Reviews

Deliciously Easy Carnitas Recipe and Green Salsa made with Kikkoman Soy Sauce

November 18, 2019 by Sandra 3 Comments

This is a compensated campaign in collaboration with Kikkoman and Latina Bloggers Connect.

My favorite food in the world is tacos.

I remember the summers I spent in Mexico as a kid, and the many times my family and I took a very familiar one minute stroll to our neighborhood taco stand to eat seriously scrumptious soft tacos. Oh, they were good!

Those are fond childhood memories that I’ll never forget. It is perhaps because of all those trips to the taco stand near my aunt’s house in Mexico that I love tacos so much today. 🙂

So Many Varieties of Tacos to Choose From

I have tried so many different types of tacos over the years, but if I had to choose just one that would win over the rest, it would be tacos filled with carnitas.

Yes, I have a deep fondness for carnita tacos. Can you blame me? 😉

Easy Carnitas Recipe

I know what you may be thinking, especially if you’ve never made carnitas at home before. You might be thinking that carnita tacos sound absolutely delicious, but they’re probably difficult and incredibly time-consuming to prepare. At least that’s what I thought before I started making this dish for my family.

You might be surprised to find out that it is not at all difficult to cook carnitas in your very own kitchen. It’s quite easy, and you can get that same authentic flavor infused into your homemade carnitas by using a versatile ingredient like Kikkoman soy sauce.

How to Cook Carnitas with Kikkoman Soy Sauce

I use Kikkoman soy sauce to enhance the flavor of the carnitas both before and during the cooking process. Beforehand, I marinate the meat in Kikkoman for thirty minutes before putting it into the oven. Then as the meat cooks, I add a little more soy sauce to bump up the flavor even further.

By doing things this way, the carnitas end up flavorful and mouthwatering.

Green Salsa or “Salsa Verde”

When it comes to Kikkman soy sauce and carnitas, I don’t stop at the meat. Part of the fun of eating tacos is about what you choose to put inside of your taco besides the meat, right?

For carnita tacos, green salsa is a fantastic accompaniment. And like carnitas, green salsa (also known as “salsa verde”) is easy to make at home.

Green salsa isn’t just spicy. It’s savory and adds a burst of freshness to your taco.

Carnitas and green salsa go very well together. To be honest, my eyes and my stomach both wanted tacos with green salsa as I sat and edited pictures for this blog post. 😉

Other Ideas for What You Might Include in Your Taco:

lettuce

tomato

avocado

lemon/lime

cilantro

pico de gallo

I’m hoping at this point you’re hungry and would like the recipes now. 🙂

Here is the Easy Carnitas Recipe:

Easy Carnitas

Ingredients

1 5-lb. bone-in pork shoulder butt roast, cut in half (feel free to trim a little of the excess fat)
5 teaspoons Kikkoman soy sauce
3/4 cup water
fine sea salt

Instructions

Place pork roast pieces in a large baking pan. Sprinkle sea salt all over the meat and rub both the tops and bottoms of the meat with one teaspoon each of Kikkoman soy sauce. Then cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and place in the refrigerator to marinate for 30 minutes.
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position, and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Once 30 minutes have passed, remove the meat from the refrigerator, uncover, and add water to the bottom of the pan. Then, once again, cover tightly with aluminum foil, and place the baking pan in the oven. Cook for 1 hour and 30 minutes.
Carefully remove the meat from the oven, remove the aluminum foil, then brush the top of the meat with one teaspoon of Kikkoman soy sauce and sprinkle with sea salt. Turn the temperature of the oven up to 425 degrees, place the now uncovered meat in the oven, and cook for 50 minutes more. *Very important: Flip the meat every 10 minutes during this time.
Once the meat is done cooking, remove it from the oven, flip it one more time, and then let it sit in the pan for at least 20 minutes to cool before shredding.
Once the meat is safe enough to handle, transfer it to a plate, and shred it.
Serve carnitas with warm corn tortillas and your favorite accompaniments.

https://thesensiblemom.com/2019/11/easy-carnitas-recipe/

A few additional notes about preparing carnitas:

Bumping the temperature of the oven up to 425 degrees after the meat cooks for 90 minutes allows the carnitas to develop a nice outer crust.

My favorite way to prepare carnitas is in a glass baking pan. I’ve made them in a ceramic baking pan a couple of times, and while they still turned out great, I found that the carnitas cooked much faster in that type of pan, which meant that I had to keep a close eye on the oven.

Cooking times may vary depending upon the weight of the piece of meat you’re preparing.

Here is the Green Salsa Recipe:

Green Salsa (Salsa Verde)

Ingredients

3 to 5 tomatillos (Only 3 are needed, if they're medium in size. Use 4 to 5, if they're small in size.), husked and rinsed
3 cloves garlic, whole with skins left on
1 jalapeño chile, whole
5 to 7 green onions (also known as scallions), trimmed
1/2 teaspoon Kikkoman soy sauce
salt
pepper
water (optional)

Instructions

Place tomatillos, garlic, jalapeño chile, and green onions on a baking sheet. Then place the baking sheet in the oven, and broil ingredients on high for 5 minutes.
After 5 minutes are up, remove the baking sheet from the oven, and turn everything over. Repeat this step until ingredients are soft. *Very Important: Ingredients will not soften all at the same time. Once you notice an ingredient is soft, remove it, and place it on a plate to cool. Repeat this will the remaining ingredients until everything is cooling on the plate.
Once ingredients have cooled, peel the skins off the garlic, and remove the seeds from the jalapeño chile. Peel away any overly charred pieces of skin on the vegetables.
Place everything in a blender, add Kikkoman soy sauce, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. *Optional: Add a little water until you get the consistency you desire.
Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator until you're ready to enjoy the green salsa with food.

https://thesensiblemom.com/2019/11/easy-carnitas-recipe/

Carnitas and Family Time Together

If you’re a regular reader, you know that my family and I make a big deal about spending intentional time together every week. Well, I’m really looking forward to our next family day, which happens to be on Sunday.

The green salsa is already in the fridge, and my husband brought home the meat to make carnitas on that day!

I can’t wait. 🙂

What’s your favorite way to eat tacos?

Latin Food Recipe: Delicious Mexican Albondigas (Meatball) Soup

November 14, 2019 by Sandra 38 Comments

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

Food and family go together.

As they should, right?

For me, growing up with what could be considered a crazy-large extended Mexican family meant two wonderful things: I attended lots of parties and ate lots of authentic latin food throughout my childhood. Both good things, right? 🙂

Albondigas Soup Recipe

One particularly memorable dish that I enjoyed as a kid was albondigas soup. Albondigas are meatballs that are infused with flavor, and albondigas soup is a savory dish that I love cooking for my own family.

And today, I’m going to share a step-by-step tutorial of just how I do it.

Let’s get started!

To begin, I went to the grocery store to pick up the items I needed for the soup. I wanted a very authentic mexican flavor in my soup, so I went to Cermak Fresh Market and purchased a few La Morena products to give the albondigas soup a wallop of flavor.

I use the La Morena brand jalapeño peppers, serrano peppers, and chipotle sauce to give the soup a delicious taste and aroma. And trust me, using a touch of heat in the soup gives it flavor. It doesn’t burn your face off. 🙂

After you have everything you need from the grocery store, it’s time to gather the ingredients and start making albondigas soup!

Here’s what goes into this recipe:

For the Meatballs:

1.5 lbs. ground beef
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped finely
1/4 cup long grain rice
1 teaspoon ground cumin (or chili powder – either spice is great)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

For the Soup:

2 (32 ounce) containers of vegetable broth
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chipotle Sauce
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon pickled jalapeño peppers, seeds removed and finely diced
1 pickled serrano pepper, seeds removed and finely diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
3 large potatoes, cut into large chunks
fresh lime juice
cilantro for garnish (optional)

Once you have the ingredients gathered and prepped, it’s time to make the meatballs that’ll go into the soup. In a large bowl, mix together the ground beef, cilantro, rice, cumin, oregano, egg, salt, and pepper.

Next, shape the meat mixture into individual meatballs. Go ahead and set the meatballs aside after you’ve finished rolling them. The meat mixture should yield approximately 20 meatballs about 2 tablespoons each in size.

Now, it’s time to start cooking!

In a large pot, add 1/4 cup of the vegetable broth, the sliced carrots, and onions. You may notice that my onions are left on the larger side. Feel free to chop your onions smaller. I cut the onion for our soup into large chunks, because there are some people in our family who don’t love onions. This makes it easier to avoid adding it to their bowl.

Me? I love onions.

Cook for about 7 minutes over medium-high heat.

Then add the remaining vegetable broth, chipotle sauce, bay leaf, jalapeño peppers, serrano pepper, salt, pepper, and potatoes to the pot. Bring these ingredients to a boil over high heat.

While the soup is working on coming to a boil, lightly brown the meatballs for about 10 minutes.

You’ll want to be near the stove pretty much the whole time for this step, so that you don’t accidentally overcook the meatballs.

The idea is to brown the outside a bit, but definitely do NOT cook the meatballs all the way through. They’ll cook the rest of the way in the boiling pot of soup.

Once the soup is boiling, carefully add in the meatballs.

Then reduce the heat on the stove to medium, cover the pot, and cook the albondigas soup until the potatoes are tender.

The soup should be ready in about 20 minutes.

Once the albondigas soup is finished cooking, remove the bay leaf, and serve in bowls with a splash of lime (or lemon) juice.

Cilantro is the perfect garnish for this dish. Hot corn tortillas and rice are great accompaniments. The rice would be for spooning right into your bowl of soup and the tortillas for dipping.

Enjoy! 🙂

Here’s the printable recipe:

Mexican Albondigas Soup

Ingredients

For the Meatballs

1.5 lbs. ground beef
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped finely
1/4 cup long grain rice
1 teaspoon ground cumin (or chili powder - either spice is great)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

For the Soup

2 (32 ounce) containers of vegetable broth
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chipotle Sauce
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon pickled jalapeño peppers, seeds removed and finely diced
1 pickled serrano pepper, seeds removed and finely diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
3 large potatoes, cut into large chunks
fresh lime juice
cilantro for garnish (optional)

Instructions

In a large bowl, mix together the ground beef, cilantro, rice, cumin, oregano, egg, salt, and pepper. Shape the meat mixture into individual meatballs and set aside. The meat mixture should yield approximately 20 meatballs about 2 tablespoons each in size.
In a large pot, add 1/4 cup of the vegetable broth, carrots, and onions. Cook for about 7 minutes over medium-high heat. Then add remaining vegetable broth, chipotle sauce, bay leaf, jalapeño peppers, serrano pepper, salt, pepper, and potatoes to the pot. Bring to a boil over high heat.
While the soup is working on coming to a boil, lightly brown the meatballs (about 10 minutes).
Once the soup is boiling, carefully add in the meatballs. Then reduce the heat to medium, cover, and cook until potatoes are tender. This should take about 20 minutes.
Once the albondigas soup is finished cooking, remove the bay leaf, and serve with a splash of lime juice. Garnish with cilantro.

https://thesensiblemom.com/2019/11/latin-food-delicious-mexican-albondigas-soup-recipe/

Delicious Mexican Albondigas (meatball) Soup! #albondigas #meatballsouprecipe #latinfood #shop #VivaLaMorena #tutorial

I hope your family enjoys this soup as much as mine. 🙂

What’s your family’s favorite Mexican dish?

UPDATE: I created a YouTube video that features this recipe with a few variations that you can see here:

Tortilla Soup Recipe along with a Chocolate Cake Recipe from Scratch

November 12, 2019 by Sandra 9 Comments

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for Collective Bias and its advertiser. #MyMarianos #CollectiveBias

I invited someone special over for a meal last week.

My dad.

I haven’t been able to spend much time with my dad ever since David was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia, and my world was turned upside down. But now that David’s had a successful bone marrow transplant and is doing well, I can start to focus on relationships that I wasn’t able to pay much attention to for quite some time.

How Mariano’s ( a grocery store in Chicago) is the Right Place for Diabetic-Friendly Ingredients

My dad is a lover of food. Who isn’t, right? But, oh, let me tell you! This man truly takes his passion for food to another level. Just ask any of his six kids.

We have stories. 😉

The only problem when it comes to my dad’s love for food is that he has diabetes. He was diagnosed with this disease around the age of 30 and has been living with it for 25 years. For a long time, he managed his blood sugar levels with diet and medication. But then after he nearly lost his life in a collision coming home from work one night, he basically moved from taking a pill a day to being dependent on insulin shots.

And trust me — it’s no fun injecting insulin into your dad’s arm or seeing him have to constantly prick his finger to monitor his blood sugar.

Having My Dad Over for Dinner

I knew that having my dad over for a meal meant that I needed to be wise about what I chose to make. I finally decided on tortilla soup and a healthier-for-you chocolate cake for dessert.

I went to my favorite grocery store, Mariano’s, to pick up the necessary ingredients, and in the end, my dad loved both recipes!

Besides that, we spent a wonderful time together in my home. We talked and laughed and chatted about the many changes going on in our lives since David’s transplant.

I also spent time showing my dad the different places on the Mariano’s website where he can find nutritious recipes to make on his own.

Because in addition to eating, my dad also enjoys cooking.

Tortilla Soup Recipe

Below is the tortilla soup recipe that I made for dinner. I love that you can really play with the extra add-ins to the soup after it’s finished. We topped our soup with avocado, diced tomatoes, rice, and a splash of lemon juice. You can simply place the extra add-ins in bowls, so that each person can create the type of soup that delights their tastebuds.

Tortilla Soup

Ingredients

1 32-ounce container unsalted vegetable broth
1 medium onion, quartered (you can dice it if everyone in your family likes onion)
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno chile, seeds removed and finely diced
1 14.5-ounce can fire roasted crushed tomatoes
1 14.5-ounce can fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 ½ cups frozen corn kernels
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 ½ cups black beans (or 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed)
2 teaspoons chili powder
tortilla strips chips
1 to 2 avocados, chopped
fresh lemon juice
freshly diced tomatoes (optional)
precooked rice (optional)

Instructions

Pour 3/4 cup of the vegetable broth into a large pot and cook over medium-high heat. Add onion, green pepper and garlic. Stir ingredients together and continue to cook for 5 minutes.
Add the rest of the vegetable broth, jalapeno chile, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, corn, and sea salt to the pan. Stir ingredients and bring pan to a boil.
Once soup is boiling, stir in black beans and chili powder. Then cook soup on low heat for about 15 minutes.
To serve, put a handful of tortilla strips in the bottom of a bowl. Ladle the soup over the tortilla strips, squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the soup, then top with fresh avocado, diced tomatoes (optional), and rice (optional).

https://thesensiblemom.com/2019/11/tortilla-soup-recipe-chocolate-cake-recipe-grocery-store-in-chicago/

Easy Chocolate Cake Recipe

Alright, this cake was a big hit with my dad, husband, and kids! 🙂

In addition to being diabetic-friendly, this chocolate cake recipe is also dairy-free, egg-free, and vegan-friendly. If you feel like you need to add a little more sweetness to the cake, frost it with your favorite chocolate frosting.

Easy Chocolate Cake

Ingredients

1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
¾ cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ¼ cups dark chocolate almond milk
1 6-ounce container soy vanilla yogurt
1 tablespoon applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly grease an 8-inch square baking pan or 9-inch round cake pan and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and baking soda.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the dark chocolate almond milk, yogurt, applesauce, and vanilla extract.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well.
Scrape the batter into the prepared 8-inch square baking pan or 9-inch round cake pan and bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick or long wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out with only a few crumbs on it.
Allow the cake to cool for at least one hour. Then sprinkle with powdered sugar or frost with your favorite chocolate frosting and enjoy!

https://thesensiblemom.com/2019/11/tortilla-soup-recipe-chocolate-cake-recipe-grocery-store-in-chicago/

Life Can Still Taste Great Even When You Have Diabetes

For my dad, living with diabetes isn’t easy. But with a little extra effort, he still gets to enjoy terrific tasting food, especially when he comes to my house. 😉

What’s your favorite soup recipe? Have your tried making chocolate cake from scratch?

This blog post was originally published in 2014.

Recipe for Vegetable Soup

November 11, 2019 by Sandra 13 Comments

A special thanks to Good Cook for the set of produce keepers.

I love to find ways to create as many meals as possible that are loaded with nutrient-rich vegetables.

One meal that became a fast favorite in our home is the recipe for vegetable soup that I’m sharing today. It’s full of vegetables and hearty enough to satisfy your family for lunch or dinner. Besides being healthy for you, one of the best parts of this soup is that you can make a big pot of it and eat it for lunch or dinner for at least 3-4 more days depending upon the size of your family.

A Funny Story
I’ve mentioned before that my dad was staying with me for a few weeks, and I made this soup for him. He loved it, and with him in the house, there’s no such thing as throwing food away or wasting anything that is remotely edible. It kills him to see food go in the garbage.

He ate this soup every day until it was gone…like two days for him. 😉 And now he makes his own big pot of vegetable soup (a variation of my recipe) at my brother’s home. Since he’s started making soup and eating healthier, he has seen a definite improvement in his health, which has been a huge encouragement for him.

Here’s the Recipe for Vegetable Soup. I hope you enjoy it.

Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (or extra-virgen olive oil)
1 onion, minced
2 to 3 ribs celery, chopped
8 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons sea salt
8 to 9 russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 48 ounce container of vegetable broth
4 cups water
1 28 ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
pepper
lemon juice (optional)

Instructions

In a large pot over medium heat, cook the grapeseed oil (or extra-virgen olive oil) for a few minutes, just until it looks shiny, then add the onion, celery, carrots, garlic, and 1 teaspoon of sea salt. Stir the ingredients together and cover the pot.
Cook until the vegetables are soft (about 15 to 20 minutes), stirring occasionally.
Once the vegetables are soft, stir in the potatoes, vegetable broth, water, diced tomatoes, remaining teaspoon of sea salt and pepper.
Turn heat to medium-high and cook uncovered until the potatoes are soft.
*(Optional) Once the soup is served in bowls, squeeze a splash a lemon juice over the top.

https://thesensiblemom.com/2019/11/recipe-for-vegetable-soup/

Good Cook Produce Keepers

Time Saving Tips
As a wife and working mom of five, I don’t have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen each day, so I try to find little ways to streamline the process. One way that I’ve found to make getting dinner on the table less stressful (besides just having my husband cook :)) is to chop the veggies ahead of time and store them in Good Cook produce keepers in the fridge, until I’m ready to use them.

Because the produce keepers keep fruits and veggies fresh for days, you can chop produce on the weekends and store it in the Good Cook keepers until you’re ready to use the produce for meals during the week.

Keep Your Potatoes from Turning Brown
Another tip I came across a few years ago is this one for keeping your potatoes from turning brown before you’re ready to use them in a recipe. I wanted to share this tip with you, because it really comes in handy for when I’m making vegetable soup.

What are your favorite soups to enjoy this time of year?

This blog post was originally published in 2013.

Reviews

So Many Varieties of Tacos to Choose From

Easy Carnitas Recipe

How to Cook Carnitas with Kikkoman Soy Sauce

Green Salsa or “Salsa Verde”

Other Ideas for What You Might Include in Your Taco:

Here is the Easy Carnitas Recipe:

Here is the Green Salsa Recipe:

Carnitas and Family Time Together

Albondigas Soup Recipe

Let’s get started!

Here’s what goes into this recipe:

For the Meatballs:

For the Soup:

Here’s the printable recipe:

UPDATE: I created a YouTube video that features this recipe with a few variations that you can see here:

How Mariano’s ( a grocery store in Chicago) is the Right Place for Diabetic-Friendly Ingredients

Having My Dad Over for Dinner

Tortilla Soup Recipe

Easy Chocolate Cake Recipe

Life Can Still Taste Great Even When You Have Diabetes

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