Food Waste Friday | So, I have a picture…

by Kristen on March 19, 2010 · 15 comments

in Food Waste Friday, Food Waste Photos

Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. I started doing this in March of 2008 to help motivate myself to use up my food instead of wasting it and it’s been very effective. Since it helped me so much, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born.

…but it only has one thing in it. And though I’m bummed I wasted a hamburger, this picture represents a happy change around here. I took this photo at about 7:00 PM yesterday, which would have been impossible a week ago.

Yes, daylight savings time is sort of a hard pill to swallow at first, but my goodness, it does make picture-taking in the evenings much easier. In the winter when I’m trying to take pictures of my dinner recipes, I have natural light in the early stages, but it’s usually all gone by the time I finish whatever I’m making, and that bums me out no end. From now until October, though, I’ll have all the natural light I want, and that makes me very happy.

But, hopefully next week I will have no need to take advantage of the natural light for a food waste picture. ;)
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How did you do this week? If you blogged about your food waste, link us up by entering your info into the widget below. You’ll save money, reduce your trash output, and get a little publicity for your blog! And if you don’t blog, you can still share about your food waste by leaving a comment.

{ 15 comments }

What To Buy (and not buy) at Aldi

by Kristen on March 18, 2010 · 61 comments

in Aldi, Grocery Savings


Instead of “What To Buy At Aldi”, it would probably be more appropriate to title this “What I Buy (and don’t buy) at Aldi” because my preferences are just that…preferences.  You might like something that I hated, and vice versa.  But, many of you have asked for me to share my likes and dislikes at Aldi, so I’m posting a list for you.  You have to be promise to not be crabby with me if you find you dislike a product I like, though.  I will not be held liable.  ;)

Happily, when you shop at Aldi you can buy with confidence because anything you buy at Aldi is double guaranteed.  This means you can take back any product, get your money refunded, and get a replacement product with no hassle.

To make it easy for me to keep track of things, I’m going to assemble this list in an order that follows the layout of my store, at least for the most part.

Chocolate/Candy
Buy:
Everything.  This is almost all name brand, but cheaper than other stores.  Sonia is highly partial to the Happy Cola.

Don’t Buy:
N/A.

Snacks
Buy:
Pretzels, cheese crackers, animal crackers, whale crackers (like Goldfish crackers), graham crackers, nuts, and dried fruit. These snacks are all Aldi brand, but they’re really good!  I don’t buy a lot of chips, but the ones we’ve tried have been good.

Don’t Buy:
Club/Ritz knock-offs, and saltines.   I wouldn’t necessarily say you shouldn’t buy these, but you should know they’re not exactly like the real thing.  My kids will eat them, but my husband and I aren’t fans.

Cereal/Grains
Buy:
Regular or Quick Oatmeal.  It’s a great price, is fairly unprocessed, and produces very little trash.  Love it.

Don’t Buy:
Cereal. The box or two we’ve tried has been good, but I can almost always beat Aldi’s cereal prices by watching sales and using coupons at Weis.  If this is not the case in your area, you might want to give Aldi’s cereal a try.

Baking Ingredients
Buy:
Sugar, cooking oil, powdered sugar, and brown sugar.

Don’t Buy:
Unsweetened cocoa powder.  I hated it, but  I know some people love it.  Chocolate is very much a preference thing.  I also don’t buy my flour there because I must have Gold Medal unbleached (I’m picky about my flour!).

Dairy Products
Buy:
Milk, butter, cottage cheese, cheese blocks, cream cheese, and cream.  The prices are excellent on all of these items.  They usually have a good price on eggs, but I’m fortunate enough to buy them from a local blog reader, which means I don’t need to buy them at Aldi.

Don’t Buy:
The sour cream. I tried it twice, and both times it was grainy and soft. I buy this at Weis instead.

Produce
Buy:
Everything!

I know some people have had a terrible experience with the produce at Aldi, but I have to say that the produce at my Aldi has almost always been great.  Often, it’s better than the produce at Weis, and it’s usually way cheaper.  I buy bagged spinach, sweet peppers, jalapeno peppers, zucchini, tomatoes (these do vary week to week…if they look bad I don’t buy them), pineapple, cucumbers, berries, melons, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, oranges, grapes, grapefruit (the grapefruit are SO good!) and pears.

Aldi’s produce is rarely organic, but it is often seasonal.  For example, Aldi doesn’t carry raspberries and blueberries in the middle of winter, for example, and they don’t carry grapefruit in the summer.  Strawberries, blueberries, and melons are usually only available when they’re in season (presumably because that’s when Aldi can get them cheaply) and grapefruit are available in the winter.

Honestly, I think my family eats more produce now that I shop at Aldi…a lot of produce that was prohibitively expensive at other grocery stores are now well within the affordable range for us, and organic or not, eating more produce can’t be a bad thing healthwise.

Don’t Buy:
N/A.  I’ve not had a bad produce experience at Aldi thus far.

Canned/Jarred Foods
Buy:
I don’t buy a lot of this type of food, but I’ve liked everything I bought so far.  I buy tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, mandarin oranges, black beans, canned peaches, and pumpkin when it’s available.

Don’t Buy:
N/A. I haven’t had a bad canned product yet.

Unrefrigerated Grocery Items
Buy:
Macaroni and cheese (I shamelessly feed this to my kids when my husband and I have the occasional date night!), flour tortillas, and pasta.

Don’t Buy:
Dried Tortellini.  This was a temporarily stocked item, but it was terrible.  I cooked it and cooked it and it wouldn’t soften.

Meat
Buy:
Lunch meat, pepperoni, and bacon. These are all good quality and they’re usually much cheaper than they are at a regular grocery store.

Don’t Buy:
Pretty much everything else.  I say this not because the quality is so bad, but because the prices are usually not that great.  I can almost always beat Aldi’s meat prices by watching sales at a regular grocery store.

Paper Products
Buy:
The upscale toilet paper and paper towels.  These are well-priced and of good quality.

Don’t Buy:
The bargain-priced paper products.  They work in a pinch, but they’re really not that great.

Toiletries
Buy:
Shampoo, makeup, toothpaste, and feminine supplies.

Don’t Buy:
I haven’t had a bad toiletry item from Aldi yet, but there are some items they just don’t carry, like easy-glide floss and gel deodorant.

Frozen Foods
Buy:
Fruit (strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, rasberries), OJ concentrate, corn, fish, ice cream novelties.  Ooh, and the eclairs/cream puffs are tasty too. ;)

Don’t Buy:
Ice cream (the quarts, not the novelties).  It’s just not up to par in our opinion.

Beverages
Buy:

Sparkling juice.  We buy this for special occasions, like Christmas, and Aldi’s sparkling juice is really good and really cheap.  I’ve occasionally bought fruit juice there too and it’s been good.

Don’t Buy:

N/A.  I haven’t bought any bad beverages, though admittedly my experience with this is limited, as I don’t buy a lot of juice or soda.

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So, there you have it!  I should add that this list is not at all comprehensive…Aldi carries a LOT more items than the ones listed here, but most of them are just things that I don’t buy, like frozen dinners, frozen breakfasts, canned soups, snack cakes, prepared cookies, bread and rolls, sausage, bologna, coffee, refrigerated roll/biscuit/pie dough, breakfast tarts, granola bars, and oatmeal packets.  These things might be tasty, but I don’t have any personal experience with them, so maybe my Aldi-shopping readers can report on the quality or lack thereof when it comes to these items.

Also, I’d be interested to hear what other Aldi shoppers love or hate, so please chime in! :)

{ 61 comments }

My baking cookbook faves

by Kristen on March 17, 2010 · 42 comments

in Wednesday Baking

A couple of you have asked for cookbook recommendations (ha! I just spelled that word right, which is an accomplishment. Double letters are my one spelling downfall.), so I thought for today’s baking post, I’d share my favorite baking cookbooks.

Better Homes and Gardens Homemade Bread Cookbook

My very first bread baking cookbook is this one, published in 1973. I baked recipe after recipe from my mom’s copy of this book when I lived at home, so it’s like an old friend to me!  It’s obviously not in publication anymore, but I got my copy on Ebay, and I know I’ve seen them on half.com as well, so you might be able to snag one for yourself.

The whole wheat roll recipe I posted recently is from this book and so is my buttermilk biscuit recipe.

Fleischmann’s Bread Cookbooks

I dearly love my two Fleischmann’s cookbooks. They’re both freebies…my mom got one when she was a new homemaker, and I sent in for mine when I was a teenager. I’m quite sure neither of these books is available anymore, but given that I love both of them, I think I can recommend any bread cookbook from Fleischmann’s…those people know bread!

The list of recipes I’ve shared from these two books is pretty long…Apricot Coffeecake, Overnight Cinnamon Twists, Hamburger Buns, Braided Cheese Bread, and Challah all are from these books.

Baking Illustrated

My most recent baking acquisition is this enormous book from Cook’s Illustrated. My husband got it for me as a birthday present a few years back, and unlike my other baking books, this one is definitely still available for purchase.

This book is comprehensive in scope and in detail (the authors tell you exactly how they came up with each recipe and why they tweaked this or that), and though I’ve only scratched its surface, I’ve found several winners. The Deep Dish Pizza recipe came from this book and so did my Whole Wheat Bread recipe. In addition to bread recipes, this book also covers cakes, pies, tarts, and cookies, among other things (I made the Key Lime Pie recently, and it was delicious).

Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

Though it’s not specifically a baking book, I do often use baking recipes from my basic Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. The recipes contained in this series of books are not gourmet and cutting edge, but in my experience, they’re reliable and uncomplicated. My basic dinner roll recipe and my cornbread recipe are both from the baking section in this book.

For the most part, I’ve found the recipes in most bread baking books to be fairly good, so I don’t really have an “Avoid This Cookbook” list.  I did own a really big James Beard book on bread, but I found it to be overwhelming in length, and the fact that it had exactly zero pictures didn’t help either.  I eventually got rid of it and haven’t missed it all.  I know some people swear by his books, though, so this is probably a personal preference kind of thing.

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Do you have a favorite baking book? If you do, please share. And if you happen to love James Beard’s bread book, please don’t hate me.  ;)

{ 42 comments }

Easy Frugal Cooking | Beef au Jus Sandwiches

by Kristen on March 16, 2010 · 27 comments

in Main Dishes, Recipes

Today’s recipe isn’t a particularly quick one but since it doesn’t require much in the way of hands-on effort, I think it still qualifies as easy. ;) I got it from Taste of Home and modified a couple of things. The original recipe calls for a rump or bottom round roast, and while those do go on sale for a decent price, I’m not a big fan of the texture or flavor of those cuts of beef. So, I use a chuck roast when I make this recipe. It doesn’t slice as neatly as rump or round roasts do, but the meat is much more tender and moist, so it’s a trade-off I’m willing to make.

Also, the recipe calls for adding sauteed onions to the liquid for cooking the beef, but I’ve found they just turn into mush after several hours in the oven. So, I leave them out. If you really want onions for your sandwiches, I’d saute them and add them to the beef a half hour or so before it’s done baking.

I use homemade French bread for these sandwiches, but doing so probably removes this recipe from the “easy” category.  Using French bread from the store is perfectly acceptable, and is probably a great use for those day-old bargain loaves.

Anyhow, here’s how to go about making these sandwiches.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a Dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add the chuck roast and brown on all sides.

Add the garlic and saute for 60 seconds or until it’s fragrant.

Combine water, soy sauce, and onion soup mix, and pour over top of the roast.

Put the lid on the Dutch oven, place in a 325 degree (F) oven, and bake for 2 1/2 hours, or until meat is tender.

Remove the meat from the juices and let it stand for 10 minutes.  Slice, or if you use a chuck roast like I do, pull apart into bite-sized pieces, and return the meat to the juice.

Cut a loaf of French bread in half lengthwise and then into 3-inch sections.  Spread with softened butter and broil 4-6 inches from the heat for 2-3 minutes.

Top with a piece of Swiss cheese, several pieces of beef, and more Swiss cheese (I find starting with a piece of Swiss cheese makes the beef less likely to fall off the sandwich).

Broil for 1-2 minutes or until cheese is melted.  Serve promptly…

and alongside, include little bowls of the pan juices for dipping the sandwiches.

Onion Beef au Jus
printable version (Taste of Home’s version)

1 beef chuck roast (4 pounds)
2 tablespoons canola oil
5 cups water
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 garlic clove, minced

1 loaf (1 pound) French bread
4 tablespoons softened butter
4 ounces sliced Swiss cheese

In a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, brown roast on all sides in oil; drain. Add garlic clove, and saute for 1 minute. Combine water, soy sauce, and soup mix. Pour over roast. Cover and bake at 325° for 2-1/2 hours or until meat is tender.

Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing. Return meat to pan juices. Slice bread in half lengthwise; cut into 3-in. sections. Spread softened butter over bread.

Place on a baking sheet. Broil 4-6 in. from the heat for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Top with a piece of cheese, beef and several slices of cheese. Broil 4-6 in. from the heat for 1-2 minutes or until cheese is melted. Serve with pan juices.
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You may also be interested in my other main dish recipes.

{ 27 comments }

Monday Q&A | Ask Mr. FG, Pickle Juice, Cloth Diapering, and Technology

by Kristen on March 15, 2010 · 44 comments

in Q&A

Every Monday, I answer a few of the questions that my readers send me. If you have a question you’d like me to answer in a future Q&A post, just leave me a comment here or email me (thefrugalgirl [at] gmail [dot] com) and put Q&A in the subject line. I look forward to hearing from you!

Ask Mr. FG

A while back I asked all of you a few questions about what you’d like to see more of/less of here on my blog, and a number of you asked for a post from my husband.  He’s not a big fan of writing, so I don’t think he wants to write an entire post, but he’s indicated that he might be willing to do an interview sort of post, where he answers questions from you.  So, if there’s anything you’ve ever wanted to ask him, send me an email or leave a comment on this post, and he and I will work together to assemble and interview post.  I can’t guarantee we’ll answer every question, but we’ll do our best.

Now, onto some reader questions!

I wanted to know if you know of any uses for left-over pickle juice. I buy the big jar for our family movie night (Wednesday’s special is buy one get one free, so we get two for 99 cents), and I always end up with a bunch of pickle juice left and can’t seem to find any use for it. I hate to throw it away.

Thank you, hope you can answer my question.
-Jovi

We don’t go through a ton of pickles at our house, but I know I’ve read of people putting sliced cucumbers into pickle juice and then letting the jar sit in the refrigerator for a few days. The result, from what I hear, is a kind of raw pickle.

I’ve not personally tried this, though, so I can’t vouch for the effectiveness of this trick.

Given that your balance of concern for budget and the environment is similar to my own, I was wondering what you did for your children when they were in diapers? I am having my first in Sept and am at a loss. I hate the idea of using disposables, but I’m concerned about the cost of cloth services or even my own water bill should I go alone on cloth. I’d love to hear your take.

Jennifer

I wrote a post a while back to answer the question, “How much baby stuff do I need?”, and in that post there’s a small section on cloth diapering. For various reason, I never got into cloth diapering, so I didn’t have a lot of helpful advice to offer, but in the comments of that post, many of my readers shared helpful tips and opinions. This FAQ page has some more specific info about the dollars and cents aspect of cloth diapering and the Green Baby Guide also addresses this question.

I was curious what you do about tv, video games, and the computer.   When I have children I don’t want them to have video games or free reign over the tv or computer.   I was curious if you let your children earn tv or computer time or do you give them a certain amount of time per week?  I don’t watch tv and the only reason that we have a television in our house is that my husband likes to watch good movies every once in a while (maybe once every two weeks or so) and old tv shows on DVD or BBC tv shows on DVD.  We don’t have internet either and I don’t really see a reason to use the computer other than doing research for school projects or typing…that is the only two USEFUL things that I used the computer for during school.

Oh and cell phones… what are your thoughts about kids having cell phones?  I am pretty serious about not giving my children them until they are driving and then it will be only for emergencies.

-Faith

We do own a TV (though it is not hooked up to cable…we just have an antenna in our attic), a wii, and several computers, but our children don’t at all have free reign over them.  I think that the technology we currently have in our culture is amazing, wonderful, and useful (especially the internet!  How would I blog without it??), but I think that it’s good to exercise care in the way we use these things.  Of course, different families have different needs, so the way we handle technology isn’t the perfect method for everyone, but since you asked, here’s how we operate.

TV
We watch TV very, very rarely, mostly because there’s not much on that we perceive to be edifying.  We did watch some of the Olympics, and my husband and my son sometimes watch football games together, but TV isn’t even close to being a daily thing here.  We do sometimes borrow movies from the library or rent movies from Redbox, but this also is not something we do on a regular basis.

Computers
My older two kids use the computer for their schoolwork (the younger two don’t know how to type yet!), and they both use the internet for typing games.  Joshua has an email account, which carbon copies everything to my account so that I can keep an eye on what he’s sending and receiving, and he also sometimes reads articles about cars and checks the scores of various sports teams.  Excessive internet use hasn’t really been a problem yet, so we haven’t had to place any time restrictions on internet activities.  We’ll adjust this in the future if necessary, though.

Video Games
My kids all get 30 minutes per day to use on video games, but this half hour can only be used after their schoolwork is all done, checked, and corrected, and when their rooms are cleaned.  This ensures that video games don’t take higher priority than they should, and it also motivates them to get their work done without delay.

They don’t always choose to use their video game time, though…there are often days where they decide to use their free time for something else once their work is done, and that is more than fine with me.

Cell Phones
None of our kids have cell phones, and I don’t anticipate that changing anytime soon (I hardly even use a cell phone!).  Since we homeschool, our children are almost always with either my husband or myself which makes the need for a cell phone pretty insignificant.

I know that even as an adult, I have a hard time resisting the urge to spend more time on the internet than I should, and I’m quite sure that my kids would have difficulty resisting the distraction of a phone with texting and internet capabilities.  I think we probably need to be less connected to our technological devices and not more connected (this is why I turn off my computer after I publish my blog post, and leave it off until I’m finished with my necessary tasks for the day).  So, I don’t think we’d really be doing our kids any favors by essentially offering them 24/7 internet and texting.

Not Just Frugal
Though the way we handle technology does save us money (we have no cable bill and our cell phone bills are minimal), we also feel fairly strongly that having less access to TV, internet, and cell phones is better for us.  Because of the way we approach these things, we’re less distracted and are more likely to talk to each other, do things together, read books, play outside, go for walks, and just generally spend our time in more productive and healthy ways.

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Readers, as always, please share your advice in the comments. :)

{ 44 comments }

Grocery Spending/Menu Plan | 3.13

by Kristen on March 13, 2010 · 25 comments

in Grocery Reports, Menu Plans

I took multiple photos again, since several of you said that was helpful.

First up, here’s my meat purchases for the week…pepperoni for pizza, and an all-natural chicken ($1.49/pound, which isn’t too bad for really good chicken).

Here’s my refrigerated stuff, which is all from Aldi.  The red gallon of milk is for yogurt, and the other is for cereal and for cooking purposes.

This is my produce (the leafy stuff in back is a bunch of radishes, which my kids are newly fond of).

And here’s everything else.

I spent $63.87 at Aldi and $39.24 at Weis, which brings my total to $103.11; almost on budget.

Breakfasts this week will be yogurt, bananas, muffins, toast, and oatmeal. Lunches will be homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, fruit, sandwiches, and leftovers as necessary.

Dinners will be as follows:

Saturday-My husband’s family is coming over for another multi-birthday celebration (we have oodles of birthdays in February and March!), so we’re not having our usual Saturday night pizza.

Sunday

  • We’re visiting some friends after church, so I have no idea what we’re eating!  ;)

Monday-this meal got bumped from last week

  • BBQ Chicken
  • grilled vegetables
  • Cheddar Twists

Tuesday

Wednesday

  • Roasted whole chicken with stuffing
  • cranberry sauce
  • whatever produce needs using by then

Thursday

Friday

{ 25 comments }

Links! for the first time ever.

by Kristen on March 12, 2010 · 12 comments

in Links

I don’t think I’ve ever done a post like this before, but I came across several blog posts this week that I just had to share with you.

First, check out this awesome coffee-table makeover from Sabby in Suburbia. She used my favorite Painter’s Touch paints that I use when I paint furniture, and I think her table is beautiful!

Second, Sierra from ChildWild wrote a post called “Why I Quit Everything“, and I love it.  It’s all about how she decided to stop over-scheduling her children and instead enjoy a slower-paced life at home.  My childhood was very un-scheduled and unprogrammed, and I think that’s one of the features that made it so enjoyable.  Children need time to just be kids, and I think we often underestimate the value of an afternoon spent playing outside or an evening at home with the family.

And lastly, over at Unclutterer, there’s an article listing 10 Uncluttering Things To Do Every Day.  I seriously could have written that myself, because almost all the jobs on the list are part of my daily routine (except for maybe getting rid of stuff every day.  I don’t think I have enough stuff for that!  and the email part.  I regularly get behind on that!).  My home is never perfectly clean, but it’s a lot neater and cleaner that it would be if I didn’t do the tasks on that list.

If you’re drowning in your clutter and mess, give this a read.  Even if you only incorporate one or two items from the list (and really, you probably only want to try to implement 1 or 2 at a time), it’ll make a big difference in your home.

{ 12 comments }

Is my blog loading weird for you?

by Kristen on March 12, 2010 · 10 comments

in Uncategorized

Right now, it’s loading in an ENORMOUS font, and I have no idea why. It sometimes does this when I add widgets or change something in the code, but I haven’t even done anything odd.

So, is it just on my end, or is it showing up that way for you too? It only does this on the home page and not on the page of a particular post. If any of my readers have some idea of why in the world this happens, I would be so grateful for your input!

edit: now that I put this post up, it appears to be working properly. My blog seems to have an attitude or something.

{ 10 comments }

Food Waste Friday | I almost made it…

by Kristen on March 12, 2010 · 12 comments

in Food Waste Friday, Food Waste Photos

Every week, I post a picture of the food that has gone bad over the last seven days. I started doing this in March of 2008 to help motivate myself to use up my food instead of wasting it and it’s been very effective. Since it helped me so much, I invited other bloggers to join me in posting their food waste photos, and Food Waste Friday was born.

(’scuse the weird lighting…as I mentioned on my Facebook page, it’s rainy and dark here today!)

I was super close to having a zero waste week. However, I have a bit of bread waste to report. Panera donates day-old bread to our church, and we sometimes pick some up. I found a half-loaf of sourdough bread from Panera in the freezer this week and thawed it. I think we picked it up not realizing it was sourdough bread, as none of us are big fans. We did manage to eat almost all of it (if you toast it and spread it with jam, it doesn’t taste so sour, we found!) but the last few pieces got neglected and moldy when there was some tastier bread to eat (soft and fluffy rolls left over from dinner, to be specific).

That’s the extent of my waste, though, so I’m pretty pleased with that.

I’ll be back this afternoon with a post linking you to some awesome blog posts I found this past week. ;)
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How did you do this week? If you blogged about your food waste, link us up by entering your info into the widget below. You’ll save money, reduce your trash output, and get a little publicity for your blog! And if you don’t blog, you can still share about your food waste by leaving a comment.

{ 12 comments }

Easy, Frugal Cooking |Chicken Tacos

by Kristen on March 11, 2010 · 38 comments

in Main Dishes, Recipes

A couple of months ago, I decided that I wanted to learn how to make Chicken Tacos. I poked through Cook’s Illustrated’s website and found nothing (only a steak taco recipe), so I decided to search some other online cooking sites. The wealth of chicken taco recipes was overwhelming, and I had no idea which recipe would be good and which would be horrible (ratings and reviews aren’t all that helpful because of the variance in opinions. How can a recipe be both fabulous and disgusting at the same time??).

So, I decided to go with the Cook’s Illustrated steak taco recipe and just modify it for use with chicken. Happily, the tacos were a great success. They’re sort of like a no-grill-required wintertime version of fajitas, and they’re really easy to make.

Also, they use up cilantro, which will appeal to all of you out there who, like me, struggle to use up an entire bunch of cilantro before it goes bad.

You start by making a pesto-like herb paste, which includes cilantro, garlic, scallions, a jalapeno, cumin, and some vegetable oil. Put all of that into a food processor (a blender would probably work as well), and pulse until it’s all finely chopped.

With the machine running, add 1/4 cup vegetable oil and process until the mixture is fairly smooth.

Remove 2 tablespoons of the herb paste to a bowl. Squeeze in 1 tablespoon of lime juice, and set it aside (this is for use  as a taco condiment later).

The rest of the paste is going to go on the chicken, but first, you need to rub some coarse salt on the chicken.

Because I’m not that good terrible at cooking whole chicken breasts, I always cut mine in half lengthwise so that they’re turned into thin cutlets. This makes it easier to cook the chicken all the way through without scorching the outside.

Spread the herb paste over the chicken, then cover and refrigerate the chicken for 30 minutes to an hour. If you’re worried someone in your family won’t like the herb paste, you can always leave a breast or two plain.

Scrape the herb paste off of the chicken (as you can see, I never get all of it off, but it seems to be fine!) and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a 12-inch skillet (I use my cast-iron skillet) over medium high heat. Add chicken.

Cook for 4-5 minutes on each side, or until cooked through (this will vary depending on how thick your chicken pieces are). Let the cooked chicken rest for 5 minutes.

Slice rested chicken into narrow strips and season with salt if desired. Place several strips in the middle of a warmed flour tortilla, and top with cheese, tomato, sour cream, chopped cilantro, reserved herb paste, or whatever else you wish (I sometimes saute onion slices before I cook the chicken and add those in my tacos).

Chicken Tacos (printable version)

Herb Paste
1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
3 medium garlic cloves , roughly chopped
3 medium scallions , roughly chopped (about 1/3 cup)
1 medium jalapeño chile , stemmed and roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

Chicken
1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, sliced lengthwise into thin cutlets
1 tablespoon coarse salt or 1.5 teaspoons table salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Combine cilantro, garlic, scallions, chile, and cumin in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped, and with machine running, add 1/4 cup vegetable oil. Process until smooth.

Remove 2 tablespoons of herb paste to a bowl, whisk in lime juice, and set aside.

Rub salt over both sides of the chicken, and spread with remaining herb paste. Cover and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes.

Scrape herb paste off chicken and sprinkle with sugar and pepper.

Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a heavy 12 inch skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken and cook 4-5 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Let cooked chicken rest for 5 minutes, then slice into strips. Season with salt if desired. Serve in warmed flour tortillas and top with cheese, chopped tomato, chopped cilantro, sour cream, sauteed onions, and reserved herb paste.
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Need more dinner ideas? Browse my other main dish recipes.

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