Burrito Bake

I bet you thought I was never coming back, huh? It HAS been a long time since I posted anything new here. I haven't been trying out new recipes every week like I thought I would be this summer. I have been sticking to the known. Last night I was making an old recipe of ours and I realized I had never blogged it! So here it is.
The Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef or turkey

1/2 diced onion

1 pkg taco seasoning

3/4 cup water

12 tortillas

1 can refried beans

1 cup shredded colby jack cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brown meat and onion in a skillet.



Drain any fat and add taco seasoning and water.

Heat to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Stir in beans.

In a pie pan sprayed with cooking spray, place 4 tortillas overlapping edges to cover the bottom completely.

Top with half the meat mixture.

And half the cheese.



Repeat layers once and finish with the last 4 tortillas on the top.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes to heat through.

Cut into wedges and serve.

You can top this with anything you would put on a taco or burrito. It's really tasty!

Menu 6/12 - 6/18--2011

Wow,  it has been a long time since I did a menu post! Here is what I hope to make this week and we will see how that turns out.
Sunday– Roast Au Jus


Monday–Chicken Fried Rice

Tuesday–Double Decker Tacos

Wednesday–Pork and Noodle Skillet

Thursday– Chicken Spaghetti

Friday–Beef Stroganoff

Saturday–Might have to be a leftover night!!

Jambalaya Skillet

Although my mother is from Louisiana, she is from Shreveport, way up in the northwestern corner. That means I did not grow up with any cajun cooking. Now Mom does make some seriously delicious shrimp gumbo, but that's about it. And please don't ask me what the difference is between gumbo, jambalaya and etouffee. I know there's a difference but I haven't the foggiest idea what it is. They are all delicious though! In any case, I came across this recipe in a daily e-mail from a local grocery store. It looked easy, so I gave it a shot with a couple minor modifications. Here it is:
The Ingredients

1 green pepper, chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 Tbsp oil
1 lb chicken breast, cut into strips
2 Tbsp Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning, divided
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
1/2 pound cleaned shrimp
2 cups brown rice

Saute your trinity vegetables in hot oil until crisp-tender.

Toss the chicken with 1 Tbsp of the seasoning, then add the chicken to the skillet and cook until done.

I put the seasoning and chicken in a ziploc and mashed it around

Add remaining ingredients, except for the rice, and bring to a boil.

Add in the rice, cover and simmer for 5 minutes until heated through.

Remove from heat, let stand for another 5 minutes. Serve with bread.

The original recipe said to use instant brown rice but I used some cooked brown rice I made. It was a little soupier than I think it was supposed to be but it tasted great. Enjoy!

Berry Delicious Freezer Jam

As I wandered around Tractor Supply recently I found the canning aisle. Now I would love to can my own homegrown veggies for us to eat all year, but A.) I'm lazy B.) I don't have the equipment and C.) It's too stinkin' hard not to just eat them! We don't have enough yet really in any case. But that doesn't stop me from looking!!
Anyhoo, I have been wanting to make some freezer jam and I even bought some frozen mixed berries for that purpose. So I got some fancy plastic canning jars and a package of freezer jam pectin. Then I got down to business.
The Ingredients:

4 cups crushed fruit
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 package Mrs Wares Freezer Jam Pectin

Allow frozen fruit to thaw and then crush using a potato masher.

I didn't have quite 4 cups from my frozen berries so I added in some fresh strawberries.

Add the sugar and pectin.

Mix well and continue to stir for 3 minutes.

Pour into prepared jars and allow to set for 30 minutes.

What you will use right away, put into the fridge. It will last about 3 weeks. Put the rest in the freezer and it will keep for about a year. This jam is very tasty! It tastes like cobbler filling to me. I have used it in sandwiches and on toast. Next time I think I will make peach but according to the package of pectin, peach jam has a different direction set which you can find here.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

I have been making the Honey Whole Wheat Bread recipe I posted a while back with good results so I thought I would try a new recipe this week. I settled on the Basic White Bread recipe from the booklet that came with my mixer. We don't buy white bread but I like it and I thought a homemade version wouldn't be so bad, right? Well, down at the bottom of the recipe it said, "Variations" and then I saw it: "Cinnamon Bread". The light shined down from heaven and I heard the angels sing!! Since the recipe made two loaves I made one plain and did the other as a Cinnamon Swirl loaf. Here's the deets:
The Ingredients

1/2 cup milk (not pictured, sorry!)
3 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp butter or margarine
2 packages active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
5 to 6 cups all-purpose flour

Place Milk, sugar, salt, and butter in a small saucepan. Heat over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Cool to lukewarm.

Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed mixer bowl.

Add lukewarm milk mixture and 4 1/2 cups of flour. Attach bowl to mixer. Using dough hook, mix on speed 2 for 1 minute.

Keep mixing on speed 2, add remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time and mix until dough clings to hook and cleans sides (about 2 minutes). Knead on speed 2 about 2 more minutes. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning to coat.

Cover and let rise in a draft free, warm spot until doubled in bulk; about 1 hour. Punch down dough and separate into 2 portions. Shape into loaves. Place in greased loaf pans, cover and let rise another hour or until doubled again. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until golden. Remove from pan and cool on wire rack.
Now for the Cinnamon Swirl! Take one portion of the dough and roll it out to a rectangle.

Spread with butter or margarine. I used the spray butter we keep around for popcorn.

Make sure it's all over the dough.

I also keep a shaker of cinnamon sugar in my cabinet for use on waffles or pancakes. Sprinkle it all over the dough.

Now roll up the dough like you normally would.

And put it in the prepared loaf pan.

Cover and let rise about an hour or until it doubles in bulk.

I had other loaves rising too and they were all ready at about the same time. The cinnamon Swirl is in the blue silicon pan on the right end.

Ready for the oven! About 45 minutes later....

Cinnamon Swirl loaf is on the right hand bottom. Let's take a peek inside:

Not as swirled as I had hoped. Next time (and there WILL be a next time as it is deelish!!) I will use more cinna-sugar. I actually ate two slices while typing this up. It's excellent as toast or plain with a little butter. I think I will make french toast with it next time I make a loaf :)

Tilapia Tacos

Something you may not know about me but it is relevant to this post: I AM A BIG FAT CHICKEN! When I try something knew it is very hard for me to post about it unless it is a big success. Recently when trying to find something, anything for dinner that would not involve another trip to the store, this idea popped into my head. I figured it would be something we horked down and forgot about never to mention again so I didn't bother taking any pics. I was soooooooooo wrong; it was insanely good! So yay for me but boo for no pictures on this post!
The Ingredients:
1 pound (about 4 or 5) Tilapia fillets
Chipotle seasoning
lime juice
fresh cilantro
tortillas
taco topping of your choice

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle a shallow casserole dish with chipotle seasoning and place tilapia fillets on top. Sprinkle a little more seasoning on top. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. They probably won't be quite finished yet. Sprinkle on some lime juice and throw a little fresh chopped cilantro on them and check them again in 5 minutes or so. When the fish flakes easily with a fork, remove it from the oven and cut it into bite size chunks.
Get your tortillas and heat them up a little. Now add some of the fish and any toppings you like. I put tomato, a little more cilantro and some Creamy Jalapeno sauce on mine. PERFECTION!!!!! This is something we will have again, and soon. I promise to take pictures next time :)

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

About a month ago, I happened across this recipe from Brown Eyed Baker. I showed it to Raley and his eyes bugged out of his head. He asked right then for me to make them for his birthday treat at school.
The Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1 cup Oreo crumbs

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (I was out so I skipped this step and they were fine). Cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth.

Add the sugar and vanilla and mix until well-combined. Add the flour and mix on low.

Stir in the mini chips with a spatula. I added a little more than the recipe called for.

Get your crumbs ready. I blitzed some oreos in my food processor until crumby :)

Scoop cookie dough by spoonful and roll into a ball using your hands.

Drop cookie ball into crumbs and turn to coat.

Place on cookie sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes per batch.

Cool in pan about 2 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

I was a little concerned about having enough cookies for Raley's class because the original recipe said it made one dozen cookies. I only had enough butter to double the recipe which would be 24 cookies but there are 35 kids in his class! I don't know if I made them small or just got lucky but we ended up with about 55 cookies. I sent 40 with Raley and we enjoyed the rest. He came home with orders from his teaching team of three teachers to tell me they were very good. SUCCESS!!