Homemade CrunchWrap Supremes

I couldn’t wait to post this recipe because it turned out SO good. For reals. I may just live off of these for the unforeseeable future. They were incredibly easy to make and fun to eat. Not to mention delicious! I chose to put my nacho cheese in a pastry bag to make assembly easier and it worked really well. Also, I highly recommend using nacho cheese if at all possible. At my grocery store they keep it in the pasta aisle in the same general area as the Velveeta cheese. I bet these would be awesome for kids to eat as well because they were so much easier to eat than tacos. And they look cool. So make them!

• 5 large flour tortillas
• 5 small tostada shells
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 package taco seasoning
• sour cream
• nacho cheese (or shredded Mexican blend cheese)
• shredded lettuce
• diced tomatoes

Brown ground beef in a skillet, then add taco seasoning (according to package directions). Set aside.

Working with one flour tortilla at a time, microwave for about 10 seconds. Lay out the flour tortilla and spoon some of the seasoned beef into the center. Top with some nacho cheese (or shredded cheese). Place the tostada shell on top of the cheese and spread a dollop of sour cream on top of it. Top with diced tomatoes and shredded lettuce.

Starting with the bottom of the tortilla, fold the edge up to the center. Continue doing this in a clockwise or counter-clockwise movement until all of the tortilla is folded over, and the filling is entirely enclosed. If your filling isn’t entirely enclosed, cut out a circle from another flour tortilla and place it on the exposed area, then wrap the tortilla again.

Spray a frying pan with cooking spray.  Carefully place the Crunchwrap, seam-side down, in the pan. Press with a spatula and cook on medium-low heat, for about 3 minutes, until the bottom is nice and brown. Flip it over and cook for another 3 minutes. Serve and enjoy.

Adapted from Full Bellies Make Happy Kids

Fish Tacos with Avocado Cabbage Slaw

You craving some summer time food yet? Yeah, me too. These days I’ve been hankering for fresh veggies and fruits and salads in place of creamy soups and cheesy casseroles. Or maybe it’s because I’ve been trying to shed a couple extra pounds and I’m dying to find food that I can eat lots of without blowing my daily calorie budget. Whatever it is, these fish tacos satiated my craving. They were a simple weeknight meal and were packed with flavor. And bonus for all of you Weight Watchers buddies out there, they’re only 5 points a piece! Score!

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One-Pot Southwest Chicken & Rice

If only you could get a delicious one-dish meal made from scratch* on the table quicker than one from some preservative filled box. Well, with this recipe it’s possible! It seemed so simple I doubted any flavor would be present, but I was wrong! I swear this took less than 20 minutes to make, maybe closer to 15. I thought it was good as-is but would also be great to eat in tortillas. Also, if you’re like me and forget to put the Rotel tomatoes on your grocery list, a can of diced tomatoes and a can of diced green chilies is just as good as a substitute. This recipe is definitely going into my “quick pantry meal” file.

*You do use a packet of taco seasoning, but you could always use your own if you wanted too.

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Mexican Corn and Poblano Soup

As is quite frequently my luck when shopping for required recipe ingredients, my grocery store was fresh out of poblano peppers. Darn it. Having used them before I knew they were quite mild, so I decided to go with Anaheim peppers instead. And since they were smallish, I used 4 instead of 2. Anaheim peppers are actually a little hotter than poblanos, but the resulting soup was pleasantly spicy. So I guess what I’m saying here is, you could use Anaheim peppers if you can’t find poblanos.

I chose to go the broiler route to char all my onions and peppers, and I’d say it took approximately 3-5 minutes per side until they were done. Which was fine because this left my hands free to prep the rest of the ingredients. I thought this soup had a great flavor and Seth and I promptly ate the entire batch in one sitting. So if you’re cooking for your family, might want to double or triple this one.

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Salad Tacos

I don’t know what it was about this recipe, but I wanted to make it as soon as I saw it. Now, turns out this isn’t all that different from a regular taco, but there were a couple things worth noting that made these extra delicious.

First of all, the taco meat was fabulous. This was the first time I’d ever bought chili beans and I thought the addition of them to the meat was delicious. Pretty sure this is going to be my new go-to way to make taco meat. Also, I swapped the beef for ground turkey. It’s healthier and nobody can tell the difference. For reals. I actually sub ground turkey for ground beef quite frequently, especially when the recipe is heavily seasoned like this one.

So the second thing I liked about this recipe was the use of a homemade spicy southwestern dressing. It was really simple to make and tasted great. Oh and just one last tip… don’t bother making these reverse-style with the lettuce first as described in the recipe. Meat first works much better. I guess if you really wanted it to be more salad-like you could always put it in a taco bowl instead.

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Mexican Chicken

I originally saw this recipe on Pinterest and thought it looked pretty good. It ended up being too much chicken just eating it on a tortilla as suggested so next time I would definitely add some Mexican rice or use it for taco meat and add tomatoes, lettuce, and sour cream.

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Chipotle Beef Taquitos

Ok so on my last post I gave you a fabulous pepperoncini roast recipe. I made these awesome taquitos the next day with what I had left over. I’m not sure which I liked better… possibly these taquitos. They were very simple to make and were packed to the hilt with flavor. I originally served them with a simple dipping sauce made by combining some salsa and sour cream, but later on realized I had some homemade Cafe Rio-style cilantro lime dressing. That pairing about knocked my socks off. I highly recommend it.

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Cafe Rio-Style Taco Salad

It’s been pretty dang hot around here over the last week so my food preferences have shifted quite a bit. Last week was all about the soups but this week I just want something on the cooler side. I’ve been wanting to recreate my favorite Cafe Rio salad/tostada so I gave it a go last night. 

Now, I didn’t do the full-fledged salad with the roast beef and rice, etc. However, I did find a fabulous copycat recipe for the creamy Cafe Rio Cilantro dressing. I made the dressing first so it could sit in the refrigerator while I finished making the rest of the salad components. I went with a healthier, cheaper option and made some taco meat using ground turkey *cough* and a packet of taco seasoning *cough*. I told Seth after he’d finished eating that I’d used ground turkey instead of beef and he was shocked it hadn’t been ground beef. Trust me, no one will know the difference.  I also ended up making my own taco shell bowls. The store-bought ones were $4 for a box of 4. A little steep for my tastes, especially since I’m sure half of them would have been broken anyway. But, luckily I remembered some wavy metal bowls Seth’s coworker had given us for making just this sort of thing. I used some whole wheat tortillas I had on hand, pressed them down into the bowls, sprayed them with vegetable oil spray and baked them at 400°F for 10 minutes. And I’m telling you they tasted fabulous! Baking the shells gave them a great sweet, nutty flavor. I’m sure you could also use any other small oven-safe bowl/ramekin to make your own tostada bowls, they just won’t be wavy like these ones.

The rest of the assembly was super easy. I heated up some canned black beans and put a small scoop in the bottom of the bowl, followed by a scoop of taco meat, & grated cheddar cheese. I topped that will some chopped green leaf lettuce, a scoop of sour cream & pico de gallo. Garnished with cilantro and a side of delicious cilantro lime dressing and we were set! Seriously… this is one of the best dinners we’ve had in a while. So good!

Cilantro Lime Dressing Recipe

The Best Chicken Tortilla Soup

I’ve posted this recipe before but thought I’d post it once again just in case ya’ll missed it. This is without a doubt, the best tortilla soup I’ve ever had. It’s got the perfect amount of spice and I never have to add so much as a pinch of salt (those with kids may want to hold off on the Tabasco & chipotle peppers…). I usually do the fast way of making this (1 hour simmer on the stove) but this is also a great crockpot recipe. Now, the soup alone is good, but please don’t skip the garnishes. They take the soup from an 8 to a 10!

p.s. Rotisserie chicken is amazing in this.

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Spicy Bean Burritos

I just happened to be starving one night when I got home from work and because of this, I didn’t stop at the grocery store to do my weekly shopping. Lucky for me I had this recipe all planned out and most of the ingredients already in the cupboard! Despite the name, I really didn’t think this was very spicy, pretty kid-safe I’d say. It had just enough spice to give it some depth. I thought this was a great vegetarian meal and I’d definitely make it again… this time with the diced tomatoes and lettuce I didn’t have the first time around!

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