Mexican Stuffed Shells
Remember what I keep telling you… think outside the box & don’t be afraid to experiment! MEXICAN would not be what comes to my mind first when I think of STUFFED SHELLS – but combining these two different origins really works.
Tag: cheese
French Onion Soup
I have really had a craving for French Onion Soup – and in all honesty, I figured since I have become a better chef over the past few months (years) – why not just create it myself! I was amazed when I found this recipe …
Loaded Potato & Beer Soup
A few weeks ago we had a “quiet” day planned for Rich to study for his GMAT exam (he ended up scoring in the 75% percentile – more on that later) and my parents were going to join us to see the High School production of Robin Hood for which I did the props. I wanted to cook something yummy while Rich studied and wanted to start with potato & bacon…. settled on inventing my own “beer cheese soup”.
As the day went on I kept tasting & adding and inventing (also deciding we needed to have biscuits to go along with it). Well, in the long run – we had a large pot of soup, called my folks to come over, and decided that I had made what ended up being one of the most amazing “Loaded Baked Potato Soups” ever!
RECIPE…
I started off my cutting up a whole package of bacon into about 1″ pieces & throwing the whole thing into the pot (high sided pan – whatever) & cooking that down 90% of the way. Then I drained off all the fat & put the bacon aside. I then added 2 chopped onions & 4 chopped potatoes. To that pan went (5??) cloves of garlic, a bottle of beer (Sam Adams dark something) and some chicken stock. (I don’t make my own chicken stock – but hate storing so many cans since I use it all the time – so I am a big fan of the dry bullion powder & then just pouring water right from my tea pot & having the stock make itself in the pot.) Pepper and spices went as the day went on, at some point I chopped 2 chicken breasts into small bite-sized pieces and cooking that in a separate pan (with some bacon for flavor) before throwing that in the soup. About 15 minutes before serving I added some milk & about 8 oz of cheddar/monterey jack cheeses. Top the whole thing off with some scallions & a little more cheese & perfect!
(Sorry for the really “cruddy” directions – I spent way to just time cooking the way I often do with “a little of this” and “a little of that” that I did not really pay that close of attention. The above directions/recipe should get you close if you want to give it a shot. This is one of those things that you just have to taste & play it by ear.)
My Soup Theory…
You can’t go wrong when making soup! And if you think you went wrong, it just means that you are changing directions!
Classic Fondue Fun
I’m not sure about anyone else, but fondue has been something that has not worked out so well for me. I LOVE cheese, and anything that involves cheese (and when its melty & warm too – yeah, its good stuff!) A few weeks ago I …
Quesadilla & Vegetarian Chili
I LOVE chili! From the time I was little, I would always get excited when mom made chili, as I got older I began to help, or doctor mine up to be more spicy. A few years ago I cut out a recipe for White …
Enchiladas & Appetizers
Tonight was a mexican night! I have been craving enchiladas for the past few days since I saw this post from Simply Recipes and realized I haven’t had them in a while and I had a can of green enchilada sauce in the cabinet (I know, I’ll try to make one of my own these days!) Enchiladas were also the very first meal that I cooked for Rich & I have not made them for him since then. I had also kept seeing ads and recipes for stuffed hot peppers (baked – not fried) and Rich had also been bugging me for some of those too – so the menu was set!
When I went to the market yesterday, there were only 5 good looking jalapeno peppers left (and something got to the ones in our garden and none of them grew nicely). I picked them up anyway and was set to go!
- Jalapeno Peppers (sliced in 1/2 and seeded) – I used 6
Stuffed Jalapenos - about 3 oz cream cheese (softened)
- 1/2 cup, combination of: mozzarella & cheddar
- 1/2 t: salt/garlic/pepper
All that I needed to do to make these was slice peppers in half, place in greased dish, fill with cheese mixture & bake for about 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven until browned. These were delicious & will be made again (be careful when seeding the peppers goes without saying – but I wasn’t super careful and now my fingers I used to do that are burning!)
After a quick little snack – it was time to get down to making dinner (chicken was boiling from the time I got home and was ready to shred: to boil it just put in some salt, garlic, & a few seeds from those hot peppers). Here is my version of Enchiladas (at least the version that I made today)….
- 2 chicken breast (shredded)
- 1 can beans (black or pinto or whatever)
- spices (garlic, chipotle sauce, lime juice, etc – whatever you like)
- 1 can enchilada sauce
Chicken & Bean Enchiladas - 5 – 6 tortilla shells
- shredded cheese (5 oz?)
- cilantro
Then you want to mix the beans with the shredded chicken & seasonings that would be something you would be happy to eat on its own! Pour some sauce in the bottom of your dish, then place shell (warmed up so they are easy to roll) with a nice sized scoop of protein, put some cheese & cilantro and roll it up. When you place it in the dish, put it in seam side down. Repeat…. pour the rest of sauce over rolled shells – top with the rest of the cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes in 350 and then 3 minutes on broil & top with some more fresh cilantro!
This is not the quickest meal (but doesn’t take that long either) but it is well worth it! Its pretty healthy and inexpensive as well. Just as a side note: I was having my students write goals today & I wrote one of my goals that I was going to blog at least twice a week…. just an FYI! Happy Eating