Momma Told Me: old el paso

*** I received the following product sample and promotional items as a MyBlogSpark member. All photos contained below are copyright Momma Told Me Blog 2013.

Momma Told Me: A good chef is measured by what they choose to serve.

I'm no International chef.

It try, but even Momma found ways to 'cheat' authentic cuisine with affordable, and time saving, meal aids. Whether it was a new simmer sauce, a 'Helper' meal, or simply meshing leftover ingredients into a whole new dish; every busy home cook knows we can't be Paula Deen every day. I remember the first time Momma tried to make Moo Shu Pork wraps, just a day after discovering them at our hometown Chinese restaurant. She was determined to whip up a home made plum preserves sauce, steam the pork, and make handmade pancakes as authentic as Chinese tradition. The earnest attempt was a bit of a flop, as Pop and I feigned grins and awkward thumbs up between the gritty syrup like sauce and lumpy pancake wraps. Because no man should ever humbly suggest an alternate method in a woman's kitchen (or he is sure to catch the wrath), I casually picked up a jar of Moo Shu Plum Sauce on our next shopping trip and suggested Momma give the recipe a try again, without so much elbow grease on her end. The result was a new family favorite dish we enjoyed once a month for years to come!

I love to cook, but I don't always have the time or the budget to cook International cuisine from scratch. Our family doesn't like sticking to 'traditional' American cuisine day in and out, but buying fresh peppers, spices and following long established traditional recipes isn't always in my schedule. Unfortunately, these nights often mean costly meals out where we have to tip for mediocre service and travel to and from our home. Thankfully more and more companies have been focusing on putting out affordable meals for two in skillet and easy oven heat form. If you take the time to read some labels you might be surprised to see how low-fat, and even healthy, these frozen alternatives can be for busy weeknights. Trusted name in Mexican cuisine and personally beloved taco-night staple, Old El Paso has just introduced their own new premium frozen meals. These handcrafted meals for two span 8 delicious varieties and contain everything you need (minus the tortillas for some), to get a savory dinner on the table in less than 15 minutes!

With tempting varieties like Steak and Chicken skillet fajitas to Shredded Beef Enchiladas and Chicken Quesadillas, these complete meals are chocked full of meat and vegetables to excite your palette. Their beef and chicken enchilada varieties, for example, are only 8 weight watchers points, and 330 calories per serving! To make the new product roll out even more exciting, you can enjoy a variety of high value $1.50 coupons printable through Coupons.com, or found in your upcoming Sunday circular. With a suggested retail of $7.99, these Old El Paso Meals For Two easily feed you and your partner for less than $4 a serving; you won't find that at the Mexican restaurant around the corner!

Naturally, one of the most important aspects of a new ready-made meal product, such as this, is how it tastes. I was a bit skeptical when we took home the Steak Fajitas, promising a generous portion of succulent seasoned steak, and roasted onions and bell peppers. The ingredients list was actually, quite small, which meant this dish relied on natural flavors for big impact, and boy did it deliver. Straight from the skillet the steaming Steak Fajitas rivaled a restaurant dish in smell and texture. I was surprised by the size and quality of steak strips, and was happy to discover I could easily stretch the meal into a table for 4 with the simple addition of a can of beans, a pouch of microwave rice, and some shredded cheese. It couldn't have been simpler to get the authentic Mexican flavors to our plate! In all, the price point was initially a sticker shock for me, but having perused the ingredients and nutritional content, it's a great trade off. Two can easily eat for less then $8 with the new Old El Paso handcrafted meals.

What Daughter Says: Don't skimp on flavor or quality, try the new Old EL Paso frozen meals for 2 today.

One Momma Told Me Reader will win an Old El Paso prize bundle from My Blog Spark.

*** I received Old El Paso product samples, and a taco cooking kit, to help facilitate this post, as a member of My Blog Spark. No further compensation was provided. All images and photos are original content copyrighted to Momma Told Me Blog, 2013.

Momma Told Me: Don't wear your food, eat it!

As a child, my favorite foods were ones I could eat with my hands. Pizza, peanut butter and jelly sammies, hamburgers, chicken fingers, and tacos, to name a few. Let's face it, children under 10 have little sense of modesty, and would happily walk around with a sauce strewn face, if only to see the panicked reaction from Momma. Playing with food is fun; that's part of the reason this big kid never grew out of tinkering in the kitchen with baking projects and zany dinner recipes. There are so many textures, colors, flavors and scents in the culinary world, and typically only one golden rule when it comes to kids; don't tell them anything, ever, is good for them. Always keep the illusion alive, and if that fails, put all the ingredients on a Lazy Susan and let them build their own food. It's one of the reasons Momma instituted weekly Bagel Pizza lunches, and Make Your Own Taco nights during the summer. Often times I'd get so excited about 'making' my own food, I'd entirely forget I was picketing lettuce that week because it was good for me.

Of course, as most things involving food and kids go, hands on (or build-your-own) food was never the simplest route for Momma to take. Our table already had to have layers of place-mats to contain my culinary adventure messes, and meals that allowed me to make my own food- well, I'm surprised Momma never tarped the walls. I don't know how, as such a small young girl, I managed to make such big mealtime messes, but I've been told Momma would find scraps of food in the oddest places. And which make-your-own mealtime proved the messiest? Taco night. Present a child with a roundabout of small diced and sliced ingredients, then tell them to stuff it in an open ended tortilla; brilliant idea. Soft tortillas only encouraged horizontal eating, and the prompt ejection of ingredients from the back of the 'shell,' while hard taco shells typically cracked under the weight of the ingredients and spilled out the bottom.

But those are problems of yester years, now that Old El Paso has devised and released the singular best thing to happen to taco night since my Momma's Secret Sauce invention; Stand 'N Stuff shells. No longer do Mom's have to bib their children and send them outside to eat their tacos; these Soft Flour Tortilla 'boats' are free standing and eliminate the 'open end' taco dilemma. In fact, no hands are required, at all, to stabilize and fill your shells, so you can head to that taco buffet with your plate and two free garnishing hands. It's ingenious, really. Our family has been relying on the Old El Paso brand of taco assistance products for years. We typically buy their Family Taco Kits, which include shells and sauce, but jumped at the opportunity to sample this new taco innovation. My Blog Spark sent our family a package of new Stand 'N Stuf Tortilla shells, some taco preparation kitchen tools, and 3 brand new Old El Paso Mexican Cooking Sauces to sponsor our next taco night.

I tried to explain the ingenuity of these new Stand 'N Stuff shells to Jay, but I fear I failed. Only until he was stuffing his very own fuss free taco did he reach for the package of shells to investigate further. I can't quote the exact comment, but wonder and awe followed those first bites. Not only had the pre-packaged Mexican Sauce pouches made seasoning our ground turkey a piece of cake, but the Stand 'N Stuff tacos brought an extra hint of fun, and considerably less frustration and mess to the meal. These little 'boat' like tortillas also seem to hold more than the average taco shell, making layering and taco building so much simpler. Of course I had Momma's 'secret' taco sauce on hand. It's my little secret that I don't throw out a fast food packet, ever, and have a crate of fast food sauces on hand at all time. Just 10 packets of fast food taco sauce, and a half cup of ranch dressing makes a creamy taco sauce my family goes crazy for.

I also have to say, while the Stand 'N Stuff taco shells were the star of our night, the Chipotle Mexican Cooking Sauce added wonderful flavor to our 1.5lbs of ground turkey. It was a nice time saver not to have to season the meat as it cooked. I usually lose a lot of flavor when I drain the grease prior to serving, and this allowed me to flavor the meat post cooking with a thick and flavorful sauce. Old El Paso products have been a family favorite for years, and I'm happy to see they are still innovating how to make family taco nights a hit. Look for the new products on grocery shelves near you today! Save $1.10 off 2 Stand And Stuff Tortillas today with this limited coupon.

What Daughter Says: Skip the mess, and keep the flavor with new Old El Paso Stand 'N Stuff shells and Mexican cooking sauces.