Day 39: Mexican Pizza with homemade tortilla chips

Family came into town for my surgery and Jimmy's graduation. I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to use my 90-something tortilla wraps. Going against everything my doctor told me not to eat after surgery, I decided to make Mexican Pizza and homemade tortilla chips.

Mexican Pizza

(Grandpa's pizza)

(Jimmy's pizza)

Ingredient

• 1 (16 ounce) can refried beans


• 1 pound ground beef


• 1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix


• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil


• 4 (6 inch) corn tortillas


• 8 ounces shredded Cheddar cheese


• 8 tablespoons sour cream


• 2 roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped


• 2 green onion, chopped


• 1 (4 ounce) can diced green chiles, drained


• 1/2 avocado, diced


• 1 tablespoon black olives, sliced

Directions

1. Heat the refried beans.


2. In a large skillet, brown the ground beef. Stir in the seasoning packet.


3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).


4. Place a small amount of vegetable oil in a large skillet. Let the oil heat, then place one corn tortilla in the skillet. After 15 seconds, flip the tortilla over and let it fry another 15 seconds. Repeat this process with the remaining tortillas, letting them drain on paper towels once they have been heated. When the tortillas have drained, arrange them on a cookie sheet.


5. Spread a thin layer of beans on the tortillas, followed by a layer of beef, and cheese.


6. Bake the tortillas in the preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes. Slice the tortillas into wedges and arrange them on plates or a serving platter and garnish them with the sour cream, tomatoes, green onions, chiles, avocado, and olives.
   

What we thought:

When we made these, we forgot the lettuce but substituted it with cilantro and left out the olives. I think everybody came to an agreement that these were a 9/10. The only thing wrong with these were the tortillas. They were kind of hard to cut. We tried to come up with an idea on how to make the lower tortilla softer, and keep the crispiness of the top tortilla. We added some mango-peach salsa we picked up at the store. Since I was not allowed any "spicy" foods, Jimmy picked out the mango-peach because it was not that spicy. We all were pleased, and we are looking for suggestions on how to make the pizza easier to cut through.

Tortilla Chips

See my "What we thought" section to learn on how to make homemade tortilla chips! We all thought these were a 10/10! They were tasty with the mango-peach salsa!

Day 38: Chilaquiles

Happy Cinco De Mayo!!! With finals wrapping up, Jimmy's graduation, and my surgery going on, I totally forgot it was Cinco De Mayo. Thanks to Facebook status updates, I was reminded. I googled some "traditional" recipes, and I came across Chilaquiles. I've never had this before, and since I am trying to be more "well rounded" when it comes to different cuisines, I decided I HAD to try this.

Ingredients

For The Chicken:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts		1 onion, quartered
2 cloves of garlic

For the tomato sauce

2 onions, fnely chopped		1 garlic chopped very small
12 tomatoes peeled and seeded and pureed		1 Tbs cilantro, minced
salt and pepper, to taste		2 Tbs Tabasco sauce if you want it hot (optional)

Plus you will need

4 round corn tortillas		Sour cream, diluted with a small amount of water
½ lb manchego cheese		½ pound mozzarella cheese

Cut the tortillas into strips

Cook chicken with a little water, the quartered onion, a pinch of salt and two cloves of garlic. Cover, cook slowly over a medium heat.

Once the chicken is fully cooked, place chicken on a plate. Cool until you are able to handle it.

Throw away the garlic and onion.

Tomato Sauce

Sautee the chopped onion and garlic in some olive oil. Once the onion is translucent, add tomatoes, cilantro and Tabasco sauce, over medium heat for 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Shred the chicken and place in sauce, lower heat and cook for a few minutes to absorb some of the flavors from the sauce. Do not over cook.

Frying the corn tortillas

Deep fry the corn tortillas. When they are crisp, remove and drain on paper towels.

Assemble

Set the chilaquiles like lasagna. Use a large lasagna pan and layer the following:

• tortillas



• chicken in sauce



• sour cream {diluted in water}



• cheese.

Repeat layers and finish with cheese and sour cream. Bake at 335 degrees F for about 45 minutes.

What we thought:

This took about two hours to make, not including oven time. When all said and done, this tasted great! Jimmy and I both rated this a perfect 10. We liked the "freshness" the cilantro provided plus I really enjoyed the kind of cheese I used. For some reason, it didn't occur to me that you can chop of tortilla wraps and make tortilla chips. Remember, I was born blonde. My tortilla chips turned out great! I did not fry them like the recipe called for, I baked them. I sprayed canola oil on both sides and cooked for about....4 songs worth (i was listening to music at the time). That would be about 12 minutes. I just need another recipe so I can use up my tortilla wraps. Any suggestions?

Day 12: Mexican Lasagna

Its Mexican Monday again!! Today we will be making a 'mexican lasagna'. Sounds different, so we will try it!

What you will need:

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breast, cooked
4 cups salsa
6 ounces lasagna noodles, uncooked
1/2 cup olives, pitted, whole
1 4 oz. can green chili, diced
2 cups mozzarella cheese, grated
1 16 oz. can pinto beans

Get cookin' ya'll:

Cook chicken and cut into bite size pieces. Spoon approximately 1/2 cup salsa into bottom of 9x13 baking pan. Place a layer of uncooked lasagna noodles over salsa. Slice olives.

Combine chicken, chilies, olives, and half the cheese. Arrange chicken mixture on lasagna noodles. Spread with 1/2 the remaining salsa. Add a second layer of uncooked lasagna noodles. Spread second layer noodles with canned beans.

Top beans with a third layer lasagna noodles. Cover lasagna with remaining salsa. Cover and bake at 350 for 1 hour, or until noodles are tender. Remove from oven and enjoy

What we thought:

Jimmy rated this a 6 or 7. He said it was too spicy (we used Medium salsa), and he didn't exactly know what he was looking at when he looked at the lasagna. I think we are so used to seeing lasagna with pasta sauce and cheese, that seeing it with salsa, beans, and noodles did look weird. I would give it the same rating. It was interesting, but I don't know if I would make this again. It wasn't down our alley.

Day 4: Albondigas Soup with a Chicken Burrito w/ fresh Pineapple Salsa

Happy Mexican Monday! This past weekend, in my leisure time, I was watching Food Network channel. Sandra Lee was making a chicken burrito with fresh pineapple salsa, tortilla soup, and this pineapple drink. I got to thinking, "that pineapple salsa looks really good and easy to make. Instead of cooking the tortilla soup, I'll make my albondigas soup with the buritto. YES!". Thats where Mexican Monday originated from.

On today's menu we have Albondigas Soup, which I call 'Meatball Soup', and a chicken burrito with pineapple salsa. If you are going to attempt both of these meals, here are some things to take into consideration:

1) Both of these meals, for a family of two, seems like two main courses(if you cook according to the directions,without halving everything). If you have a family of 4 or more, this may be right down your alley!

2) If I would have prepped and cooked both meals by myself, I would have been in the kitchen for at least three hours or more. Since I have a wonderful fiance who decided to help me, things went by faster and smoother! (Hint: great couples activity!)

Chicken Burrito with Pineapple Salsa
(offical recipe from Food Network)

-1 (3.5 to 4 pound) chicken

-Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

-1 (8 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained and chopped

-1 small red onion, diced

-1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

-2 tablespoons chopped cilantro

-1 table spoon chili powder

-2 table spoons lime juice

-3 scallions, chopped

-1 can red or black beans, drained and rinsed

-1 cup shredded jack cheese

-Tortillas (white or wheat fine)

As a side note, we had frozen chicken in a bag in the freezer so it seemed pointless to go out and buy the thawed chicken, that you can find in the meat produce section, so I ended up using 4 chicken breasts. If that equal 3.5 to 4 pounds of chicken, heck if I know! It was enough to feed 2 people and have enough for two burritos as leftovers. As for the lime juice, I thought we had lime juice, but we didn't. I was thinking lemon juice, which we did have. So instead of LIME juice, we used LEMON juice which seemed ok. I am sure the lime juice would have added that extra UMPH. Next time. Also, we did not use scallions. If it makes a difference, I am not sure. The salsa tasted great to us.

Directions:

In a large pot, put the chicken with a pinch of salt and pepper with cold water. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook until the chicken is cooked through, about 1 hour. (It took us less then 30 minutes with our chicken breasts)

While the chicken is cooking, make the salsa by mixing together the diced red onion, pineapple chucks, jalapeno, cilantro, chili powder, lime juice, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Remove the chicken and allow it to cool. Wrap the tortilla in a damp towel and microwave for 45 second or until warm and pliable. Heat the beans in a small pot over low heat (We microwaved the beans)

Thats basically it! If you want proper instructions to build a burrito, google it.

Jimmy's Ranking on the chicken

Salsa: 7/10. We added too much onion
Burrito over all (w/ salsa): 7/10-We let the chicken and the beans cool while we were eating the soup first.

Albondigas Soup

This soup is really good, especially on a cold night. Its very comforting, the same feeling you get when having your favorite meal made by a family member. This recipe is really easy, and it leaves options to experiment with different vegetables.

You will need either:

12 cups of beef OR chicken stock

6 cups of beef stock and 6 cups of water

6 cups of chicken stock and 6 cups of water

(I use 6 cups of chicken stock and 6 cups of water)

The vegetables are up to you, but I used 2 zucchini squash, 2 large carrots (peeled and cut up), and half of an yellow onion.

Different recipes say you should use string beans, peas, etc. Experiment! Decide what YOU like best.

Universally, you will need

Half an onion (yellow or white) or a whole onion. Depends if you are a lover of onions.

1 large garlic clove

2 tbsp of olive oil (or as Rachel Ray says: EVOO)

1/2 cup of tomato sauce

1/3 cup of white rice (I'm sure you can use brown rice)

1 pound of beef

1/4 cup of fresh mint leaves

1 raw egg

Salt, Pepper to taste. Cayenne if you wish. (I don't use cayenne)

Cilantro

What you will need to do is let the onions simmer for a few minutes in the oil until tender (five minutes). Add garlic and cook a minute more. Add broth mixture and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer. Add your vegetables

Prepare your meatballs. Put the pound of beef, egg, and rice into a big bowl, mix, and form into a meatball shape (about 1 inch)

Add meatballs one at a time. Be careful not to splash yourself while dropping the meatballs into the broth. Cover and let simmer for a half a hour.

Garnish with cilantro (in your own bowl, not in the pot)

Both of these dishes are really good, but take a ton of prepping/cooking time. If you choose to do either the burrito with salsa OR the meatball soup, it will be super easy and remotely quick. If you decide to do both courses, plan your time accordingly.

Jimmy's Rating:

With cilantro: 8/10

Without cilantro: 7/10

My rating: You cant have a meatball soup without cilantro. Cilantro makes it Albondigas Soup. Either way, its warm and comforting, and theres plenty for leftovers. Note: if you put the soup in the fridge, the meat fat will separate from the broth leaving like white chunks within the broth. Its OK. Just take a spoon and dip out the white chunks. If you leave the white chunks in the broth, and reheat the soup, it will just warm up the fat, and the white chucks will disappear. Either way, it wont harm you.

Enjoy!