My salsa…

Makes all the pretty girls dance and want to take off their underpants….. My salsa.

Yep, I went there.

Ladies and gentlemen, I made, SALSA.

No, but seriously, last Sunday Funday we had a little too many margaritas at our “Avacado” party and got to eating a TON of my salsa I brought over. I decided to TRY to make both red and green kinds, they turned out well and I thought they’d be a nice addition to the part-ay.

Little did I know I did SUCH a good job on them, that Char used the green one in her Chicken Bites and her guy Jason actually kept half the jar! I keep forgetting to ask her if she liked the rest of it and what she did with it, but will be asking today, for sure!

Needless to say, it was a hit. We love having fresh salsa in the house and use it on everything. But this post is not about my love of the salsa. It’s about how this white girl makes some mean salsa.

Today, we’ll be making the green kind. Salsa Verde, to me is different than Chile Verde. Some disagree, some agree, whatever floats my boat in my kitchen, amiright? Yep. SO, the uncooked, chip friendly version we’re making in this post, would be, to me, salsa verde. The cooked, amended version would be chile verde, suitable for burritos and worthy of an addiction. I have mastered this too, and will show you later, grasshopper.

So, this is pretty easy, it’s just time consuming. It’s best to do this when you know your grocery store or local market is having a sale, sometimes, if you don’t know where to look, tomatillos can be a rip off. As can chiles of all sorts. We shop at Food City. They’re close, cheap, and grow locally. Sold.


Now, you might be asking yourself… “What the crap is a tomatillo?”
You may not have as potty-mouthed of an inner voice as I do, but, let’s pretend.

A tomatillo is NOT a green tomato. It’s not a un-ripe tomato, it’s not part of the tomato family. It is it’s own entity.

A delicious entity.

So head out to your local Mexican market and get your hands on some of these sticky bastards. You’ll be hooked… I am.
Especially when they’re 3lbs for $1… Right?!

INGREDIENTS:
This recipe makes over a gallon of salsa. It freezes well, thaws beautifully and lasts surprisingly long in the fridge, when kept in a mason jar.
3lbs tomatillos, cleaned and halved with stem scars removed
2 large white onions
1lb hatch chiles, halved
1 green bell pepper, halved
2 pasilla chiles, halved
3 jalapenos, halved
2 heads of garlic, peeled
1 bunch of green onion, diced
1 Bunch of cilantro, you can leave it whole, or chop it slightly, this all goes in a blender anyway
Juice from 3-4 limes, really depends on your love of tang. Get it?
1tbsp cumin, thyme, black pepper, salt, red pepper flakes (make a the largest tbsp of cumin down to the smallest tbsp of red pepper. I don’t even own measuring spoons, so I’m always guessing on the seasonings, and I use my hands to measure. Always season to taste!)
You will also need a blender or a food processor and a couple baking dishes. Tongs are helpful because the dishes are HOT when they come out of the oven. Obvi.

DIRECTIONS:
Roast all the veggies, except the green onion and cilantro, in the oven under the broiler, in glass baking dishes. These tomatillos have been roasted too long for salsa. You don’t want that much charred skin, you just want to soften everything and bring out the heat in the peppers. These were for chile verde, because I wasn’t sure the salsa was going to work when I made it, I didn’t take a lot of pictures. We’re still living off our freezer supply, so I’m making do with my own stock photography.

Repeat until all the veggies are roasted. I use a glass dish to keep the roasted mess in until it gets blended. Make sure you throw all the juices and seeds into the bowl too!

Now either in a food processor or a blender, blend everything REALLY well, adding some green onion and cilantro to every batch, to make sure it’s evenly chopped and distributed. I do it in small portions, to ensure it’s all mixed well. And then scoop it out and do it again. Before you blend everything for the second time, taste it, season it and remember the flavor will be stronger, spicier and better tomorrow and every day from then on. So don’t over season!

The salsa should sit in the fridge over night, if not 2 nights, to let the flavors become friends, don’t forget this part. Taste it again, after and make sure it tastes right to you, if not, re-season!

From there, I usually line some Tupperware bowls with plastic wrap and portion out 2 cups in each, freeze and when they’re solid, I take them out, wrap the plastic wrap the rest of the way around, wrap again in tin foil and label. They stack nicely in the freezer because I freeze everything in the same size Tupperware, every time. 2 cups is about half a mason jar, which lasts us 2 weeks or so.

I hope you try this, next freezer meal day, or any day! It’s WELL worth the effort. Mo eats salsa on his eggs, in his breakfast burritos and on anything else he can think of, some days!

Enjoy!

Sweet Baby Ray’s Pulled Pork Sammies

Looks yummy, right?

There are few meals, more comforting, than barbeque anything, to me, a self professed “fat kid”… I love it. And I love Sweet Baby Ray's sauce. I also make Sweet Baby Ray's Chicken with it as well as add it to some of my chili, like my Simple Three Bean Chicken Chili.

This meal is super quick, or can be cooked in your crock pot all day. I used meat I had leftover in my freezer, from when I made Pork Loin. I shredded half of the loin and froze that half in two portions. One for chili and one for this! So yes, that $9 piece of meat made 3 meals, some with leftovers. So these sammies, cost Mama $.80 each, including the bread and the sauce. I made fries with it, and the potatoes were 3lbs for a dollar, I used half of those, so the fries were $.50. I fed my family of 3, dinner on this night for $3.70. And we were STUFFED.

I rule.

INGREDIENTS:

Approx. 1lb Pork loin, cooked and shredded
Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce
Buns of your choice. I like to use bread, but we had buns that were taking up precious space in my freezer. They had to GO!
Sides of your choice. I’m venturing into the world of home made potato salad soon… Stay tuned… smh.

DIRECTIONS:

Assuming your pork is cooked and shredded, you can make this meal quickly by just heating the pork and the sauce in a sauce pan until ready to serve. I like to sauté a little onion in the pan before I add the pork, so there’s a little grilled onion effect in there too. It’s amazing.

If your pork isn’t cooked and you’ve got, say half a loin, frozen… Just throw it in the crock pot with a little water, cover in some Baby Ray’s, start on high and finish on low. Take it out, shred it and put it back in for about 30 minutes. Done!

Mmmm…. Great food for all this chilly weather we’ve been having! Scottsdale got cold, overnight, I swear. BUT, I’m a pretty big fan of space heaters (Yes, I exercise extreme caution when using them, with a toddler in the house.) and we haven’t had to turn on our heater, YET. It’s stayed about 76 in the house just by heating the rooms we’re in. We’ll see how this power bill comes out, but I have hiiiiiiiigh hopes for a loooooow bill! Yea, buddy!

Enjoy!!

Baked Broccoli Chicken Supreme

It’s finally getting chilly here in Scottsdale, which means some winter dishes have been in the works! I made this little feast up after finding some black rice that I mentioned in this post where I added it to some yummy home made cream of onion and celery soup, which was another DE-licious winter meal!

This one is pretty simple. It’s dinner in a dish. Easy, peasy. I like to keep chicken in the freezer, shredded in large chunks, for anything. It’s handy, it’s cheap and it takes a lot of steps out of preparing dinner. I also like to keep cooked rice and cream of something or other soup in the freezer, to add to dishes too. So with a little prep work ahead of time, this dish takes five minutes for prep and about 30 to bake.

INGREDIENTS:

The amounts are going to vary based on your dish size. I made a tiny one, because I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the amounts. Like I said, I’m WAY behind on recipes. Sorry!

Black Rice, cooked
Broccoli, steamed, al dente
Chicken, cooked and shredded, seasoned with salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme
Cream of onion/celery soup, IF you have to use the canned, dump it into a bowl, add a little milk and whisk until creamy
1 Box of stuffing, prepared
Mozzarella and parmesan cheese to layer with, if you want it a little cheesy.

 

DIRECTIONS:

Bake this bad boy at about 350, till it’s bubbly, golden and ready!

Yep.

It’s that simple!

Enjoy!

 

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies

I’m trying to watch the first season of Walking Dead, and write recipes for cookies. Zombies and treats, yay, Friday! Haha….

I’ve searched and I’ve searched for an oatmeal cookie recipe that I actually liked, one that used real oats, not powdery quick oats, and one that my son would like, without being too sweet.

Couldn’t find it, so I made it up.

It uses very little flour, little sugar and is essentially a baked, flavored, cereal. Which is perfect because everybody eats them for breakfast sometimes, especially the baby… He says, “Cookie?” Yes, you can have a cookie. You can have anything you want with that face… Smh.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are obviously, only a slight difference in my three types of cookies. One are plain, one have chocolate chips and the others have chocolate and peanut butter chips. They all bake the same.

INGREDIENTS:

3/4 Cup all purpose flour
1/2 Tsp baking soda
1 Tsp Cinnamon
3/4 Cup brown sugar, packed
3 Cups of whole oats
1 Tsp Salt
1/2 Cup mix in’s of your choice
3/4 Cup butter, softened or melted
1 Tsp vanilla
1 Egg
A splash of milk, trust me.

INSTRUCTIONS:

Mix dry ingredients… Mix wet ingredients… Combine.

Bake at 350 until brown at the edges but SOFT in the center. It’s better to be on the soft side, when they’re hard, they’re like granola. Which might not be bad, if that’s what you’re going for! I like them soft in the center though, especially the chocolate chip ones!

Enjoy!

Cream of Onion & Celery Soup with Black Rice

Oooooh happy Friday in about 15 minutes. This week has been LONG! I re-discovered a old favorite grocery store and have been occupied with their sales, buying over 10lbs of produce and making it into salsas, tomato sauce and chile verde. I sat down at 11pm tonight for the first time since I walked into the kitchen to bake cookies at 9am. I’m effin’ exhausted.

Anyway, I wanted to try this out ahead of time, to see if I could make my own “cream of something” soup. Because they over charge you in the store for the teeny cans, it doesn’t look like food, and it’s full of sodium, chemicals and crap. So I wanted my own, customizable cream-of-whatever-the-fuck-I-wanted, soup. Twas a smashing success, if I do say so myself…

A quick low-down on black rice, if you’ve never heard of it… And since I’m tired I’m going to quote straight from Wikipedia: “Black rice is high in nutritional value and contains 18 amino acids, iron, zinc, copper, carotene and several important vitamins.” Pretty bomb little grains. And they’re tasty! I bought this brand below, just because it was the first one I saw, ever. Hopefully it becomes more popular and cheaper. I hate myself for saying that. Ugh, consumerism.

Back to the soup.

INGREDIENTS:

3Tbs butter, I use unsalted
3Tbs all purpose flour, I use unbleached
1Qt milk, I use 1%, I’d normally have used some buttermilk too, but I didn’t have any. I’d say about 1/2 a cup.
1Cup white onion, diced
1Cup celery, chopped
1Clove garlic, minced
Salt, pepper, tips of celery to garnish

DIRECTIONS:

Follow the directions on your package of black rice, cooking it fully before adding it to your soup.

In a medium sauce pan, on medium heat, melt the butter. Add the flour and whisk until fully incorporated, and cook until it starts to brown nicely. Slowly add the milk, whisking to incorporate the flour fully after about a cup of milk, then adding the rest slowly. Reduce the heat, after it reaches a boil, and simmer, whisking almost constantly (sorry!) until it reaches your desired soupy-ness.

Add the rice, garnish with the tips of the celery stalks you used!

This soup was delicious, not expensive and I will be making it again VERY soon. I’m working hard to build my soup recipe stash before winter hits… Ooooh, hard winter we get here in the desert. lol

Happy Halloweenie!

So, we haven’t had a “life” update in quite a while, because life just keeps comin’!

I was signed to a real live modeling agency recently, and have been able to score some pretty steady work out of them, surprisingly! I do promotions for Jack, SoCo, Jim, Jose, cigar promo’s, event hosting… Check them out by clicking here. They’re called PUSH Models and they’re in almost every state, and growing! I couldn’t be happier and I’m SO glad I listened to Boo when he told me, “I’m sick of people telling me how pretty you are and I have to tell them you don’t do anything with it. DO something with it.” Good advice, dear. Plus, I’m still doing my beer tubbin’ thang, which is, um, lucrative. Which is good, because my car payment is redic and well, I love shoes.

Boo got a new job, working with special needs students at a specialized school for children with autism, Asperger's, and other relatively severe special needs. He loves it. I have to say, the man’s got heart. A BIG heart. He loves what he does and I love him for doing it! So between that and working for Arizona State University, I’d have to say, my man’s days of pizza slingin’ are over! I respect a man that can don a hard hat or work in fast food and bust his ass for his family, but it’s just not the man I know Mo is. He’s better than that, he’s a college grad and he’s worked towards this for too long. I’m SO proud of him!

Anyway, onto Halloween! We bought this kid a little devil costume. We had it planned out that he was going to be the devil and we were going to be his little devil parents… Well he wouldn’t wear his costume (go figure) and I had about 15 minutes to think of what the HELL else to be. So I used the leftovers from Moses 2nd birthday party and we were all pirates! I think we turned out pretty cute!

We ended up trick or treating with my bff’s, their men and their kids around our neighborhood but are in for a change of plans next year! Earlier trick or treating, when we have more daylight, bbq after with a Halloween party for the kids too. We simply went too late this time and were left in the dark. Boo! As for grown up Halloween fun, we went to my tattoo artist and good friends house for a Halloween house party and reunited with some old friends on Friday and hit the town on Saturday going to both Tempe and Scottsdale because we were super excited to be back in the “city”.

I’m so glad his birthday stuff was lying around and we were able to throw together some last minute costumes to trick or treat with our buddies! And we both mentioned how thankful we are that we are here, where we can do this kind of thing, unlike last year where we hit 3 houses and went home because everybody in our neighborhood were being Hallo-scrooges.

Before I go, I wanted to throw out some ideas for your next Halloween, to “give back” before the holiday season. Right before Thanksgiving, when we like to give thanks for all we have, and Christmas, when charities are in your face and people are broke, it’s an opportune time to get a little charity work in…

I’ve done “Trick or Treat So Others Can Eat”, it’s an organization that donates the canned food you collect while trick or treating, to local homeless shelters and food banks, because grocery stores often charge per can or pound for food “donated” to shelters. If you don’t want to get involved, take a wagon around with you and explain what you’re doing, on Halloween before anyone is out trick or treating, since most people are at least at home getting ready to go out for the night, or setting up their candy situations. They’re usually stoked on what you’re doing and willing to give a can, or two, or three. I’ve done it before with multiple people and parked at the end of each block, unloading wagons and taking breaks because people are so generous. And any homeless shelter will take your food. If they won’t, a church will. Somebody will take canned food in your area.

If you are like me, and don’t give your child candy, (No, I’m not robbing him of a childhood, get a grip on yourself.) you can always donate it to shelters for battered women and/or abused children, children’s hospitals, food banks or a local organization that sends candy to the troops. All that info can be found online!

Also, it’s not exactly “charitable” but some dentist offices offer “buy-back” programs for your candy and pay cash. Check that out as well!

I hope everybody had a fun, happy and SAFE Halloween!

Macdonald’s Ranch Pumpkin Patch Trip!

What Halloween would be complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch? Not ours, so this year, being in the Big City, we were on a mission to find the coolest pumpkin patch we could. 

To North Scottsdale we went, in search of old Macdonald’s farm… Just kidding, it’s called Macdonald’s Ranch and I’ll have some info and links at the end of the post!

We parked and got in without a line, and of course, went straight to pet some fuzzy little creatures! They had a TON! Goats of all shapes, breeds, sizes, a mini horse, pigs, baby cows, peacocks, sheep, chickens… A whole flippin’ barnyard! Lots of area so it didn’t get crowded, no creepy attendants asking if you’ve ever seen a goat before. the baby loved it!

Next, it was off to pick our pumpkin! Like I said, the ranch is huge, so they have hay rides out to the pumpkin patch they’ve set up. I thought we were going to get to pick a pumpkin out of a real patch, but I understand they don’t just grow in this heat, so I’ll give up my authentic patch picking fantasy, for now. The hay ride, was cool. The scenery is beautiful, it was a short, yet bumpy ride and it really added to the experience! We hopped off, picked a couple pumpkins (they could have used a little more shade out there, just sayin’, it’s effin’ HOT during the day here still…) and were on our hay ride back! BUT… I managed to get some cool pictures out there…

As you can tell from that one picture, my son was throwing pumpkins around like that’s what they were put there for. I’m thinking about taking him somewhere to chuck ours off of something, but I don’t know what or where that’s ok to make a mess, but safe to let him stand to throw a pumpkin. I’ll figure it out. Sometimes, you just gotta get messy!

Information about the pumpkin patch, and all the other activities and things they offer at the ranch, visit the Macdonald's Ranch website by clicking the link.

I hope you all enjoy your Halloween, stay safe and as Moses says, “Appy Awwo-WEEN!”

Roasted Garlic & Herb Biscuits

 

Biscuits!

These are to die for, just sayin’.

Let’s get to them biscuits!

INGREDIENTS:

Baking mix, any kind, but I like buttermilk
1 head of garlic, roasted then mashed into a paste
Rosemary, thyme, cayenne, parmesan (grated or shredded)

DIRECTIONS:

Prepare the biscuits according to the box, mix in the garlic paste very well. Grease a cookie sheet and plop large tablespoon size balls onto the sheet. Sprinkle with the last 4 ingredients and bake! Easy peasy!

 

 

Enjoy!

Crock Pot Chipotle Carnitas Chili

 

As promised, here’s the chili recipe I mentioned in my last post, you can find it here.

This chili is freezable, of course, done in the crock pot and will stay good, long past when you’d think it’s gone bad…

I used canned beans for this, because I needed to make it quickly. But normally, I would have used the frozen beans I have, in the amounts you would get in a can, instead.

 

 

 

 

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 of your leftover roast from the post I mentioned above. Or 1-1.5lb of pork cooked as mentioned in that post.
1 cube of chipotle marinade, again, in the above post.
8-10 Roma tomatoes, diced roughly
2 cups red bell pepper, diced
2 cups celery, diced
2 cups white onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
2 cans kidney beans, rinsed and drained
3 tbs chile powder
1 tsp red chile flakes
1 tbs cumin
1 tbs thyme
salt to taste


DIRECTIONS:

In your crock pot, on high, put the meat, tomatoes, marinade and beans. In a large stock pot, heat a little olive oil and start your garlic on medium-high heat. After about a minute, add the onion and celery and cook until they start to get soft. Add the bell peppers, cooking for about 3 minutes to soften the peppers, then add the mixture to the crock pot along with seasonings.

Cook, stirring occasionally, until it resembles something irresistibly delicious. About 3 hours.

I’ll post a recipe to some absolutely amazing biscuits that go with this all too well, very soon. I’m WAY busy getting ready for Halloween, struggling with my usually smooth freezer meal day and having what’s turning out to be freezer meal week and dealing with a teething, oddly pooping toddler and having to put the brakes on potty training completely right now. Not to mention, he’s out grown half his clothes in the last week alone, can destroy a house like nobodies business these days and insists on riding the dog, EVERYWHERE…. I feel a “life” post coming on soon….

Enjoy this chili, or whatever you end up making. If you read this far, thank you. I, for one, have typed this one eyed and dirty handed while whipping up a batch of pasta sauce for the freezer out of 7lbs of tomatoes, peppers and onions. I’m TIRED. Idk how you Pinterest bishes kill 46 meals in one day… You must repeat meals on the regular or have school aged children because my toddler hates everything I do in the kitchen and rains on my cooking parade whenever possible.

Good night!

Crock Pot Carnitas Tacos & Chipotle Marinade

I promised a follow up to the pork loin recipe with more ideas for these massive pork loins I’ve been finding on sale and hopefully, you have found some AMAZING deals as well!

These carnitas tacos are delicious, easy, they taste authentic, they freeze well so you can use the leftover meat in something else, like chili or soup. My next post will be the chili I made from the leftover meat from this recipe!

First, I have to say I made my own marinade for this recipe. It’s no secret. I usually use chipotle peppers in adobo sauce for most any red Mexican dish I made. They add a distinctive spice and the smokey adobo is unique and delicious. I hated buying a can of peppers in the sauce because I’d use one or two peppers, a little sauce, store it in the fridge for who knows how long and end up throwing it away.

So, I made my own!



Like I said, there’s no secret.

Go buy a can or two, or three, of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, throw it in a food processor with a little squeeze of lime juice and cumin, portion into an ice cube tray, lined in plastic wrap and freeze!

To use, just melt the cube in a little warm water or broth, add some vinegar, maybe some beer or tequila and marinate that meat!

Back to the carnitas.

INGREDIENTS:

3lbs Pork loin, thawed or frozen, again, this can be done with frozen meat, since it’s being shredded, the toughness of the meat doesn’t matter.
1cup Green bell pepper, diced. I keep mine frozen, which saves a ton of time.
1cup White onion, diced. Again, frozen for me.
1tbs Red pepper flakes
1/2tbs Rosemary
1tbs Thyme
1/2tbs Cumin
1/2tbs Ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

In a crock pot, combine above ingredients, with enough water to almost cover the meat. Start on high to get the heat going and lower to low after about an hour or two. Leave until cooked through.

Then, I cut mine in big chunks and set it aside to cool, shred and add back to the crock pot. I then cooked the meat until the liquid was absorbed. (I used a little liquid when I made the refried beans, my fiance said they were the best beans I’ve made so far… Just a little hint!)

What was left was tender, deliciously flavorful, spicy but not TOO spicy, carnitas. I made tacos out of it, then froze half for later! It’s an all day affair with your crock pot, this one… So it’s feasible to leave this cooking all day while you do your thing…

Enjoooooy and have a great weekend!!

McDowell Mountain Adventures

We went for a little family hike this morning and I thought i’d share some photos of the Sonoran Desert.

Green Chile Chicken Tacos, Refried Beans & Spanish Rice

These were a freezer meal. A freakin’ excellent freezer meal. I cooked the rice, thawed the portion of beans overnight, refried them and the chicken was ready in less than 10 minutes. 30 minute meal. You like that, don’t you? lol

So, let’s get do it, shall we?

INGREDIENTS:
2 lb Boneless, skinless chicken breasts (Again, frozen is fine.)
3/4 Tbsp cumin, red pepper flakes, granulated garlic, chili powder
1/2 Tsp salt, black pepper, thyme
1 Small can of roasted, diced green chiles
1 Small green bell pepper, diced
1/2 Small white onion, diced
Corn tortillas
Colby jack cheese, shredded

Spanish rice recipe can be found here and refried bean recipe can be found here.

DIRECTIONS:
In a large pot, cook the chicken with enough water to keep it covered, on medium high, covered, until it’s cooked through. Set aside in a bowl, to cool, before you shred it. In a large skillet, with a little butter, olive oil, or bacon grease (whatever pan lube you prefer, A-ha-ha, I’m funny….) start cooking the onion and bell peppers, adding the drained chiles, just before the chicken. Add the shredded chicken, a little water, and the seasonings. Mix well, cover and let simmer on medium for about 5 minutes, uncover and simmer until all the liquid is absorbed/evaporated.
While the chicken is finishing, use another skillet, over medium heat, to heat your tortillas. We always do soft tacos, I don’t like paying out the back end for pre-made, hard taco shells with who knows what in them, and
I’m not about to fry any tortilla in this house, in oil. So, soft tacos, it is! lol

That’s it, friends! At this point, you can freeze the chicken, in a large bag. It freezes, thaws and reheats, fantastically!

Enjoy!

Ground Turkey Tacos, Spanish Rice & Refried Beans

This is another recipe I’ve been sitting on FOREVER.

I got a new phone and when I take pictures of my food, it’s a pain in the ass to get them onto my computer, so posting takes longer than before.

BUT, my phone takes badass pictures and I’m absolutely in love with things like Instagram. I’m going to start doing a regular post with my favorite shots from the week because the weather is getting beautiful, this town is beautiful, we get out OFTEN and I take a ton of pictures!

Anyway, back to the tacos!

This is another great freezer meal. The meat thaws and reheats well and the rice can be cooked ahead of time and frozen as well. Just make sure to shake it up periodically as it’s freezing so the liquid freezes somewhat evenly. Otherwise you’ll end up with chunky, soggy rice. No bueno.

 

TACO MEAT:

INGREDIENTS:
1lb Ground turkey meat (No need to defrost)
1tbsp Ground cumin, chili powder
1tsp Garlic powder, thyme, red pepper flakes, celery salt
1 Diced red bell pepper
1 Small sliced white onion
4 Roma tomatoes diced
Bacon grease

DIRECTIONS:
     In a large Dutch oven pot, combine frozen turkey and about 3/4 cup of water. Bring to boil, covered and simmer, breaking into pieces until evenly cooked. Uncover, add the seasonings and continue cooking until all the liquid is evaporated and meat begins to brown well. Add the bacon grease, making sure to mix to distribute evenly. Once it’s melted, add the onions and bell peppers. Cook until they start to become soft and the onions become translucent. Add the tomatoes, cover and cook on medium-low for another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, seasoning to taste.

SPANISH RICE:

INGREDIENTS:
1c White rice
2tbsp Unsalted butter
1tbsp Knorr tomato bouillon
1c Water
1c Herdez red salsa

DIRECTIONS:
      In a large skillet, melt butter over medium high heat and add rice. Simmer over medium heat until golden brown. Add water, salsa and seasoning, and return to a boil, cover and cook until liquid is absorbed.

I’ve posted how to make my refried beans before, you can find the recipe here.

I make soft tacos, so I just cook the corn tortillas on a hot comal in stacks of two flipping to heat evenly and store in a tortilla warmer until it’s time to eat

.

That’s all! The only unhealthy part is the bacon grease, which you can easily omit without substitution. The rice can be cooked in EVOO as well to cut calories.

Enjoy!

Pollo Verde Enchiladas, Spanish Brown Rice & Refried Beans

Finally! Hello! I’ve been sitting on this one for about a month, because I just don’t have a lot of time to blog. I’ve been looking for another job, which has been going wonderfully, again. And I ended up getting rid of my zombie apocalypse machine of a Range Rover in favor of a small and fast, grocery getter. And I’m not even sad.

Onto the food, yes?

This is another recipe from my brothers ex-girlfriend. She use to use Bueno Chile which is delicious, frozen and in a pinch, is a life saver. You literally follow the directions on the back, which call for a little four, water and some thaw time and you’ve got a delicious red or green enchilada sauce that you would swear is home made. That’s about where the compliments on her version of this dish, end. She used canned chicken. Canned. So I’ve fixed a few things and jazzed it up, because, well, that’s what I do, in the kitchen. In college, when I was working my booty off for nothing, some meals just had to come from the dollar store. So I learned how to spice up canned enchilada sauce with fresh veggies. That’s what I did this time, but because we had an extra can and I really wanted to make this damn dish! SO, I’ll post another recipe that calls for my REAL chile verde sauce and you’ll see how I make it by hand, from fresh chiles!

Mmmm…. Looks delicious, right?

CHICKEN:
First, you’ll need to cook the chicken.

I usually use the kind with the skin left on, because it gives the chicken more flavor, you can use the fat in the refried beans and since the rest of this dish is pretty healthy, depending on how you make it, it doesn’t really matter to me that the skin is there.

INGREDIENTS:
6 breasts of chicken
1 tbsp of chili powder, thyme, rosemary, red pepper, black pepper and garlic powder
1 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS:
Cook the chicken in a large pot, over medium heat with enough water to cover half the chicken.

When chicken is cooked through, remove the lid and cook until the chicken is golden brown. Set aside to shred later!

Oh, chopping the chicken into large pieces will help it cool a lot faster if you cooked a bunch, like I do when I make freezer meals out of this!

SAUCE:
It’s super simple, when made this way.

INGREDIENTS:
1 large can of Las Palmas Green Chile Enchilada Sauce
1 medium can of diced green chiles (again, this is the “cheating” version of this recipe, I usually use roasted hatch chiles, but they’re not quite in season yet.)
2 small white onions, diced and processed in a food processor
2 1/2 green peppers, diced and processed in a food processor
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp of crushed red pepper, black pepper, cumin, oregano, thyme, rosemary and garlic powder

 

DIRECTIONS:
In a medium sauce pan, over medium heat, melt the butter and add the onions and peppers. Cook until onions become translucent and peppers are soft. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for about 10 minutes, covered, reducing heat if need be.

 

 

REFRIEND BEANS:
The refried beans are easy, and the recipe can be found here.

SPANISH BROWN RICE:
The recipe can be found here the only difference is I used brown rice. I like it better and Mo does too now, so I win another food war I didn’t have to fight! I love it!

Also, shred about 1/2lb of colby jack cheese and about a 1/4lb of Velveeta.

Last but not least, tortillas! You will use the same process to layer the enchiladas as was used on the pollo rojo enchiladas, found in the link above. So you’ll need to measure your baking dish in tortillas, multiply that by 4 and pop that many corn tortillas in the oven, on 350 until they’re ALMOST crispy, but still flexible.

ASSEMBLY TIME!

I know I explained this before in the last enchilada post, but it’s worth repeating. I don’t roll my ladas. I layer, like lasagna.

Layer the tortillas, chicken, sauce and cheese, making the bottom layer the thickest.

Cover with tortillas, tearing them in half, if you have to, it’s fine. Do another layer, thinner than the first, cover with tortillas.

Then use the remaining sauce to cover the tortillas, if you have any tortillas left over. Because the ones on the edge of the oven can often burn, I over estimate how many tortillas I’ll need and if they get too crispy, hey, we have chips! Break a couple of them up and layer them on top of the dish, cover with cheese and tin foil (remember to use toothpicks so the foil doesn’t ruin your pretty presentation!) and pop in the oven at 350!

In about half an hour, take off the tinfoil and turn the heat up to 400 and bake until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown! Let it sit for about 10 minutes after you take it out of the oven or it will fall apart completely, which isn’t a bad thing, it’s just a gooey delicious mess, but for presentations purposes, just let it sit.

Enjoy!