Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos

This recipe is from Our Best Bites, one of my favorite recipe sources.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 C (3 oz) cream cheese
• 1/4 C green salsa
• 1T fresh lime juice
• 1/2 t cumin
• 1 t chili powder
• 1/2 t onion powder
• 1/4 t granulated garlic, or garlic powder
• 3 T chopped cilantro
• 2 T sliced green onions
• 2 C shredded cooked chicken (I used canned chicken)
• 1 C grated pepperjack cheese (I used the mexican blend from Costco)
• small corn tortillas (and actually, flour ones are really good as well)
• kosher salt
• cooking spray

 Prep time: 10 min.
Cook time: 20-25 min.
Total start to finish: 40 min.
Yeilds: 16 taquitos

Heat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.

Heat cream cheese in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds so it’s soft and easy to stir. Add green salsa, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder and granulated garlic. Stir to combine. 

 add cilantro and green onions.

 Add chicken and cheese and combine well.

You can prepare up to this step ahead of time. Just keep the mixture in the fridge.



Work with a few tortillas at a time and heat in the microwave until they are soft enough to roll without cracking. It helps to place them between damp paper towels. Usually 20-30 seconds will do it. If you find yours are cracking when you roll them or are coming unrolled right away, just try heating them longer and try the paper towel thing.

Place 2-3 T of chicken mixture on the lower third of a tortilla, keeping it about 1/2 inch from the edges.

(You could add less if you like.  Mine tend to splurge in the middle)

Place seam side down on the baking sheet. Lay all of the taquitos on the baking sheet and make sure they are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray or an oil mister and sprinkle some kosher salt on top.

Place pan in oven ( at 425) and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crisp and the ends start to get golden brown.

Here you have it...

Serve with fresh guac, sour cream, and or fresh home made salsa.

"Delish!"

Review:  I love them!  Maurice said "these are good hun!" Which can be translated to anything but this time I think he really liked them.  The kids liked to dip, but the chicken filling was a little scary for them to try.  Overall they did eat them, and didn't have anything left on their plates. :)

If you are looking for a fairly simple mexican style dinner, or just craving some finger foods this is worth your time.  Thanks for the recipe!

Restaurant Style Salsa

This recipe is from the Pioneer woman

Looks Yum!

So this is her finished product

Ingredients:

• 1 can (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes With Juice
• 2 cans (10 Ounce) Rotel (diced Tomatoes And Green Chilies)
• ¼ cups Chopped Onion
• 1 clove Garlic, Minced
• 1 whole Jalapeno, Quartered And Sliced Thin
• ¼ teaspoons Sugar
• ¼ teaspoons Salt
• ¼ teaspoons Ground Cumin
• ½ cups Cilantro (more To Taste!)
• ½ whole Lime Juice

Prep time 10 min.
5 min. to blend it all up
(if you can 2-3 hours in the fridge for flavors to marry)

Very simple to put together.

This is a very large batch. Recommend using a 12-cup food processor, or you can process the ingredients in batches and then mix everything together in a large mixing bowl.

Combine whole tomatoes, Rotel, onion, jalapeno ( I de-seeded mine because I'm a wuss, but I still thought it was spicy), garlic, sugar, salt, cumin, lime juice, and cilantro in a blender or food processor. Pulse until you get the salsa to the consistency you’d like—I do about 10 to 15 pulses

it’s ideal if you can cover and refrigerate the salsa for a couple of hours at least. This’ll help everything meld and marry and mingle and become perfect.

Now for the test run...

Mmmmmm...

All gone!

Review:  This salsa is the perfect restaurant style salsa.  While I thought it was a bit spicy and the kids wouldn't even try it, Reece thought it was mild and enjoyed it.  We used it to dip our baked taquitos, but if you grab a bag of chips the salsa will devour them.  Thank you Ree from the Pioneer Woman blog for sharing you yumminess!  Two thumbs up.

Curried Quinoa with Avo-Citrus slaw

This is theirs:

I saw this recipe while browsing foodgawker, and really wanted to try it.

Prep time about 20-25 min.

Cook time about 30 min.

This made 10 large wraps (did not get the ex-large wraps)

Ingredients

Curried Quinoa:

1 1/2 Tbsp Muchi Curry
1 Tbsp EVOO
2 tsp sea salt
2 1/3 cups dry, unrinsed quinoa
3 cups water
1/2 cup apple cider or orange juice

fold into cooked quinoa:
1 1/2 cups frozen peas (thawed or warmed)
1/2 cup salted cashews
1/2cup sweet onion, chopped
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/4 cup tahini (add less for fluffier quinoa)
1/2 cup citrus, peeled/diced
2 Tbsp maple syrup (or agave)
pepper

Avo-Citrus-Tahini Slaw:
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp orange juice
1 avocado, diced
1 cup shredded or matchstick carrots
1/2 cup shredded lettuce
2 Tbsp tahini

3 whole wheat XL burrito wraps

Directions:

1. Prep your slaw and toss well. Place in fridge to marinate/chill until ready to assemble wraps.

2. Heat your quinoa ingredients on stove in large soup pot. Cook your quinoa First time cooking quinoa?  Follow fluffy quinoa instructions here.

3. Add the toss-in ingredients to the warm quinoa.

On a side note, I have hated onions my whole life.  I've recently started adding them in most recipes...

...not to shabby.  I may have to work on converting my children.

4. Grab your extra large whole wheat wraps and start adding ingredients.

finished product

Reviews:

I would have to give this wrap a 4 out of 5.  I loved all the new flavors, but something about it didn't leave me with that "wow this is the best thing I've ever eaten," feeling.  The quinoa was seasoned beautifully, and the tahini slaw was tangy and nutty at the same time.  I love avocados, and they did not dissapoint, giving the perfect touch! 

The sadest part of this meal was the reaction of my 3 year old.  While gaging on a mouthful of the wrap, he managed to get out this statement: "this is yucky!" The 8 and 6 year old were not pleased either.  My husband ate the wrap, but I think he was starving.  He said he liked it, but I noticed on his second helping he did not add any of the slaw. 

If your looking for a child pleaser, this is not the dish.  (unless your children are used to all of these flavors) If you want a refreshing taste of something new and you have the ingredients on hand, give it a try, I think you'll like it.

White Chocolate Butter Puffs

This recipe is from a friend who made these de-"light"-full treats for us at Christmas time. The "light," is because they are light and fluffy, and oh so yummy!

All you need here is a bag of Butter flavor puff corn, and a bag a white chocolate chips

Melt the Chocolate slowly in the microwave, or on a double boiler. Once melted, pour over puff corn, and stir.

Added for color are little sugar crystals. Makes a great after school snack, or maybe for next week, a St. Patricks day Puff?? Hmmmm.

Thank you Michelle. This recipe was definitely a hit with my family! (Me too of course :)

Mmmmm, Rice Crispy Treats

Okay, so everyone does the rice crispy treats. What makes these so special??? I don't know. Maybe a little more marshmallows, maybe the real butter, maybe the vanilla. Or could it be that I make them in the microwave? Yes that's right in the microwave, done in under 10 min, start to finish. And their de-lish!

Ingredients:

• 1 stick butter (I use salted sweat cream)
  
• 1 16oz. bag of mini marshmallows
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 10.5 Cups rice crispy cereal

In a big huge bowl (make sure it will fit in your microwave) melt the butter. About 45 sec.

Pour in the whole bag of marshmallows, and coat in the butter

After melted and transformed into gooey goodness, add vanilla

Add the 10.5 cups of cereal, and stir till all cereal is coated. Grease a 13x9 pan, and dump contents of bowl into pan. (I do not press the mixture but I'm sure you could if you so desire.) Place in refrigerator for about an hour

Cut and serve!

Ooey-gooey goodness = Smiles all around!

Cincinnati Chili

This is one of my families all time favorites. Before we were married, my husband served a mission for our church in Kentucky, and upon his return begged me to make this dish. He said it was to be served over spaghetti noodles, and it had Cinnamon in it. I was very skeptical, but searched for a recipe. I have since tweaked the recipe to make it my own, and now to the blog.

Ingredients needed:

• 1 lb. extra lean ground beef
  
• 3 T Chili powder
• 1 medium onion (or 1T onion flakes)
• 2 cloves garlic (also sub 1t garlic salt)
• 2t ground cumin
• 2 cans condensed tomato soup
• 1 can kidney beans
• 1 can petite diced tomato
• 1 T vinegar
• 1/4 t cinnamon

Prep time: 2-5 min.
Total cook time: about 25 min

Start out by combining meat, chili powder, garlic, onions, and cumin. Cook until meat is no longer pink.

Once meat is browned add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 15 min., stirring occasionally. (If you like a thicker chili leave the lid off, if you like it more soupy... lid on.)

Now when we first tried this recipe we did server over spaghetti, which was o.k. Since that first time we have been introduced to serving over white rice. Yum! I also like to use Frito's scoops as a spoon. The kids like this also.

Garnish with cheese, and onions if desired. My family is more of a cheese and no onions family.

Review:

Obviously this is a hit with everyone, or I would not make it so often. We have this probably once every other week. It is a very simple fix, and it's fast! Good for left overs too.

With all the canned goods, and dried spices, this would also make a great menu item for food storage. Anyway, thank you Cincinnati for the yummy chili!

Broccoli Cheese Soup - Cook's Illustrated, March/April 2011

Here's their finished product:

I chose this recipe because I was dying to try another soup, I also like to look for recipes that seem simple, and I already have most of the ingredients in my fridge or pantry.

Before I started this blog I ventured out and purchased an immersion blender from Costco. I first tried a Rachel Ray potato soup. I didn't follow this recipe to the "T," probably why it was not my favorite, but still a fun adventure for a first timer. My second "blended soup," was a chicken tortilla soup. I used a recipe from a friend in Calif., I added a few extra vegetables and then followed the rest. I really enjoyed this soup, and so did the children. We'll have to try that one again soon, and document. Sunday night I attempted a 5 ingredient tomato basil soup, found on foodgawker. Very refreshing, and healthy, but I was hoping for something a little more full and robust. This tomato basil left my taste-buds feeling a little deprived. So tonight we try Broccoli.

Ingredients needed:

2 tbsp unsalted butter

2 pounds broccoli, chopped into 1 inch pieces (include the stems but peel them and cut them into 1/4 inch-thick slices) (*shortcut, I used frozen from costco, already chopped. Just let thaw out before cooking)
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 tsp dry mustard powder
pinch cayenne
salt
3-4 cups water
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 cups chicken broth
2 oz baby spinach
3 oz sharp cheddar, grated
1 1/2 oz Parmesan, grated
pepper to taste

Prep time: About 10 min.
Cook time: Start to finish about 45 min.

In a large pot or dutch oven, heat butter over medium high heat. Add broccoli, onion, garlic, mustard, cayenne and 1 tsp salt. Stir frequently and cook until fragrant, about 6 minutes. Add 1 cup water and baking soda and bring to a simmer. Cook until broccoli is very soft, about 20 minutes.Don't forget to use a helper if needed...

Add broth and 2 cups water and increase heat to medium high. Bring to a simmer (this will take about 10-15 min.)

Stir in spinach and cook until wilted, about 1 minute.

Add cheeses (I opted to just use my 3 cheese blend from costco, don't know if that changes the flavor much)

Blend soup with an immersion blender (alternatively, you can transfer soup to a blender and blend in two batches).

Adjust consistency of soup to your liking with remaining water (I found it didn't need any more). Season to taste with salt and pepper. Says it serves 8, but if your looking for a healthy serving I would say about 6 large helpings.

Here's my finished product:

Personal review:

Well, I'd have to say that I was very pleased with this recipe! "Mmmm ... just what I was hoping for." It was creamy, with out cream, and just cheesy enough, but not over powering. Also the cayenne pepper gave it just the right kick. The kids thought, "it's fine mom," which means they didn't love it but they'll eat it. The husband is apparently not a huge broccoli fan, so he said it was "not a top 10 nominee."
If I ever crave the green goop again, I will definitely be coming back to this recipe.