Bubble Up Enchiladas

I saw this on pinterest this afternoon, and what good timing – we were running so long with house projects today. This came together super quick, and we had everything already.  In fact, make your own biscuits or rolls and this is 100% food storage friendly.

image via

This is also lower calorie, so yeah for that.  The original recipe used ground turkey, but we used one can of chicken since we’ve been buying it for food storage and I am looking for ways to disguise it. :)

1 – 12.5 oz can chicken
1 – 10 oz can enchilada sauce
1 – 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 can buttermilk biscuits
1 1/4 cups cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350.
Combine meat, enchilada sauce, tomato sauce. Cut each biscuit into 8 pieces and stir in. Add 3/4 c cheese and stir in.
Bake for 25 minutes. Add the rest of the cheese to the top and bake 10 more minutes.

Adapted from the original I saw on pinterest, at chef-n-training.

chicken tamale casserole / dinner tonight 3.23.11

It cracks me up to post a really bad picture (again!) but a few months ago I did our “what we ate for dinner” calendar as we went and did a picture each night – super nice to go back and get dinner ideas from pictures.

There’s a better picture at Cooking Light, where I got the recipe.

Dinner: chicken tamale casserole/yellow saffron rice/(not fancy black beans because we ran out of cans!! whoops)

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Cooking Light’s Chicken Tamale Casserole (we LOVED this)

• 1  cup  (4 ounces) preshredded 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese, divided
• 1/3  cup  fat-free milk
• 1/4  cup  egg substitute
• 1  teaspoon  ground cumin
• 1/8  teaspoon  ground red pepper
• 1  (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn
• 1  (8.5-ounce) box corn muffin mix (such as Martha White)
• 1  (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
• Cooking spray
• 1  (10-ounce) can red enchilada sauce (such as Old El Paso)
• 2  cups  shredded cooked chicken breast
• 1/2  cup  fat-free sour cream

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°.

2. Combine 1/4 cup cheese and next 7 ingredients (through chiles) in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9–inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

3. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until set. Pierce entire surface liberally with a fork; pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken; sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheese. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 8 pieces; top each serving with 1 tablespoon sour cream.

Nutritional Information

Calories:

354 (36% from fat)

Fat:

14.1g (sat 7.1g,mono 3.3g,poly 1.2g)

Protein:

18.9g

Carbohydrate:

36.3g

Fiber:

2.5g

 

Tabasco and Asparagus Quinoa

It was our first time with quinoa.  It was fine, but I don’t understand all the hype around it.  We really liked this dish, adapted from 101 Cookbooks.

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
25 drops Tabasco sauce
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1 pound asparagus, cut into 1-inch segments

4 cups cooked quinoa

Start by making the Tabasco butter. In a food processor, or with a hand blender, whip the butter until it is light and airy. Add the mustard, Tabasco sauce, lemon juice and salt. You can make it stronger if you like, adding more hot sauce to taste.

We steamed our asparagus after it was cut in chunks. Drain. If you are serving this immediately you can leave the asparagus hot, but if you are going to wait to serve this, or think you’ll have leftovers I recommend you stop the cooking with cold water or a dunk in an ice bath, then drain well before using.

Take the hot cooked quinoa and toss with 3 tablespoons of the tabasco butter. You’ll have leftover butter – you can serve that on the side or use it for other purposes. Stir in the asparagus. I added a bit more tabasco and shake of salt to mine.

Serves 4 – 6 as a main dish.

 

 

Grilled Honey Mustard Pork Chops

4 pork chops (1″ thick, about 1 lb)

1/4 cup honey

2 T Dijon

1 T orange juice

1 t cider vinegar

1/2 t Worcestershire sauce

dash of onion powder
Remove fat from pork and mix the rest of the ingredients.  You can marinate the pork in the sauce for a few hours or just use the sauce to brush on the pork chops while you’re grilling them.
1 chop – 235 calories, 8 g fat, 19 g carb, 22 g protein

Sausage and Pepper Pizza

Honestly, this was pretty good but not fabulous.  We do pizza every week, and it will be nice to throw into the rotation when we need a change.

• 4  ounces  hot turkey Italian sausage (I used regular, not spicy, pork sausage)
• Cooking spray
• 1  cup  red bell pepper strips (about 1 medium)
• 1  cup  yellow bell pepper strips (about 1 medium)
• 1  recipe of pizza dough, OR (16-ounce) cheese-flavored pizza crust (such as Boboli)
• 1  cup  Basic Marinara
• 1  tablespoon  no-salt-added tomato paste (I left this out)
• 1/2  cup  (2 ounces) shredded provolone cheese (I used at least 3 oz of each cheese)
• 1/2  cup  (2 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
• 1/2  teaspoon  dried oregano

Preheat oven to 450°.  Remove casings from sausage. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add sausage and bell peppers to pan; cook 6 minutes or until bell peppers are crisp-tender and sausage is browned, stirring frequently.

Place pizza crust on a large baking sheet. Combine Basic Marinara and tomato paste, stirring with a whisk; spread evenly over crust, leaving a 1-inch border. Sprinkle with cheeses and oregano; top evenly with sausage mixture. Bake at 450° for 15 minutes or until cheese melts and crust is lightly browned. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes before slicing.  Calories: 335 (29% from fat) Fat: 10.9g  Fiber: 2.9g

adapted from myrecipes.com

Tomato-Basil Soup

My friend, Heidi, brought this soup to our soup swap this week and we LOVED it.  Nathan is a huge fan of tomato soup, but I can’t stand the stuff in the can.  This has a hint of orange that makes it more full flavored.  From the cookbook Fix, Freeze, Feast.  As written, this recipe makes 3 entrees, each which serve 4 people.

1/2 cup butter
3 cups chopped onion (about 3 medium)
1 t minced garlic (3 cloves)
3 lbs Roma tomatoes, chopped
8 c chicken broth
1 T lime juice
pinch sugar
3/4 c chopped fresh basil leaves
zest of one orange

Melt butter in stockpot over low heat.  Add onions and cook, stirring, until soft, about 15 minutes. Add garlic; cook, stirring, 2 minutes.  Add tomatoes, broth, lime juice and sugar; bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.  Stir in basil and orange zest.

Let soup cool slightly; transfer to a food processor and puree.  If you’re freezing for later, divide cooled soup into bags, seal and freeze.

 

Bacon, Onion and Mushroom Pizza

We really liked this.  I used a good white cheddar from Costco, and it made the pizza great.  I wouldn’t substitute with regular cheddar on this pizza.

one recipe pizza dough (OR 1 can refrigerated French bread dough, 11 oz)
2 t olive oil
2 cups vertically sliced onions (about 2 small)
1 (8 oz) pkg cremini mushrooms
1 1/2 cups (6 oz) shredded white cheddar
6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Stretch dough into a 12 inch round, transfer to pizza pan or large baking sheet.  Preheat oven to 425.

Add olive oil to a warm skillet and saute onion for 8 minutes.  Place onion in a bowl and add mushrooms; saute 8 minutes.  Add mushrooms to onion, toss.

Spread onion mixture over dough, leaving a 1/4″ border.  Sprinkle with white cheddar and bacon.  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, sprinkle with parsley.

Yields 6 servings, each with 316 calories, 15 g fat, .9 g fiber (7.5 WW points)

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light, Oct 2009

Greek Chicken

Easy dinner I’m just putting out here to remind myself about.  It’s really easy and most of the ingredients are normal pantry staples.  We sauteed chicken breasts (or your can grill them), then I put a bit of Caesar Vinegratte on the warm chicken, after it was cooked, and topped with about a cup of halved cherry tomatoes and a handful of halved Kalamata Olives.  I put the lid on the pan until the tomatoes and olives are warmed through, then toss in a handful of feta cheese, and a couple torn leaves of fresh basil on top.  Serve with cous cous.

Fresh Tomato Basil Pasta

Oh heavens this is so yummy.  Thank you, Sisters Cafe, for the idea.  It is a perfect way to use the tomatoes on my extremely overactive cherry tomato plant.  Good chance we’ll be eating this once a week until the tomatoes are done.

2 cups, firm tomatoes, diced
1 Tb fresh chopped basil or 1 tsp dried basil
1-2 cloves fresh garlic, minced
½ tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper
Shredded Parmesan cheese
6-8 oz angel hair pasta

Mix together the diced tomatoes, chopped basil, minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Let “marinate” on counter for 30 minutes. Cook the pasta al dente. Drain and toss with the tomato mixture. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan. Mmmmmm

Orange Beef and Broccoli

This was good, but not fabulous. I’m posting it even though it’s not 5 stars because it’s so fast, and good enough that I’m sure we’ll have it again because it’s so quick and easy.

12 oz (-ish) broccoli florets
1/3 cup beef broth
1/3 orange marmalade
2 T soy sauce
1/4 t salt
2 T cornstarch
1 (1 lb) cube steak, torn in chunks (original recipe calls for flank steak thinly cut)

Steam broccoli.  Combine broth, marmalade, soy sauce and salt; set aside.

Dredge meat in cornstarch.  Cook steak in skillet over medium high heat coated with cooking spray.  Cook 5 minutes or until browned.  Add broth mixture, and cook 1 minute or until thick.  Stir in broccoli.  Serve with rice.

(4 servings, each 1 cup (without rice) = 238 calories, 7 fat, 2.5 fiber, 16 carb, 27.7 protein)

from Cooking Light’s Fresh Food Fast

PW’s Potato Bundles

Most excellent.  I didn’t follow her recipe,  but the idea is so easy and versatile you can substitute so many different spices and veggies.  We LOVED this and will be doing it again.  Often.

Russet potatoes, cut into chunks
Yellow or white onion, cut into chunks
Butter (regular, salted)
Heavy cream
Kosher salt
Paprika
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons minced parsley

Pile potatoes and onions on a square of foil. Add 2 tablespoons butter, splash on some cream, then sprinkle on salt, paprika, and black pepper. Wrap bundles tightly and bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes, or until extremely tender.

Serve foil bundles right on the plate!

Link to Pioneer Woman’s photo tutorial

Crockpot Ranch Pork Roast

Love this.  Costco has pork roasts in a 3 pack for $1.99/lb.  Stick one roast in the crockpot with some water (maybe 2 cups?) and 1/2 a packet of dry ranch dressing.  That’s IT.  We love it best with PW’s Crash Hot Potatoes or Parmesean Sweet Potatoes and rolls or french bread on the side.

Stanford’s Chicken

Nathan ordered this almost every time we went to Stanford’s in Walnut Creek.  He probably still does.  When he goes there (home).  On business.  Without me.  Anyway, this is our version.

Cook chicken breasts on stovetop or in the stove in your favorite bbq sauce (we like Cattleman’s).  Five minutes before you’re ready to plate them add crumbled bacon, diced tomatoes, diced green onions and shredded cheddar cheese to the tops of each breast, and cover so cheese will melt.  Ooh, avocado would be good, too.

Yum.

Crab Tacos

We love love these.   They’re easy and are fresh and perfectly summery.

4 Roma tomatoes, halved, seeded and sliced (I used 2 ample handfuls of grape tomatoes)
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 large jalapenos, halved, seeded, sliced, divided
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, divded
3 T fresh lime juice
1 t olive oil
1/2 c chopped onion
8 ounces cooked crab, shelled
8 taco shells or tortillas
1 cup lettuce, thinly sliced
1 cup shredded jack, cheddar, OR mozz cheese
1 avocado, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped gr onion

Put tomatoes, garlic, one jalapeno, 1/4 cup cilantro and the lime juice in food processor or blender and combine to desired thickness.  Add salt and pepper. Set aside.

In large skillet, heat oil, saute onion and remaining jalapeno until soft, about 4 minutes.  Add crab, cook until warm (2 minutes).

Warm tortillas, fill with crab, top with lettuce, cheese, avocado.  Sprinkle with green onion and cilantro.  Add salsa.

from Sunset Magazine, April 2008

4 pts per taco

Loaded Baked Potatoes

I think we’ll do loaded baked potatoes for dinner tonight.  It’s still cold and snowy and something warm and low effort sounds perfect. I thought I’d make a list of toppings that we like and that sound good – did I miss your favorite?  Let me know!

broccoli
melted cheddar
bacon crumbles
tomatoes
green onions
chili
black beans
kidney beans
bleu cheese (with the bacon – yum!)
mushrooms
sour cream
butter
small cubes of ham
peas
shredded taco chicken or beef

(Can you tell I just went through the Sweet Tomatoes line in my mind?!)

We just decided to plant potatoes in our garden for the first time.  I wonder how much better these will taste in the fall with FRESH homegrown potatoes.