Cheesy Tacos, Two Ways

I'm always on the look-out for great LC substitutes for our favorite foods. With our love of Mexican food (specifically NEW Mexican food, but we'll take what we can get) I've been searching for ways to replace the tortillas that are nearly indispensable for this style of cooking. We have discovered some alternatives for tacos that have us feeling pretty excited, so I thought I'd share them here.

Method #1
What you'll need:
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Taco meat (prepared however you normally make it) *The recipe says to use 1 cup, but I think I used about 3/4 of a pound.
Toppings of choice (avocado, tomato, green onion, etc)

What to do:
Preheat oven to 400*. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, leaving enough on the sides that you will be able to lift the cheese from the pan.
Sprinkle cheese to cover the baking sheet with one layer (you may need more cheese). Bake for about 15 minutes, or until it bubbles and browns on top.
Remove from the oven and see if you can slide a spatula under all the edges. If you can you're ready to go on, if not put it back in the oven for another minute or two.
Spread taco meat and any other toppings over the cheese in a thin layer.
Remove from pan by lifting edges of parchment paper. Roll the cheese up like you would cinnamon roll dough. Slice into desired sized portions (the original recipe says to only make 3-4 slices, but we cut ours into small pinwheels and I think it would be easier to eat this way), top with sour cream, and serve.

Method #2
We discovered this method of making taco shells via Pinterest. The original site is here. These are more of your traditional taco shell.

What You Need:
Shredded Cheese
Your preferred taco fillings

What To Do:
Make a small circle of cheese on a glass plate (ceramic didn't work so well for us). Microwave for 40-60 seconds until the cheese is all melted and starting to brown.
Lift them carefully from the plate and hang them over the edge of a bowl or pan until they have cooled and hardened.
Fill with your favorite taco stuff and enjoy!

***For non-microwave directions check out this site.

Spicy Prickly Pear Glazed Chicken

I found a recipe online that sounded good, but it made 24 chicken thighs and used bourbon, which we don't have and didn't want to figure out what to do with the extras. I wanted to make this in much smaller portions and leave the bourbon out so I used the recipe as my base and then tweaked it. This turned out really really yummy! It was incredibly moist and tender and the sauce was perfect. I sautéed some canned green beans to go with this and tasted excellent with the sauce as well. Here is how I made it:

Spicy Prickly Pear Glazed Chicken:

Ingredients:

• Olive Oil
• 1/2 chopped red onion
• 2 seeded and chopped serrano chile (use more to give this more kick, or less for a more mild kick. 2 chiles gave it just barely a detectable pinch of spice without making this too hot)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• juice from one lime (not key lime!)
• zest from one lime
• 2 TBS Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 c. red wine vinegar
• 3 TBS brown sugar
• 1 1/2 c. prickly pear juice
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 TBS butter
• 6 Chicken thighs (we used boneless, skinless)
• Chopped cilantro as garnish

Directions:

1. In a sauce pot, heat the oil. Saute the onion over medium heat until browned. 
2. Add the chile and garlic and saute until softened. 
3. Add the cumin and coriander and cook for 2 minutes. 
4. Add the lime juice and zest, Worcestershire sauce, red wine vinegar, and brown sugar. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes. 
5. Transfer the mixture to an electric blender and puree until smooth. Return the mixture to the pot. 
6. Add the prickly pear juice, salt, and butter. Return to a boil. Cook until the mixture has thickened. You almost want a paste, but not too gummy. 
7. In a large resealable bag, combine the thighs with 1/3 of the sauce. Toss to cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. 
8. Preheat the oven to 375. 
9. Lightly oil a baking pan (or I just lined mine with tin foil). Lay the thighs in the pan, and brush 1/2 the remaining sauce over the top.
10. Bake for 25 minutes. 
11. Turn the thighs over and brush on the remaining sauce. Bake for 20 minutes. 
12. Broil the thighs for 3-4 minutes to finish off. 
13. Top with cilantro

Creamy Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Soup

If we had different colored bowls, this would look way more appetizing I'm sure, but we have yellow bowls so the yellowish green soup when in the yellow bowls.

We read a few crockpot green chile soup recipes online, but it was already dinner time so we decided to just wing it and make up our own. It hit the spot and was delicious!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups green enchilada sauce
• 1 small can green chile (we didn't actually use this since the enchilada sauce we used had a ton of green chile chunks in it)
• 2 cups chicken broth (we didn't have real broth, so we actually used 2 cups hot water and a chicken bouillon cube)
• 1/4-1/2 tsp chile powder (we have red chile powder and green chile powder so we used green chile powder but all the recipe we read called for red chile powder)
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp onion powder
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• I'm not going to lie...I just sprinkled the cumin, onion powder, and garlic powder in...I didn't measure...so those are my guestimate amounts
• 3 potatoes, peeled and chopped (we only had 3 small potatoes left in the bag...but you can put more in and it'd taste fine)
• 1 large chicken breast, cut into smallish chunks
• 1 cup minute rice
• 4 oz cream cheese
• A handful (maybe 1/3 c.) of shredded swiss cheese. (optional! I only used this because we had it. This recipe will work fine without swiss cheese)
• Shredded cheddar cheese for top
• Other garnishes could include sour cream, tortilla strips, or cilantro

Directions

1. Combine the enchilada sauce, chile, broth, seasonings, potatoes, and chicken into a saucepot over medium high heat. Bring to a boil. 
2. Boil until the potatoes are half way to tender, and add the minute rice. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer until potatoes are tender and chicken is cooked through. 
3. Stir in cream cheese (and swiss if you're going to use it). 
4. Serve topped with cheese and any other garnishes you want. 

Makes 4 hearty bowls of soup. 

Prickly Pear Raspberry Lemonade

This stuff was delicious. Before serving it I dropped frozen raspberries in each cup to serve as the ice cubes (and because it looked cool)

Ingredients:
1 qt. prickly pear juice
1 bag frozen raspberries
1/2 c. lemon juice
between 2-3 quarts water
lemon berry and/or raspberry lemonade drink mix (I used the single serving sized packets that you put in your water bottle) OR sugar (optional)

1. In blender, blend prickly pear juice and raspberries
2. Pour in 1 gal. pitcher and add lemon juice.
3. Fill the pitcher the rest of the way with water.
4. At this point you can be done, it all depends on how strong and/or sweet you want it. If you like the taste, stop. I liked it, but I wasn't sure if our guests would like the strong prickly pear after taste, so I added 1 packet each of lemon berry and raspberry lemonade to help with the flavor.

Prickly Pear Raspberry Smoothie

2 years ago we posted Cameron's Prickly Pear Slush...but I wasn't a huge fan. It just had a funny aftertaste; he loved it though. Today I played around until I had a Prickly Pear Raspberry Smoothie that I LOVE. 

I just can't get over the color of the prickly pear fruit. It really is so vibrant and awesome.

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. frozen unsweetened raspberries
• 1/2 c. prickly pear fruit puree 
• 1 c. plain yogurt 
• About 2-3 TBS of water
• About 1-2 tsp. olive oil (I know...seems weird, but your body needs good oils in it and olive oil's not bad...if you have sunflower oil that works great too)
• Sweetener (sugar, truvia, jam, whatever you want to use)
• And then I added a tiny squirt of Berry Pomegranate MiO to help cancel out the prickly pear aftertaste (I love the initial prickly pear taste...it's the aftertaste that's a little odd)
• If you have prickly pear juice and not the puree, then omit the water in this recipe

Combine all ingredients in the blender and blend till smooth. I accidentally added too much water so I had to add a small handful more of frozen raspberries to give it the right consistency. 

Chili Chip Casserole

What you need:
1lb ground beef (When it's just Ethan and I, I go cheap and just use 1/2 a pound)
diced onion
1 can ranch beans
1 can diced tomatoes (drained)
Taco Seasoning
Tortilla chips (if I've got any crumbs from the bottom of a bag, or a bag that's been left open and gone stale, I use those for this)
Grated Cheese
Toppings:
Salsa, sour cream, hot sauce, ranch dressing, whatever else sounds good to you...

What you do:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Brown your hamburger in a large skillet with the diced onion. Drain the grease. Stir in the cans of beans and tomatoes. Add taco seasoning until it tastes yummy.
Grease a 9x13 pan and spread a layer of slightly crushed tortilla chips on the bottom. On top of the chips, spread a layer of the meat mixture. Add a layer of grated cheese. Repeat each of the layers one more time, then finish with a layer of crushed chips and grated cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melty and everything is warm all the way through.
Serve with whatever toppings you like (I know the ranch dressing sounds weird, but it's Ethan's favorite, he also puts on some salsa and hot sauce at the same time as the ranch).

Southwest Spaghetti Pie

Abigail participated in the 4-H Favorite Food Contest again this year. She wanted to make Stuffed Manicotti but we found out that it would take longer to bake than the time she was given, so she decided on this dish instead. She worried that a casserole would be ordinary, and it doesn't look very fancy, but it tastes delicious! She won the red ribbon in the Junior category and had lots of fun at the contest. She chose her place setting with Stuffed Manicotti in mind and she got dinged a couple of points on her score card because the judge felt that she should have had a more southwestern theme reflected on her table.  But, she'll have a chance to change the place setting when she goes to the district food contest later. I've posted more about the contest here.

Southwest Spaghetti Pie

6 oz. uncooked spaghetti, broken into thirds
½ lb. lean ground beef
½ cup chopped green and red bell peppers
1 cup prepared salsa
1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatoes, do not drain
1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed
¾ cup frozen corn, thawed
½ -1 teaspoon cumin, according to taste
6 oz. (1 ½ cups) shredded Cheddar cheese, divided
½ cup small curd Cottage cheese
1 egg

Cook the spaghetti just to al dente. Drain and set aside. Meanwhile heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 1 ½ quart casserole with nonstick cooking spray. Cook ground beef with peppers until no longer pink, stirring often. Drain. Stir in salsa, tomatoes, black beans, corn and cumin. Cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Stir in ½ cup of the cheese.

Beat egg in a medium bowl until well blended and foamy. Add cottage cheese and cooked spaghetti; toss to coat. Spoon spaghetti mixture into sprayed casserole. Spoon meat mixture on top of spaghetti. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Sprinkle remaining 1 cup cheese over top and return to oven for 10 minutes or until crust is light golden brown. Let sit for 10 minutes or so before serving. Makes 6 servings.

Green Chili Burritos

Another of my pork roast meat recipes. Again, super yummy and super fast.

What you need:

1 bag pork roast meat (see Pork Roast post)

1 can green chili, or if you're lucky enough to have it some fresh roasted green chili would be awesome!

2 potatoes

veggie oil

red chili powder

oregano

pinch of cumin

chopped onion or onion powder

minced garlic or garlic powder

flour tortillas

cheese, salsa, sour cream, and any other condiments you think sound good.

What to do:

Peel your potatoes and dice them into small cubes. Start these frying in a little bit of veggie oil. Stir every couple of minutes to prevent burning. Cook until golden brown and crispy.

Meanwhile, thaw your meat enough to get it out of its bag and into a pot. You might need to add a little water to help it thaw the rest of the way. Season to taste with the chili powder, cumin, onion, and garlic. You want the chili powder for flavor, but it will add heat so watch out. It's also easy to get too much oregano, so start with 1/2 a tsp or so and add more if you need it.

A minute or two before your potatoes are done, add the green chili to the meat and let it heat up, adjusting the seasoning if needed. When your potatoes are done, stir them into the meat and you're ready to go.

Pile up the meat and potatoes on a warm tortilla, sprinkle with grated cheese and add any salsa or other toppings that you want. Enjoy!

Prickly Pear Slush

Here's what you need:

3-5 Ripe Prickly Pear Fruit (more if the fruit are small)

Ice

Water

1/3 c. sugar

Here's what you do:

1. Remove the spikes. We did this by burning them off using our gas stove. You can use a candle too.
2. Cut the ends off the fruit and then cut it in half.
3. Scoop out the inside of the fruit, seeds and all, or peel the skin off with a knife.
Your peeled/scooped fruit will look like this.
4. Fill the blender 1/2 full of ice. Add the sugar, the fruit, and about 1/2 c. of water to start (more may be needed).

5. Blend until the ice is crushed to the right consistency/size. You may need to add more water to make it more drinkable.
6. Pour into a glass and enjoy! Don't you just love the color?!
7. This would also be good as a smoothie. We haven't tried it, but I think it would be good with some orange or peach sherbet mixed in with it. Maybe some orange juice.

Beer Batter Fried Rattlesnake

Yes, that's right.

While trying to cross the road, a rattlesnake got itself run over. The people investigated and found that only its head had been run over, nothing else had been damaged. Feeling bad about killing an animal in the wild, these people decided to at least put the death to good use. So...the snake was collected, skinned (the skin is being tanned), fried, and eaten (hey, it was already dead...might as well). Maybe now the American Redneck Association will accept our application.

Joining in the adventures was a pair of our good friends. The boys pretty much came up with the recipe and did all the cooking.

So...here's how to prepare rattlesnake (starting after the skinning, gutting, and cleaning of course), or at least how this rattlesnake was prepared:

Ingredients you'll need:
Rattlesnake
5 eggs
Flour
Salt
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Oil
Beer (I have no idea what kind it was, lol. The friend supplied it out of his fridge)


1. Cut your freshly washed meat into "fillets" (about 2 1/2 inch slices). You have to cut between the ribs and through the backbone, so it's a little bit time consuming. Have someone start heating up some oil in a pan (about an inch of oil in the pan).


2. While someone is cutting the meat up, someone can be making the batter. In a large bowl, mix 5 eggs, about a cup or 1 1/2 cups of flour (we just eyeballed it so maybe not even that much), one or two teaspoons of salt, some good shakes of the pepper, garlic powder and onion powder, about 1/2 a cup of beer (I think that was about the amount...again, it was eyeballed) and about a quarter cup of oil. Mix this thoroughly together until it looks like this:


3. When the meat is all sliced, put it in a bowl with a tablespoon of oil and a few shakes of salt, pepper, and onion powder. Make sure the meat gets thoroughly coated, like this:


4. Dip the meat into the batter and then stick it in the frying pan with the hot oil (just like you would do with fried chicken). When the meat first starts to cook it will smell kinda like fish.


5. You want to cook the meat for a while to make sure it's all the way done (white all the way through...not slimy or silvery).


6. Eat! For the most part, you have to big near the spine and then pull the meat off the ribs with your teeth. Watch out for bones. And...it does not taste like chicken.

The two boys thought this was awesome and way fun and exciting...the two girls were glad to go to Quizno's for some real food after the adventure.

Sushi; Tucson Roll

Cameron’s Tucson Roll Sushi

First, you must find inner peace by meditation. Once you have achieved inner peace, you may begin.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c. sushi rice or medium grain calrose rice
1/4 c. seasoned rice vinegar
1/2 can of cooked chicken, shredded
2 tsp. tapatio, cholula, or other hot sauce
1 tsp. of taco seasoning (optional)
1/2 of raw jalapeño, cut into strips
1/4 of raw green bell pepper, cut into strips
Wasabi paste
Soy Sauce
1 sheet of nori (seaweed wrap)

Extra items to have on hand:
Sushi rolling mat
Electric or handheld paper fan
Non-metallic bowl and spoon (bamboo spoon and rubber spatula was used in this recipe)
Bowl of water

Procedure:
1. Rinse the rice. This is symbolic of cleansing your soul. Rinse until the water is mostly clear.
2. Cook rice in rice cooker (or a pot if you don't have a rice cooker) as you would normal rice.
3. While your rice is cooking, mix taco seasoning, tapatio, and chicken together in a bowl, and cut vegetables (if not already done).
4. Once the rice is cooked, put it into a non-metallic bowl. If you have a flattish one, that is best. Spread evenly along bottom of bowl (so it is not in clumps).
5. Pour the rice vinegar over a wooden (not metal) spoon, distributing it evenly over the rice. This helps ensure that the rice is evenly coated.

6. Using a cutting and folding motion, rather than a scooping and stirring motion, mix the vinegar in with the rice. It is best to have a fan (electric or someone with a handheld paper fan) blowing on the rice at this time. This drives off the water and helps the rice to absorb the vinegar. Do this until the rice is shiny and sticky.
7. Lay half a sheet of nori on dry bamboo mat.
8. Coat your hands in water, so that the rice doesn't stick to them, and take about a palmful of rice and spread it over the nori, leaving about half an inch of space at the top.
9. Arrange chicken and peppers length-wise across the middle of the rice.

10. Dip your finger in water, and sprinkle the water over the blank edge of the nori.
11. Lift one end of the mat, curling it over the rice/filling. You may need to curl your fingers over the edges of the mat to hold the filling in place as you roll. Press the roll into a square-ish shape. Keep rolling the sushi until the roll closes over the dampened nori (I went to youtube to see how to roll it).

12. Using a SHARP wet knife, cut the sushi roll in half, and then traditionally you are supposed to cut it into thirds after that, but I only cut it into manageable pieces.
13. Dip into soy sauce, smear some wasabi on it, and enjoy!

You can use a variety of ingredients for you filling. This was my first try, so these were the ingredients I used. For sushi, I bought solid white albacore canned tuna, smoked kippers, imitation crab meat, peppers, jalapenos, avocado, carrots, some put cucumber in it, etc. Find what you like (thinking of color and presentation as well) and throw it in.
As far as raw fish goes, the FDA says that if you freeze raw fish, it will kill all parasites, however, it does not kill all microorganisms. So, I would like to use raw fish sometime. Tuna fish tastes really good raw, but it's really expensive, so I've used canned meats for my learning.


(Marquette's side notes: I thought this was yummy...except for the seaweed...but, I want you to know that I did try it. To my desert tastebuds, the seaweed tastes like I picked up a rock out of the ocean and licked it. But...the insides were really good...and had the seaweed not tasted like something that grew in murky water filled with dead fish and rotting plants, then I would have liked the whole thing. But in all seriousness, this was good. You'll like it.)

Spicy Skillet Chicken

This is super yummy and is really easy and cheap to make. It's one of our favorites now.

1-2 tsps red chili powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
4 Boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/4 lbs)
1 TBS vegetable oil
1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup(ish) whole kernal corn with red and green peppers, undrained (I used some plain canned corn that we had left over from a previous meal)
1/3 cup salsa (I think I used a little more so that is was as moist as we wanted it)
2 cups hot cooked rice

What to do:
1. In a small bowl, mix chili powder, salt, and pepper. Sprinkle evenly over both sides of chicken.
2. In 10 inch skillet, heat over oil over medium heat. Cook chicken in oil 8-10 minutes, turning once, until juice is clear when center of thickest part is cut (170 degrees).
3. Stir in beans, corn, and salsa. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 3-5 minutes or until vegetables are hot. Serve with rice.

South West Skillet

This is super easy, super cheap to make, and it makes a bunch!

1/4 cup chopped onion

1 lb ground beef

16 oz can diced tomatoes

2 cups hot water

2 cups macaroni or other pasta

1 can corn, drained

1/4 cup olives, sliced

1 package taco seasoning

12 cup grated cheese

1 can kidney beans

What to do:

1. In a large skillet, brown hamburger and onions. Drain grease.

2. Add tomatoes, pasta, water, and taco seasoning; bring to a boil.

3. Stir in corn and kidney beans and stir until heated through and noodles are soft.

4. Right before serving, add cheese and olives and stir.