Grocery Shopping and a Healthy Recipe

Since we were not home during our very busy week (blog post about it coming soon!), most of the produce we bought last time we went grocery shopping went bad and we had to clean out our fridge. We hate wasting money on unused food, so when we made a quick trip to the store tonight we decided to buy only what we need for a few days and what we can take with us to my sister's house since this week will probably see us running around again.

  While we stood in line with our purchases I looked down at our cart and the sight made me very proud! It was filled with a variety of fresh vegetables, fruits, whole grain bread and tortillas, yogurt, low-fat cottage cheese, and other healthy foods. When we made the decision to eat healthier last year, I had concerns about whether we would be able to actually do it or not. After all, I have never been a big fan of fruits or veggies and Mike wasn't sure he wanted a vegetarian heavy diet, but looking into our cart tonight made me realize that we can eat healthy and I'm so happy we actually do now! All of our breakfasts, lunches, dinners, and even snacks are healthy! We drink lots of water, I've found all kinds of delicious vegetables and fruits to eat, and Mike has embraced our mostly vegetarian diet (in fact, tonight the only meat we bought was ground turkey, which is much healthier than all of the ground beef we used to eat!). And best of all we are happy and we eat well! Very well in my opinion :)

Here is a recipe for one of our favorite meals (and what we ate for dinner tonight!):

Veggie Tacos with Roasted Red Potatoes

Ingredients:

• Whole Grain Tortillas
• 1 Bell Pepper
• 1 Onion
• 1 Can Black Beans
• 1 Avocado
• Salsa
• Sour Cream
• Cheese
• 5 Small Red Potatoes
• Olive Oil
• Parsley
• Garlic Powder
• Chilli Powder
• Paprika
• Cumin
• Salt & Pepper

Directions:

First you will want to preheat the oven to 400 degrees for the roasted potatoes. Wash them, cut them into bite size pieces, coat them in olive oil, salt, pepper, and a sprinkling of garlic powder, and then bake them for around 45 minutes. While those are cooking you can chop the bell pepper and onion. Then you can either roast them in the oven until they just start to brown or sauté them in a bit of olive oil for about 5 minutes like we do. The black beans (or any kind of bean you like!) can be heated up on the stove with a few dashes of chilli powder, garlic powder, paprika, and cumin added to them for flavor. When everything is about ready, put your tortillas in the oven with the potatoes for a few minutes to crisp up and then start assembling your taco. We like sour cream, cheese, and salsa on ours and adding some fresh avocado and cilantro on top makes the tacos taste even more amazing! Of course you can make these your own by adding your favorite veggies. I bet zucchini, squash, and rice with some Feta cheese on top would be great in them instead of pepper and onions! The most important thing for us is that they are fresh, healthy and vegetarian. :)

-EM