Enchiladas for the lazy gal

Presentation can often be the key in cooking, especially when you become more advanced and comfortable with it, people definitely eat with their eyes (guilty here!) Now I know rolling up corn tortillas isn't exactly rocket science, but making and enchilada casserole just seemed way more efficient, a guess what, I think this dish still looked delicious, rolled up or it. 

I used my Shredded Mexican Chicken recipe (love repurposing recipes like this!), to make a healthier chicken and cheese enchilada. The great thing about this recipe is that you can add or take away whatever ingredients you want. The original recipe called for pinto beans and olives, but I omitted them since I wasn't feeling the beans and olives just add extra fat (and of course, I'd rather add more cheese!) By adding bell peppers, black beans, corn, you name it, these enchiladas make it a very versatile; with that said, I adjusted this recipe a lot, so feel free to do the same!

Chicken and Cheese Enchilada Casserole

Hearty and healthy!

adapted from My Recipes on Cooking Light

Ingredients:

• Shredded Mexican Chicken
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions (about 4-5 green onions)
• 12 (6-inch) corn tortillas, divided in half
• Cooking spray
• 2 cups (8 oz.) pre-shredded reduced fat 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese, divided
• 1 (16-ounce) jar of your favorite green salsa (I chose a green salsa from a brand called Frontera)
• 1/4 cup reduced fat sour cream

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Layer 6 tortilla halves on bottom of a 13 x 9-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray.

2. Spread about 2 cups chicken mixture over tortillas; sprinkle with 3/4 cup cheese. This is great time to add beans, olives or any other veggie you'd like. Repeat layer again. Top with remaining 6 tortilla halves. 

3. Combine your salsa verde of your choosing and reduced fat sour cream in a bowl. Mix until throughly combined. Layer on top of casserole. 

4. Bake casserole, covered with foil, for 30-35 minutes. Add remaining cheese, green onions (olives, optional) and bake, uncovered for about 5 minutes or until the cheese it melted.

5. Serves about 6-8, depending on how hungry the crowd is! I chose to serve my enchilada casserole atop a bed of baby spinach. This is a relatively healthier alternative to enchiladas, with each serving size between 400-485 calories, depending on what other veggies you added here. 

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Cheese just makes everything better

While I'm all about cooking healthy, I just had to indulge in this recipe I found for mozzarella stuffed meatballs this Saturday. They were amazing, meaty, flavorful, and pretty darn heavy; but the occasion called for them, plus its not everyday I make meatballs (actually, almost never)! 

I didn't do much tweaking to this recipe, but I do wish I had made some sort of marinara sauce to put on top. Instead, I made some of my homemade pesto with pasta. Let's just say carb loading + meat stuffed cheese = extreme lethargy (which makes it very difficult to go out on a Saturday night!) I think the meatballs in marinara, with a veggie side, would make for an excellent wintertime meal. 

So here we go...

Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs

Fancy, filtered meatballs.

Unfiltered photo, the cheese still looks ooey and gooey!

from Picky Palate

Ingredients: 

• 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
• 1lb lean ground beef
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup finely chopped white onion
• 1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tbs minced garlic
• 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbs yellow mustard
• 1 tsp hot sauce, like Tabasco
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp garlic salt

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 35o degrees F. and grease 9×13-inch baking dish with oil.

2.  Place beef, egg, onion, bread crumbs, Parmesan, milk, garlic, Worcestershire, mustard, hot sauce, salt, pepper and garlic salt into a large mixing bowl, stirring until just combined.  Take 1/4 cup beef mixture and press into center with your thumb to make room for cheese ball.  Place cheese in middle then with hands enclose the cheese with the beef, making sure the cheese is completely covered.  Place meatballs into prepared baking dish and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until cooked through.

3.  Serve over top your favorite pasta or inside a warm roll for delicious meatball sandwich. Makes about 10-12, one-inch mozzarella meatballs.

Cooking or going to gym, we all know the obvious choice

This past Monday I had stress really getting to the best of me. As soon as I walked through my front door, I was confronted with the ultimate dilemma, go to gym or cook? It's like asking chicken or the egg...except not really. But I think both are good for my health. Since there is no such thing is summer here in San Francisco, I  turned my apartment into a crisper, cooking up a storm. The night ended with a big release, letting my frustrations out with two forks and some juicy chicken breasts, shredding away like my life depended on it!!

Well, it was less dramatic that that (although shredding the chicken was kind of fun!) and the end result was homemade taco bowls and Mexican shredded chicken; both were a success and total keepers! Both of these recipes came from the same site, Emily Bites, who is clearly obsessed with using cupcake tins to make anything...therefore dubbed GENIUS in my books. Kuddos Emily. 

So I'd seen these links floating around, on the interwebz, using cupcake tins to make taco bowls out of small, corn tortillas...except the tins were turned UPSIDE DOWN! These crevices literally hold anything you can stuff in a taco shell...or bowl in this case. I was going to use the standard, ground turkey, but sometimes I find it too dry for my liking; I wanted some moist (yup, used that word, deal, I know some you hate that word) chicken that was juicy, yet flavorful and light. And then I came upon this easy, affordable and versatile, recipe to make shredded Mexican chicken, which has lasted me days! Best of all, you don need a crockpot! (On that note, I really need one, I'm a terrible Indian girl for not owning one!)

Taco Bowls

adapted from Emily Bites

Ingredients:

• 6, 6-inch corn tortillas
• Cooking Spray
• Water
• Salt

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375.  Sprinkle each tortilla lightly with water and stack them on a plate. Cover the top with another plate turned upside down and microwave the tortillas for 1 minute or until warm. 

Turn two 12 cup muffin pans upside down. Mist each side of a tortilla lightly with cooking spray and center it in the space between 4 muffin cups, creating a bowl. Repeat with the 5 remaining tortillas, forming 3 bowls on each tin. Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes.

Shredded Mexican Chicken

adapted from Emily Bites

Ingredients:

• 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
• 2 tsp white wine vinegar
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 4 tsp taco seasoning
• 2 tsp oregano
• ½ tsp sugar
• salt & pepper to taste
• 1 tb extra virgin olive oil
• 1 ½ lbs boneless (about 3 pieces) skinless chicken breast

Directions:

In a medium bowl, mix together the tomato sauce, vinegar, garlic, chili powder, taco seasoning, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper until thoroughly combined. In a large skillet or sauté pan, bring the oil to medium-high heat. 

Add the chicken breasts in a single layer and cook for 3 minutes on one side, flip them over, and then continue to cook for 3 minutes on the other side. Add the tomato sauce mixture to the pan and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat to medium-low and cover the pan. Simmer for about 20-25 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked through. 

Remove the lid from the pan and transfer each breast to a cutting board, shredding it using two forks and then returning it to the sauce. When all the breasts are shredded, stir them into the sauce until thoroughly combined. Continue to cook for about 5 more minutes until the sauce thickens and soaks into the chicken. 

This dish is great in tacos, burritos, added to a salad and even by itself! 

Is it a cupcake or is it a muffin?

Technically, it can be consumed as both. As promised, I am finally, posting a cupcake recipe here! I've been cooking mostly savory dishes and have been so hungry, that I consume my meal before taking any pictures! This time around, I did some baking back at my parents, trying to utilize their significantly larger kitchen.

I made these cupcakes on Monday, after three straight days of Indian wedding festivities; while some were impressed that I mustered up the strength to bake, after sleeping minimal amounts,  I remind people that baking is like my version of watching Jersey Shore reruns on MTV... it can be mindless, depending on the recipe.

So I tried a recipe from the ever-famous, smitten kitchen, and to be honest I wasn't too impressed with the cupcake itself. It was very moist, yet dense and filling, but the flavor could have been more sweet.  I used less sugar, afraid that the frosting would make the whole cupcake way too sweet. My bad! That's what cooking is all about though, trial and error, trying to strike the right balance.

I did, however, learn a great insider tip on making cream cheese frosting more robust and keep it from becoming a melting mess!

CORNSTARCH! But just the slight amount, depending on the amount of frosting you are making.

Seriously though, this could very well be a delicious and substantial muffin, sans frosting. Tricking people with cupcakes disguised as muffins...just don't tell them I used full fat sour cream!

Summertime Peach Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Frosting

Hope one of them catches the bouquet!

Ingredients: 
Peach Cupcake

• 3 cups flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• pinch of nutmeg
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar (I used about 1/2 cup here)
• 3/4 cup dark or light brown sugar, packed (I used dark sugar for this recipe)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups (12 ounces) buttermilk, sour cream or full-fat yogurt (Full fat sour cream, hell yeah!)
• 3 large peaches, peeled, cored, and chopped smallish (Sometimes peaches are easy to peel, if not then peel with a knife)

Brown Sugar Frosting

• 1-1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg and set aside. 

Cream the butter and sugars together, beating until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time adding the vanilla. 

Gently mix in the buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt. 

Stir in the dry ingredients and fold in the peach chunks.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cupcake liners. 

Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center of cupcakes comes out clean. 

Cool the cupcakes for five minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For frosting:

In a small bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, cornstarch and powdered sugar. 

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. 

Add the sugar-cornstarch mixture and vanilla, beat until frosting is smooth and light. My frosting was already pretty sturdy, but if yours is not, chill the bowl in the refrigerator until it thickens back up a bit, about 30 minutes.

Frost cupcakes to the best of your abilities, I used a round tip here, no need to get that fancy though!