Tasty Tuesday

So I feel like I've slacked on this here blog.  Well, I do have an excuse!  Tobin and I just happened to be off work at the same time, which we hardly ever have.  I have weekends off, while he usually works every weekend and late nights throughout the week.  So, needless to say, I feel guilty when I pull myself away from spending time with him to blog.

And...now I'm back. 

And I bring you my Tasty Tuesday.   

I love taquitos.  Who doesn't?  Seriously.  And I love nachos.  If you don't then I don't care to be friends with you.

Let's just ditch the chips typically found in nachos and replace them with taquitos.  Yum.

Taquito nachos.

Yes.

So you get yourselves some taquitos.  You can make them yourself or just buy them premade and heat them up.  You cut the taquitos in half.  Put them on a plate and top with whatever your little nacho loving heart desires. 

 

Crunch Wrap Night!

I was so excited giddy to make one of my favorite Taco Bell menu items for dinner. I saw different variations all over the interwebs and decided to wing it and try to make them on my own.  The whole week, this is what I was counting down to...Crunch Wrap Night!

I need to start out by saying that I love Taco Bell.  It's cheap, Mexican and plain good.  I will admit, that before I started dating the BF, I wouldn't go there as much.  And if remember correctly, I don't think I had my first taste of TB until I was about 16 (gasp!). 

I know that Taco Bell doesn't use the highest quality of ingredients.  I am fully aware that their meat is dehydrated and that they squirt out sour cream.  But I say ignorance is bliss, because my wallet and my belly are what control me.

Back to Crunch Wrap Night...

They were sooooooooooo good.  I wanted to eat more, but I shocked myself by sticking with one.  Mine had a completely different flavor, but I'm thinking it was better than, dare I say, Taco Bell.  Bottom line...I win.

 
My Ingredients:
the largest flour tortillas you can find
1 lb ground beef (the amount of crunch wraps will vary with how much meat you put in each wrap)
taco seasoning
chopped onions
refried beans (a BF request)
chopped tomatoes
shredded lettuce
small corn tortillas
nacho cheese

How I Made Them:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly spray the corn tortillas (however many you think you'll use) with cooking spray and place them on a baking sheet(s).  Bake for a couple of minutes, flipping them over, til they're lightly brown and crunchy.  Wrap the flour tortillas in tin foil and warm in the oven during this.

Cook the meat.  Add onions and taco seasoning.

Spread some of the refried beans in the center of a warmed flour tortilla.  Fill the tortilla with the beef, crunchy corn tortilla, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and taco sauce.  Fold the edges over the center (I still had a big opening in the center, so I used another tortilla that I cut to fit).  Carefully put in a hot pan sprayed with cooking spray.  Let it sit for about 2 minutes (or desired doneness) before turning the crunch wrap over.  It'll fall apart if you flip it too soon.  Once flipped, let it cook for another minute or two, or to your liking.

And that's how you make a Crunch Wrap!  And me making this will in no way affect my eating at Taco Bell. I mean, come'on...

Mexican Pizza

I'm a little bummed out after my grocery store trip.  Every customer was given a free raffle ticket for gift cards of different amounts.  Two - three numbers were called over the intercom every 10 minutes.  It normally takes me an hour to shop and it didn't seem like there were many customers, so I figured I had a decent chance.  Nope.  The number after mine and the two numbers before mine were called.  And two lucky sons of guns won a $75 gift card!  As I was going to the register, I even checked the "winner board" to see if I'd been called and just didn't hear.  Nope.  Story of my life....

Anyway, I love pizza.  I'm always looking for different types of pizza.  There's been some misses, but there's been some hits...like this Mexican Pizza from Emily Bites.  I've had mexican pizza before, but never made one.  And it was SOO easy.  The BF loved it.  I was dissapointed I didn't have another pizza crust to make another one.

Mexican Pizza adapted from Emily Bites

1/2 lb ground beef (I used a whole pound and had leftover meat)
1 pkt taco seasoning
pizza crust (I used Freschetta)
1/2 c salsa
3 tbsp taco sauce
canned black beans, rinsed and drained
sliced jalapenos
shredded cheese
chopped green onions

1. Preheat the oven to 450.
2. Cook the ground beef over medium-high heat.  Add taco seasoning and stir to thoroughly combine. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine the salsa and taco sauce and stir together. Spread the mixture evenly across the surface of the pizza crust.  Sprinkle black beans across the top of the salsa layer and then follow with the reserved taco meat. Sprinkle the cheese evenly across the top.
4. Place pizza in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove from the oven, slice and sprinkle the green onions over the top.

I also ended up pouring taco sauce on top of the pizza to add more heat.


Open wide! 

Stay classy,

Heidi

Spicy Bean and Rice Burritos

I don't normally make meatless dinners.  I love meaty protein.  When I came across this recipe, it called to me.  I couldn't resist.  I love anything chipotle.  I love burritos.  And I love spicy.

I actually made alot of mistakes while cooking this.  I used a whole can of chipotle because I thought,"  Hey, we love spicy food, and the recipe doesn't seem like it has enough.  Let's add more!"  Yea, I'm gonna end that by saying if you aren't a fan of sweating  and having a runny nose while you eat, I don't recommend using a whole can of chipotle.  I am a fan of feeling the burn while I eat, so I was okay with the heat.

I also wasn't paying attention and made double the rice.  So there was ALOT of burrito filling.  To compensate, I added more salsa to keep the rice from drying out.  The filling pretty much turned out to be Mexican rice, but it still worked in the burrito.  One last thing, I didn't want to buy another pack of tortillas since I had fajita size ones.  Because of my laziness, we had very small burritos.  Still really good though!

Now, because I was mad my burritos didn't look right and that I messed up with the rice/bean ratio, I didn't take pictures.  And you have need to make these.  To persuade you even more, I'm using the picture from the site I got the recipe from.

Spicy Bean and Rice Burritos
(from A Bitchin Kitchen)

1 tablespoon canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 pepper from a can of chipotles in adobo, minced (I used the full can, which will be really spicy for the average person!)1 tablespoon sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Several dashes cayenne pepper
1/3 cup water
1 15 ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
2 cups cooked rice
1/4 cup fresh salsa

Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, chili powder, chipotle, adobo sauce, cumin, and cayenne. Cook briefly until fragrant, about 30-60 seconds. Add in drained and rinsed beans, and water. Bring to a simmer, then lower heat to medium-low and cook for 8 minutes, mashing the bean mixture slightly. Remove from heat, and stir in rice and salsa.

Put the mixture in the tortillas and top with whatever burrito toppings your heart desires!




from A Bitchin Kitchen

You know you want this.  I won't tell anyone...



Stay classy,
Heidi

Cheesy Chicken Empanadas

Continuing onto the Mexican finger food fix I've been in lately, I made these awesome empanadas, courtesy of Kraft Foods. 

It was a little involved so I didn't think of taking "during" pictures.

I happened to have shredded chicken from a rotesserie chicken, so this recipe worked out for me.  The sweet from the pie dough made a nice match with the savory chicken and cheese and spicy chili powder.

Cheesy Chicken Empanadas
from Kraft Recipes

2 c shredded cooked chicken
1 c shredded cheese
1/3 c chipotle flavored mayonaisse
2 tbsp fresh cilantro
1 egg
1 tbsp water
1 pkg of ready-to-use refridgerated pie crusts (get a pkg with 2 crusts)
1 tsp chili powder (I actually used more)

Heat the oven to 375F.

Combine the chicken, cheese, mayonaisse and cilantro.  Then whisk the egg and water together.

Unroll the pir crusts on a lightly floured surface.  Flatten each crust to about 12 inches using a rolling pin.  With a biscuit cutter (I actually used a jar lid), cut out about 4 inch circles in the dough.  You'll have to reflatten the dough at some point.  Place the circles on a lined baking sheet.  Spoon some of the chicken mixture into the center of each circle.  Brush the edge of the circle with the egg wash.  Fold the filled circles in half, pressing them slightly to release any excess air and seal the edges with a fork.  Brush the tops with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle them with chili powder.

Bake for 15 minutes or until they're golden brown.

And this is the Kraft version.  Looks much better.

Stay classy,
Heidi 

Butternut Squash and Chorizo Quesadilas

I love a good Mexican meal.  I also love finger food.  And that brings me to quesadillas.  There's just something about a crisp tortilla filled with meat and cheese.  It makes me all warm inside...

Lauren's Latest had this amazing idea.  Butternut squash and mexican pork.  What!?  Before, I've never ventured away from chicken and/or beef quesadillas and I'm ridiculously happy I did.  It wasn't until recently that I've even started using chorizo.  Let me tell you, it is AMAZING.  I don't care what body part of the pig it is, because it is delicious.

This recipe has a good blend of spicy from the meat and sweet from the squash.  On this particular recipe run, I think my squash-to-meat ratio was a little off (but still lick-your-plate good), so I'm going to try less squash next time.

Quick recipe:
Roast cut up butternut squash pieces.  Cook chorizo.  Add sliced onions and black beans.  Add spices.  Mix in the roasted squash.  Butter a pan and top a tortilla with cheese and this stuff.  Add cheese and top with another tortilla.  Make your quesadilla!

Longer recipe:
Butternut Squash and Chorizo Quesadillas
(adapted from Lauren's Latest)

1 small butternut squash, peeled & diced into small cubes (about 2 cups)
olive oil
salt & pepper
12 oz. package pork chorizo
1 small onion, sliced
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
cumin (I eyeballed it)
shredded cheddar cheese (I like my quesadillas really gooey and unhealthy, so it's up to you for how much you want to use)medium size tortillas
butter
sour cream, guacamole, salsa

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss butternut squash with olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake 15-20 minutes or until softened.

Unwrap the chorizo and break apart in a hot skillet. Cook chorizo until the texture starts to resemble ground beef (I had to cut my chorizo into small pieces so mine never resembled ground beef).  Remove the chorizo to a paper towel lined bowl and set aside. If there’s a lot of extra grease from the chorizo, wipe out the pan.

Saute onions in a pan with olive oil. Once the onions start to soften, stir in garlic and cook another 2 minutes. Stir in the cooked chorizo, roasted squash, beans and cumin. Set aside.
To assemble quesadillas, preheat large skillet over medium heat. Melt butter and place a tortilla into the pan. Top with cheese, filling, and more cheese. Top with another tortilla. Flip once the tortilla has browned. Brown the other side of the quesadilla and remove from the heat. Stand 3 minutes and slice into wedges. Serve with sour cream, salsa and guacamole.



Stay classy,
Heidi

A "Man" Breakfast and Some Mexican For Ya...

I'm so glad it's spring, although the weather lately has been more summerish (we're talking like 80 degrees!)  It's been nice though.  I love my short sleeve tops!  But with spring comes rain, which it has been doing since yesterday.  Not too thrilled with that.  Rain makes me feel kinda blah and I don't want to do anything productive.

Yesterday morning, I made what I called a "man" breakfast.  I had eggs and leftover chili, so what do I do?  Make omelets covered with chili!  It was...different.  It took a couple of bites to get used to, but it was good.  Towards the end, I was starting to get a little sick from all the protein, but like I said, it was still good!

Over the week, I also made an awesome dinner, courtesy of Pinch of Yum's Chicken Tamale Pie recipe (recipe follows).  O.M.G. it was good, and so incredibly easy.  I bought a rotisserie chicken and shredded that for the pie.  The sweet from the corn and the savory from the meat and sauce just went so well together.

I'm going to use the picture from the website since I was too excited to eat this to take a picture.  And hers looked way better than mine anyway.

How amazing does this look!!??

I came home the other day, and saw this.

One of the animals, not sure which one, sure does love sleeping under the covers while we're gone. As you can see there's a perfect little animal tent going on there...

Chicken Tamale Pie from Pinch of Yum
Serves: 8 
Total Time:  45 minutes

Ingredients

1/3 cup fat free milk

1/4 cup egg substitute

1 1/2 tablespoon taco seasoning, divided

1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper

1 (14 3/4 ounce) can cream-style corn

1 (8.5 ounce) box corn muffin mix (such as Jiffy)

1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained

1 (10 ounce) can red enchilada sauce

2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast

3/4 cup shredded white cheese

cilantro and crumbled Cotija cheese for topping

Instructions

-Preheat oven to 400°.

-Combine the first 7 ingredients (milk through green chiles), using just 1/2 tablespoon of the taco seasoning, in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a round pie plate coated with cooking spray.

-Bake at 400° for 15 minutes. While corn is baking, toss the chicken in the remaining 1 tablespoon taco seasoning. When corn is done, pierce entire surface liberally with a fork. Pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken and sprinkle with cheese.

-Bake for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Cut into pieces and top each serving with cilantro and Cotija cheese.

Stay classy my friends,
Heidi