First Time Mom and Losing It

Crunchy tacos are one of my family's favorites and we had them at least once a week. Once we went keto those crunchy tacos turned into taco salads. I do love taco salads but missed the crunch from the shell. I found out how to make cheese crunchy tacos from a YouTube video and have been making them like this ever since.


Ingredients:

• 6 ounces of 80% beef
• 1/8 cup tomato sauce
• 1/8 cup sofrito (frozen Spanish aisle)
• 2 tblsp diced green pepper
• salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste
• 2 thick slices provolone cheese
• 1/2 small rice Hass avocado
• 1 tblsp green salsa (I use Herdez)
• 1 tblsp sour cream
• 1 tblsp fresh chopped cilantro
• 1 tsp lemon juice 
• 1 small clove garlic

How do you like to top your tacos? 

Did you know it was National Hamburger Month? As soon as May comes around and the weather gets warmer all I can think about is grilling food like hamburgers and hot dogs. Sometimes the weather is not the best to go grilling outside so I get my beefy burger fix by having my trusty Hamburger Helper® on hand.


Not only is Hamburger Helper® super easy to make, it is also super affordable. I went to my local Walmart to stock up on some Hamburger Helper®, ground beef and some Parmesan cheese. As I was looking through my favorite savings app, Ibotta, I noticed they had a deal on Hamburger Helper® to go along with the already low prices at Walmart. Have you ever used Ibotta before? It is a free app that you download onto your smartphone. Then you search for deals and they pay you to shop for certain products. Right now when you purchase Hamburger Helper® at Walmart, Ibotta will give you 50 cents back. How's that for a super affordable pantry staple?


I love how super fast Hamburger Helper® is to make and is perfect for those days that you get home late or don't know what to cook. I always have ground meat on hand so it's super easy to just brown up the meat, add the seasoning, some water and then the pasta.



To add a little crunch and fun to the Hamburger Helper®, I made some super easy Parmesan crisps. All you have to do is take a silicone baking sheet and lay it in your baking pan. (You can also use some parchment paper, or aluminum foil sprayed with cooking spray) Then put a tablespoon of shredded (not powdered) Parmesan cheese and use the back of the spoon to spread it out. Cook in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly but not overly brown. Wait a couple of minutes and then use a spatula to carefully peel then off the pan. Let cool completely so that they can be nice and crisp.
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Hamburger Helper® . The opinions and text are all mine.

April 30 is the day Mexican's celebrate the day of the child or Dia Del Niño. We always celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day so it great to be able to celebrate children's day too. I love to celebrate with my daughter on every holiday so we decided to make an easy Mexican recipe to go along with the theme.

I wanted to make something simple, fast and toddler friendly so I took out my pressure, some beef, cheese and of course my favorite salsa from Herdez. All I did was throw in some beef chunks, a jar of the HERDEZ® Salsa Casera, sealed up the pressure cooker and set it to cook on high pressure for 20 minutes. While it was cooking on high pressure my daughter helped me tear some cilantro while I shredded the cheese and cut up the tomatoes.


After the 20 minutes were up I left the pressure naturally escape for 20 minutes. Then I drained out all of the meat and mixed in some of the torn cilantro. To assemble the quesadillas I added some of the beef with the torn cilantro and a squeeze of lime to half of a tortilla. Then I topped it with lots of cheese and folded it in half. I added a little bit of coconut oil into a pan and placed the quesadilla in and toasted it on both sides until golden. I cut it into wedges and served it to my toddler. She loves cheese so it was a hit!


I love that the HERDEZ® Brand is family friendly and authentic in food, their tradition and culture. It was through their website that I learned of the Día Del Niño and I decided to celebrate it. Not only is it celebrating the complete joy of having children in our lives but also of our inner child. I decided to celebrate my inner child by adding some fresh tomatoes and extra HERDEZ® Salsa Casera to my quesadilla.


Right now until April 30th HERDEZ is holding a photo contest on its Facebook wall! All you have to do is submit your favorite childhood picture tagged with #ThrowbackThursday on their Facebook wall. Each week three winners will be chosen to win a Día del Niño prize pack. "One grand prize winner each week will win a socialmatic camera, film, HERDEZ product, HERDEZ apron and recipe cards. Two runner up winners each week will win a selfie stick, HERDEZ product, HERDEZ apron and recipe cards."

Months ago I didn't really eat beef or pork because of the fat content and calories. Now that I am low carb I am up for trying different cuts of meat, especially beef. I never really knew what kinds of beef to buy because I used to just get what I knew growing up. It was always those thin minute steaks that my mom would make with vinegar, onions and pepper (bistec encebollado).

I got an amazing opportunity to sample three items of my choice from Certified Steak and Seafood Company so I went with cuts I have never cooked before. I got a NY Strip, Beef Short Ribs and T-
Bone Steak. It was a bit hard picking just the right combo of meats because they had so many different ones to chose from. Not to mention some amazing seafood too!


When my order came a few days later I was curious to see how it was packaged and shipped. First I unwrapped the plastic and then I opened the top of the cooler. Inside was a bag of dry ice that was carefully sealed, had instructions right on top and a handle to easily take out. I have seen my share of cooking shows that say how you can get burned from dry ice so I could appreciate the extent of safety they went through. Then below the dry ice was my three beautiful cuts of beef.


I decided to tackle the New York Strip first and this is how I cooked it:

Perfect NY Strip

• New York Strip
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tblsp butter

Certified Steak and Seafood Company is an amazing company where their motto is to  "offer the finest product at a reasonable cost and support our customer before, during, and after the sale with the highest quality care in our industry." They use Certified Angus Beef and cut their steaks to their own standards. They also source their seafood directly and inspect it and sort out only the best for their customers. Certified Steak and Seafood Company also offers every customer their own Concierge who is always available to assist them in any way that they can.

Go to Certified Steak and Seafood Company to see all of the amazing and high quality products they offer.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

This shop has been compensated by #CollectiveBias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone.



Growing up my grandma always lived with us. It was awesome always having traditional home cooked Latin food waiting for us at the table for dinner. I loved helping my grandma out and helping her prep the dishes. One of my favorites was her Carne Guisada (Beef Stew). As I got older I would prep all of the veggies that went in. As she got older I took over more and more of the cooking and learned all of her secret recipes.


I love my grandma's cooking but I always liked adding my own special twists to them. One of my favorite things to add to my recipes is Chipotle Sauce. It gives it just the right amount of smokiness and spicy kick.


I love that that I can find La Morena products at my local bodega to always have on hand. Sometimes I just want a hearty traditional Puerto Rican meal that reminds me of home but with my chipotle or jalapeno kick.


Carne Guisada with a #VivaLaMorena Kick

• 1 pound Beef Stew meat 
• 8 ounce can tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup sofrito
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 large carrot, peeled and sliced
• 1/4 cup La Morena Chipotle in Adobo Sauce 
• 1 handful chopped fresh cilantro