As occasionally happens, I made an accidentally vegetarian meal tonight. I grew up in Mexico, where my parents learned many local dishes. One of the things that our Mexican friends taught us was what came to be known in our household as papa tacos. Papa is Spanish for potato, and if I recall correctly, my father felt that potatoes in a taco was akin to eating anything other than my mother's spaghetti sauce on pasta. Sacrilege. The rest of us, on the other hand, loved them.
Basically, you take boiled potatoes, dice them up, and sauté them with onions and eat it in a breakfast taco also containing a scrambled egg. As with any taco, you can add as many or as few ingredients as you'd like. Today Rachael sent me a picture of the gorgeous omelette she made for lunch, and I subsequently had a hankering for an omelette all evening. My boys are not wild about omelettes, so I thought I would turn them into breakfast tacos, thereby sneaking the exact same ingredients into them unawares. As I began chopping and dicing ingredients, I noticed some sweet potatoes judging me from the vegetable rack where they've been sitting for approximately two weeks now. I love the little buggers and I'm constantly buying them, but I haven't been cooking much lately. Enter judgy root vegetables. Anyway, I thought, "Well, you can't really go wrong with sweet potatoes and onions in any scenario, right?" Let's hope so.
***On a side note: I know Rachael recently posted about her rainy day activity boxes for toddlers. My 3 year old was "helping" me cook dinner again, which just the other night resulted in him licking the family's burritos while I had my back turned. Tonight I gave him his own cutting board, where he practiced cutting his own sweet potato (with a plastic rice paddle). When he tired of that, I told him to go wash all the rest of my sweet potatoes in the bathroom sink. I didn't see him again for 20 minutes. Then I provided a paper towel to dry them. Then he washed them again. Then dried them. Then washed them one more time. Then whacked them with a rice paddle for awhile. Good times.
Since I'm now doing Weight Watchers (and down 45 lbs, woo hoo!), I avoid cooking with oils and added fats because it unnecessarily blows through my daily allowance of food points. Considering I had no less than TWO chocolate chip cookie dough balls (2 points each) immediately before preparing dinner, a girl has to think outside the box. Instead of sautéing the onions and diced raw sweet potatoes in oil, I threw them in the oven to roast for a while. I also like chilling on the couch playing with my baby while dinner cooks, instead of standing at the stove stirring.
The end result involved roasted sweet potato and onion, scrambled egg, feta cheese, and fresh tomatoes. I thought it was awesome, and according to my 11 year old and resident food critic it was "Good. Different, but good." Then again he would also probably eat a paper muffin cup if i filled it with enough feta cheese.These tacos would also be great with bacon or sausage added.
***On a side note: I know Rachael recently posted about her rainy day activity boxes for toddlers. My 3 year old was "helping" me cook dinner again, which just the other night resulted in him licking the family's burritos while I had my back turned. Tonight I gave him his own cutting board, where he practiced cutting his own sweet potato (with a plastic rice paddle). When he tired of that, I told him to go wash all the rest of my sweet potatoes in the bathroom sink. I didn't see him again for 20 minutes. Then I provided a paper towel to dry them. Then he washed them again. Then dried them. Then washed them one more time. Then whacked them with a rice paddle for awhile. Good times.
Since I'm now doing Weight Watchers (and down 45 lbs, woo hoo!), I avoid cooking with oils and added fats because it unnecessarily blows through my daily allowance of food points. Considering I had no less than TWO chocolate chip cookie dough balls (2 points each) immediately before preparing dinner, a girl has to think outside the box. Instead of sautéing the onions and diced raw sweet potatoes in oil, I threw them in the oven to roast for a while. I also like chilling on the couch playing with my baby while dinner cooks, instead of standing at the stove stirring.
The end result involved roasted sweet potato and onion, scrambled egg, feta cheese, and fresh tomatoes. I thought it was awesome, and according to my 11 year old and resident food critic it was "Good. Different, but good." Then again he would also probably eat a paper muffin cup if i filled it with enough feta cheese.These tacos would also be great with bacon or sausage added.
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| Diced sweet potatoes & onions: Raw & Roasted |
(makes 10 corn tortilla tacos, 3-4 servings)
WW points per taco: 5
Optional toppings: - 2 medium sweet potatoes, diced
- 1/2 large onion, diced or cut in strips
- 5 eggs, scrambled
- 0.25 oz feta cheese per taco
- Tomatoes
- Lettuce
- Sour cream
- Salsa
Scramble eggs at the last minute, and serve on warm corn tortillas with potato mixture, feta, and toppings.
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