The Nifty Foodie

Mexican

Chicken Enchiladas

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Ok, so I’m gonna give you all a crawfish break today. I just HAD to share this recipe ASAP, because it’s just awesome.

This is a different recipe than the enchiladas I am used to (the ones with red sauce), but I had some leftover crockpot chicken that we used for tacos the night before (which I didn’t photograph, but I will share the recipe) and wanted to make sure that I used up the leftovers. I found this recipe on AllRecipes and thought that it sounded pretty interesting. So, I decided to give it a try!

This recipe is very easy to put together, and was so yummy. My husband absolutely loved these, so I’m definitely going to have to make them again!

Chicken Enchiladas
Source: AllRecipes

Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1/2 cup chopped green onions
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles
  • 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1 1/2 cups cubed cooked chicken breast meat (used shredded leftover chicken taco meat. Recipe below)
  • 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
  • 6 (12 inch) flour tortillas
  • 1/4 cup milk

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking dish.
  2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and saute the green onion until tender (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add the garlic powder, then stir in the green chiles, cream of mushroom soup and sour cream. Mix well. Reserve 3/4 of this sauce and set aside. To the remaining 1/4 of the sauce in the saucepan, add the chicken and 1/2 cup of shredded Cheddar cheese. Stir together.
  3. Fill each flour tortilla with the chicken mixture and roll up. Place seam side down in the prepared baking dish.

 

Crockpot Chicken Tacos
Source: The Nest (Houston Nesties board)

Ingredients:

  • 1 chicken taco seasoning packet
  • 2-3 frozen chicken breasts
  • Fresh pico de gallo (12-16 oz.)
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup water

Directions:

  1. Sprinkle the seasoning packet all over the bottom of the crockpot. Lay the frozen chicken breasts on top.
  2. Pour the pico de gallo on top and add the olive oil and water. Do not stir!
  3. Allow the chicken to cook in the crockpot for 4-6 hours on low. Remove chicken and shred with a fork, then add back in the crockpot, stir the sauce and let it cook for 30 more minutes on low.
  4. In a small bowl combine the reserved 3/4 of the sauce with the milk. Spoon this mixture over the rolled tortillas and top with the remaining 1/2 cup of shredded Cheddar cheese. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

Roasted Tomato Salsa

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My husband and I planned on doing a Superbowl Mexican feast (for 2), so I was searching for salsa recipes. I happened to come across this recipe on Delish Blog, and was intrigued. Roasted vegetables are always awesome, so roasted salsa had to be all sorts of amazing.

Roasting all of the vegetables made the house smell so yummy, and I just couldn’t wait to dig into this! It had amazing flavor, but my husband and I agreed that our tomatoes probably weren’t ripe enough. We were craving a more rich tomato flavor in the salsa. I can’t wait to try this again in the summer with fresh local tomatoes!

Roasted Tomato Salsa
Source: Delish Blog

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 pounds tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
  • 1/2 large white onion
  • 4-6 cloves roasted garlic
  • 2-3 large jalapenos, deseeded & deveined, cut in half lengthwise
  • freshly ground black pepper & kosher salt
  • Extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 – 1/2 cup cilantro, roughly chopped

Directions:

  1. Heat oven to 400°F . Gently toss the tomatoes, onions, garlic, jalapenos with the olive oil in a large bowl. Alternatively, use spray oil to gently coat the veggies (You just don’t want it to burn). Season with a little freshly ground black pepper. After they are nicely coated arrange in a single layer, tomatoes cut-side facing up, across a parchment or foil-lined baking sheet, roast in the oven for 40-50 minutes, (depending upon the size of your tomatoes). You’ll know they’re ready to come out when they start to get a nice color and the tomatoes start to collapse. Remove from the oven and cool.
  2. Puree cooled tomatoes, onion, garlic, and jalapenos. Alternatively, puree half of the veggies and hand chop the remainder and combine. Season with salt and stir in the cilantro. Refrigerate.

Mexican Potatoes

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My husband and I like to make our weeknight cooking as simple as possible. Just lately, we got into making tacos, but were shamefully using the kits for tacos and mexican rice.

After finding this recipe for Taco Seasoning on Allrecipes, I decided it was probably worth a shot to do this without the kit. Not only did we have all the spices on hand, but because it was a mix we made, it felt a little more homemade with not much extra effort!

For the side, I wanted to try something a little different, so I searched for ideas with mexican spiced potatoes and after looking at many ideas, I found a recipe for us to try.

These potatoes had a nice flavor, but I was hoping for more of a kick with them. So, next time, I’m going to probably adjust the spices a good bit or even try putting some of the Taco Seasoning in there with the recipe.

Mexican Roasted Potatoes
Adapted from The Nourishing Gourmet

Ingredients

  • 5 medium russet potatoes, diced
  • 1/3 cup of olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (plus more to sprinkle on top)
  • freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder
  • 1 tablespoon Dijon style mustard
  • 1 lime, juiced (or more to taste)

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Combine all of the ingredients, except the potatoes and lime in a jar and shake to thoroughly mix ingredients (or whisk in a bowl).
  3. Pour your diced potatoes into a jelly roll pan, and toss with the oil mixture. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper.
  4. Roast for about 40 minutes, until the potatoes are well cooked, and browning on the edges. Take out of the oven, and sprinkle the juice of one lime over it. Taste test, and add more lime juice or salt, if needed and serve.

The Skinny – per serving, serves 6

Calories 250.5
Fat 12.1 g
Fiber 4 g

Chicken Enchiladas

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I recently saw these on Mrs. Sac’s Purple Kitchen and thought about how great it would be to make these. DH and I’s favorite restaurant is a local Mexican restaurant, but we hate to go out to eat since it gets so pricey. So, with this recipe, I was hoping to bring some great Mexican food to him!

This is a recipe from Tyler Florence on Food Network and the ratings were excellent, so I knew I had to give these a try!

These were delicious, though DH would have been happier had I put the stewed tomatoes in the food processor (he’s not a fan of tomato chunks). I will say though, this makes 16 enchiladas, so if you don’t want as many, you might want to halve the recipe.

Chicken Enchiladas
Source: Food Network (Tyler Florence)

Ingredients:

  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 1/2 pounds skinless boneless chicken breast
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 teaspoons cumin powder
  • 2 teaspoons garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon Mexican Spice Blend
  • 1 red onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
  • 5 canned whole green chiles, seeded and coarsely chopped
  • 4 canned chipotle chiles, seeded and minced
  • 1 (28-ounce) can stewed tomatoes
  • 1/2 teaspoon all-purpose flour
  • 16 corn tortillas
  • 1 1/2 cups enchilada sauce, canned
  • 1 cup shredded Cheddar and Jack cheese  (I used way more than this!)
  • Garnish: chopped cilantro leaves, chopped scallions, sour cream, chopped tomatoes

Directions:

  1. Coat large saute pan with oil. Season chicken with salt and pepper. Brown chicken over medium heat, allow 7 minutes each side or until no longer pink. Sprinkle chicken with cumin, garlic powder and Mexican spices before turning. Remove chicken to a platter, allow to cool.
  2. Saute onion and garlic in chicken drippings until tender. Add corn and chiles. Stir well to combine. Add canned tomatoes, saute 1 minute.
  3. Pull chicken breasts apart by hand into shredded strips. Add shredded chicken to saute pan, combine with vegetables. Dust the mixture with flour to help set.
  4. Microwave tortillas on high for 30 seconds. This softens them and makes them more pliable. Coat the bottom of 2 (13 by 9-inch) pans with a ladle of enchilada sauce. Using a large shallow bowl, dip each tortilla in enchilada sauce to lightly coat. Spoon 1/4 cup chicken mixture in each tortilla. Fold over filling, place 8 enchiladas in each pan with seam side down. Top with remaining enchilada sauce and cheese.
  5. Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated 350 degree F oven until cheese melts. Garnish with cilantro, scallion, sour cream and chopped tomatoes before serving. Serve with Spanish rice and beans.

Oven “fried” Chimichangas

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My fiance and I had some leftover rotisserie chicken from Target to use up. So, I searched online for ideas and found this great recipe for chimichangas on Recipezaar. Even better, it’s healthy!

Oven Fried Chimichangas
Source: Recipezaar

Ingredients:

  • 2/3 cup picante sauce or your favorite salsa
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crushed
  • 1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
  • 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
  • 2 green onions, chopped with some tops (about 1/4 cup)
  • 6 (8 inch)  flour tortillas
  • 2 tablespoons margarine, melted
  • shredded cheddar cheese, for serving
  • chopped green onion, for serving
  • picante sauce, for serving

Directions:

  1. Mix the chicken, picante sauce/salsa, cumin, oregano, cheese and onions together in a bowl.
  2. Place about 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture in the center of each tortilla.
  3. Fold the opposite sides over filling.
  4. Roll up from bottom and place seam-side down on a baking sheet.
  5. Brush with melted margarine.
  6. Bake at 400°F for 25 minutes or until golden.
  7. Garnish with additional cheese and green onion and serve salsa on the side.

These came out pretty good. I would add more cheese for next time, but I think this is a definite keeper in the recipe file for us!

Turkey Enchilada Pie

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I officially rejoined Weight Watchers last Monday. I’ve been really good on my diet this week. Totally within points, and I’ve worked out 5 days in a row using Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred DVD (which I highly recommend!!).

Anyways, being a member of Weight Watchers means I have an eTools membership. So, points values* will be determined using that tool instead of SparkRecipes. Along with that, eTools gives me GREAT W/W friendly recipes that I can adapt (and it will count points as I adapt). So, here is my first recipe that I made for Joey and I last night.

To me, it was spicy and I wish I would have used green chiles instead of jalapenos. I also cut this into 8 wedges instead of 6. (didn’t read directions well so I ate less points than I thought for supper)

Before I show the results of this dish, I want to give a shout-out to Rachael Ray (yes, I *heart* her!). This Furi tool pictured below, rocks my world in chopping vegetables. I usually cut myself a lot with using knives, and with this tool, my hands are safely on the grip! 🙂 I found it (with cutting board) for $15 at Tuesday Morning!!


Look at how fine that chop is…I’m wowed by myself!!

Turkey Enchilada Pie
Source: Weight Watchers

Ingredients:

  • 1 sprays cooking spray
  • 3/4 pound lean ground turkey (used 1 lb.)
  • 1 medium onion(s), chopped
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup fat-free skim milk (used lowfat at FI’s request)
  • 4 oz canned jalapeno peppers, drained and chopped
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 3 large burrito-size wheat flour tortilla(s)
  • 3 cup tomato(es), chopped (omitted because I’m a creole tomato snob and they are out of season for the year 🙁 )
  • 10 Tbsp low-fat shredded cheddar cheese (used 2% mexican blend cheese)

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a large skillet with cooking spray. Heat skillet over medium heat. Place turkey, onion and chili powder in skillet and cook until turkey is browned, stirring occasionally to break up meat, about 8 minutes. Remove turkey mixture from skillet and set aside.
  2. Place skillet over medium-high heat and add flour. Gradually add milk, stirring with a whisk until blended. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium; simmer until thickened, about 2 minutes.
  3. Remove skillet from heat; stir in turkey mixture, jalapenos and cumin.
  4. Wrap tortillas in damp paper towels and microwave on HIGH until softened, about 15 seconds. Place 1 tortilla in bottom of a 9-inch pie plate. Spread 1/3 of turkey mixture over tortilla. Spoon 1 cup of tomato on top and sprinkle with 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) of cheese. Repeat layers with remaining ingredients ending up with 2 tablespoons of cheese.
  5. Cover pie plate with aluminum foil and cook until cheese melts and filling is warmed through, about 15 minutes. Let stand, covered, 2 minutes before cutting into 6 wedges.


Here is the pie out the oven 🙂

Check out how gooey those layers look…YUMMY!

Points*: 6

The site provided says it’s 4 points but eTools’ recipe link (which I can’t give because W/W has recipes in flash so bleh…) says 6…so I would calculate 6 to be safe here!

Mexican Night: The Salsa

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OMG…this stuff was the BEST part of tonight…I love salsa :). Once again, I chose a highly rated recipe from All Recipes and this wasn’t a disappointment at all and SUPER easy!

Ingredients
* 2 (14.5 ounce) cans stewed tomatoes
* 1/2 onion, finely diced
* 1 teaspoon minced garlic
* 1/2 lime, juiced
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 cup canned sliced green chiles, or to taste
* 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
* 1/2 tsp chili powder (an addition that I added for more flavor)

Place the tomatoes, onion, garlic, lime juice, salt, green chiles, and cilantro in a blender or food processor. Blend on low to desired consistency.


Mmm…hand over a bag of tostitos!

Mexican Night: Mexican Rice

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This dish was a side we had for the mexican night themed dinner tonight. This recipe is from All Recipes and came highly rated, so I went for this one. It came out perfect, but wasn’t the mexican rice I’m used to at restaurants but this was still great!

Mexican Rice

Ingredients:

* 1 cup long grain white rice
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (we used canola oil)
* 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
* 1/2 onion, finely chopped
* 1/2 green bell pepper, finely chopped
* 1 fresh jalapeno pepper, chopped
* 1 tomato, seeded and chopped
* 1 cube chicken bouillon
* salt and pepper to taste
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
* 1 clove garlic, halved

Directions:

In a medium sauce pan, cook rice in oil over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Pour in chicken broth, and bring to a boil. Stir in onion, green pepper, jalapeno, and diced tomato. Season with bouillon cube, salt and pepper, cumin, cilantro, and garlic. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Cook for 20 minutes.

Mexican Night: Shrimp and Corn Fajitas

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Tonight’s Menu was time consuming but it was a good dinner. However, by the time I was done cooking, I really wasn’t that hungry…figures right?

Oh! And by the way, you get pictures tonight 🙂 I used my fiance’s camera hehehe 🙂

We had: Shrimp and Corn Fajitas, Mexican Rice, Refried Beans, and Chips and Salsa.

The shrimp and corn fajitas were from the What’s Cooking recipe exchange for June/July. The original submitted recipe was from I&R4_23_06 of the Nest, and the source is unknown.

Shrimp & Corn Tacos

Ingredients:

  • 2 T vegetable oil (we used canola)
  • 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 jalapeño, seeded & ribbed, minced
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • coarse salt & ground pepper
  • 2 plum tomatoes, chopped (omitted)
  • 1 10 oz. package frozen corn, unthawed (canned b/c FI rathers canned veggies)
  • 1/2 pound shrimp, cut into 1/2″ pieces (We had 1 lb. of shrimp, 19-25 ct. and left whole)
  • 12 6″ corn tortillas, warmed
  • Taco accouterments- salsa, cheese, sour cream, cilantro, lime wedges

Directions:

  1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high. Add onion, jalapeño, and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are softened, 4 to 5 minutes.
  2. Add tomatoes and corn; cook, stirring occasionally, until corn is heated through and tomatoes are soft, 4 to 5 minutes.
  3. Add shrimp and cook, stirring occasionally, until opaque throughout, 2 to 3 minutes. Serve immediately with tortillas (which we heated in the oven for a couple minutes)