Spanish Rice and Enchilda Style Burros

Thursday night we had Mexican food. I was raised in a town that had the BEST mexican food ever. I myself cannot make it that awesome, but I'm not bad. Since there is no meat in this recipe, it's fairly inexpensive. You could always add red or green chile with shredded beef to the burros if you prefer. (Burros=burrittos, depending on where you're from). Here are the ingredients for the spanish rice:1 1/2c. rice, 1 can tomato sauce, 3 cups water, 1/4t. minced garlic, 1/2t. cummin, 2T. Caldo con sabor de Pollo, olive oil Place olive oil in skillet (enough to lightly coat), add garlic and rice. Next, brown the rice. Once rice is browned add remaining ingredients. Be sure to add the liquids slowly. Stir just enough to mix together and then bring to a boil.

Once boiling, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes.

It should look like this when done.

If you want you can add a can of drained corn, but it's up to you.
For the bean burros you will need: refried beans, butter, sour cream, cheese, tortillas (not pictured). If you want them enchilada style, then you will also need enchilada sauce. Normally I make my own sauce, which tastes much better, but this time I used store bought. To get rid of the canned taste of the beans I add butter and sour cream to taste, usually about 1-2T each. You can do this or not, but it does improve the flavor.

To make your burro, place some beans and cheese in the center of a buttered tortilla.

Next, fold in the sides.

Then fold in the corners to keep the beans from spilling out.

Roll. Repeat.

Place in a dish and cover with enchilada sauce and cheese and bake at 350 degrees F until cheese is melted.

Serve with your rice and enjoy.

Wednesday--Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo

Wednesday we had chicken and broccoli alfredo. I fix it all separately because my girls will not eat it if it is mixed together, but they will eat it if I make it all separately.

Upside Down Shephards Pie

Last night I made upside down shephards pie for dinner.Ingredients: 1/3 c. sour cream, 1/3 c. ketchup, 1 can green beans, 1t. parsley, dash of dill, instant mashed potatoes (serving 4), 1lb hamburger, cheese (not pictured)

Prepare mashed potatoes according to package directions for 4 servings. (You can also use regular mashed potatoes, if you're so inclined, but it takes longer.) Mash into bottom of 1.5 or 2qt dish. Place in oven at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes or until edges are a golden brown.

Brown hamburger and then add the remaining ingredients, except for cheese. Mix all together.

Place hamburger mixture on top of mashed potatoes.

Top with cheese and bake another 5-10 minutes until cheese is melted.

Serve.

We had this with cottage cheese and peaches, but a nice dinner salad would also go well.

Easy Eggrolls

Last night for dinner we had eggrolls with white rice to celebrate Chinese New Year. Granted they were fairly americanized eggrolls, but they were still quite delicious and very easy to make.Ingredients: 1 package eggroll wraps (found in the produce section), 1 can chicken or cut up chicken breast, 1 can Chop Suey, 1 bunch green onions, oil for frying.Empty chicken with water into frying pan and cook until there is no more liquid.

While chicken is cooking, chop up onions.

Move chicken to one side and add onions. Cook for about a minute.

Drain chop suey and place in bowl.

Add chicken and onions and mix well.

Next, get a small bowl of water to use to roll your eggrolls. The water is what will seal the eggrolls, so oil doesn't get in when you cook them. Place one wrap on a flat surface. Place about 2T. of the mixture diagnally in the wrap. Next dip your fingers in the water and run them along the top and side edge.

Roll up the bottom corner of the wrap.

Fold the two sides into the center.

Roll. You can go over the seam with more water if it seems like it needs it.

While you are making the eggrolls, heat up your oil.

Drop them in and cook until they start to turn a golden brown. Place them on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

Serve with white rice. We use La Choy Sweet and Sour sauce and a mustard/soy sauce mixture to dip the eggrolls in.

On the off chance we have left overs (which we didn't last night), I like to place a slice of cheese on top before microwaving them.

These can also be frozen prior to frying.

BBQ chicken and risotto

So, Saturday we went to lunch at Eegee's and then to see Bolt. I only saw the first half because of the baby or else I'd give a review. For dinner Saturday, we had frozen pizza. I had planned on actually cooking dinner, but we got out of the movie later than I envisioned. Sunday I made BBQ chicken and risotto. They had fryer chickens on sale for $0.39/lb so I had to stock up. The chicken wasn't to hard. I just brushed barbeque sauce over it before putting it in the oven and once again after it had been cooking for a little while. My risotto didn't turn out as good as it usually does. It is supposed to be a really creamy rice and it was more dry this time. It was still good though. I think I just needed to add more liquid. Normally, I would make chicken and sweet potato risotto, but this time I just made the risotto, so I wasn't using my normal recipe.

Chicken with Zucchini and Wild Rice

Friday night I made chicken, lightly seasoned, with zucchini and wild rice. I used chicken broth to cook the rice in to give it a little extra flavor.

Tater Tot Casserole

Wednesday night I made Tater Tot casserole from a recipe I found off of Meal Planning Mommies. It's fairly eary to make. It got mixed reviews in our house. My husband really liked it. I thought it was ok. One of my daughters ate it and the other refused to touch it. Thursday I made ramen noodles and added frozen peas to it for girls. My husband and I had leftover casserole.

Mix one can each of cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, and evaporated milk. Meanwhile, brown hamburger in a pan.

Place browned meat in a 9x13 dish.

Top with 1.5-2lb bag frozen tater tots.

Pour soup mix on top.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 45-50 minutes. Place cheese on top last 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

The Snowball Effect

Sorry, I've slacked. I spent most of Sunday in bed with a headache. My husband fed our children chicken nuggets for dinner and as awful as this is, went to Jack-in-the-Box after they went to bed to get us dinner. Monday night I did cook dinner. We had bacon and avacado burgers. However, we then went to McDonalds to get ice cream for family home evening. It's like a snowball effect, once we eat out, then it just makes it easier to keep eating out and harder to stop the cycle. I do cringe everytime I see the total we have spent eating out on my sidebar which does give me some motivation. Keeping track has also helped me to recognize what triggers us to eat out. For example, if my kitchen is a mess or the table is dirty, I don't want to cook. If we run errands before dinner we are more likely to eat out. Today I nearly panicked because I forgot to take meat out to thaw. So instead, we're having baked potatoes and chicken cesaer salad. Yum!

Saturday Out

Today was our family day and we drove to the Temple, so we ate out both lunch and dinner.

Bacon Burgers

Tonight I made bacon burgers. I marinated the hamburger in Heintz 57 steak sauce and they turned out quite well. I served it with tator tots and baby carrots. Normally, I don't make hamburgers at home. They bring back too many memories of being poor newly weds when we used to buy a box of 30 hamburger patties at Sams for $10 and every other night each month we had hamburgers because they were dirt cheap that way. Looking back, I'm not sure why I didn't think to chop the patties up and cook something else with it besides hamburgers.

Peach and Pineapple Cobbler

I picked up some fresh peaches at the store on sale so last night I made a peach and pineapple cobbler. It was the first cobbler I've made and it turned out quite nicely. I was looking for a peach cobbler recipe, but I could only find ones using canned peaches, so I decided to just wing it.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Peel and cut up peaches (about 2 cups fresh). Then add a can of pineapple chunks with half the juice. Add 1/3 cup sugar and 1/4t. vanilla. Stir and let sit. Place 1/2c. butter in a 9x13 in dish and put in oven to melt.

Mix 1c. flour, 1c. sugar, 1c. milk, and 1t. baking powder in bowl.Once butter has melted, add fruit.

Spread fruit in pan and then add batter. Do not stir.

Sprinkle top with cinnamon and nutmeg and place in oven for 50-60 min to bake.

I don't have a picture of the whole cobbler, because it got attacked the moment it came out of the oven.

Jack-in-the-Box Mishap

We went out for lunch today. Naughty, I know. I did, however, fix dinner tonight. We had boneless pork sirloin with julienne potatoes and mixed vegetables. I'm not putting up pictures, because there are no recipes. I just cooked everything according to the package. Inventive, right?

So, my counter on the side is reset. We will also be eating out Saturday, since we will be going out of town, but my goal is to not eat out for a week after that. Wish me luck.

Chicken and Dumplings and Leftovers

Tonight we had leftovers, exciting I know. It was quite tempting to eat out, but I didn't. Hooray! Yesterday we had Chicken and Dumplings. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Ingredients:

Soup

5c. Chicken broth

1-2 c. water (enough to cover veggies)

1lb. shredded chicken

3 large carrots, sliced

3 large celery stalks, sliced

1/4t. minced garlic

Olive oil

Dumplings

2c. baking mix

2/3 c. milk

dash salt and pepper

Directions:

Place minced garlic and olive oil in stock pot with carrots and celery. Cook veggies for a couple minutes and then add chicken, broth and enough water to cover veggies. Bring to a boil.

While waiting for soup to boil, mix dumpling ingredients.

Once soup is boiling, add spoonfuls of dumplings. Boil for 10 minutes and then flip dumplings over and cook for another 10 minutes.

When soup is done it sill have a creamy white look. Dumplings should be light and fluffy, not dense.Bon Appetit!