BAJIO CHICKEN CHILE QUESADILLAS

Remember yesterday when I posted the Bajio Chicken Chile Salad. Well, here I am again with a wonderful surprise...the leftovers make a delicioso second meal. I love crock-pot recipes but I love even more leftovers that can make great second meals!!! The Bajio Chicken Chile Salad is just such a recipe. I used the leftover chicken from our chicken chile salad and made quesadillas. It was a flavor explosion in my mouth.

• Leftovers from Bajio Chicken Chile Salad
• Flour tortillas - 2 per quesadilla
• mexican blend shredded cheese
• black beans (optional)
• salad greens (I used sweet baby greens)

Assembly of Quesadilla's -

Heat skillet on medium and spray lightly with cooking spray. Place a flour tortilla in heated pan and sprinkle cheese over tortilla. Drizzle the cilantro dressing over cheese. Spread the chicken chile over the cheese and then the black beans over the chicken. Drizzle with a little more dressing and then sprinkle a little more cheese. Top with a flour tortilla and cook until bottom tortilla is lightly brown (Please be careful not to burn!) Then flip over and cook until lightly brown. Slice like a pizza and serve over a bed of greens and a side of the green chile rice.

BAJIO CHICKEN CHILE SALAD

Remember the blog that inspired me to combine my blogs into one? Well she also had this yummy recipe that I tried recently. It is a copy cat recipe for Bajio Chicken Chile Salad. She says this recipe "came from Kara’s Kitchen Creations - a darling blog with lots of yummy recipes!".

Recipe adapted from Kara's Kitchen Creations

Bajio Chicken Chile Salad
5 chicken breasts (I only used 4 large ones)
1/2 cup salsa
1 Tbsp cumin
1/2 cup brown sugar (more to taste)
1 4 oz. can diced green chilies
6 oz. Sprite (1/2 can)
Combine all ingredients in a crock pot. Cook on low for 5-6 hours. Remove chicken and shred. Return to crock pot and cook 1 more hour. Thicken the juices with a little cornstarch mixed in water.
Serve with flour tortillas, lettuce, cheese, black beans and any other taco fixings.
If you want it spicer rather than sweeter add a hotter salsa and more green chilies.

Green Chile Rice (Serves 6)
1 cup rice
2 cups chicken broth
4 oz. green chiles
1 sm. onion, diced
1/3 cup fresh cilantro
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1-2 tsp. cumin
3 green onions.
Mix together and pour into greased 9 x 13 pan. Bake in the oven for 1 hour or until rice is done at 350.

NOTE*** If you plan to double the amount of rice you will have adjust cooking time appropriately. It will take about 15-20 min. longer.

Cilantro Salad Dressing (This gets rave reviews everytime I serve it)
1 pkg. Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (dry mix)
1 cup buttermilk
1/2- 1/3 bunch of cilantro, chopped
1/2 – 1 small jalapeno (remove seed)
1 cup mayo
1 tsp. lime juice
1-2 tomatillos (remove outer papery skin)
1 garlic clove
Blend all ingredients in blender!

Building the Salad

I used sweet baby greens for the foundation of my salad.

Top the greens with the chicken.

Top the chicken with black beans.

Top the black beans with cheese.

Top the cheese with tortilla strips (I made my own).

Drizzle the cilantro Salad dressing over everything.

Serve with Green chili rice on the side.

Skillet Steak

Although my hubby is like "Mikey" - he'll eat anything - he does have favorites and steak is at the top. This new york strip cut steak was marinated overnight, seered in the skillet, and placed in a hot oven for barely 8 minutes. The meat was super tender and delectable. A new favorite for my family.

Steak Marinade

Compliments of LuuvBunny @ recipezaar.com

• 1 TBS olive oil
• 1 garlic clove
• 1 TBS worcestershire sauce
• 1 TBS balsamic vinegar or white vinegar
• 1 tsp yellow mustard
• 1 TBS soy sauce
• pepper

1. Mix all ingredients together and place steaks (up to 4 lbs) into freezer freezer bag with marinade preferably overnight.

2. Here are a couple of tips for cooking a steak in the oven instead of on the grill. The grill is preferable for me but we don't have one right now. First and foremost the meat should be removed from the refrigerator early enough to allow it to come to room temperature before cooking. Heat the oven to 500 degrees with the cast iron skillet inside. When the pan is fully heated remove it from the oven and place it on a stove burner that is on. Place a TBS of oil in the pan and then place the meat(that is now at room temp) in the pan and seer for 90 seconds. USING TONGS (never use a fork on meat when cooking...it releases the juices and will dry the meat out) flip the steak and seer on this side for 90 seconds. *Optional - at this point you can pour some of the remaining marinade over or not...your preference. Place steak and pan in your preheated oven and allow to cook for 5-6 mins for medium rare, 7-8 min for medium, 9-10 for medium well ( these times are based on a 1 1/2 inch thick cut of meat). Remove pan from oven and using tongs place steak on plate and allow to rest for at least 90 seconds DO NOT CUT until after it as rested. Repeat this process for each steak that you have. Depending on the size of your steaks you may be able to cook more than one at a time.

Mediteranean Style Pizza

This is my husband Rodrigo's favorite pizza. He likes it better than any of the store bought self-rising pizzas or any of the poplular pizza chains. I created the pizza just for him after hearing him critique other pizzas. I use a pre-made store bought thin and crispy crust(his preference). Sometimes I make my own pizza sauce and sometimes I just use store bought. Either way it is super Yummy...just ask him :)

Ingredients:

• 1 thin and crispy pizza crust
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup pizza sauce
• 5 slices of provolone cheese
• 4 oz ofshredded mozzarella cheese
• 4 oz of shredded parmesean blend cheese
• pepperoni (as much or as little as preferred)
• 1 can of artichokes packed in juice NOT OIL - drained and quartered.
• small jar of kalamata olives - drained and sliced
• small jar of roasted red peppers - drained and sliced.

Preheat the oven as directed for the pizza crust. My pizza crust requires that you preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Spread the pizza sauce over entire pizza crust. Arrange the provolone pizza slices over the sauce to cover the pizza crust. Arrange pepperoni over provolone cheese. Sprinkle a handful of the mozzarella cheese over pepperoni. Arrange the last for ingredients over the pizza then cover with the remaining cheese. Place in oven and cook. Remove slice and serve.

Pasta Primavera

Any recipe by Giada is delicoso and this one is healthful and super easy to make to boot. It makes a great summer meal. We served it with a cesar salad.

Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients:

• 3 carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips
• 2 medium zucchini or 1 large zucchini, cut into thin strips
• 2 yellow squash, cut into thin strips
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs or herbes de Provence
• 1 pound farfalle (bowtie pasta)
• 15 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan

Directions

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. On a large heavy baking sheet, toss all of the vegetables with the oil, salt, pepper, and dried herbs to coat.

Transfer half of the vegetable mixture to another heavy large baking sheet and arrange evenly over the baking sheets. Bake until the carrots are tender and the vegetables begin to brown, stirring after the first 10 minutes, about 20 minutes total.

Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.

Toss the pasta with the vegetable mixtures in a large bowl to combine. Toss with the cherry tomatoes and enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten. Season the pasta with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and serve immediately.

Latin America style tacos

I so named these tacos because they are a hodge podge of recipes from friends and family who live south of the US border. We take tacos very seriously in our home. It is a family favorite. I am certain that my children craved beans, rice, lemon, avacado and corn tortillas from birth as they are the mainstay of my pregnant diet.

As you can see from the picture we don't pre-prepare our tacos before sitting down to eat but, our plates serve as mini buffets for preparing our tacos as we like, once we are all seated. Above is our typical "latin american taco plate".

The picture below beginning shows each dish - Clockwise (starting at the noon postion) Black beans (my husbands favorite), flour and corn tortilla, arroz nicaraguense, avocado chileno, pico de gallo mexicano, center(taco meat americano) and radishes or rabanos chilenos. (all recipes are posted here on my blog).

The recipe below all serves 4-6.

Taco meat mexicano

by Caprece Curtis

1 TBS of olive oil

1 medium onion, thinly sliced

1 1/2 lbs of ground beef

1 TBS of chile powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp ground red pepper (commonly called cayenne pepper)

1 can tomato sauce

Heat oil in large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; cook until onion is softened. Add beef and cook. Add chili powder, salt, cumin and red pepper; cook stirring one min. stir in tomato sauce and bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20 min.

serves 4.

Chicken Tetrazzini

I don't know if you are familiar with Giada de Laurentiis but she is an italian cook on the Food Network. I love her dishes. They aren't crazy difficult and they never fail to excite the palate. One of the reasons that I began this blog was to try and get a raved over recipe for chicken tetrazzini from a good friend. I am still hoping she will share but in the meantime I tried Giada's version. It didn't dissappoint. I started by doing a search for the recipe and ended up with three different versions...1 - super easy all pre-made ingredients 2- semi easy half pre-made and half home-made ingredients 3- Giada's from scratch recipe. I wasn't crazy about Giada's because it would require the most work but in the end I decided if I really wanted to know if this dish could become a "tried and true" I needed to do the from scratch version. I think I chose the right because it was melt in your mouth good!

WARNING: DELICIOUS BUT FATTENING RECIPE FOLLOWS :)

Ingredients
9 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 pound white mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 cups whole milk, room temperature
1 cup heavy whipping cream, room temperature
1 cup chicken broth
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
12 ounces linguine
3/4 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup dried Italian-style breadcrumbs
Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Spread 1 tablespoon of butter over a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking dish. Melt 1 tablespoon each of butter and oil in a deep large nonstick frying pan over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the chicken with 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Add the chicken to the hot pan and cook until pale golden and just cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer the chicken to a plate to cool slightly. Coarsely shred the chicken into bite-size pieces and into a large bowl.
Meanwhile, add 1 tablespoon each of butter and oil to the same pan. Add the mushrooms and saute over medium-high heat until the liquid from the mushrooms evaporates and the mushrooms become pale golden, about 12 minutes. Add the onion, garlic, and thyme, and saute until the onion is translucent, about 8 minutes. Add the wine and simmer until it evaporates, about 2 minutes. Transfer the mushroom mixture to the bowl with the chicken.
Melt 3 more tablespoons butter in the same pan over medium-low heat. Add the flour and whisk for 2 minutes. Whisk in the milk, cream, broth, nutmeg (I omitted the nutmeg...just not crazy about this spice in dishes), remaining 1 3/4 teaspoons salt, and remaining 3/4 teaspoon pepper. Increase the heat to high. Cover and bring to a boil. Simmer, uncovered, until the sauce thickens slightly, whisking often, about 10 minutes.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the linguine and cook until it is tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 9 minutes. Drain. Add the linguine, sauce, peas, and parsley to the chicken mixture. Toss until the sauce coats the pasta and the mixture is well blended.
Transfer the pasta mixture to the prepared baking dish. Stir the cheese and breadcrumbs in a small bowl to blend. Sprinkle the cheese mixture over the pasta. Dot with the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter. Bake, uncovered, until golden brown on top and the sauce bubbles, about 25 minutes.

Recipe compliments of Giada de Laurentiis of the Food Network.

Crock Pot Beef Stroganoff

I am not a woman who loves to cook. I consider it rather a necessary evil. So, when I find a good crock pot recipe I get really excited! This one is scrumplicious! Well, if you like beef stroganoff. I served it with egg noodles and a green salad. The whole family ate it up. I made just a couple of changes to the original recipe. Crock pots aren't ideal for browning things so, I brown my meat in a skillet then put it in the crock pot. I also do the same for onions or garlic when called for in a crock pot recipe. I have found in my experience that this improves the taste of the dish.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 8 hours,
Ingredients:
1 package stew beef (or your favorite type, cut into cubes or strips)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 onion, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 cup beef broth
1 - 8 ounce container sour cream
salt, pepper and paprika
Preparation:Brown the stew beef then place it in the crock pot. Saute the onion and garlic in the same skillet you browned the meat in then add it to the crock pot. Combine all ingredients, except sour cream, salt, pepper and paprika, in a slow cooker. Cook for several hours. (I usually let it cook for 6 hrs. on medium)
Before serving, add sour cream, salt, pepper and paprika, to taste. If you want it a little thicker, you can mix some flour or cornstarch with water and add it to the mixture to thicken it. Serve over rice or noodles