Healthier Taco Salad; Weekly Menu Plan; Bad is Better

What's the point in doing things the right way if one still gets the same bad result?

I mean, If being good and being bad both put me in the same exact place at the end of the day.... It's usually more fun to be bad...

I might as well enjoy the journey!

We had 'un petit orage' yesterday.

I know the drill. I've been mucking about with computers since the days of '1's and '0's!

I was in the middle of uploading files to my site and photos to my blog... But, as the thunder got closer and louder, I stopped.

I shut everything down, even disconnected the phone lines.  I was thorough, 'propre'.

Then, feeling very virtuous, I went out to the garage (with a good book) and rode my exercise bike for the 40 minute or so duration of the storm.

When the sun came out again I went back to my office, plugged everything in, fired it all up.... No internet.

I naturally assumed, since I had been so careful, it must be a France Telecom problem.  I called to explain this to them. 

I spent an hour working with a very nice young lady, who broke into impeccable English after I had fractured her ear with my bad French for 30 minutes, trying to ascertain the problem.   No luck, but I did get to spend a delightful interlude on the flour under my desk, plugging and unplugging, holding in reset buttons and watching the blinking lights.

She then transferred me to a different department and a different technician.

We spent another hour, determining that it was, indeed, a France Telecom problem.  (Why will they never believe me the first time?)

BTW: Someday, I'm going to have my computer, cables, routers, outlets, etc. on top of my desk rather than under it.

He then transferred my 'file' to another department who would fix the problem within 24 hours.   

They did.  When I finally returned from a day that truly 'tried my soul', it was working.  Magic!

And so, I finally get to finish yesterday's work:

'Healthier' Taco Salad

8oz (250gr) ground beef (mince) or turkey
1/3 cup brown rice
2/3 cup chicken stock
1 small onion
1/2 green or red pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 small can chopped green chilies (4oz, 125gr)
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp chili powder
3oz (100gr) cherry tomatoes about 1/2 cup before slicing
1 avocado
2 jars taco sauce, hot or mild or both
1/2 cup (2oz, 60gr) shredded cheese - your choice
Lettuce/greens - enough for 2 main meal salads

Cook brown rice according to package directions.
Chop onions and green pepper. Mince garlic. Heat oil in nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chili powder and sauté briefly (30 seconds). Add onion and pepper and sauté for 5 minutes. Add garlic, turkey/beef and chilies and continue cooking until meat is done. Add taco sauce - you want the meat mixture to be thick so don't add all of the sauce if it's not needed - serve the rest on the side. Take meat mixture off heat. When rice is done remove from heat. Slice tomatoes and avocado. Tear the lettuce and arrange on plates. Divide rice and put on lettuce, divide meat mixture and put on rice. Top with shredded cheese. Artfully arrange tomato and avocado slices around salad and serve with any remaining salsa. Mon mari always adds some sliced jalapeños to his but that is too hot for me.

In addition to the above, for the week of May 16, we have Oriental Asparagus Salad, Grilled Teriyaki Swordfish, Pasta with Peanut Sauce, Cornish Game Hens from the Barbecue, Pesto Pasta Salad with Grilled Chicken, and more...

Become a Thyme for Cooking Subscriber and get the menu, complete recipes with meal preparation instruction, and shopping list delivered to your inbox each Thursday. (Reverse seasons available for Australia, and others in the Southern Hemisphere)

Bon Weekend!

Comments

[MyKitchenInHalfCups]

Oh I can't say why, I can only say 'they' will never believe you when you say it's them and not me/you.
Everyday this week I've spent at least 90 minutes on the phone with somebody about our internet - well not today but the last four. Talk about trying one's soul.
I love every taco salad I've ever had!!

[Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)]

Even when one is not a computer expert, one (i.e., me) is often right about diagnosing the source of technology problems. One (i.e., me) can often console oneself with exercise or its evil twin -- chocolate -- while waiting for the person on the other end of the phone to fix the problem.

[Heidi]

How is it that your recipes and descriptions always have my mouth watering, even when I've just eaten?? This sounds divine.

Heidi

[Elizabeth]

Brown rice, eh? This is the second of your recent posts that is calling for brown rice. And I just read a little essay in SAVEUR magazine about the virtues of brown rice.

Is this a conspiracy to trick me into thinking that brown rice tastes good? ;-)

In the 70s and early 80s, we ALWAYS ate brown rice because it was good for us. Secretly, I always felt like I was chewing on crushed cardboard. Rather tasty crushed cardboard but still: crushed cardboard.

And then I met the wonderful man I married, who released me from my brown rice prison and decreed that we would always eat white rice - basmati or Thai or Arborio. Perfect rice every time. Delicious rice. No cardboard.

So.... Brown rice isn't like cardboard anymore? Really? (Clearly, I have to try it again.)

[Mike]

I hate tech support...but also worked tech support for a while, so I guess I'll say I hate *bad* tech support. The taco salad looks delicious and I like how colorful it is!

[katie]

Tanna, it's so frustrating because it's supposed to be so simple... and usually is once diagnosed!

Lydia, DUH! (slaps head!) Chocolate would have been so much better!

Heidi, it's a subliminal plot...teeheehee...

Elizabeth, wellll.... I kind of cheat and cook it with chicken or beef stock... and herbs...sometimes onions... And mine is a long grain that is quite good!

Mike, I've been on both sides, too... Still frustrating. I like colorful!

[Jeanne]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one who goes around unplugging stuff at the first sign of thunder ;-) The taco salad looks great too!

[katie]

Jeanne, If only it had worked!!!!

[Núria]

What a lovely salad!!!! Tan apetitosa :D During hot summer days I could live on those... I can't get to close to the stove or the heat!!!

My husband laughs so hard when I disconect everything when a thunderstorm comes... but I still do! He also laughed when we went on holidays to a nice mountain hotel that year of the BIG summer heat (don't remember when) and I took my fan with us... thank God I did :D

[Katie]

Nuria, husbands are like that. Why does it take so long to learn we're right?