Monday: Flautas

Flautas is another one of my favorite meals, although it is not all that good for you....oh, well. To start off, here is the recipe:

3 T butter

1/4 c flour

1 t salt

1 c chicken broth

1 t grated onion

1 T parsley

1 T lemon juice

Dash paprika, nutmeg, pepper

3 chicken breasts

I start by boiling my chicken and dice or shred it when finished. In a saucepan, melt the butter and then add the flour and salt. Add chicken broth (I just use the water I boiled the chicken in) and stir until thickened. Add the rest of the ingredients, and then stir in the chicken. At this point, it should look like this: (sorry about the blurry foreground, I was using my close-up lens)

Spoon mixture into flour tortillas, roll and secure with a toothpick. Fry in oil until golden brown (that would be the unhealthy part). I heat my oil on the stove at about medium heat. Place on a plate covered with paper towels to help drain the oil.

I like to eat my flautas with sour cream, guacamole, and salsa. I'm not very good at eating vegetables, hence the lack of them in all of my pictures, but I think we may have topped off the meal with strawberries from our garden...yum!

Sunday: French Dip Sandwiches

Wow, this week has been busy, so sorry I'm late on these posts. I have been on top of things enough to take pictures of most of my meals, even though I'm just getting around to posting them. Anyway, I'm going to start with Sunday since it is one of my all-time favorite meals. It's a crock-pot meal so it's super easy, and it's absolutely delicious. Here are the ingredients:

1 Roast (about 3 lbs, somewhat fatty to enhance the flavor)

3 c water

3 c beef broth (I just use bullion)

2 pkg Au Jus sauce

2 pkg Italian Dressing

I usually start cooking the roast between 8-9 in the morning, since we have 9:00 church. I put a frozen roast in the crockpot, and add all of the ingredients at once. I let it cook on low all day, and we eat about 5. In the last hour, I shred the meat (it basically just falls apart at this point) so that it can soak up the juices.

This picture was taken after we had already eaten, but it gives you the idea....

When you're ready, serve it on rolls (I use Hoagie Rolls) with swiss cheese, and sauteed onions and green peppers if you wish. I also like to have a little bowl with some juice in it for dipping. Serve it with a side of fruit or veggies (or both) and presto! you have an awesome meal. :)

Gah!(aka where did the week go?)

So when I signed up for this week of recipes, I thought - no biggie, we do meal planning lists every week. It'll be a breeze. Famous.last.words. Sorry for the lateness:

Monday: Weeknight Spaghetti and Meatballs
Tues: Fast Soup & Dumplings
Wed: Baked Chicken (Mom style)
Thurs: Sweetheart salad
Fri: Fried Rice

I have to go teach some undergrads now, but the rest of the posts will be up tonight. Cheers!

Parmesan Crusted Chicken

Sorry, no pics today, camera died.

1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp parsley
1/2 tsp oregano
3-4 chicken breasts

Combine in a quart-sized ziplock bag
Heat oven to 400 F
Cover baking sheet with foil and spray with cooking spray
Take tongs and add 1 piece of chicken at a time to the crumb mixture and shake to coat.
Remove from bag and place on baking sheet. Press remaining coating into chicken pieces.
Spray tops with cooking oil
Bake 12-15 minutes, or until cooked through

Serve with crusty rolls and salad or a veggie of your choice. We used broccoli tonight.

Veggie Noodle Mix

I'm not too great at measuring while cooking, unless it's a totally new recipe or I think it needs to be exact, so I don't know exactly how much I used, but I guessed here. You can do a lot of different things with it, adding different veggies depending on what you have.

This is what I did last night:
Approx. 1 cup sliced carrots
1 head of broccoli, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped or sliced (The first time with this, I liked it. Usually I do 2 ribs sliced celery)
1 can Cream of Chicken or Cream of Celery soup
1/2 can water
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 package egg noodles (or about 2 cups cooked rice)
(I didn't have this last night, but you can also add 1 cup chopped cooked chicken)

Heat sauce pan
Add the veggies and cook 2 minutes
Add the soup
Add 1/2 can water
Stir to combine.
Cook, stirring occasionally until mixture is slightly thickened


Cook noodles (or rice)
Add to veggie/soup mixture and stir to combine


Serve immediately. Bowls tend to work best.

Tex Mex BBQ Turkey Wraps

This recipe is another one that you can pretty much do whatever you want with.

Approx 2 cups shredded turkey
1 to 1 1/2 cups of your favorite BBQ sauce
1 cup rice
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
4 tortillas

1. Combine turkey and BBQ sauce
Heat in skillet on medium for about 15 mins


2. Cook rice according to package directions.

3. Heat tortillas in microwave in 10 second intervals until warm to touch.

4. Build wraps by placing hot BBQ turkey on lower third of each tortilla, top with 2 Tbsp cheese and 1/4 cup rice. Roll bottom edge of tortilla over ingredients.


You can serve it with chips and salsa or corn.

Salsa:
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 to 1 jalepeno seeded and sliced
1/2 bunch cilantro

Combine in blender, puree for about 3-4 seconds.

Indian Chicken Sandwich

I got this recipe from the back of the Archer Farms naan package, so if you shop at Target, you have easy access to this too. I found them in the bakery section, not the bread aisle.


Serves about 4

2 pieces naan. These are whole wheat.
1/4 cup Indian spiced sauce, like Tikki Masala (note: Don't sweat it if you don't have this. We only had the spice Garam Masala and I added it to some yogurt because we don't do mayo. Plain yogurt is best, but I used vanilla.)
1/4 cup mayonnaise (like I said, didn't use)
2 cups fresh spinach leaves
1 cup chopped cooked chicken
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin bite-sized strips
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

1. Heat oven to 400 F
Cut each piece of naan in half lengthwise. Place on baking sheet flat side down. (I put aluminum foil down first and spray with Pam)


2. Combine Indian sauce and mayo if you're using it. If not, combine about 1 Tbsp Indian spice with 1/4 cup yogurt. Spread evenly over naan. You can also brush each piece with olive oil like I did.

3. Layer the remaining ingredients over 1/2 of the naan. Place other half on top.


4. Heat about 8 minutes until sandwich is heated through, pressing down part way through heating. Cut into smaller pieces.



You could eat it wish a cucumber and tomato salad or with Indian lentils.