Weekend Cooking: Pork Nachos

My quest to find recipes that are healthy, tasty, acceptable to the teenage boy and diabetes friendly continues, and I have to say I think this recipe is a winner!

One of the things that I have noticed in my weight loss journey is that I am more likely to be successful when I am spending time looking through the Diabetic Living magazines that I am subscribed to and the cook books that I have (the ones that focus on weight loss and diabetes only) even if I am not picking recipes to make. It's almost as though it is part of training my brain to think differently. I study the magazines as soon as I receive them and then again and again. Luckily this is a magazine that I do find lots of tasty looking recipes in.

This recipe is one that I found in the May/June issue of the Australian version of Diabetic Living magazine.

I actually cooked this twice in the space of week. The first time was on a Sunday night when I asked a friend and her kids around for dinner at short notice. Everyone liked it but the 3 year old was particularly enthusiastic, even coming back for seconds. Mum was also impressed when I told her how many vegetables there were hidden in it! The second time was at the request of my teenage son. Again, I am not going to tell him how many vegies there actually are in it.

Pork Nachos

1 brown onion, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 stick celery, roughly chopped
1 zucchini, roughly chopped
1 red capsicum, roughly chopped
1 tspn olive oil
400g Heart Smart pork mince (very lean)
1 tbspn salt-reduced taco seasoning or gluten free taco seasoning
400g can no-added-salt chopped tomatoes
1 tspn Massel chicken style salt reduced stock powder
185 ml (3/4 cup) water
400g can no-added-salt red kidney beans, drained
80g Macro Original Corn Chips**
40g (1/2 cup) reduced-fat grated cheese
1 large tomato, chopped to serve
Coriander leaves to serve
2 tbspsn extra-light sour cream

**I couldn't find this particular brand so I just used ordinary corn chips

Put onion, garlic, celery, zucchini and capsicum in a food processor and process until finely chopped.

Heat oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add vegetable mixture and cook, stirring occasionally, for 8 minutes or until vegetables soften. Increase heat to high. Add mince and cook, stirring often, breaking up any lumps with a wooden spoon, for 3-4 minutes or until mince is browned.

Add taco seasoning to pan and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add canned tomato, stock powder, and water. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook for 10 minutes. Add beans and cook, uncovered, for a further 10 minutes or until mixture is thick.

Preheat oven to 180C (fan-forced). Spoon mince mixture into a shallow ovenproof dish. Arrange corn chips on top, pushing slightly into mince. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese melts. Top with tomato and sprinkle with coriander.  Serve with sour cream.

Serves 4.

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. For more information, see the welcome post.