Mexican Chicken Casserole

Phew- I lucked out on this one. I had to guess on one of the ingredients, but thankfully this guess did not end up like the spicy shrimp incident. I was really confused by what the original recipe meant by “2 cans taco sauce.” Well, I couldn’t find any cans of taco sauce. I did find jars of taco sauce that are slightly bigger than the suggested size, and it worked great. I note the amount you should use for jars below.

Between the chicken, the cheese and the beans, this meal is packed with protein. 29 g of protein per serving actually. That’s why I’m submitting it to Eat Healthy- Protein Rich. Try it out for a super filling, tasty, and kind of impressive looking, weeknight meal.

Mexican Chicken Casserole

Served 4

¾ cup short grain rice (used sushi rice)

10 oz can red kidney beans, drained and thoroughly rinsed

3 ½ TBSP chopped, fresh cilantro

1 TBSP oil

4 chicken cutlets

1 8oz jar taco sauce

2 cups grated cheddar

½ cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease a 8 ½ inch round (about 2 ¾ inch deep) casserole dish (I used a slightly smaller rectangle for 3). Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add rice and cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain

2. In the prepared dish, combine the beans and cilantro, then add the rice and toss together. Lightly press the mixture so that it is flat.

3. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium high heat. Sauté the chicken 2 minutes, then turn and sauté another minute. Add the sauce and cook for a further 2 minutes.

4. To assemble, spread ½ the cheese over the rice. Arrange the chicken and sauce on top in a single layer. Sprinkle with cheese and cover with foil.

5. Bake for 30 minutes and then remove foil and bake for another 5. Cut into 4 servings and carefully scoop out, keeping layers intact. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Refried Bean Roll-Ups

I first came across this recipe when trying to make dinner for the 2nd pickiest dinner guest I have ever had. The pickiest is my dear friend and upstairs neighbor for whom I made the Brownie Ice Cream Sandwich Cake. This guest was only slightly better. He is a vegan who doesn’t eat tomatoes or, get this, sauces. That meant no pasta, no eggs, no grilled cheese, no salads (dressing counts as a sauce) or ANYTHING. I was stumped. The no pasta (cuz he wouldn’t want sauce on it) and no salad thing just killed me.

I spent the ENTIRE day looking for a recipe that the 2 of us would both like. I finally found this super simple, vegan friendly dinner and was saved of all of his complexities. No meat or animal products so long as I shopped wisely, the only tomatoes were in salsa (which he does eat, along with ketchup), and the salsa was mixed in so that it was not a sauce. PERFECT. And get this, it’s really good too! And super filling. This past week roomie and I shared it and would have had enough to use it as bean dip (which it is really good as!) and have another serving leftover. Did I mention it makes a good bean dip, cuz it does. I was starving at midnight the next night (writing a paper until 1 or 2 am does that to a gal) and in searching through the fridge I found the leftovers. I had them cold as bean dip on tortilla chips and was in heaven.

Overall, you can’t beat this recipe. It's cheap, filling and healthy. I am entering it in Eat Healthy- Protein Rich. It has 12.25 grams of protein in a 2 wrap portion.

I apologize for the pics. I must have bought a bad bag of tortillas because most of them were already ripped before I even pulled them out of the bag. When folding the tortillas up, it lead to a bean explosion, but was still tasty. Do try to use unripped tortillas though.

Refried Bean Roll-Ups

1 can (16 ounces) fat-free refried beans (the fat free kind are better for you and are vegan friendly)
1/2 cup salsa (any variety)
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
8 fat-free flour tortillas (8 to 10 inches in diameter)
1 cup shredded lettuce
1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese (2 ounces)

1. Mix beans, salsa and chili powder in 1-quart saucepan. Heat over medium heat about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until warm.
2. Spoon about 1/4 cup of bean mixture onto center of each tortilla; spread slightly. Top with lettuce and cheese. Fold over sides and ends of tortillas. Serve with addiditional salsa if desired.

South West Eggrolls

I’m sorry for the disconnect in the blogging. One day I post regularly, then next thing you know I miss about a month of posting! Since my last post I had a case to present for the University Student Judiciary (ugh, I am not allowed to and also don’t want to go into it), I had a women’s studies preliminary and final paper due and had a final paper (20 pages in length) due for my environmental policy course. Oy. oh and then I graduated. And then I went to Europe (not that I'm complaining!). Oh, and I got my apartment for next year.

Somehow cooking did still happen, but that cooking is not going here. This post is actually going back in time a few months to J and O’L’s engagement party. Just a recap- party was great, had a ball and I think the engaged couple did too (or at least I hope so). All the food was ready on time and the only thing I forgot was the salad tongs. I’d say that was a success! Sadly though, not nearly as many people came as we expected to come and 3 of the people who did come didn’t eat, so needless to say there was a lot of extra food. We had leftovers for DAYS (though the ice cream sandwich cookies disappeared the very next day! Lol) The two HUGE hits of the party seemed to be the Italian grilled cheeses as well as the ice cream sandwiches, with a 3rd place going to pigs in a blanket.

Another hit was the south west eggrolls. Ground turkey, some southwest spices, corn, beans and spinach wrapped in a tortilla and baked until crispy, as though almost fried. I changed the recipe from the original by reducing the beans to ½ can per 1.3 pound package of turkey and using ½ box of frozen spinach per 1/3 pound pack. I limited the spices because the couple didn’t like spicy things, though you can easily bump up the spice if you want. I served it with a version of my Mexican dip (gosh, how much do I put this stuff on?!) and ate them up.

With the beans and the turkey they are super filling, so appetizer sizes are ½ rolls and about 3 rolls seemed to be a dinner sized portion. Because of the beans and turkey an entree size portion has about 19.7 grams of protein! I'm thus entering it in Eat Healthy- Protein Rich.

South West Egg Rolls (adapted from many ideas, especially AllRecipes)

1.3 lb ground Turkey

4 tbsp chopped Onion

1 can Corn

½ - 2/3 can Black beans, drained and rinsed

3-4 tbsp Frozen Spinach, thawed and drained

1 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Chili powder

2/3 tsp garlic Salt

1/8 tsp Cayenne

19 flour tortilla

pam

1. In a medium saucepan over medium high heat, cook turkey most of the way. Remove from heat, drain, return to pan.

2. Heat to medium high again. Stir in onion. Cook and stir 5 minutes, until onions are tender and meat is cooked.

3. Mix in corn, black beans, spinach, cumin, chili powder, garlic salt and cayenne pepper. Cook and stir 5 minutes, until well blended and tender. Remove from heat

4. Wrap tortillas with a clean, lightly moist cloth. Microwave on high approximately 1 minute, or until hot and pliable.

5. Spoon even amounts of the mixture into each tortilla. Fold ends of tortillas, then roll tightly around mixture.

6. If you are freezing and eating later: Secure with toothpicks. Arrange in a medium dish, cover with plastic, and place in the freezer. When ready, continue to next step without defrosting, but add another 5 minutes of baking time

7. When ready to eat, remove toothpicks if you used them. Place the egg rolls seam side down on an aluminum foil and pam covered baking sheet. Spray the egg rolls with pam, and bake at 475 degrees for 15 minutes. May take longer if there are too many rolls on the baking sheet

Peanut Butter Banana French Toast

I was so proud of myself for this one! After having made a loaf of no-knead challah bread from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, a read about the new Recipe Remix and immediately decided to make challah French toast…in some new way. I remember Rachael Ray doing cream cheese filled French toasts, so I thought of making it another way and All Recipes had my answer. Peanut Butter and Banana French Toast.

As it turned out, the boy was not going to work the next morning, so he and I had brunch together. His was PB free since, well, as he puts it “I don’t like cheddar cheese or peanut butter.” He also doesn’t like beans, spice or many veggies, but those are stories for other times.

This was super easy to whip up. Took some time just because I had a very thin loaf of bread and had to assemble many tiny sandwiches. While they tasted great, I would recommend using a wider/taller loaf of challah, or even potato or wonder bread, just so 1 sandwich per person is enough. Oh, and both with and without PB were a hit, though that takes away the Elvis Presely-ness of it all!Oh, and one last tip: these babies are super sticky and gooey, so have some milk or juice handy.

Peanut Butter Banana French Toast
Serves 1
• 1 egg
• 1 dash vanilla
• 1 tsp milk
• About 2 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
• 2 slices regularly sized bread (preferably challah) or 4-6 slices from a small loaf of bread
• ½-1 banana, sliced
• 1 tablespoons butter

• In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg, milk and vanilla together.
• Spread 1 tablespoon of peanut butter on top of each slice of bread. Place the banana slices on top of one of the slices of bread.

Place the other slice of bread on top of the first, to make a peanut butter and banana sandwich.
• In a skillet or frying pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Dip the sandwich into the egg mixture and place in the heated skillet. Cook until brown on both sides. Serve hot.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches

For the engagement party that I just hosted for J and O'L, I wanted lovable, tasty, hand held desserts. I ended up making peanut butter cookies, s'mores cupcakes and chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. All were fabulous, but I think the ice cream sandwiches were the biggest hits.

I was the only one who had ANY problems with the ice cream sandwiches, and my concern was just that, well, they were really cold! It kind of hurt my teeth- not because they were hard, but just because I don't normally bite into ice cream, I lick it, so biting in was really really cold! Otherwise they were perfect.

Since they were for the engagement party, I made 2 special sandwiches for the bride and groom. Hers was sprinkled with pink sprinkles and his had blue. Loved it!! But warning, the sprinkles kind of dissolve into tie-dye instead of staying solid, but it still is cool looking.

Because I use the same ice cream scoop twice for this recipe, I am submitting it to Joelen's Tasty Tools: Scoops. I use an 18/8 ice cream scoop, which I don't know exactly what it means, but it is pretty small. Here is a size comparison between the scoop I use for ice cream and the one I used here.Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches
Makes about 36 Sandwiches

2 cup margarine, softened
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cup brown sugar, well packed
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
4 1/2 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp salt
2-12 oz bags chocolate chips
1.5 quart container of vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 375. Cream together margarine, sugars and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Gradually add to creamed mixture, mixing until well blended. Fold in chocolate chips. Use the small ice cream scoop to scoop cookies onto baking sheets. Bake at 375 for about 10 minutes until lightly browned. Cool completely.

Match up equally sized cookies. Rip off squares of plastic wrap. Place 1 cookie on a square of plastic. Put 1 and a half scoops on the cookie. Squeeze the top on to slightly squish the ice cream. Wrap in the plastic and put in the freezer. Freeze for at least 2 hours and up to 2 weeks.

Roasted Red Pepper Dip

When I was young, I NEVER ate bell peppers. I was certain that they were spicy. I never knew that any sort of pepper could do anything but hurt my little 3rd grader tongue! Then, one day in school, a nutritionist came in to talk to us about why veggies were good for us, and she mentioned how bell peppers were really high in vitamen C. The lady said they weren't spicy and made me try. I hated admitting it, but not only was it not at all spicy, it was super sweet and delicious. I have loved bell peppers ever since.

In recent years, I have especially come to love the sweet and smoky taste of roasted red peppers. OMG! So delicious! They are naturally sweet, with a flame charred background flavor. And who can argue against something being flame charred?For the engagement party, I am making roasted red pepper dip, and, much like I was when I was younger, both J and O'L feared the heat of peppers. Don't worry guys, it is just sweet and smoky, with just the slightest bit of tang...oh, and a LOT of cheese! And, who has a problem with sweet, smoky and cheesy? Certainly not me!

Just a warning, this dip is addictive. You can and will spread it on any bread, cracker, maybe vegetables, and as my kosher for passover room mate showed, even matzoh! It really is that good.
Roasted Red Pepper Dip
INGREDIENTS

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened
• 1 (8 ounce) package finely shredded Mexican cheese
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup jarred roasted red pepper, drained and chopped

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, Cheddar cheese, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and Worcestershire sauce, using a hand mixer.
   
2. Process peppers in food processor until in small pieces. Stir into cream cheese mixture. Scoop into a bowl, cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate. Serve with breads and crackers.
   

Note- Can add some Dijon mustard to the cream cheese if you want an added zip, but I wanted to keep thespice down for the party.

Engagement Party Prep Montage

Non Refrigerated Party Foods Dominate the Living Room

Garlic and Chive Butter
Roasted Red Pepper Dip
The Fridge (leftovers, prep, and misc ingredients)
The Freezer (NO SPACE! Inc. cut-up chicken, a baguette [7 others at the groom's apt], ice cream sandwiches, pb cookies, precooked filling for eggrolls)
Mini Fridge (Again with the lack of room)Coozies