't go with the low fat- it's full of more garbage)
1 bag of your favorite tacoish chips- try to keep it healthy here (and obviously GF)- I love Aldi's Live GFree brown rice crisps in the Sweet Chili flavor, but any would work.





Throw the turkey in a pan with the jalapeno.  Once brown, add 1/2 C water, the taco seasoning, and the black beans.  Let it simmer while you get the veges ready.  Chop the spinach, kale, and cilantro.  Dice the peppers and onion.  Slice the tomatoes.  Once the seasoning has thickened up a bit with the turkey let this mixture cool.  Crush your bag of chips.  Throw everything together.  Pour the dressing over and stir carefully.




I usually prep everything and them mix it up when I get wherever I'm going so nothing gets soggy.  I throw all the greens in the container I will serve it in.  I keep the carrots, onion, peppers, and tomatoes in a separate container.  The turkey bean mixture goes in another container with a bit of the dressing mixed in to keep it moist.  Then when its time to serve it I throw everything on top of the greens and stir it up carefully as I add the rest of the dressing.

See how colorful!

I made it to take to a lunch birthday party at work for us May birthday girls.  I don't think there were many that didn't go back for seconds!

A girl & a scale... Letting go of the bad thoughts!

I'm an autoimmune hot mess...

I go to the doctor's office a lot...

Of all the things that can happen at the doctor's office... The thing that gives me the most anxiety is the scale.

The. Fucking. Scale. 

There are things WAY more invasive and important than the scale that happen at the doctor's office (especially the gastroenterologist!) ... Yet it's that damn scale that gets me. Every time.

Why, you ask??

Because I'm afraid it will say I weigh more than 100 pounds.

Ridiculous... Hell yes! But I'm totally serious! 

Who's fault is that?? Mine? Or

Society's??  You tell me.  I suppose it doesn't really matter.

I was 100.6... Which rounding up is closer to 101 than 100... Which is closer to depression than sanity.

I was looking at the disc of my CT scan images... Instead of using the educated part of my brain to think wow, there's two perfectly healthy kidneys, and there's a bunch of intestines that are so much happier now than they were a couple years ago.... The slightly broke down part of my brain immediately thinks, oh my goodness the radiologist must have thought my thighs were so fat when he interpreted these images! 

I know... Ridiculous! 

Now I realize that the radiologist isn't paid to judge the amount of fat on my thighs, he had more important things to worry about! Note only that, but my thighs aren't really fat... And even if they were, who the hell cares? Me apparently!

I don't judge anyone else like this... I never walk down the street and think wow, that girl is chunky...or she shouldn't be wearing that.   Instead I think wow, she is gorgeous...or look at her rocking that dress! I wish I had her confidence.  So why do I do it to myself?? 

At first I thought the way to deal with these thoughts was to try not to think them.  But I realized that just isn't going to work.  The thoughts are going to come... So instead I work on letting them go just as fast as they came.  And I am getting so good at that!  

Just because the thought happens doesn't mean I have to let the feelings happen.  I let the thoughts come, realize that they are just that... Thoughts.  I process the thoughts myself and try to find a silver lining from what I think is a big dark cloud.  If I can't seem to shake the thought I ask somebody else's opinion.  

So yes I become the girl you all hate who asks if she is fat (even though we all know she really isn't)  But don't hate on me for it... I really need the answer! I don't do it to annoy you, I do it to keep myself from crossing over the white line into the ditch!

Cinco de Ritas!!! Real Easy Real Juice Margaritas!

In honor of Cinco de Mayo....

Real Juice Margaritas!!!

You all know that I wouldn't mix a cocktail with a bunch of fake sugary store bought mix! No. Thank. You.  Why bother when the real thing is sooooo much better?!

Real Easy Real Juice Ritas

Juice of 1 cutie

Juice of 1 lemon

Juice of 5 limes

1 c white tequila- use the good stuff! ;)

1 c triple sec

Salt for the rim (don't leave this out... It does make a difference

Mix everything together. Shake over ice and pour into your prepared margarita glasses!

Just think of all that vitamin c you are getting in your belly with these cocktails!

Happy Cinco De Mayo Amigas!! Salud!!

Warning: Be careful with these... They go down a bit too easily!! The blend of sweet and tart is so perfect that you don't realize you're drinking all that booze!

Greek Chicken Kabobs with Avocado Tzatziki (GF & DF)

Yet another chicken recipe that was declared.... "the best chicken I've ever tasted"

These are perfect for the start of grilling season!

Greek Chicken Kabobs

Marinade:
1/4 C EVOO
1/8 C vinegar
Juice from 1/2 lemon
6 garlic cloves- minced
2 T greek seasoning


Kabobs:
1 lb chicken- I use chicken tenders
1 green/red/yellow pepper
1 red onion
8 cherry tomatoes

Mix up the marinade and cut the chicken into pieces.  Let the  chicken marinate for at least an hour.  Slice up the veges and mix up the tzatziki (recipe below) while you are waiting.   Place the chicken and veges on the skewers.  Grill.

I wanted a dairy free tzatziki that was really creamy with all the traditional flavors of tzatziki.  Then one day when I was mixing up a choclate avocado shake in my vitamix (so heavenly!) it dawned on me... duh.... avocado tzatziki!  It's perfect!

Avocado Tzatziki

1/2 C mayo
1 T EVOO
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 avocado
1 cucumber
1/2 t hot sauce
1 T greek seasoning
1/4 t sea salt
1/4 t pepper
1/2 t garlic powder

Throw it all in your blender and hit go!