Terre Pruitt's Blog

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Posts Tagged ‘easy recipe’

An Easy Yummy Recipe: Taco Pie

Posted by terrepruitt on February 21, 2018

One of my yoga students gave me a recipe. The title sounded good and as I started reading the ingredients I was thinking it sounded good until I got to the cream of mushroom soup. It just sounded really odd to me to add cream of mushroom soup with the other ingredients. I told her that, but she assured me that it was really good. She said that the dish is a hit whenever she takes it somewhere. She said everyone likes it when she makes it. So, I trusted her. And decided to try it.  I am always looking for new recipes to try that are easy. This one looked really easy. It doesn’t have that many ingredients and it had the potential to turn into a staple. So I tried her recipe to Taco Pie.

Since I so often use my blog as my recipe book I am documenting this recipe with some of the changes I made and how I will make it in the future. I will explain below the changes I have (or will make) and why below the recipe.

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Taco Pie

1 Tablespoon coconut oil
1/4 of an onion
1 lb ground turkey or ground beef
salt
garlic powder
cumin
12 ounces enchilada sauce
1 bottle taco sauce
20 ounces cream of mushroom soup
1 dozen corn tortillas
2 to 4 cups grated Monterey Jack Cheese (or Mexican Cheese)
1 can sliced black olives

Preheat oven to 325° F.

Heat the oil in a large pan. Chop the onion, then add the onion to the pan. Cook until translucent. Add the meat (crumbling it as you cook it or crumble it into the pan). Salt the meat as you cook it. Sprinkle the meat with garlic powder and some cumin. Not a lot (that is why I didn’t even put a measurement), you are just adding a tad bit of flavoring to help layer the flavors, but you still want the sauce mixture to be the star. Cook the meat until it is about half done.

Add the enchilada sauce, the taco sauces, and the cream of mushroom soup. Stir until it is all mixed together with the meat. Bring to a boil. Then let simmer over medium heat for about 10 to 15 minutes. Let the sauce flavor the meat.

In a 9X13 baking dish you are going to do layers. First layer is 1/3 of the sauce, then a layer of sprinkled of cheese, the next layer is 6 tortillas to cover the sauce. Then 1/3 of the sauce, a layer of sprinkled of cheese, then six tortillas. Then use the rest of the sauce to cover the tortillas, then cover it with the cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes. Let it sit for 5 minutes before serving. Top with the sliced olives. (If you want the olives cooked then put them on top of the “pie” before baking.)

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I have written before about how I don’t really care for the taste of plain meat. Plain meat to me, is just really not appetizing. So, when I made this recipe I cooked the turkey with chopped onions, as I stated in the recipe. It still was not enough for me. I like layered (or what I call layered) flavors. And to me, the plain meat just tasted plain. It stood out from the sauce. I like everything to meld together. So, the next time I make this I am going to add the spices as I have stated in the recipe.

The original recipe called for two cans of cream of mushroom soup, I used two boxes. That is a difference of four ounces. I did reduce the amount of enchilada sauce by two ounces, but it was still very soupy. All of the meat and sauce leaked out from between the layers and I was just left with stacked tortillas and the sauce on the side. So, next time I am going to reduce the liquids as stated here in the recipe. Not that much, but perhaps with the increased cooking time on the stove top this will help reduce the amount of liquid.

This was really good. As I type it up I am wanting to make it again. Thanks, Judy for this recipe!  And as with any recipe it is fun to add and subtract and make it your own. I thought of adding mushrooms – because I love mushrooms – and/or chilies, but I really love the simplicity of this recipe so I doubt I will be adding much to complicate it, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to fancy it up.

How does this sound to you? What will you add to it to make it your own?

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What Do You Go To?

Posted by terrepruitt on November 13, 2017

What is your “go-to” recipe?  Whether it is one that you make because you always have the ingredients on hand or whether it is that one recipe you use when making something special.  Or even that everyday kind of recipe but you still need to get the ingredients . . . . what is it?  What is your go to recipe?  Do you have one?

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Turkey And Polenta Bake

Posted by terrepruitt on September 24, 2015

On one of the hottest days of the year, I decided to turn on the oven.  Not only that, but I had to turn on the stove first.  Sometimes whatever I am making requires one or the other, but this time, I needed both.  And it was soooo hot.  But this turned out to be pretty good.  I can see myself making it again.  I liked it.

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Turkey and Polenta BakeDance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia at the San Jose Community Centers, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex City of San Jose, San Jose Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia Technique

1/4 onion
olive oil, about 1 tablespoon
1 lb ground turkey
1 package taco seasoning*
1 package polenta
large handful of cherry tomatoes
3 cups shredded cheese

Heat the oven to 350° F.

Heat the olive oil in a pan on the stove.  Then cook the onion. Then put the turkey in the pan.  Let the turkey cook a bit, then add the taco seasoning.  You can follow the directions on the package or just sprinkle it all around and cook the meat like that.  That is what I do.  I don’t add water and all that.  Remember that the meat is going to get some additional cooking time in the oven so you might want to under cook it just a tad.  But you do what makes you feel comfortable.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia at the San Jose Community Centers, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex City of San Jose, San Jose Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia TechniqueWhile the meat is cooking brush some olive oil in a baking dish.  Slice the polenta into rounds.  About 1/4 of an inch thick or so.  Line the bottom of your baking dish with the polenta rounds.  Put the pan in the oven to get the polenta cooking.  You can cook it about 10 or 15 minutes or just as long as it takes for the meat to cook.

Slice the tomatoes in half.

When the turkey is ready to your liking, spread it evenly over the polenta rounds in the baking dish.  Top the meat with the tomatoes.  Just spread them out a bit.  Then sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top.  Bake until the cheese bubbles, for between 20 and 30 minutes.

I used a really heavy pan when I did this so my cooking times were a bit different and all over the place, but next time I am going to use a less heavy pan and hopefully the polenta will get a little more cooked.

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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia at the San Jose Community Centers, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex City of San Jose, San Jose Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia TechniqueThis is one of those recipes (well, I guess all recipes are, but this one especially) that you can play with.  You could use ground beef.  You could put in green or red peppers.  Maybe some corn or salsa?  Anything goes, I think.  I am going to add some bell peppers the next time I cook it.

This last picture is to somewhat show you the layer of sliced polenta.

So, I don’t really care for the ingredients in the package seasoning.  And the day after I made this (using a package) a fellow blogger posted a recipe for DYI Taco Seasoning.  I have not tried it yet, but can’t imagine why it would be good.  So, if you don’t want to use the package and you want to try making your own, perhaps give Crafty Coin’s recipes a try.  I was so excited to see a “homemade” taco seasoning I totally didn’t see the “spicy” part.  Of course, you know I will be leaving out the “spicy”.

What do you think?  Do you like polenta?  What do you usually make with it?

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Salsa Chicken

Posted by terrepruitt on May 22, 2014

So my niece is learning to enjoy cooking — at least I think she is learning to enjoy cooking.  She keeps telling me about one of her favorite recipes right now.  Salsa Chicken.  I am not sure where she got the recipe, probably Pinterest since she is young and it is all the rage with people right now.  I know I have seen the recipe in the past, but I have never really liked tomatoes enough to try it.  You might be familiar with me and tomatoes.  I have grown a little more tolerate of them.  Also recently I purchased a salsa from the deli section and it was very good.  It was a garlic salsa.  So I was thinking that it would be great in my niece’s recipe.  But, of course, when I went to the store they didn’t have it.  I bought a different one, it was a “medium” salsa and it proved to be too hot for me.  But I just took a little of it off my chicken and it was fine.  Super yummy in fact.  I see why my niece likes this recipe.  It is super flavorful.  It is easy and really yummy.  So here is how I made the Salsa Chicken.
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Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaSALSA CHICKEN:

~4 boneless, skinless thin chicken breast filets
~one package of taco seasoning
~two cloves of garlic, minced
~16 ounces of salsa
~1 cup cheddar cheese
~Cilantro (optional)
~Sour cream (optional)

Preheat oven to 375.
Place chicken breast in a 9×13 (or similar) baking dish. Season both sides of chicken with taco seasoning.  Sprinkle garlic on chicken.  Cover with salsa.  Bake for 20 minutes, until chicken is almost fully cooked. Sprinkle with cheese and bake until melted and chicken is fully cooked. To serve, top with cilantro and sour cream if desired.

Serve over rice.

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The store I was at only had thin breast filets.  That is why I used them instead of regular chicken breast halves.  So with the THIN filet I cut the baking time from the original “25-35 minutes” to just 20.  Nothing ruins a great chicken recipe like over-cooked chicken.  So, keep in mind that if you are using thicker breasts the time will probably be a little longer than 20 minutes.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Zumba, PiYo, Gentle YogaAlso the recipe my niece gave me called for 4 tablespoons of taco seasoning.  I measured out the package and I thought it was only 2.5 to three.  But whatever it was . . . it fully covered the chicken.  So this can be another one of those things that you can adjust to your liking.

I didn’t measure the salsa.  I just put enough on to cover all of the meat.  I had a 20 ounce container and I used most of it.  So I am guessing it was about 16 ounces.  Again, adjust for your tastes.

And since I had imagined using the garlic salsa, I put garlic on the chicken.  Not a necessary ingredient.

I did use the cilantro, but I don’t eat sour cream.  I bet if I did it would have helped cool down the “too hot” salsa.  My hubby loves sour cream and he used it.

My niece said she served the chicken with “FarmHouse Mexican rice and corn”.  I don’t even know what that is.  I just used plain white rice.  I spooned the liquid from the pan onto the rice.  So the rice was salsa-y.

It was very good.  My hubby loved it so now I have another recipe to add to my menu regulars.  It is so easy.

I wanna thank my niece for motivating me to try this.  My husband also wants to thank her because — again, super yummy.  And since it is so easy it will be a regular dish here at our house.

So . . . what’s for dinner?

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Beef, Beans, Mushrooms, Zucchini, And Cheesy Tortillas

Posted by terrepruitt on April 9, 2013

My cat has been on a “bland diet” of beef and sweet potatoes.  I keep thinking “today is the day” — meaning, today will be the last day, but until “things” have gotten back to normal I am not comfortable putting her back on her cat food.  Part of the prescription of the bland diet was “very lean” beef.  So I am feeding my cat lean beef.  One day I was about to cook two dinners.  One for my cat and one for my hubby and I.  Then I realized I could just cook one.  So I put away what I had originally planned for my hubby and I and just cooked up some beef for us too.  As I was cooking the meat I was thinking of what veggies I had in my fridge . . . yeah, my door note does not always get updated.  Of course I couldn’t remember but when I opened the door I spotted the mushrooms . . . cool, I decided to put the meat on/in tiny tortillas with some mushrooms and cheese.  Then, I decided that in addition to mushrooms I would add some garbanzo beans.  As I was putting something in the fridge I spotted the zucchini and I decided to grate some of that into our mushrooms.  I was making this dinner up as I was cooking it!  (I can do that when I don’t have a Nia class.)

I have to cook the cat’s meat without flavoring, so I figured I would just salt the meat after and put some raw onions on it.  I figured that would be enough flavor.  But then I took hers out to prepare it and I left ours in the pan and I added cumin and garlic salt.  I am starting to add cumin to different things now.  Ever since I used it in my adjusted version of Bobby Deen’s Red Beans and Rice recipe.  It was not a spice I was accustomed to cooking with.  I like it.

We ended up with a pretty tasty dinner, I think.  I think the raw onions on the topping it all off really gave it the perfect finishing touch.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaBeef, Beans, Mushrooms, Zucchini, And Cheesy Tortillas

small wedge of onion, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
four shakes of garlic salt
half of a zucchini, grated
four shakes of garlic salt
1 can of garbanzo beans
four shakes of garlic salt
1/4 of a pound beef
four shakes of cumin
four shakes of garlic salt
10 small thin slices of cheese
five tiny corn tortillas

Heat the oil and onion (save some for garnish), then put the mushrooms in, add garlic salt.  Cook them until they are almost done, then put the grated zucchini in, add garlic salt.  Cook until it looks done almost done, then add the beans and the garlic salt. In a different pan, cook the beef with the cumin and garlic salt.

When the mushroom mixture and beef are almost done, heat the tortillas, melt the cheese on the tortillas.  Spoon the beef onto four of the cheesy tortilla, then spoon the mushroom bean mixture.  Top with raw onions.  (One tortilla was meatless!)

I had to cook the meat separate because of my cat, but if I were just making this for us I would cook the mushrooms first . . . I like my mushrooms caramelized, then I would add the beef . . . and I would use more so that it would work for all five tortillas.  I would add the cumin to the meat.  Then I would add the zucchini, then the beans.  I don’t like the beans to get to cooked so I add them last.  With each ingredient I would add garlic salt.

I have an electric grill/panini press I used for the tortillas.  I grilled them.

This was very good.  I will be making this again.  But since we rarely have ground beef (we are only eating it because the cat is!) I will use our regular ground turkey.

I like cooking with cumin!

I know I don’t come up with very inventive stuff, but we like it and sometimes all you need is an IDEA of what to cook for dinner.  Maybe this will help you.

What do you think?  Any ideas on what you might add?

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Beer Bread – Less Sugar, More Herbs

Posted by terrepruitt on August 27, 2011

I would not be surprised to learn that I was one of the last people to learn about beer bread.  This past June I was at my mom’s and she said she would whip up some beer bread.  As much as I love bread I have never tried to make it because, yeast is a scary mystery to me.  So I was curious as to how she was going to “whip” it up.  I knew that to mean quick and not whipped like whipping cream so I wondered how that could be done.  Yeast has to set, right?  She and my niece did it and I was amazed and thrilled.  It is so easy.  There are really thousands of sites on the internet that have beer bread recipes.  I found that out when I went looking for recipes that call for “self-rising” flour.

Nia classes, Nia teacher, Nia San Jose, Nia Los Gatos, San Jose Nia, Nia teacher loves breadMost of the recipes — the easy ones are 3 cups of self-rising flour, 3 tablespoons of sugar, and 12 ounces of beer.  Bake at 375°F for about an hour.  The first time I made it I actually handled the dough too much and I think it came out tough.  I had mixed it a lot then, had a hard time putting it in the pan.  It kind of sticks to whatever you use to try to push it to the corners of the pan.  Then AFTER I had spent some time fitting it into the pan I realized I should have greased the pan so I popped the dough out, greased the pan, and spent a considerable amount of time getting the dough back into the corners.  Kinda made it tough.

The next time I was careful NOT to play with the dough so much.  And it came out better.  Plus I used less sugar.  I know it is only three tablespoons, but it makes the bread too sweet for my tastes so I probably used about a tablespoon less.  I added salt (yeah, I did), garlic, and cheese.  I used Asiago because that is what I had and I wanted something with a gentle bite to it.  It turned out REALLY good.

I am not sure if I made it again before this very last time.  Hmmmmm . . . . can’t remember.  I don’t think so.  Even though I love bread, my hubby is not so much the bread fan, so that means I end up eating most of it and I don’t need to do that.  Even though I love that fact that there are less chemicals and stuff in this bread it is still an uber refined carb and I can always use to eat less of those!

This last time I made it with two tablespoons of sugar.  I have yet to pour the butter on top as most recipes instruct.  My hubby and I usually put butter on it so I don’t feel we need to have double butter.  In this batch I used garlic salt, garlic powder, and marjoram.  I love marjoram.  So I sprinkled some into the dough.  It is good.  It could even do with more marjoram.  I just wasn’t sure so I did use a lot, but now I know it works I can put more in.  You can barely see the flakes in the bread.

I still want to try it with other herbs.  Or maybe even a heavier beer?  And definitely even LESS sugar.  I might even try eliminating the sugar all together.  Since this really is a well-known recipe and I am thinking many of you have made it, what have you used?  Have you added any other herbs?  What typed of beer do you use?  Have any of you tried it with a gluten free flour?  Does it work?

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