One Of Many Secrets To Success
Posted by Erika Waz on Kids Cuisine.
I find that I tend to get in a rut when I find a success when feeding my children. I’m certain we’ve all gone through this. We feed our little miss something that she’s never eaten before and she inhales it. In fact, she ask for seconds and then practically licks the plate clean. We automatically bump that particular dish up as a repeater, and then we do repeat it. Often. Eventually, more often than not, we see the gusto she first exhibited begins to wane as the once cherished dish becomes the same old thing, boring and repetitive.
I’m trying very desperately to change this mindset and continue to change things up a bit. As seedlings are bursting forth in the garden and the farmer’s markets are just around the corner, I really want to keep eating exciting, instead of turning into a salad marathon to use up those odds and ends. One dish that, in particular for me, is easy to get repetitive with is the simple taco. My children love tacos, especially when they get to have a hand in assembling their own taco creations. However, as with everything else, I find that we tend to gravitate towards a ground meat and cheese type of taco and I decided that we needed to change this mindset.
I turned to Cooking Light magazine for inspiration and an oldie but a goodie recipe for Pork and Pineapple Tacos. This recipe comes together very quickly as long as you have all the ingredients on hand. At first, my kids were a little leery about these tacos, wanting to know where the cheese was, and wanting to know why the salsa was green instead of red. We did opt to leave off the cilantro and onion relish for the kids (more for me!) and the resulting tacos received two very enthusiastic thumbs up. Both kids loved the pork and pineapple combo, and even decided that green salsa tastes better than red salsa sometimes. For the most part we followed the recipe as written, but I couldn’t help but think that a fresh, ripe pineapple would take these tacos to a whole new level.
Pork and Pineapple Tacos
Recipe from Cooking Light Magazine, October 2002
Serving Size: 4
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon chipotle chile pepper powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 pound pork tenderloin — trimmed and coarsely chopped
1 can pineapple tidbits in juice — (15 1/4-ounce) undrained
6 flour tortillas — (6-inch)
3/4 cup salsa verde
Combine onion and cilantro. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Combine chipotle powder, chili powder, salt, and pork in a medium bowl. Add pork mixture to pan; sauté 4 minutes or until browned. Remove from pan.
Add pineapple to pan; bring to a boil. Cook 5 minutes or until slightly thickened. Stir in pork mixture; cook 1 minute or until pork is done.
Warm tortillas according to package directions. Spoon about 2/3 cup pork mixture down center of each tortilla. Top each serving with 2 tablespoons onion mixture and 2 tablespoons salsa; roll up.
