Beef Enchiladas

HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!

I love this holiday...I love Mexican food, love the Mexican pride, and love the celebrations :) I wrote up a "history & fun facts" about Cinco de Mayo so if you want to read it let me know! Off topic. Anyways, this isn't a Crock Pot blog (sorry) but this is a delicious food blog...and I haven't written in a while! Things have just been so hectic - finishing college, packing, getting ready to graduate and move...basically, I haven't had any time to cook! Good thing my favorite restaurant (Plaza Azteca) is literally right next door to my apartment :) I'll miss them dearly when I leave Williamsburg (and so will J, hehe)!

Instead of celebrating Cinco de Mayo in Williamsburg, I ended up making a celebratory meal for my family. This was my first attempt at enchiladas and I have to say that I'm obsessed! It was so easy and so yummmy.

BEEF ENCHILADAS

Ingredients:

Flour tortillas (small)

1 pound lean ground beef (or turkey)

Small white onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, diced

1 can diced green chiles

1 can (at least 20 oz) Enchilada Sauce

2 cups cheese (I used a Mexican variety, but you can use your favorite)

Shredded lettuce (optional)

Tomato, diced (optional)

Side Dishes:

1 box Old El Paso Spanish Rice

1 can black/refried beans

Guacamole

Okay, so it's not as pretty when it's not in a molcajete but it was pretty tasty nonetheless!

So back to making the Enchiladas...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is preheating, wrap 8 flour tortillas in aluminum foil and put them in the oven to warm up.

Heat up the olive oil in a skillet. Add in ground beef and brown.

Drain the fat from the ground beef. Add in garlic and onion. Cook until the onion is transparent.

Lightly coat the bottom of a 9x13 pan with the enchilada sauce.

Take the tortillas out of the oven.

On a tortilla, layer cheese, ground beef, and a little enchilada sauce.

Roll the tortilla and place seam-side-down in the pan.

Repeat with all 8 tortillas.

Pour the enchilada sauce over the wraps until they are covered.

Layer the cheese on top of the enchiladas.

Bake for 30 minutes. When you take it out of the oven, take a big whiff because it smells delicious!

And when you decorate a plate with all of the sides, you get something that looks like:

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is preheating, wrap 8 flour tortillas in aluminum foil and put them in the oven to warm up.

Heat up the olive oil in a skillet. Add in ground beef and brown.

Drain the fat from the ground beef. Add in garlic and onion. Cook until the onion is transparent.

Lightly coat the bottom of a 9x13 pan with the enchilada sauce.

Take the tortillas out of the oven.

On a tortilla, layer cheese, ground beef, and a little enchilada sauce. Roll the tortilla and place seam-side-down in the pan.

Repeat with all 8 tortillas.

Pour the enchilada sauce over the wraps until they are covered.

Layer cheese on top of the enchiladas.

Bake for 30 minutes.

And if you want to make the dinner even better...here are some of our choice beverages ;)

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Salsa Chicken - Only Four Ingredients!

I've been such a slacker and have been seriously neglecting my blog - sorry! I'm in the middle of finishing up college and studying for an insurance license, so that has been consuming pretty much ALL of my time. But on the bright side, I will soon be up in Vermont with J (hellllo June!), employed, and living the dream!

I spent all of this cold, gray Saturday at my desk studying (boo) but on the bright side, I had a delicious dinner cooking all day in the Crock Pot :) Cooking meat in the slow cooker is so amazing because it has hours to soak up all of the juices and it comes out so incredibly tender and juicy.

(SHREDDED) SALSA CHICKEN

Ingredients:
2 lb Chicken Breasts
1 bottle (16-24oz) Medium Salsa
1 can Diced Green Chiles
2 cloves garlic, minced

Directions:
Mix together salsa, green chiles, and garlic in the slow cooker.
Place chicken breasts in the Crock Pot. Make sure they are evenly distributed and completely covered by the salsa.
Cook on LOW 7-8 hours.

When it's done, you'll probably want to take out some of the liquid, but make sure you save some of it because you may want to put some back in after you shred it.



And then shred it (if you want)...



As you can see in the picture on the right, all of the liquid suddenly seems to vanish. Thankfully, you read my sentence above (about saving some liquid, which is probably full of chiles and other flavorful things). You can put in some more salsa juice so it is juicy to your liking :)

I bought some whole wheat tortillas to wrap the chicken in (can't get away from my obsession with Mexican food), or you can eat it with rice, veggies, or just plain!

You can garnish it with whatever "taco" toppings you like... shredded lettuce, tomatoes, salsa, jalapenos, avocados, onions, cheese (just giving you some ideas).

I hope you enjoy it! It's deliciously "melt-in-your-mouth" juicy, cheap & easy to make!

Couscous Turkey Tetrazzini (or something like it)

I'm cheating.

This isn't a Crock Pot recipe either (sorry!) but J and I made this the other night and we. are. obsessed. It all started with me pulling up my favorite All Recipes App on the iPad and browsing the slow cooker recipes (I had good intentions!) I saw one for Chicken Tetrazzini and showed it to J, who made me watch this hilarious video  (seriously, be prepared to laugh): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RZxbKvD1YQ

Anyways, that brought me to researching other recipes for Turkey Tetrazzini (because we had ground turkey to use instead of chicken) and after reading a few, I was inspired to put together our very own :)

COUSCOUS TURKEY TETRAZZINI

Ingredients:
2 cups Couscous Grande
2 cups frozen peas
1.5 lb ground turkey
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cups chicken broth, low sodium
2 cups skim milk
1/2 cup flour
1 cup Shaved Parmesan Cheese
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 F and grease a 9x13" baking dish
2. Brown the ground turkey. Mix in chopped onion and garlic and let it simmer. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Fill a small pan halfway with water and boil the Couscous until it is partly cooked (all the water should be absorbed).
4. In a medium pan, mix olive oil, flour, chicken broth, and milk. Bring to a simmer. Mix in 1/2 cup of Parmesan Cheese.
5. Once soup mix is simmering, pour in peas and turn heat off.
6. In the baking dish, pour in the turkey meat. Mix in couscous and soup mix.
7. Stir all ingredients together well! Layer the remaining 1/2 cup of Parmesan Cheese evenly across the top.
8. Bake in oven for 40 minutes.

I hope you enjoy it! J and I are obsessed... we have made it twice this week already! Hehe.

The next post will be back to Crock Pot recipes...promise :)

Turkey Stuffed Peppers

There's something so soothing and relaxing about turning up the music really loud and cooking in the kitchen. The chopping, mixing, and repetition of motion is like meditation for me. J works all day Saturdays so I brought him lunch at Costco and then spent the rest of the afternoon in the kitchen :) I love our life.

Recently, I've been fascinated with Women's Health Magazine (online at www.womenshealthmag.com) because they have great articles, extremely useful information, and a huge database of healthy recipes broken up into different dietary needs (such as low sodium, high protein, low fat, etc). That's where I found Saturday night's Crock Pot dinner - Stuffed Green Peppers!

According to Womens Health, the dietary benefits of this dish include: high fiber, high protein, low sodium, low calorie, gluten free, dairy free, amongst others!

CROCK POT STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS
Adapted from: http://recipes.womenshealthmag.com/Recipe/slow-cooker-stuffed-peppers.aspx



Ingredients:
1 lb lean ground turkey
1 cup uncooked grande couscous (delicious high protein, no fat alternative to rice)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1 small jalapeno chile pepper, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
5 large green bell peppers
2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 (28 oz) can tomato puree, choose one that has less than 50mg sodium per 1/2 cup
3/4 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tablespoons fresh parsley

Directions:
Combine ground turkey, couscous, cilantro, onion, jalapeno pepper, garlic, salt, and black pepper into a large bowl.

Cut the tops off the bell peppers and scoop out the seeds.



Stuff each pepper with 1/5 of the turkey meat mixture. Replace the pepper tops and place them into the slow cooker.

Combine the broth, tomato puree, and oregano in a medium bowl.

Pour the liquid over the peppers in the slow cooker. Make sure the peppers are covered by the liquid.

Cook on HIGH for 4 hours. Garnish with parsley before serving.




TA-DA!

While we ate dinner, we planned our land excursions for our 7 day cruise in May - we're cruising on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas to Haiti, Jamaica, and Mexico! In celebration of booking our excursions (and because I was getting really excited about it) I made us Poor Girl's "Mai-Tai" (aka Mai Tais with fewer ingredients) - still YUMMY!


POOR GIRL'S MAI TAI

Ingredients:
Bacardi Light Rum
Pineapple Juice
Orange Juice

Directions:
Mix equal parts pineapple juice and orange juice.
Add in Bacardi Rum until it is at the desired strength.
Garnish with maraschino cherries and pineapple (optional).


And of course I also made dessert for us... I'll save that for the next post, this one is getting a little long ;)

Three Ingredient Pork Tenderloin

We've been extraordinarily lucky to have been blessed with BEAUTIFUL (mid 70s) weather the past few days so needless to say, I've been taking every opportunity to "pretend" like its summer already - running outside, shopping at the Outlets, spending time in the sun, and of course margaritas and guacamole and my favorite restaurant in the world, Plaza Azteca! So that's why I haven't been cooking much. But once Sunday rolled around, it was time to hit the books again - which meant time to let my dinner cook all day while I did work!

I loved this recipe because I'm a college student on a budget, so cooking gourmet is hard sometimes! Especially when I am not motivated by preparing a nice romantic meal for J and I :) These pork tenderloins only take three ingredients and it was absolutely delicious.

PORK TENDERLOIN (Only THREE INGREDIENTS!)

Ingredients:
1-2 lb Pork Tenderloin
1 (12 oz) can Cream of Mushroom soup
1/2 cup Chicken Broth
2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Directions:
Coat the pork tenderloins with Salt and Pepper.
In a small bowl, blend together the Cream of Mushroom soup and the Chicken Broth (and the garlic, if you choose to use it).
Pour half of the soup mixture into the Crock Pot. Place the pork tenderloins into the Crock Pot. Pour the remainder of the soup mixture over top of the pork tenderloins.
Cook on LOW 5-6 hours.




The pork tenderloins were served with Uncle Bens Wild Rice and Green Bean Casserole.


GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE

Ingredients:
1 lb fresh green beans
1 (12 oz) can Cream of Mushroom soup
1/2 cup skim milk
1 (12oz) can French's Fried Onions
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cut stems off of the ends of the green beans and break into small, 1 inch pieces. Cook green beans on stove in boiling water until they become tender.
While green beans are boiling, mix Cream of Mushroom soup, milk, salt, and pepper in a separate bowl.
In a casserole dish, mix green beans and soup mix in a casserole dish. Sprinkle French's fried onions over the green bean casserole.
Bake casserole in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until French's fried onions darken with crispiness!


I've been getting great feedback from readers and hearing that you are inspired to use your Crock Pot makes me so happy! Keep it coming :)

Three Cheese Lasagna

I have textbooks and notebooks scattered all around me right now but all I want to do is procrastinate...so what better way to procrastinate than to upload another recipe?

My fiancée J is Italian and needless to say, he has had many different home-made lasagnas in this life. I was THRILLED with he tried this one and said it was one of the best he has ever had!




THREE CHEESE LASAGNA

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef/turkey (we used ground turkey)

1 medium white onion, chopped

2 teaspoons garlic, minced

1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

1 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 (12 ounce) package oven-ready lasagna noodles (you don't have to cook these beforehand!)

12 ounces ricotta cheese

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

16 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese

Preparation:

In a large skillet over medium heat cook the ground beef, onion, and garlic until meat is browned and onion is translucent.

Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, salt, and oregano to the skillet. Stir until well incorporated. Cook until heated through (just a few minutes).

In a large bowl mix together the ricotta cheese, grated Parmesan cheese, and shredded mozzarella cheese. Mix well until all of the cheeses are nice and blended together.

Spoon a layer of the meat mixture onto the bottom of the slow cooker (about 1/3 of the meat mixture to make a three-layered lasagna).

Add a double layer of the uncooked lasagna noodles. Break to fit noodles into slow cooker if you need to.

Top noodles with a portion of the cheese mixture (again, about 1/3 of the cheese mixture). Repeat the layering of sauce, noodles, and cheese until all the ingredients are used.

Cover, and cook on LOW setting for 3-4 hours, or until noodles are at your desired softness!

I served this with simple GARLIC-ROASTED ASPARAGUS (as pictured).

Ingredients:

Asparagus spears (as many as you want to make!)

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

I cut the ends (near the root) off of the asparagus before I cook them, but this is just personal preference. On the stove, heat olive oil in a pan. Once heated, add the minced garlic. Immediately add the asparagus spears. (Note: Garlic cooks really fast so you don't want to leave it on for too long!) Make sure to turn the asparagus over so all sides are cooked evenly. I cooked these for about 5 minutes, until they were easy to pierce with a fork but not too soft!

Happy Lasagna-ing!