Easy Living, Easy Eating

As part of my making summer days less stressful, creating less heat in a no air conditioning home and still be within my attempts to better eating habits I have been creating a lot of meals that are salad based.   This recipe was passed around the office for several pot luck lunches and this is how it was given to me, no amounts or quantities, just the ingredients.  I was told the key to success in this salad was just add the ingredients in the order you see them listed.   I am not promoting or endorsing any specific products or a vegetarian way of eating.   I give you the very easy Taco Salad.

The original recipe:

Tomato

Green Onion

Cheese

Taco Sauce (Mild)

Italian Salad Dressing

Hamburg

Doritos (Nacho Cheese)

How I Make :   

I adjust the amounts depending on how many I am making this for, usually for 4 servings as the meal: 

Ingredients:

Lettuce –  ½ a head of iceberg and chop but I am sure you could rip or shred

Tomato –  2-3 plum or beef steak, which I chop into chunks

Sweet Onion –  ¼ cup  chopped finely

Cheese – marble, low fat and shredded, 200gm

Salsa – 1 jar extra chunky, mild, 650ml

Italian Salad Dressing, low fat – 3-4 tablespoons

Ground Soy – 1 pkg 340g*

Tostitos Scoops, 230g (whole wheat is also good) – ½ pkg, crushed into large chunky crumbles

Directions:

Cook the sweet onion in about 3 tablespoons of the Italian Salad Dressing,  on medium low, about 2-3 minutes, 

cooking the onions in the salad dressing

Add in the Salsa sauce and mix, then add the ground soy*  and another good measure of stirring thoroughly blending the four ingredients, turn off the heat.  Set aside.  

 *if using meat, you could cook the onions, salad dressing and meat all together.

onions and ground soy

onions, ground soy and salsa

We like lots of cheese

I then take the  chopped lettuce and layer in the bottom of the bowl, then add the chopped tomato, then a layer of the ground soy salsa mix, then the cheese and because the soy mixture is still slightly warm,  the cheese melts a bit, then I crush the nacho chips on top.  You can make this in one big bowl so that family and guests can take by the spoonful, but we like our own individual bowls. 

lettuce chopped

lettuce, then chopped tomatoes

the onion, soy and salsa layer

Two Bowls Of The finished product

  

When I eat mine, I like to blend the layers together before eating where as Mr Man prefers to eat his within the layering.  Either way, empty bowls at the end of the meal.

I think this is one recipe that will continue to evolve as everyone will make a little differently.  When Gael makes this recipe she uses the extra spicy salsa and uses an aged cheddar cheese and her family likes the the meat ingredient to be totally chilled. Kim makes this with ground turkey/chicken.  I have also made this without any ground soy or meat as a side salad dish. 

All Done & Quite Satisfied

I do hope you enjoy and I’d be interested to hear how you make this recipe your own.  Bon appetit.

 

Me On Monday July 6th

Stream at the no longer in use Guelph Correctional Institute

Hello and a wave to Sian, who hosts Me On Monday:  http://fromhighinthesky.blogspot.ca/  and a wave to the other lovely bloggers joining in.

I read two books by Jeffrey Archer, The Clifton series, vol 1 & 2  / I've been making some bad food choices / I panicked, something seemed wrong on the newly acquired camera body-turns out I just have to turn  this factory set feature off / gratitude for a great relationship with Alex at Halton Camera /Mr Man had eye surgery follow up appointment - all good, re-check in September / lots of steps in- everyday more than 10,000 / new style of weekly menu sheet in use / planning meals on some simple old favourite recipes / short work week because of Canada Day- celebrated with lots of red and white / 2 days of vacation tacked on to stat holiday /  ticking off items on Rinda’s SPSH / lots of photo taking / some unplanned adventures were enjoyed /  lots of weeding, made easy with all the rain / enjoyed a very long hot shower after weeding / trip to recycle centre with 3 bags of yard waste / saw the latest Pixar movie,  Inside Out (cute) / watched GB GP(F1), not liking our only option of coverage- DC you talk too much,  but yeah Lewis / sister calling / wedding gift buying / week scheduling, there’s some business travel in there for Mr Man / laundry / kitty play time and cuddle time.

 Monday you are fast becoming my favourite day of the week.

SPSH - White Sale

Today's SPSH selections just happen to all be in white. 

SPSH #5 Architectural Columns

 These columns are from a house in an older part of downtown Guelph.   I was told, although I cannot validate, that this house is the methadone and clean needle exchange clinic. There was no notice on the door, only the large street number and name.   Large old house and I am sure at one time it was quite grand and would have had lovely gardens.

SPSH #9 Tent

While we were out and about on an adventure in Oakville, we came across this tent.   The tent is set up on the grounds of a beautifully restored estate, originally known as Harding House, built in the late 1930's and recently restored as the Holcim Waterfront Estate.  .http://ruthcon.ca/portfolio-items/holcim-waterfront-estate-redevelopment/ .  The magnificent white tent was the setting of a wedding service taking place and as we had no invitation to attend the wedding, we quickly snapped a few photos from the front and quietly drove off.  I just hope we weren't arriving at the part of the service where the official asks if anyone objects to the two getting married and then the guests suddenly see this woman (me) bobbing in and out of the trees - well anyway the possibility made us both giggle.

SPSH #11 Cellular Tower or Television Satellite Dish 

Mr Man was the one that found the grouping of satellite dishes when he was in this area on a business call a few weeks ago.  The satellite dishes are part of The Shaw Communications Group, a local  TV cable and telecommunication network. I could not get all the dishes in one shot - there was about 20 dishes varying in size.  Kind of neat to see.  Surprisingly, I could not hear any humming being emitted from this many dishes.

I hope everyone is enjoying the search for all 21 main items and 3 alternatives.  I continue to be surprised at how this year's list are all just appearing for me.   I enjoy that it gets Mr Man and me out and about exploring,  making adventures

Field Trip Friday – Puslinch Lake

The Facts:  Puslinch Lake is a kettle lake located in Wellington County, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest kettle lake in Canada and second largest in North America. The lake provides many recreational activities, including swimming, fishing, sailing, motor boating, and water skiing. The Puslinch Lake - Irish Creek Wetland, a provincially significant area, is adjacent to the lake.  Kettle lakes are shallow, sediment -filled bodies of water formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters.  Puslinch was created by a glacier retreating.  The lake is normally fed by surface runoff and underwater springs; there are no permanent inflow streams.  

The boat / home tour is a fund raiser for the lake management.  Lake debris builds up so that a form of dredging is required.   A new approach has been implemented, involving moving the dredged material into porous bags, which allowed water to be released back into the lake. The remaining dried material is intended for sale as topsoil enrichment.  We were told this is at least a 20 year project to complete the initial dredging and thereafter will be required every 3-5 years.

 

 Puslinch Lake as seen while out in the boat.

Puslinch Lake is big enough that there are

five islands; four have homes built on them. The largest island is managed by the Conservation Parks Board, so no building allowed.  

Two of the 4 islands with homes (cottage).

 

The day of our boat tour, it was brooding on a major rainstorm; luckily we were in the first bunch out in the pontoon boats being ferried to each of the five houses on the tour.  It had been quite some time since either Mr. Man or I had been in a boat and with the pending storms, the waters were a little choppy and there was a stiffing breeze, but we kept our sea seats just fine (no standing allowed in pontoon boats). Another appealing part of this adventure was that the monies raised were helping a natural piece of Wellington County recover and maintain.  

  

Our main interest was the boat ride and touring the lake, we did not stop off and visit each of the houses on the tour, plus none of the really big fancy homes were part of the tour.

 

 From the boat, a couple of the bigger homes, not part of the tour.

  The one house we did visit was that of one of our boat captains.  Ray was quite an entertaining driver and his cottage he had built himself over a period of ten years.  As he is now retired he and his wife live in the cottage full time.  The enticing features of this home were the many great ideas and uses for smaller spaces.  Ray was most proud of his bathroom port hole window.  No photos were allowed inside any of the homes and being respectful of this, we took none.  

This is a photo from the boat of Ray's house - sorry it isn't clear but the waters were starting to get very choppy & rough.

We finished our tour just as the rains started and within minutes of those few drops the heavy downpour started and all boat tours ended.   

After lunch, while waiting to make a dash to the car, I was able to photograph one of Rinda’s SPSH Alternative items – someone carrying an umbrella.  

We had lunch at The Old Marina Restaurant, which sits right on the lake’s edge.  Inside every table has a spectacular view of the lake, outside there is a deck patio and ground level patio, both also have great views of the lake. The family that owns the restaurant is active in champion water skiing competitions.    On our first visit earlier in the month to the restaurant, I had a veggie burger which was a tad on the salty side but the smoked mayo made up for that.  Mr. Man had the Reuben, which he said was quite tasty & worth the goo mess.  We thought that the home made French fries could have/should have been fresher.  On our second visit after the boat tour, Mr. Man tried their homemade soup, beef vegetable and potato skins.  Again, he found both items too salty. I, branching out in my vegetarianism, tried their fish (cod) with chips.  The batter was a bit soggy and I left most of it.  I don’t think a third visit to the Old Marina restaurant is on our list.

This adventure ticks off several boxes; (1) a natural body of water for Rinda’s SPSH (2) Old Marina; eat at two new to us restaurants & (3) explore Wellington County.

 

Pairs in Red and White

Linking in with Helena's Pairs:  http://helenascreativemaven.blogspot.ca/

I have been saving these two for today - it's Canada Day and I wanted to post something in red and white.  These poppies in my garden, bloomed a few weeks back.