Black Beans and Rice

I made this a while back to go with some crockpot chicken fajitas (not the exact recipe, but similar).  Normally I just make some cilantro lime rice, but I didn't have any cilantro so I figured I'd try something different.  The fajitas definitely need some kind of rice because they always turn out so juicy.  I just put some rice on my plate and then hold over the rice while I eat, and all the juices go into the rice and make it even more yummy. (and keep me from having to just lick all those juices off the plate, because they definitely should not be wasted)

Black Beans and Rice
adapted from allrecipes

Ingredients:

• 1 T olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1 cup basmati rice
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained
• water

Directions:

1. In large saucepan, heat oil over medium-high.  Add onion; cook and stir until tender.
2. Add oregano, garlic powder, cumin, and rice; cook for a few minutes, until fragrant.
3. Drain liquid from tomatoes into measuring cup; add water to equal 2 cups.  Stir tomatoes and beans into saucepan; then add water.
4. Bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 15 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. Remove from heat; let stand 5 minutes before serving.

This rice had a really nice flavor on its own and was especially good with the juices from the chicken.  I really love the addition of the beans.  Cilantro stirred in would have been excellent, but since I didn't have any we just had to do without.

I ended up mixing the leftover chicken fajita mix with the leftover rice and adding a can of tomatoes or so - it's been a while; I can't remember exactly - and we had soup.  It made really good soup, too.

Quick and Easy Beef Burrito Skillet

I've made this a couple times for dinner. It really does go together quickly, and it tastes good too. The original recipe calls for 1 lb. of ground beef, but I like things better without so much meat, so I cut it in half.  I do that with most of my recipes.   If you're a big carnivore, feel free to use the whole pound.

Quick and Easy Beef Burrito Skillet
adapted from Kraft Recipes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. ground beef
• 2 T Taco Seasoning Mix
• 1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup frozen corn (optional)
• 1 cup Salsa
• 1 cup water
• 4 corn tortillas, cut into strips
• 1 cup Shredded Cheese
• 1/3 cup Sour Cream
• Chopped green onion

Directions:

1. Brown meat in large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat; drain.
2. Add seasoning mix, beans, corn, salsa and water; stir. Bring to boil; simmer on medium-low heat 5 minutes.
3. Stir in tortilla strips; top with cheese. Remove from heat; cover and let stand 5 min. or until cheese is melted. Top with sour cream and onions.

This recipe is very adaptable - add some chopped onion with the ground beef, use black beans or pinto beans, use flour tortillas or stir in some tortilla chips for some added crunch.  Feel free to add your favorite toppings or sides - shredded lettuce, tomato, avocado, rice, etc.  You can also serve the sour cream and green onion on the side and let everyone top their own servings the way they want.

Creamy Turkey Enchiladas

It's time again for  Secret Recipe Club (Secret Recipe Club) reveal!  My secret blog assignment this month was Jessie Weaver the Vanderbilt Wife. Jessie is a Tennessee wife and mother who leads a crazy, busy life - but then, who wouldn't with three little kids?  Check out this 'day in the life' post if you don't believe me.  I'm pretty sure we've all been there!

Somehow, amidst the fun of raising those adorable children, Jessie still finds time to cook and post some great recipes.  Whether the kids will eat them or not is another thing altogether.  Me?  I found plenty I wanted to try, including Slow Cooker Taco Soup, Easy Pineapple Chicken, and Cranberry Nutmeg Breakfast Cake.

I finally decided to make these enchiladas, and they were a big hit!  My parents were visiting, so we had them for dinner last weekend - twice!  And the leftovers were just as good as the first time around.  I will definitely be making these again.

Creamy Turkey Enchiladas
 adapted from Jessie Weaver

Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked, shredded turkey (or chicken)
• 1/2 c. diced onion
• 8 flour tortillas (6 or 8-inch)
• 8 oz. salsa
• 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
• 4 T butter
• 1 chicken bouillon cube
• 4 T flour
• 1 1/3 c. water
• 4 oz. diced green chiles
• 2/3 c. sour cream

Directions:

1. Saute onions until tender, then add shredded turkey or chicken and cook for a few minutes. Stir in salsa and heat through.
2. Divide chicken mixture into tortillas and top each with 1 T cheese. Roll the tortillas up and place them seam down in 13x9" baking dish.
3. In saucepan, melt butter with bouillon cube, then whisk in flour. Stir in water. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly, then stir in chiles. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream. Pour the sauce over rolled enchiladas in baking dish.
4. Cook at 350° for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake an additional 5 minutes or so, or until cheese is melted.

Jessie's recipe can also be made with 1 lb. ground beef instead of the turkey or chicken.  Just brown the beef with the onions and drain any fat before adding the salsa.  I used turkey because that's what I had in my freezer, and I pretty much use chicken and turkey interchangeably, so either would be good.  The sauce on top is what really makes these special - so creamy and good! - and it's really simple to make.

Thanks, Jessie, for sharing your family recipe.  My family loved it!

An InLinkz Link-up

Crock Pot Beef Carnitas Tacos

I found this recipe on Pinterest, and so far I've made it twice.  In the last couple of weeks.  It's that good!

Not only is it good, but it's so easy to make.  All you do is mix spices together - chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt, pepper, etc. - and rub them on a flank steak.  Place the steak in the bottom of your crock pot, put chopped onion, bell pepper, and jalapeno on top, and cook it for 8 hours.  After 8 hours, you take the steak out, shred it with two forks, and return it to the crockpot.  You can either serve it then or keep it warm in the crock pot until you're ready to eat.  Serve with corn tortillas, salsa, avocado, cilantro and lime. 

Crock Pot Beef Carnitas
from eat, live, run

Ingredients

• 2 lbs flank steak
• spice rub: 
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
  
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped

Directions:

1. Mix together all spices in a small bowl.  Place steak in the bottom of your crock pot and rub the spices all over your flank steak.
2. Cover the steak with the chopped onions, bell peppers and jalapeno pepper. Turn heat on LOW and cook for 8 hours.
3. After 8 hours, remove meat from crock pot, shred with two forks, and return to crock pot. You can either serve as is or keep the shredded meat warm in the crock pot until you're ready to eat.
4. To serve, heat your corn tortillas in a skillet on the stove. Spoon some carnitas on a tortilla then top with salsa, avocado, cilantro and a squeeze of lime.

You can prepare this the day before - rub the spices on the steak, chop the onion and peppers, and throw everything into the crock pot.  Then it's easy to just pull it out of the fridge the next morning and start it cooking.  Another option is to prepare everything, let it cook overnight, and then it's ready to shred when you get up in the morning.  Also, your house will smell amazing when you get up.

The meat is seasoned so nicely and is even good cold, but the leftovers also heat up nicely.  I put enough meat for two tacos into one half of a large skillet and two corn tortillas in the other side and heat on medium heat until the meat is warmed through and the tortillas are warm.

The first time I made this, I followed the recipe, using 1 green pepper, 1 red pepper, and 1 jalapeno.  The second time I just pulled some diced green peppers out of the fridge and didn't worry about the red one.  I don't even know how many peppers I had diced - just put the onion, frozen green peppers, several pieces of frozen hot peppers, and a clove of garlic into my food processor and chopped them up good.  It turned out really good. 

Crock Pot Tex-Mex Chicken and Dumplings

I'm excited to be joining the Secret Recipe Club (Secret Recipe Club) this month!  My assignment was to choose a recipe from Jenna's Cooking Journey, and I had a really hard time choosing because she had so many great looking recipes to choose from.  Jenna didn't start cooking until college, but she's certainly been busy since then and become quite a good cook if all the recipes and pictures on her blog are any indication.  She lives in Wyoming with her husband, who helps her eat all those delicious creations.

Cranberry Vanilla Coffee Cake and Reuben Burgers were two of the recipes that caught my eye, but I finally decided to make Crock Pot Tex-Mex Chicken and Dumplings. 

I made a few changes, mainly because I didn't have the exact ingredients, but I think the overall taste was pretty much the same.  I am definitely planning to make this again, because it was so good!

Crock Pot Tex-Mex Chicken and Dumplings
adapted from Jenna's Cooking Journey

Ingredients:
Stew

• 2 boneless chicken breasts
• 1 tub Knorr® Homestyle Stock - Chicken, dissolved in 3-1/2 cups boiling water
• 1/2 cup carrots (about 2 small carrots), peeled and shredded
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1/2 large onion, diced
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1 can diced tomatoes w/ green chiles
• 1/2 jalapeno, seeded and diced
• juice from one lime
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1 cup water

Dumplings

• 1-1/2 cups unbleached flour
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1 heaping T. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1-1/2 cups milk
• 1/2 jalapeno, seeded and diced
• 2 T. cilantro

Directions

1. Cook chicken breasts for 2-4 hours on low.
2. Pull chicken breasts out of crockpot and shred chicken.  
3. Place all other ingredients for the stew portion of the recipe in the crockpot, and then put the chicken back in and mix well.  Cook on high for 2-4 hours.
4. Mix all the ingredients together for the dumplings until the ingredients form a batter.
5. Drop tablespoons of batter into the stew mixture and cook for approximately an hour on high until dumpling dough is cooked. 
6. To serve, spoon into bowls and garnish with cilantro and/or sliced green onions, if desired.

Jenna's recipe called for a carton of chicken broth, which I did not have and wasn't sure exactly how much chicken broth is in one of those cartons, but I substituted what I had - a tub of the Knorr® Homestyle Stock, and that worked just fine.  Ordinarily I would have pulled some chicken broth out of the freezer, but I'm out right now.  I substituted Red Gold petite diced tomatoes with lime and cilantro for the Rotel in the original recipe and frozen corn kernels for the Mexicorn.

Because my husband doesn't like things too spicy, I just used one jalapeno in the whole recipe - 1/2 in the stew and 1/2 in the dumplings.  It was still very nice and flavorful, even for me, and I love spicy!  I loved the veggies in this, and the carrots added just the right touch of color.  I probably had more carrots than I was supposed to because I didn't measure, just peeled and grated two carrots and threw them in.

onions, garlic, celery, carrots, cilantro, chopped and ready

The only thing I wasn't too sure about was the dumplings.  The batter was much thinner than any dumpling batter I'd every used, not that I've really made dumplings that much in my life...  Also, there seemed to be more batter than I could use.  I covered the top of the stew with spoonfuls of batter, and I still had quite a bit left. Was it my fault for using milk instead of fat free half-and-half - what is that, anyway?  Maybe should have done some research first.

Now that I look closer at the picture on Jenna's recipe, I'm thinking that I should have just gone ahead and used all the batter and let it go down into the stew more and thicken it.  But I didn't.  It thickened up quite a bit when I reheated the leftovers, and it was wonderful.  So next time I'm just using all the batter,

or maybe trying a different recipe for the dumplings, perhaps something from this page of Corn Meal Dumplings recipes, with a thicker batter that uses more corn meal, adding the jalapeno and cilantro, of course.  I especially loved the little bits of jalapeno in the dumplings.  So good!

Crockpot Chicken Fajitas

I found this recipe on Pinterest, and it looked so good and so easy that I just had to try it.  Plus I had a couple red peppers and a green pepper that needed used...  I added some garlic and used fresh lime juice, but otherwise followed the recipe.  Here's mine with those slight changes:

Crockpot Chicken Fajitas

Ingredients:

• 1 yellow onion, sliced
• 3 sweet peppers, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1lb. boneless chicken breast or thighs
• ½ cup chicken broth
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
• Juice of 1 lime

Directions:

1. Combine sliced onion, peppers and garlic in the bottom of a crockpot. Lay chicken on top of veggies. Pour chicken broth over top. Sprinkle everything with cumin, salt, and chili powder. Squirt the lime juice over the top. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours. 
2. When meat is done, shred with two forks and stir back into juices. Serve on tortillas with your choice of fixings.

Fixings:

• shredded cheese
• salsa
• sour cream
• cilantro
• sliced green onions
• other (whatever you like on your fajitas or tacos)

Seasonings on top

Let me just say that these are amazing!  A-MAZING!  They are so easy, and they taste so good.  I'm not completely sure I'd call them fajitas, but they do have the sliced onions and peppers that are traditionally in fajitas, so we'll just go with it - and that's what the original recipe was called.  I served them with some Cilantro Lime Rice - stir chopped cilantro, lime juice, and a drizzle of olive oil into cooked rice - and they were perfect!
 

After the chicken has been shredded

Then I stirred the leftover chicken mixture into the leftover rice, and we had that a couple days later - again wrapped up in tortillas with all the fixings.  Oh, and I stirred some black beans in - perfection!!

I will definitely be making these again.  YUM!!

Tex-Mex Chicken Soup Bar

I cut this recipe out of the newspaper ages ago. It's so good! And really very easy to make.

Tex-Mex Chicken Soup

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, fresh or frozen
• 2 tsp. olive oil
• 2 medium onions (for 1-1/2 cups chopped)
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• 3 cans (14-1/2 oz.) chicken broth
• 2 cans (14-1/2 oz.) Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
• 1-1/2 cups frozen corn kernels
• 1-1/2 cups black beans (1 can)
• 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
• juice of 1/2 of a lime

Toppings:
grated cheeses, sliced black olives, crushed tortilla chips, sour cream, chopped green onions, dice avocado, cilantro

Directions:

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a 4-1/2 to 5 quart Dutch oven or soup pot.  Peel onions and coarsely chop them, adding them to pot as you chop.  Cut chicken into bite-size chunks, adding them to the pot as you cut.  After first breast is in the pot, raise heat to medium-high.  Continue until all chicken is added.  Add garlic.  Cook chicken, stirring from time to time, until it is no longer pink outside, about 4 minutes.
2. Add broth, tomatoes, corn, and beans.  Raise heat to high, cover and bring pot to a boil.  Uncover, reduce heat to low and add cumin and juice from lime.  Continue to simmer 5 minutes to let flavors develop.
3. While soup simmers, prepare toppings of choice.  Serve at once or remove from heat and cover until ready to serve.  Reheat as necessary.  Arrange toppings salad-bar style, or pass them around the table, and let everyone add their own.

Note: This soup is only mildly spicy.  Be sure to put out a bottle of hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco, for guest who like to breathe fire.

The original recipe didn't call for black beans, but I think there's something special about the flavors of chicken, corn, black beans, lime, and cumin (and cilantro, the toppings didn't list cilantro, either) together, and this soup didn't seem complete without them.  Also, I don't usually have Mexican-style tomatoes, so I just use a couple cans of diced tomatoes.  As with all soups, the measurements here are really just guidelines - adjust as needed or to suit your preferences.
 

Related articles

• Buffalo Chicken Soup (cookingwithwillinghands.wordpress.com)
• Tex Mex Lasagna (belowblueskies.wordpress.com)

Mexican Pizza

Image by Kodamakitty via FlickrI got this recipe from my mother-in-law, and we really like it. I haven't made it in a while, but a friend's pizza crust the other night reminded me - so I had to share, because I think this pizza would be great with her crust.

Mexican Pizza
 
for each pizza crust:

• 1 pkg. pizza crust mix
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 1/2 cup plus 2 T. water

toppings:

• 1 can refried beans
• chopped onions
• chopped green pepper
• sliced mushrooms - fresh or 4 oz. can
• black olives, sliced
• tomato, chopped (or use well drained, canned)
• Colby/Jack cheese, shredded 

Directions:

1. Mix pizza crust mix and cornmeal for 1 pizza crust.  Add water and mix according to package directions.  Let sit 5 minutes, then press onto pizza pan. 
2. Bake 10 minutes @ 450°. 
3. Remove crust from oven, and spread 1/2 can refried beans on top. 
4. Add remaining ingredients, saving some for the second pizza, and return pizza to oven.  Bake until cheese is melted and slightly browned (or however you like your pizza). 
5. Repeat with remaining ingredients to make the second pizza. 

 Serve with some crushed red pepper to sprinkle on top.  Makes 2 pizzas.

You can use any pizza crust.  When I first started making this, I had some packages of pizza crust mix I had gotten really cheap, so that's what I used.  The added cornmeal is absolutely perfect with the toppings on this pizza.  I really need to make this soon! (and maybe this one, too)

We Ninja'd Some Salsa Today!

A while back I found this recipe for the world's easiest ice cream, which I still haven't tried, but I'm going to. I shared the link on Facebook, and one of my friends said she wanted one of those Ninjas. Ninjas? What? So I went back to the recipe and checked out the Ninja, read the reviews, and decided I wanted one, too.  I've been toying with buying a Vita-Mix for the last several years at the State Fair, but I'm just too cheap to get one.  Some of the people who reviewed this said they liked the Ninja better than the Vita-Mix, and my brother who has a Vita-Mix said they mostly use it for smoothies and ice cream - and they do use it several times a month, but not as often as they could.  So, when I weighed the cost and the potential use, I figured $40 (w/ shipping) for the Ninja (with an extra pitcher and extra 2-cup bowl, found new on ebay) was a lot better than $450 for the Vita-Mix.

My Ninja came in the mail yesterday, and I just had to try it today. First Cory and I crushed ice and made some iced coffee - yum! And then I made some salsa!

Fresh Ninja Salsa

Ingredients:

• 4 Roma tomatoes, cut in 4 pieces
• 1/4 small onion
• 2 hot peppers, split and deseeded
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• juice from 1/2 lemon
• pinch of oregano
• pinch of cumin

Directions:

Add all ingredients to the bowl. Use short pulses, about 3 times or until desired consistency is reached.

Serve with tortilla chips. Makes about 2-1/2 cups.

I pretty much followed the recipe in the book that came with my Ninja - except I used two hot peppers (because Cory wanted them) instead of 1, I didn't use the 1/2 tsp. sugar, and I didn't have a lime so I used lemon juice - cut a small half and didn't squeeze all of the juice out. Also, the recipe called for cilantro, which would have been so good in this, but I didn't have any. Even without it, this salsa was amazing - and so easy!

• Print this recipe

Related articles by Zemanta

• Taking the Ninja Master Prep Pro out for a spin (cnet.com)

Layered Chicken Enchilada Casserole

This is really easy, and tastes good, too. Instead of rolling the enchiladas up, you simply layer everything in.

Layered Chicken Enchilada Casserole

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion chopped
• 2 1/2 cups cooked shredded chicken
• 1 (7 oz.) can diced green chiles
• 1 (1.25 oz.) package taco seasoning mix
• 8 corn tortillas
• 1 (15 oz.) can kidney beans drained
• 2 (8 oz.) cups shredded cheddar cheese divided
• 16 oz. salsa

Directions:

1. Grease 13x9x2-inch baking dish.
2. Heat oil in large skillet.  Cook onion, stirring occasionally, until tender.  Remove from heat.  Stir in chicken, chiles and seasoning mix.
3. Layer half of tortillas in prepared baking dish. Top with chicken mixture, beans and 1 cup cheese.  Layer with remaining tortillas.  Top with salsa and remaining cheese.
4. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes @  350° or until heated through and cheese is melted.

This recipe is also very good made with hamburger instead of chicken.

• Print this recipe

I Want to Try These

I found this recipe for Carne Asada Tacos on Cooking...by the seat of my Pants, and I just have to try this recipe.  I'm thinking if I cook it in the crockpot as suggested that it will be really easy and incredibly yummy.

Enchiladas!

Beef Enchiladas

Ingredients: 1 onion, sliced 1 green pepper, sliced 1 red pepper, sliced 1 clove garlic, minced 1 lb. ground beef 1 1/2 cups salsa 1-15 oz. can chili beans

1-14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes, undrained 1 tsp. ground cumin pepper 10 flour tortillas 1 1/2 cups grated cheese 1/2 to 3/4 cup sour cream 2 Tbsp. chopped green onions

Directions: In a very large skillet (12-inch), sauté onion, peppers, garlic and ground beef until beef is browned. Drain excess fat. Add salsa, chili beans, tomatoes, cumin and pepper. Heat thoroughly. Place approximately 1/4 cup meat mixture in center of a tortilla. Sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. cheese. Bring edges of tortilla together, overlapping slightly to enclose filling. Place, seam side down, in 13" x 9" baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas. You will have 8 enchiladas from one end of the dish to the other, then the remaining 2 turned along the edge. Spoon remaining meat sauce over tortillas. Spoon sour cream down center of dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes. Sprinkle with green onions and serve.

I've been making this for quite a while now. As with anything like this, the ingredients aren't set in stone. Don't have a red pepper? Use two green, or 1-1/2, or even one. Use more onion. Use a different kind of beans. Use taco sauce instead of salsa. It's up to you.

• Print this recipe

Related articles by Zemanta

• Crazy Crust Taco Pie (chubbagurl.blogspot.com)
• Highly Rated Mexican Food Recipes (articlesbase.com)