I have two adult daughters, both of whom live in Austin. I try to visit as often as I can. It always seems like our visits revolve around food… generally Tex Mex kind of food, because that’s what they eat, more often than not. When they first moved there, it was the design your own burritos at a place called FreeBirds. Later, it was Texas beef brisket barbecue at Rudy’s and other places. We’ve also had good Texas steak at a few different locations.

But lately, what my girls have adopted as a regular habit is what they call breakfast tacos. We have something similar here in Boise that we call breakfast burritos, but the Texas variety is definitely better! The place they go to the most makes their own tortillas and are they ever good… and fresh, of course.

So anyway, I was thrilled recently when one of my readers added a recipe for egg tacos on the site. Perfect!

This version is a bit different, but it could still form the basis of something wonderful. If you want to check it out for yourself, go to the Egg Tacos recipe page on my main site. After you get there, you may want to look at our other egg recipes or even share one of your own very special recipes. Either way, I’m happy to have you!

This is a recipe from Kathi’s Test Kitchen, where I test various recipes from other chefs, foodie blogs, cookbooks and cooking shows. Sometimes, I change them up a bit; sometimes I make them exactly as written. Then I evaluate the recipe against a variety of rating factors. This week, I made Aarti Sequeira’s (Aarti Party) Chicken Tikka Masala, along with the cauliflower recipe from traditional Indian fare called Aloo Gobi.

I loved them! If you like Indian food, you’re going to love how accessible and easy Aarti makes it. I’ve tried quite a few of her recipes, but this is one of my favorites so far. I think I could eat it every day.

I didn’t have as great luck making Aarti’s Simple Basmati Rice recipe, but that may have been because I substituted brown Basmati rice for the regular white variety. Brown rice doesn’t have quite the same consistency. I happen to like it better, but that’s just me.

The chicken though, along with the cauliflower side dish, were so scrumptious.

To read my whole review, visit this Chicken Tikka Masala page on my main site.

There is nothing like soup on a cold winter night… so I recently created this hearty and healthy soup made with turkey kielbasa, garbanzo beans and lots of other healthy ingredients.

I made this soup in my slow cooker, but you could just as easily make it in a large kettle on top of your stove. Just be sure you simmer it for an hour or so to develop the flavors completely. It’s a great way to use up older veggies that won’t last much longer too!

This kielbasa bean soup would be great served with some crusty French bread or even cheese quesadillas.

To view the complete recipe, visit our main Thrown-Together-Meals.com website and explore our Kielbasa Bean Soup page. If you like that recipe, you might also want to take a look at our other soup recipes, sausage recipes or even contribute one of your own recipes. I love to see what other people cook too!

I hope you enjoy this one as much as hubby and I did…

Our easy hamburger goulash recipe is a super healthy recipe made with plenty of vegetables and big flavor.

I grew up during the 1960s on casseroles. They’re a great way to stretch your dollar and also make a delicious meal. To this day, I still love a good casserole. Talk about hearty! My mom’s standard goulash recipe incorporated macaroni, ground meat and tomatoes.

But I’m a more adventurous cook, so I often make an Italian goulash with ground turkey. This time around, though, I decided to use up some frozen macaroni and ground beef I had on hand. And, since I am addicted to vegetables and eating healthy these days, I also had to use as many fresh veggies in it as I could too.

The result was my latest thrown together meal creation… Easy Hamburger Goulash Stuffed with Veggies! You can view it by clicking on the link.

You may also want to check out our other ground beef recipes, ground turkey recipes or casserole recipes. And… if the spirit moves you… you can share your own recipes with us too! We’d love to try them.

Enjoy!

This black bean and lentil soup is a spicy southwestern soup recipe thrown together with what I had on hand in the house one night… Delish!

During these cold months of winter, nothing goes better for dinner than a warm, hearty soup recipe. This one fits the bill there…

“OK… black beans, tomatoes and ground turkey on hand… what to make? How about my signature quick chili? Great! Oops… I’m missing all the rest of the ingredients… rethink that plan…”

This is the conversation I had with myself one evening recently, when I drifted into the kitchen after a long day at the computer to make dinner. I love my chili, but I had to come up with a different thrown together soup recipe when I realized I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand to make the traditional chili.

A few veggies, some spices and a canister of lentils later, I had a flavorful pot of soup going. You’ll find the full recipe and detailed cooking instructions on my main recipe site, Thrown Together Meals…

Black Bean and Lentil Soup

I hope you enjoy!

I love chili! I grew up on it, but my mom made it the old-fashioned way, with dried beans that had to be soaked overnight, fatty ground beef and large chunks of tomatoes. Much as I loved it (and made it that way myself for years), once I became a single, working mom, I had to come up with an alternative if I wanted to keep eating chili.

So, I developed this easy vegetarian chili recipe. I went vegetarian because my girls became finicky about eating beef during their teen years and neither white chili nor ground turkey were too mainstream in the early 90s… at least not that I was aware of. So I developed this recipe that has lots of protein, but it comes from TVP and beans, rather than from beef.

These days, I often make this recipe using ground turkey because I cook now for my hubby and mother, both of whom like meat, but if you want to stick with the vegetarian version, you certainly can.

You’ll find my Easy Vegetarian Chili recipe here on my Thrown-Together-Meals.com website, along with some suggested variations. It’s certainly not the only vegetarian chili recipe out there, but it is uniquely mine and it’s fast and easy, not to mention healthy! Hope you enjoy…

We love our pork chops at our house! Usually I just make my go-to standard pork chop recipe, using cream of mushroom soup, but this week, I decided to mix it up a bit with a different flavor profile and also aiming at a more healthy dinner recipe too, since I’m currently focused on losing weight while still enjoying good food.

So, here is this week’s pork chop recipe, Italian-style. Hope you like it as much as we did! To view this recipe, got to our main site, Thrown-Together-Meals.com at our Italian-seasoned pork chop recipe page. You can also find more great pork recipes or share one of your own special recipes. Enjoy!

Our Mexican Rice Casserole is another thrown together meal, crafted on the fly from stuff I had sitting around the house, including ground turkey.

Even though I love to cook, I hate to shop, so I frequently find my cupboards and fridge getting a bit bare around the time I need to force myself to head to the grocery store for my monthly trip. One time, I came up with the Mexican Rice concept using the only kind of meat I had left in the house (ground turkey), some old prepared rice side dish packets (Southwestern Style and Mexican) I’d bought for lunch and never used and a few of my usual staples that I almost always have on hand, no matter how overdue grocery shopping is.

My hubby, mom and I were pretty pleased with the results!

I hope you like it too…

Serve the casserole with a green salad and/or cornbread or corn muffins. Yumm! To check out this recipe, you can go to our main Thrown-Together-Meals.com website and view the Mexican Rice Casserole recipe page. You can also find lots more great ground turkey recipes or ethnic recipes too. Or, if you’re feeling inspired, you can even share some of your favorite recipes there too!

Enjoy!