Southwest egg rolls-- week 4

 

 

 

This is an easy meal all my kids love.

Brown ground turkey in a skillet with fajita seasoning.
When turkey is thouroughly cooked add a can of black beans (drained and rinsed)
Then add a cup or so of frozen corn.

Fill flour tortillas with the mixture and also add grated cheese.
Fold them up tightly and bake at 350 for 20 minutes.

Eat with lots of lettuce, tomatoes, salsa and cilantro jalapeno ranch!

Hot Chocolate -- Week 3

We make and consume a lot of Hot Chocolate. I have tried so many recipes. Here is one of my favorite (and easy and low in calories)

4 cups milk (I use skim)
1 package no sugar added chocolate pudding.

Stir together on the stovetop until you reach the desired temperature.

Drink! Because of the gelatin it has a creaminess that is only parallelled with LOTS of cream -- but this is a pretty low cal way to enjoy all the creaminess.

Baptism Cookies - week 2

These are the cookies that we have handed out as "favors" after both our daughter's baptisms. I use these cookies because they have white chocolate chips (since white is meaningful for a baptism) -- But trust me, they are good anytime. In fact they are so good that I don't have a photo (they were all eaten).

White Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter (2 sticks)
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
4 1/2 cups of oats
1 1/2 cups of white chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs and mix. Add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix well.

Note: This dough is thick. Spoon drop them onto a cookie sheet. (I use a cookie dough ball maker and you can also roll them into balls).

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. Because there are so many oats, the cookies do not really flatten while cooking, so as soon as they are out of the oven give them a good smash with your spatula. Then move them to foil to cool down.

Also -- this makes a large batch of dough . . . so large that if I double the recipe it doesn't fit into my kitchen aid mixer.

Salsa by Michelle -- week 1

 

My friend made this delicious salsa. I got her recipe and now make it a little too often. I love that is is mostly canned ingredients (meaning I can make it even on the days when I haven't been to the store for a while). I also love that it is great straight out of the blender AND it is great if you choose to simmer it.

2 29oz cans whole peeled tomatoes
1 can diced green chiles
2-3 diced jalapenos (deviened and deseeded)
2 bunches of green onions (white and green parts)
2 cloves garlic
1 bunch of cilantro
some salt (wait til after it has all been blended before adding)

Put it all in a blender (my blender is not big enough for it all so I put all but 1 can of tomatoes in the blender). I despise chopping so I put everything in whole and then blend and blend (because I prefer my salsa without chunks). Pour that first mix into a bowl and then blend the second can of tomatoes (here is where I don't blend very much -- I like chunky tomatoes, just not chunky onions and jalapenos!)

Now, Michelle serves it just like that (although she usually lets it sit in the fridge for a little while to marry all the flavors)

I am always in a hurry and want to eat it right now, so I decided (in an effort to marry those flavors faster) to put it in a pot and bring it to a simmer for 5 minutes. Then I served it warm.

It is great either way. Probably because it is winter, but I loved serving it warm. It reminded me of all my favorite Mexican restaurants in Houston who serve their salsa warm (pappasito's, guadalajara's).

Enjoy

P.S. my goal??? post 1 recipe a week all year!