Chicken Enchiladas with Fire-Roasted Tomatoes

We love Mexican food. When we go out to eat, we almost always go to  Cancun's. But eating out gets expensive, so I've learned to make some Mexican dishes on my own. One of our favorites is chicken enchiladas. As I do with a lot of my recipes, I stole an idea or two from this recipes and an idea or two from that recipe until I came up with my own.

If you haven't had fire-roasted tomatoes before, you're missing out! They are the key to my chicken enchilada recipe. You should be able to find them with the other canned tomatoes in the grocery store.

Ingredients:

1 14.5-ounce can of fire-roasted tomatoes
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon hot sauce
½ teaspoon granulated sugar
4 8-inch flour tortillas
2 5-ounce cans of canned chicken
(or about 1½ cups shredded cooked chicken)
Handful of green onions, chopped
½ teaspoon cumin
1½ tablespoons sour cream
½ cup shredded Mexican seasoned cheese, plus extra
            (cheddar and mozzarella work too)

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pour the can of tomatoes, chili powder, and hot sauce into a sauce pan, simmer, and stir. Add the sugar into sauce to help cut the acidity. Remove from heat.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix chicken, sour cream, green onion, cumin, cheese and ¼ cup of tomato sauce. Set aside.

Spray a skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Dip your tortilla in tomato sauce then fry it in the skillet. When the tortilla begins to bubble up, flip the tortilla over. It’s much easier to use a pair of tongs than a spatula. Repeat with the other 3 tortillas. 

Dip in tomato sauce

Air bubble beneath the tortilla

Spoon a little tomato sauce into a 9x9-inch glass dish so the bottom is coated. Divide the chicken mixture between the 4 tortillas (they will be very full). Place tortillas seam side down in the dish. Pour remaining sauce of them then generously sprinkle with cheese.

Seams down

Bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted.

Update!
While making these for my parents over the Fourth of July weekend, I discovered that this recipe also works for steak enchiladas!

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Cake Mix Cookies

I first discovered cake mix cookies when I was in junior high school. I may not have been into cooking or baking, but I did like sweets (still do!).  My mom was always buying cake mixes when they went on sale and they'd sit in the cupboards for months, sometimes years. Somewhere I found a recipe for cake mix cookies. They were super easy to make and incredibly versatile.

These days I mostly make my cookies from scratch. But sometimes I just have a craving for the ease and taste of a cake mix cookie.

These recipes makes roughly three dozens.

Grasshopper Cake Mix Cookies

Grasshopper Cookies

I had a recipe for grasshopper cake I was going to make last St. Patty’s day but decided to be lazy and turned the cake recipe into a cookie recipe instead. The outcome was delicious.

Ingredients:
1 package yellow cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup chocolate chips
12-14 drops green food coloring
2 teaspoons mint extract.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.


Beat the cake mix, eggs, oil, extract and food coloring together until the batter becomes stiff. Add chocolate chips. If you want cookies with green swirls instead of solid green cookies, add food coloring with the chips. Roll into 1-inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the cookie bottoms turn a golden brown.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies

I’ll admit, these are one of my all time favorite cookies. Everyone I’ve ever made these for absolutely fell in love with them too. They taste just like chocolate covered cherries. Every batch disappears in a blink of an eye.

So far, the only brand I’ve found that makes cherry cake mix is Betty Crocker.

Ingredients:
1 package Betty Crocker Cherry Chip cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the cake mix, eggs and oil together until the batter becomes stiff. Stir in chocolate chips. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the cookie bottoms turn a golden brown.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

These cookies are a close second to the Chocolate Covered Cherry Cookies.

Ingredients:
1 package chocolate cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
¾ cup peanut butter chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the cake mix, eggs and oil together until the batter becomes stiff. Stir in chocolate chips. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the cookie bottoms turn a golden brown.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies
I love coconut. Sadly, I only know two or three people (and Eric isn't one of them) who also love coconut so I don’t get to make these cookies very often.

Ingredients:
1 package white cake mix (you can also use coconut cake mix)
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup flaked coconut
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat the cake mix, eggs and oil together until the batter becomes stiff. Stir in coconut and chocolate chips. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the cookie bottoms turn a golden brown.

You can also add a ¼ cup of chopped almonds if you so desire.

Also check out my butterscotch cake mix cookies.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Baked Garlic Chicken

Growing up I never had any interest in cooking. It wasn't until my senior year of college, after making lasagna with a couple of friends, that I found my love for cooking. It didn't have to be a chore; it could be an expression of creativity. Baked Garlic Chicken was the first recipe I made all on my own. It involves a bunch of ingredients, but it's really very simple. After the dish turned out delicious and I discovered that I could cook, I was hooked.

Right out of the oven, baked garlic chicken

Ingredients:

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 cup low fat sour cream
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons celery salt
2 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 cup crushed Ritz crackers or bread crumbs
¼ cup butter, melted

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9x9 inch pan.

In a medium bowl, combine sour cream, minced garlic, celery salt, Worchestershire sauce, lemon juice, paprika, and pepper. Coat chicken breasts in the mixture and marinate for at least three hours in the refrigerator. Place cracker crumbs in a shallow bowl. Dredge the chicken in the crumbs. Transfer chicken to pan. Pour the melted butter over the chicken. Baked uncovered for approximately 50 minutes or until the juices from the chicken run clear.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Sun-Dried Tomatoes in an Oven

I love every tomato product out there—ketchup, marinara sauce, tomato sauce, salsa, stuffed tomatoes, and of course sun-dried tomatoes. My mom’s a big gardener and she had an over abundance of cherry tomatoes last summer which meant she gave me a bunch of tomatoes to take home. While I love tomato products, I’m not a huge fan of raw tomatoes. They’re okay in moderation. Since sun-dried tomatoes are so expensive to buy at the store, I decided to try to turn my surplus of tomatoes into sun-dried tomatoes. I couldn’t believe how incredibly easy it was.

Cherry Tomatoes

Ingredients:
1 pint of cherry tomatoes
Olive oil
Sea salt, to taste
Fresh thyme, to taste

Directions:

Set your oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly coat your cookie sheet with olive oil.

Cut your cherry tomatoes in half and set them face down on the oiled cookie sheet. Next, flip the tomatoes over so they rest on the rounded side. Sprinkle with sea salt and thyme. You can also season your tomatoes with basil, garlic or rosemary. Thyme is just my personal favorite. Set the baking sheet in the center rack of your oven. If you have an electric oven, leave the oven door open a crack.

Ready to go into the oven.

Cooking Times

Cooking time depends on the size of your tomatoes and can greatly vary. I begin checking on the tomatoes after 3 hours. You want your tomatoes shriveled but still a little juicy. My tomatoes never cook at the same rate so I remove the ones that are done and continue to check on the remaining tomatoes, about every half an hour to hour. Expect your cooking time to range between 3 and 7 hours. But your kitchen will smell absolutely amazing that entire time. 

Sun-dried tomatoes

Storage

When your tomatoes are done, let them cool then place them in an air tight container and store them in the refrigerator.

What to do with your sun-dried tomatoes

We love to snack on sun-dried tomatoes. I put them on salads, sandwiches, and pizza. They are amazing in macaroni and cheese. I also like them with pesto and spaghetti. Eric puts them on crackers with cheese (cheddar, brie, mozzarella, whatever we have in the house) and pepperoni. No matter what you do with them, they’re delicious!

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Ricotta, Basil, and Sun-Dried Tomato Pizza

Eric needs to have pizza for dinner at least once a week--frozen pizza, Hungry Howie's pizza (with garlic butter and Cajun crust), Little Caesar's Hot and Ready pizza, homemade pizza, it doesn't matter. If he had his way, we'd eat it almost every night, only punctuated with orange chicken from Panda Express. I, on the other hand, would be happy with pizza just once a month. Don't get me wrong, I love pizza, but it's not so kind to the waistline. Eric possesses a metabolism that would make a supermodel jealous. I, however, certainly do not, especially not now that I'm in my 30s. This is why I like homemade pizza best. Half the pizza can be mozzarella, tomato sauce and pepperoni and the other half can be ricotta, basil and sun-dried tomatoes!

The old versus the old:

Eric is a pizza traditionalist--mozzarella , pepperonis and that's it. I like mixing things up.

Ingredients:

1 package Jiffy pizza dough mix (you could also use a pre-made crust)
3-4 gloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes
(I use my own homemade sun-dried tomatoes)
1 cup fat free ricotta cheese
½ cup part-skim mozzarella cheese
¼ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
5-8 fresh basil leaves, chopped
½ cup red onions, sliced

Directions:

Heat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 12-inch pizza pan.

Prepare Jiffy mix. In a medium bowl, add pizza dough mix and ½ cup hot tap water. Stir until well combined. Cover with a towel and let set for five minutes in a warm place. Knead the dough several times on a floured board. Grease your fingers and press dough on the bottom and sides of your pan. Bake dough for 2 to 3 minutes before adding toppings. 

Mix ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan together in a bowl; set aside. 

Scatter your garlic and sun-dried tomatoes evenly across the crust. Spread the cheese mixture over top (if you put your sun-dried tomatoes on top of the cheese, they’ll burn). Sprinkle basil leaves and red onions over the top of the pizza. Cook for 18 to 20 minutes or until the crust turn a golden brown.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Twice Baked Potatoes

Since I mentioned twice baked potatoes yesterday, I thought I'd post the recipe for them today. Since Eric is a master at the frying pan (I have very little patience for frying), he makes the Parmesan-seared chicken, and I usually make the twice baked potatoes. I will admit, they are a bit time-consuming to prepare but not at all difficult. And they are worth every second you put into them! Potato, bacon, cheese . . . it doesn't get any better than that!

Twice baked potatoes with Parmesan-seared chicken

Ingredients:

4 medium sized russet potatoes
4 slices of turkey bacon, cooked and chopped
¼ cup fat free sour cream
1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Green onions, chopped (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Wrap potatoes in tin foil and bake for 1 hour or until the potatoes are fork tender. Remove from oven and cut the potatoes in half lengthwise. Scoop out the flesh leaving about a quarter inch shell. Put flesh in a bowl and add sour cream, ¾ cup cheese, bacon, and green onions (if desired). Mix well and season with salt and pepper. Spoon the mixture back into the potato shells. Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of cheese over the top of the potatoes and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for another 20 minutes, uncovered, and enjoy!

~Krissy

Parmesan-Seared Chicken Recipe

This recipe belongs to Eric. We both love to cook and to cook together. One summer we were up north for the weekend at my parents' cabin, and he showed me how to make Parmesan-seared chicken with twice baked potatoes. They both became two of our favorite dishes, and we’ve made them many times over the last couple years. The Parmesan-seared chicken is one of the two recipes Eric feels he has completely mastered (the other is fried rice). If you're looking for a new and easy chicken recipe with a lot of flavor, you've got to try out this one. 

Parmesan-seared Chicken

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
1 tablespoon honey mustard

½ cup Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:

In a bowl, coat the chicken pieces with the honey mustard and marinate for at least two hours. In a separate bowl pour in the Parmesan. Add olive oil to a skillet and heat over medium heat. Dredge the chicken pieces in the Parmesan. Cook the meat in the pan over medium heat for about four minutes on each side or until the outside is a golden brown and the inside is white. 

Tips

You can use both grated and shredded Parmesan cheese for this recipe. If you don’t have time to marinate the chicken, you can just coat the chicken with the mustard, dredge in the cheese then cook. It still tastes delicious. The marinate just gives it some extra flavor. And if you don’t want to dredge the chicken, you can always do the shake and bake method—put the chicken and Parmesan in a plastic bag to coat it. Eric did this for a long time until he discovered that dipping the chicken in Parmesan coated it better.

Enjoy!

~Krissy