How To Make...Tropical Tacos!

Hi friends! This has become one of my husband and I's favorite weekday meals. It's so flavorful and most of all - pretty quick to make. Tropical tacos,  as we know call them, kinda happened by accident. We bought this sauce to try with pork, but realized after we got home that it's supposed to be for chicken. Don't worry - you won't be sorry. The flavor combination works just as well on pork tenderloin! Read on for the how to.

You'll Need:

• Pork tenderloin
• Gold's Dip n' Joy Sweet and Sour Saucy Chicken Sauce
• Shredded cheese
• Hot sauce
• Hard taco shells

1. Marinate a pork tenderloin overnight in Gold's Dip n' Joy Sweet and Sour Saucy Chicken Sauce.
2. Put in grill pan to get some color on the outside of the meat
3. Cut into cubes, then put back in the pan to cook through with more of the Gold's sauce and some hot sauce, if desired.
4. Serve in hard or soft taco shells with shredded Mexican 4 cheese blend.
5. Top with a little more hot sauce if you like things spicy!

The sweet and spicy sauce combined with the pork and crunch of the hard taco shell (and of course, cheese) is really kick ass. Enjoy!

Here's what the sauce looks like. Definitely a keeper!

Peanut Butter Lo Mein

I took this picture last night and it's still making me drool! This is such a great recipe! The noodles combined with the peanut butter and a little bit of spice gives this dish a real punch of flavor. I think next time we are going to cut the sugar in half (to make it a little healthier) and turn up the spice a bit. Here is the recipe we used from bloomi.com:


½ lb. of dry fettuccine noodles
¼ cup orange juice
¼ cup crunchy peanut butter (natural)
2½ tbs. soy sauce
2 tbs. white vinegar
2 tbs. brown sugar (either light or dark is fine)
½ tsp hot chili sauce (more if you want it spicy)
*optional* squeeze a wedge or two of lime juice into sauce
1 tsp oil
¼ cup sweet onions, sliced
1 clove of garlic minced



1. Put on pot of boiling water for pasta. Cook the fettuccine to al dente.

2. While the pasta is cooking, whisk together orange juice, peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, chili sauce and lime if you are using it.

3. Heat oil in skillet over med-high, once hot add the onion and garlic. Stir fry, until onion is cooked, but still has a little firmness, not mushy, then add the noodles and stir fry for 2 minutes

4. Pour the sauce over noodles, and stir to coat, continue folding and mixing the pasta over heat for about a minute.

5. Serve with a splash of soy or Ponzu sauce, or wedges of lime.


And there you have it! I was thinking of adding chicken to this dish, but it didn't really need it. It was filling enough with the pasta and peanut butter. We have been really into asian style stir fry recipes lately - and this one is a nice, fresh take on that. Thanks for reading! 

Huli Huli Chicken

How good does this look?! Continuing our journey of easy weekday recipes, I present to you: HULI HULI CHICKEN!

My sister in law shared her awesome meal prep idea with us and we have been trying it out. She buys 3 pounds of chicken breast at Costco, then cuts them all up in one day. She pre-portions them in ziplocks, and freezes them. Each ziplock bag is portioned for two people. When she wants to use the chicken, she defrosts it (you can stick it in the fridge the night before) and makes a sauce to go with it. She has a few sauces in her arsenal that she’s shared with us - they are easy, delicious and QUICK! This specific post is how to make Huli Huli chicken. Enjoy!



How to make the sauce:
3/4 cup ketchup
1/3 cup soy sauce
3 TBSP packed brown sugar
3 TBSP lime juice
1 TBSP grated ginger
4 cloves of garlic

How to cook the chicken:
In a skillet, cook diced chicken in pan with some oil until browned. Stir in sauce and cook together for 20 minutes. Serve over rice or egg noodles!

If you want to cut down on calories, you could use less brown sugar. We also used a little more lime. This sauce was great! We will definitely be using the chicken prep method going forward. It kinda sucks having to cut all the chicken at once, but it saves you so much time during the week. Hope you guys enjoyed!! xo

Turkey Tacos - Easy Weekly Meal

What You'll Need:
1 pound ground turkey (we get the 93% lean)
A non-stick skillet
Sargento 4 Cheese Mexican shredded cheese
La Banderita Soft Tacos (we try to get the low carb ones - they taste the same!)
1 packet of Taco Seasoning mix
Hot sauce (optional)

*This makes about 8 tacos. We usually have 2 each and that's enough for us. We take half the ground turkey and freeze it (4 tacos for now, 4 tacos for another day after work). For four tacos, we use half a packet of taco seasoning, and cheese and hot sauce to our liking.


How to Make:
1. Heat up skillet on stove top. Press ground turkey in pan and flatten. Brown one side well then flip turkey over. Because we are using non-stick, we don't need any oil or butter in the pan.
2. Break up turkey into small taco-sized pieces using spatula or wooden spoon.
3. Add some water (about 1/2 cup) and taco seasoning, and reduce.
4. Add seasoned turkey into the soft tacos, add cheese and hot sauce, and roll up into taco shape.
5. EAT!

These tacos are SO easy. They are a great meal when you don't really feel like cooking. The turkey cooks pretty quickly and that's the only "cooking" part needed. Sometimes my husband makes his own taco mix vs. the pre-made mix. We like to heat up the soft tacos on the stove top or the microwave right before we put the turkey in - it keeps everything warm and helps to melt the cheese. You can definitely use a regular skillet vs. a non-stick, just make sure to add some oil to avoid sticking.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Cacio E Pepe: A sauce so quick, you’ll be done making it before your pasta is done boiling!

Hi guys! Building on my theme of easy weekday meals, this one is a great recipe to keep in your back pocket. Not only is it quick to make, but most people have the ingredients on hand in their kitchen already. If you have a box of pasta, black pepper and cheese, consider your dinner DONE.

My husband and I love this recipe. We learned it from our awesome cooking class at ICE (review of the class here). Since then, we’ve worked it into our weekday meal rotation. You can make this sauce in a SNAP – start boiling your pasta, and you’ll be done making the sauce before the pasta is done. Sound good? It is.

Here is the actual recipe from our cooking class:

A few quick things:

• The recipe says to use two different types of cheese - we only used Parmigiano and it came out fine, of course! If you have both cheese, great.
• The recipe is for an entire BOX of pasta. We made the mistake last time of only making enough pasta for two people, then making a LOT of cheese and pepper sauce haha. Scale it down if you are cooking for two.
• Don't forget to save some of the pasta water, it's the key to this recipe! Otherwise, the pepper and cheese will have nothing to mix with to create the sauce.
• Enjoy!