Pico De Gallo

 I Love a good Pico De Gallo, Sometimes more than Salsa.  The texture and taste of a good Pico is soo much more.......  MORE!!!!  Super easy to make, and goes with soo many dishes!  This is the Pico I added to my Chicken Tortilla Soup I previously posted!  Enjoy!!!

Pico de Gallo

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Ingredients

• 4-5 vine-ripened tomatoes, finely diced
• ½ to 1 tsp. Sea salt (or to taste)
• 1/2 medium onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, finely chopped 
• 2 Tbsp. chopped jalapeno 
• juice of ½ lime

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized bowl, toss diced tomatoes with Kosher salt until salt is evenly distributed. Add remaining ingredients and stir together well. If you decide to refrigerate the salsa to allow flavors to combine, be sure to let it get to room temperature before serving (trust me-- it is better at room temp)!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

This soup is fantastic!  Who doesn't love a good healthy filling soup?  I've been meaning to post this all season, and I'm just not soo good at getting my recipes up anymore!  This soup is super easy, with easy ingredients as well!  Go ahead and give it a try!  It's super good for the new waistline we are all looking for right now!!

If your looking to go Paleo, all you have to do is leave out the sour cream and tortilla chips if your super strict!  Oh and the Pico on top of this is amazing!  I will be posting that next!!

Serves 4-5

 Ingredients

• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• a dash (or two) cayenne
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 5 c. chicken broth
• 3 Tbsp. fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• juice of ½ lime
• pepper, to taste
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
• 2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 2 Tbsp. taco seasoning
• 1 Tbsp. paprika
• olive oil (to taste)
• pico de gallo - Recipe HERE
• 2-3 avocados, diced
• cheese (optional)
• tortilla strips (optional)
• cilantro (for garnish)
• lime wedges (for garnish)

Instructions

1. In a small skillet, saute onion in 1 Tbsp. oil until onions become slightly soft. Stir in cumin, cayenne, and chili powder and saute an additional minute or two.
2. Transfer seasoned onions to a small crock pot (or medium-sized saucepan). Add chicken broth, cliantro, lime juice, pepper and pinto beans to onions and simmer on low-heat for at least 2-3 hours.
3. In the meantime (when you are close to serving), combine taco seasoning and paprika. Brush chicken with oil and rub with taco seasoning/paprika mixture. Grill chicken over medium-heat until cooked through (try to turn only once during the grilling process). Remove from grill and shred.
4. In individual bowls layer chicken, about ⅓ c. pico de gallo, ⅓ c. diced avocado, and ⅓ c. pepper jack cheese. Ladle about 1 cup of chicken broth directly over the layers. Top with tortilla strips and garnish with cilantro and lime wedges.  

**  If you are in a hurry, you can use already cooked chicken and throw it in the crockpot, or heat it up right before serving.

Baked Chicken Southwestern Egg Rolls

So I bought these egg roll wraps a while back and was searching pinterest for the perfect recipe to put inside of them and came up with my own little recipe that I LOVE!!  They are definitely a keeper in my books!  And to bake these little babies instead of deep frying them sure saves you a LOT of calories in the end, and they taste fantastic baked!!!

2 chicken Breasts - cooked and shredded
1 can Black Beans  - rinsed and drained
1 Cup -Spinach chopped
1 1/4 Cups- Mexican cheese blend
1 can - diced green chilies
4 green onions - chopped
1/2- 3/4 avacado -chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 pkg egg roll wrappers
1 egg

Preheat your oven to 400* . Cook your chicken breasts (I put them in a crockpot with a bit of water and cooked them on high for 3 hours.) Then take out and shred with 2 forks.  In a bowl, dump the rest of the ingredients with the chicken except for the egg roll wrappers and egg.  Mix everything really well.  Next open your egg roll wrappers, and crack an egg in a bowl..  Lay your mixture in one corner of your wrapper, roll over once, then dab your finger in the yolk of your egg and put a dot on the other 3 corners of your wrap.  Fold in your sides like an envelope and keep rolling.  The egg should seal your wrap.  Place them on a cookie sheet sprayed with butter flavored pam..  Spray the tops of the wraps as well.  Put them in the over and cook for about 15 minutes and MAKE SURE to flip them half way through the time.  We enjoyed our egg rolls with sour cream and salsa.  Yummy!

Homemade Tortillas

This week I had the opportunity to demonstrate how to make homemade tortillas to our Relief Society!  I was really excited because I had two great recipes in mind, and kind of combined the two into my liking to share!  My Aunt DeAnne has a wonderful authentic recipe that she got from my uncles mother who is mexican.  The other recipe I have, I  found from Barefoot and Baking who's Grandmother is also mexican.  So I've got a great recipe here to share!

After you mix the dough, you shape them into balls about this size and let rest at least 15 min....

 Rolling them into a nice circle is the hardest part!!!

 Stick them on a griddle or a cast iron skillet....

 And wahla.... you have a yummy tortilla to go with any meal you choose!

 Then I also did a test, one with Crisco and one with Butter because I am not  a big fan of Crisco.  I choose not to cook with it.  But as you can see, Crisco wins this contest.  The one on the left is made with Crisco, and it it's light and fluffy and you get the bubbles that brown.  Where as the one on the right was made with butter, and it almost has the texture of flat bread instead of a tortilla.  Just heavy and not as pliable, so it breaks and cracks when you try and roll it.  So I guess I have one exception with Crisco when it comes to making tortillas....

Approximately 16 tortillas

4 Cups Flour
2 Tsp Salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 Cup Crisco
1 1/2 Cup Hot Water

Start with mixing your Flour, salt & baking powder.  Cut in your shortening until well combined.  It will still be flakey.  Slowly Add in your Hot water until you get a Play dough like texture.  It wont be sticky at all.  I usually only add about 1 1/4 cup water.  You will just have to watch it.  I then pull it out of my mixer and knead it a couple of times, then I pull apart small rounds of dough and roll them into little balls.  Keep them in a bowl and let rest at least 15 min but up to an hour is great.
Flour your surface area really well then take your ball and start rolling from the center each time.  That is the key to get the circle shape.  As much as I flour the rolling pin it still sticks to it and I just pull it off and rotate the dough, and roll again.  Then stick your tortilla on a heated griddle ( pretty hot) wait until it starts to bubble and the bubbles have browned on the bottom side.  Then flip and repeat.  Serve Warm.  You can freeze them in a freezer zip lock baggy if needed!  Enjoy!!!

Honey-Lime Enchiladas

If your looking for a light yummy way to mix up Enchiladas, I love this recipe. It's a bit different than your white cream sauce enchiladas that you are use to, but so worth the try! You marinate the chicken in honey, lime juice, chilli powder and garlic powder and drench with green Enchilada sauce. I love trying to find any way to use those yummy cook your self tortillas because they seal the deal with any tortilla recipe! I'm actually having these for dinner tonight with Corn on the cob and a green salad, YUM!

http://www.thesisterscafe.com/2009/08/honey-lime-enchiladas-2