Albuquerque In Our ♥

One of the benefits of having Spanish in-laws:  the food!

For Christmas Eve, the MIL came over and I attempted a little heritage-themed dinner.

She brought over her famous Spanish tortilla, which is primarily made from eggs & potatoes:

My dish, however, ended up more Tex-Mex than Spanish.  So we had an Albuquerque themed Christmas Eve dinner. ♥

I’m thinking that they name this recipe “Smother Chili Colorado” because its got a cowboy feel to it.  Heavy, smoky flavors and not a lot of spice.

I started by throwing a pound and a half of dry-rubbed (ancho chili powder, salt, & garlic) beef tips into a crockpot.

Then, I added a full can of red enchilada sauce and let them cook on low for 7 hours.

They literally fell apart.

About an hour before the meat timer was scheduled to go off, I made some cilantro-lime rice (recipe below):

And black beans cooked in cumin, coriander, salt and pepper:

Once everything was finished, I just had to assemble the burritos,

smother them with the remaining enchilada sauce and shredded cheddar cheese.

Then, I set them to broil for around 7 minutes.

We served them with a side of our favorite red beans and rice.

¡Feliz navidad!

Slow Cooker Chicken & Cheater Empanadas

I literally love Tex-Mex style food.  If it is hot and spicy and tastes like cumin or coriander, I’m there.

A few days ago, I was going to make chicken tacos, so in my slow-cooker, I threw 2 large diced tomatoes and 1 dice jalapeno:

And then about a pound of organic boneless, skinless chicken breast:

And the added enough low-sodium chicken broth to cover everything.

(When you are using a slow-cooker, meat in liquid cooks faster.  In this case, it means that it will be super moist and fall apart quickly.) ♥

I don’t like taco seasoning from a bag (I mean, don’t get me wrong I grew up eating Ortega, but they can keep those 430mg of sodium).

I added some ancho chili powder, cumin, coriander and fresh ground pepper to the mix and let it simmer (covered) for about 6 hours.

Awww…Sassy:

She may be ugly, but she’s one tough bitch.  She recently fell off of the refrigerator and shattered a glass-top stove (which unfortunately I cannot find the photo of).

While digging around for a photo, I did happen upon this gem from last year:

It’s here, it’s finally here!!! ♥♥♥

Anywhoo…back to the chicken.  I had been thinking to myself: “Chicken tacos are going to be bomb after this little league game!”

And then we bombed the game and came home feeling kind of blah.  I remember settling for something a PB&J and calling it a night.

So, I used a slotted spoon to get all the chicken, all the tomatoes and what was left of half the jalapeno, and added 1/4 c . of the cooking liquid to one of my Snapware containers.

These aren’t mine, but I have the same set! BPA-free baby!!

The great thing about shredded chicken is that you can use it in a ton of stuff…so after scavenging my fridge for other unused ingredients, I found some Pillsbury crescent rolls.

Well hello instant empanadas.

I unrolled the ENTIRE sheet of dough onto a floured surface and then used a plastic cup to roll it out (classy, eh?).  Then I cut it into 6 squares and added my yummins:

I happened to have black beans, scallions and Monterrey-Jack cheese in the fridge, so it just kind of worked out.  You really could put any of your faves in these little buggers.

Pull the dough over the yummins and seal the empanadas with your fingers.  Don’t be shy – I made mine really full and I had to keep using one finger to stuff black beans back in as I sealed them.

They APPEAR slimy because I put an egg-white wash on them so that they would brown up into a heavenly crust. (The slits are optional.)

I baked these at 375°F for ????  Not really sure!!!  I was running around doing stuff, so I just kept an eye on them.  I’d estimate like 15-20 minutes?  When they look golden brown, give them a tad longer.

What?  I’m not a chef.

But I did come up with this manna from Heaven:

Yeah.  I got to eat that.  With sour cream and extra green onions on top.

Pillsbury crescent rolls are only like 110 calories, 6 g of fat and 11 carbs a serving (which is one empanada).  NOTE:  They do have reduced fat Pillsbury crescent rolls, these just happen to be the ones I had in the fridge.

All the taste of an empanada without any of the work.  Genius.  Inexpensive. And I got to get rid of some stuff in my fridge.

Happy Tex-Mex Monday ♥

Quesadillas and Craft Beer

After the Great Cloth Diaper Change, Amanda and Lil’ Red came over to our house to hang out.

Pretty much adore this kid:

For dinner, Amanda made chicken quesadillas (something that I NEVER make, but they are so yummy and so easy!)

Amanda apparently loves cooking in other people’s kitchens, which I of course had no objection to AND cooking involves music AND dancing.  Three? thumbs up!

We started by poaching some boneless, skinless chicken breast in salsa, water and a can I had of diced tomatoes:

Using…

Then Amanda added the chicken…

Then you let it go at a rolling boil until the chicken is done!

Easy – peasy…

My job was to take care of the red beans and rice…haha

Instructions on the box? Well, yes thank you I think I will.

While my gourmet black beans and rice were cooking, the chicken finished up and Amanda started shredding it for the quesadillas:

Since Amanda is so amazing, she brought over whole wheat tortillas AND white ones for her♥.

Once things started rolling, it happened pretty quick! (Sorry for the lack of collages, Picnik really screwed my pooch.)

The whole wheat quesadillas came second (gotta feed the hangry♥ first), but were just as good:

I consider my first Great Cloth Diaper Change and my official initiation into Pittsburgh Craft Beer Week (PCBW) the same day!

Mine is the one with the fat guy, she♥ picked the pokery one, and of course Amanda picked the IPA.

So anyway, dinner was ready to be served!

Dinner was so amazing…I basically love anything Meixcan/Spanish/LatinAmerican/Spanglish/TexMex. ♥

Pretty sure they were a hit…

Don’t forget to check out Amanda’s Blog – Ventures in Green.  She does way more cool stuff than me having to do with sustainability, green living and natural parenting.