It doesn't get much easier...

Tacos. Why do we never make tacos? Why am I always trying to make complicated meals?! On the way home from church today I realized I was craving tacos, and since we spent the last of our October dining out budget at chick-fil-a the other night (mmmm I love you forever chick-fil-a) it was make tacos myself or let my craving go unfulfilled. Tyler actually made the tacos, while I watched 40 First Dates for the millionth time (oh how I love that movie!) Tacos are truly a 30 minute meal (if that).



Taco Seasoning I (from allrecipes.com)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. In a small bowl, mix together chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, red pepper flakes, oregano, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Store in an airtight container.

We cooked 1lb of ground beef, then drained the fat. Added 1/2 cup water with the taco seasoning and half a can of black beans. Let it simmer over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Served with cheese, lettuce, and spicy guacamole. (FYI to KC area girls, the wholly guacamole can be found in the produce section and is on sale at HyVee this week, 1.87 each, and I used a coupon I clipped a couple of weeks ago for $1 off). On soft taco shells (heated the tortillas on the stove top for about 2 minutes each.)

Celebrate Chili Season!

Tyler was nice enough to whip up this batch of white chicken chili while I made the beef and bean chili tonight. Honestly I'm not sure where I got the original recipe and it's driving me nuts. If you know please jog my memory! I just have a copy of it that I printed out ages ago, probably off an old email account so I can't really trace the origins! Actually it looks like a photocopy...omg I'm going to drive myself crazy. Here's the recipe!



White Bean Chicken Chili

Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
1 T olive oil
2 tsp chopped garlic
1-2 cups chopped chicken breasts
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (do not drain)
1 cube chicken bouillon
15 oz can white beans
1 pkg taco seasoning (we were out so we used this recipe instead)

Saute onion in olive oil. Add garlic, chicken, and 1/2 tsp taco seasoning. Cook until chicken is no longer pink. Add canned tomatoes (can be run through the food processor to chop into smaller pieces if desired), chicken bouillon cube, rest of taco seasoning and if necessary some water if too thick. Simmer and then eat! Serve with tortilla chips or tortillas, cheese, sour cream, whatever you like! Tyler adds Tabasco sauce because he loves more heat.

I believe this recipe is WW core friendly.

I'm still here!

Sorry for the post-less week, I haven't really been cooking much. Mostly because I was eating out or making some of my favorite guilty pleasures before I started back on Weight Watchers this week :) Real smart, huh? We had sushi, cheese dip, potstickers, Chipotle, chick-fil-a....ahh such food debauchery. Now I am back on the wagon and back in the kitchen. We are following the Weight Watchers Core plan, which so far I am loving. So brace yourselves for healthier recipes! One of my greatest discoveries was this food blog. Thank you Heather for sharing so many great Core recipes with those of us that have no clue what to make! She is my new food blog goddess.

This meal was so quick to whip up and tasted great. LOVED the guacamole sauce. I will definitely be using that recipe for many other dishes. It'd be great on fajitas! The chicken was a little sweet, which makes sense since there was brown sugar in it, I might cut back on the sugar and increase the spices next time. I served the chicken with corn and a side of black beans simmered in lime juice, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Should have thrown some cilantro in but I spaced it. It feels good to be cooking and eating well again!

Cumin-dusted Chicken Breasts with guacamole sauce


Sauce:
1/4 c finely chopped green onions
1/4 c finely chopped cilantro
1/4 c fat-free sour cream
2 TBS fresh lime juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp ground red pepper
1 ripe peeled avocado, seeded and coarsely mashed

Chicken:
2 TBS brown sugar (not Core, but 0 WPAs per serving of this recipe)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
4 (6 oz) skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
Cooking spray

To prepare sauce, combine first 8 ingredients; set aside. Preheat oven to 400°.

To prepare chicken, combine sugar, 1 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp black pepper; sprinkle evenly over chicken. Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add chicken; cook 3 minutes or until browned. Turn chicken over. Place pan in oven; bake at 400° for 10-20 minutes or until done. Serve chicken with sauce.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 breast half and about 3 tablespoons sauce)

Versatile black bean dip

So unemployment does not sit well with me, I have basically been glued to the couch all week (for the 4th week in a row now), occasionally getting up for a Dr. Pepper or to go to a job interview. Hopefully I will be hired soon and out of my funk! Funk=no cooking (except for sugary treats) so I really don't know what we've done for dinner this week...chik fil a, frozen pizza, chicken salad. Tonight I finally snapped out of it and whipped up a real dinner, it felt good to be back in the kitchen chopping and stirring and making a mess (Tyler gets to clean up, hehe).



Tex Mex Black Bean Dip from allrecipes.com (can be eaten w/chips or used as enchilada filling)

• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup fresh corn kernels
• 3/4 cup chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup mild picante sauce
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
  
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1. Place black beans in a medium size mixing bowl, partially mash beans -- beans should remain a little chunky.
2. In a medium size frying pan, heat oil over a medium heat. Stir in onion and garlic and saute for 4 minutes.
3. Mix beans, corn, tomato, picante sauce, cumin, and chili powder into the frying pan; cook for 5 minutes or until thickened. Remove the pan from the heat, mix in cheese, cilantro and lime juice; stir until cheese is melted.

Black Bean Enchiladas

3 cups Tex Mex Black Bean Dip
5-8 large flour tortillas
2 cups shredded Mexican cheese
1 can enchilada sauce

Spoon a rounded 1/2 cup of the black bean mixture down the center of each tortilla, top with some cheese. Fold sides over filling and roll up. Place in a 13x9 baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Cover with enchilada sauce. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with cheese and cilantro (optional). Bake 2-3 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

The green stuff

We definitely love Mexican food around here and probably have it at least once a week. I've been working on perfecting my guacamole recently, but I still like to cut corners a bit and use a package of Produce Partners Great Guacamole seasoning. Lawry's also makes a good guacamole seasoning (the McCormick stuff in the orange package is nasty though). Eventually I may move to a completely from scratch guac with peppers and other spices, but for now I like my easy semi-homemade guac :)



Easy Mild Guacamole
4 ripe avacados (skin will be dark and the avacado will yield to slight pressure)
3 small roma tomatoes, seeds removed
1/4 of a white onion
1 packet of guacamole seasoning
juice of half a lime
dash of salt

Remove peel and mash up avacados in a large bowl. Chop up tomatoes and onion, add to the avacado mixture. Mix in packet of guacamole seasoning, lime juice, and salt. Chill for 30 minutes before serving.

Mexican Lasagna

I don't have much to say except this is another one of our standbys. It tastes AMAZING the next day, not that it's bad the first night, but after it's cooled in the fridge the layers settle in well and it reheats great. Leftovers will take care of lunch for the next 2-3 days! So here's the recipe, I got the original from Allrecipes and tweaked it to my liking.



Mexican Lasagna

Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 onion chopped
1 green pepper chopped
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 (4 oz) can diced green chili peppers
1 (2 oz) can sliced black olives
1 (10 oz) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers
1 (8 oz) jar medium taco sauce
1 (16 oz) can refried beans
6-8 flour tortillas
1 cup shredded colby jack or mexican blend of cheese
(optional addition is a can of black beans and/or corn, but you'll definitely need a large skillet for all that filling!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
1. In a large skillet over medium heat, saute the ground beef for 5 minutes. Add the onion, green pepper and garlic, and saute for 5 more minutes. Drain any excess fat.
2. Mix in the olives, green chile peppers, tomatoes with green chile peppers, and taco sauce. Stir mixture thoroughly, reduce heat to low, and let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Spread a thin layer of the meat mixture in the bottom of a 4 quart casserole dish. Cover with a layer of tortillas followed by a layer of refried beans then more meat mixture and cheese. Repeat tortilla, beans, meat, cheese pattern until all the meat mixture is used up, topping off with a layer of meat mixture and cheese.
4. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until cheese is slightly brown and bubbly.

20 minute meal

So depending on how long it takes you to to chop and saute the veggies this meal could easily take less than 20 minutes to make, and who doesn't love a super fast meal? I had a bunch of tomatoes and decided to make fresh salsa for the first time. We decided to whip up some quesadillas and call it a meal. We had leftover quesadilla filling so we had them two nights in a row, yum.



Quesadillas (made by Tyler)

Ingredients:
1 red pepper
1 red onion
1 green pepper
Shredded 4 cheese Mexican cheese
Flour tortillas

Chop up onion and peppers into small pieces, saute with a little oil over medium heat until tender. Place tortilla in pan and put cheese and onion/pepper mix on top, fold over and cook, flip to cook other side until cheese is melted and outside is slightly brown. Serve with fresh salsa.

Fresh salsa (made by Julia)
2 tomatoes, seeds removed
1/2 white onion
2 jalepenos, seeds removed (be careful not to touch the inside/seeds or else your skin will burn for hours!)
1/2 cup cilantro or however much you prefer
juice of one lime
dash of salt
1-2 cloves garlic chopped

Chop up tomatos, onion, peppers, put in food processor and add cilantro, lime juice, salt, and garlic cloves. Pulse/chop in food processor until finely chopped. Serve with quesadillas and chips.

Easy black beans (made by Julia)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 t cumin

Simmer over medium heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with your favorite Mexican dishes.

A Chili's Favorite

I love the southwest eggrolls at Chili's, thanks to Robin for introducing me to them freshman year in college on one of our many trips to Chili's when we probably should have been studying! Sometime last year I got the recipe off a message board and I've made them a few times since. They of course do not taste just like the Chili's version but they are healthier and just as tasty. No frying involved! I serve them with a side of guacamole, this time I added some ranch dressing to create the "avacado-ranch" dipping sauce that I get at Chili's (though mine is more of a guacamole and less of a salad dressing).



"Skinny" Southwest Eggrolls (made by Julia)

Ingredients

5 oz. can cooked chicken breast

1/3 c. corn kernels (frozen or canned)

1/2 c. canned black beans, rinsed and drained

2 tbsp. frozen spinach, thawed and drained

2 tbsp. jarred jalapeno juice

2 tbsp. salsa

½ tbsp. minced fresh cilantro (optional, we don't like cilantro so we leave it out)

½ tsp. cumin

1/3 tsp. salt

pinch cayenne pepper (also optional depending on how much heat you want)

1 c. shredded reduced-fat Monterey Jack cheese (I often use the Mexican cheese blend)

3-4 flour tortillas

vegetable oil


Combine all but the last three ingredients in a saucepan. Stir over
medium-high heat until well blended. Remove from heat and stir in
Monterey Jack cheese until melted. Spoon even amounts of filling into
tortillas. Fold ends and roll, securing with a toothpick. Place
eggrolls on oil-coated cookie sheet, and brush rolls with oil. Bake at
425* for 15-20 minutes, flipping eggrolls half way through to brown on
both sides. Serve with salsa or guacamole.

Monday night Mexican

Black Bean and Rice Enchiladas (made by Julia)

I bookmarked this recipe on allrecipes.com a few weeks ago and this made a quick and easy (not to mention really tasty) Monday night dinner. We love Mexican food and I'm trying to make one vegetarian meal a week to cut down on how much we spend on pricey meat at the grocery store and to cut fat in general.

I made a couple of modifications based on what we had in our pantry. Instead of topping the enchiladas with salsa I used a can of mild enchilada sauce. I also omitted the cilantro since neither of us is a fan.

This picture is not so great, I was in a hurry to eat and didn't have much patience to get a beautiful shot. Plus I think it's kind of challenging to make enchiladas smothered in sauce and cheese look pretty. ;) Despite how they look they tasted great and we will definitely make them again, maybe with some green onion on top and some black olives inside.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 green pepper, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chilies
• 1/4 cup picante sauce
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 cups cooked brown rice
• 8 (6 inch) flour tortillas, warmed
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup reduced fat shredded Cheddar cheese
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large nonstick skillet, saute the green pepper, onion and garlic in oil until tender. Add the beans, tomatoes, picante sauce, chili powder, cumin and red pepper flakes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, until heated through and mixture thickens. Add rice; cook 5 minutes longer or until heated through.
2. Spoon a rounded 1/2 cup down the center of each tortilla. Fold sides over filling and roll up. Place in a 13-in. x 9-in. x 2-in. baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Spoon salsa over each tortilla. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes. Uncover; sprinkle with cheese and cilantro. Bake 2-3 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.