sorry for the negligence...

So, once again school ate ALL my free time, and therefore my food blog is starving :(  BUT am stealing a few minutes away from my billion projects in order to share a few recipes with you.  

I Love Mexican Food.   I love all tings Hispanic, really- lingo, music, history, food, culture.  I've informed my fiance several times that if he's ever inclined to move to Mexico or Ecuador or Peru forever, I'm totally fine with that.  Unfortunately, there are things like education, jobs, and family keeping us here in the hot-dog-eating, English-speaking, US of A. (don't get me wrong, I'm very patriotic. I love hot dogs.)  
ANYways, last night I made Mexican for the two of us, and I thought I'd share it with you. :) Disfrutan! (Enjoy!)

Chicken Nachos


2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 tomato
1/2 of a yellow onion
1 T Tobasco sauce
1 T garlic powder
1 T cilantro 
1 t crushed red pepper
salt and pepper to taste
Shredded cheese (I prefer a mix of part-skim Mozzarella, and sharp Cheddar.  Mozzarella is actually what they use in Latin/South America, not Cheddar.)
Tortilla chips of choice (I like Tostida's or Mission's whole grain restaurant style)
Cooking spray (use canola spray, it's healthier!)


Dice the tomato and onion.  Chop the chicken into small cubes.  Spray a large frying pan with cooking spray, bring to a medium heat, and add tomatoes and onions.  Once the onions become a little more translucent, add the chicken, Tobasco, and spices. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is done.  Prepare a baking sheet by spreading foil over it, and spraying it with cooking spray.  Spread a single layer of tortilla chips on the sheet, and spoon the chicken mixture on top of the chips.  Try to aim for one piece of chicken or clump of veggies per chip.  Sprinkle with cheese.  If you want, you can layer more levels of chips, chicken, and cheese on the same sheet, or use multiple sheets of single layers.  I've done it both ways, with great success.  Multiple layers tend to turn out a little more gooey and chewy, and singles are more crispy.  Simply broil them until the cheese is bubbly, and enjoy! this makes about 3 big servings, or 4 normal ones.   


Homemade Guacamole


2 avocados
1/2 c lime juice
1 T cilantro
1 t garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
1 T milk (for creaminess)


Scrape the meat out of the avocados, dice them, and toss all the ingredients into a food processor! I used my roommate's blender (not owning either a blender or food processor myself), and it turned out chunky, but really yummy.  If you try using a blender, I recommend using the pulse option and scraping down the sides frequently.  


YUM! Que rico!

I can have my green and eat it too (without grimacing!!)

So, I've tried one of the green smoothies that seem to be taking health food world by storm... and it wasn't bad. But despite the sweet pear-ey, grape-ey flavor of my smoothie, I just couldn't get over the GREEN color... Drinking something the shade of Shrek just isn't appealing.  

However, this morning, I figured out how to sneak some healthy green spinach into my Strawberry Frozen Yogurt Milkshake, and get a result in a pleasing, yummy-looking shade of MAUVE :)

I'll share my very simple little recipe for healthy, non-gross smoothies with you, should you wish to try it.  

Secretly Healthy Strawberry Milkshake

1/2 cup skim or lowfat milk

3-4 big scoops of strawberry nonfat frozen yogurt

1 1/2 cups frozen green smoothie

Combine everything and blend the heck out of it!

FYI: I used some frozen leftovers of my Pear Medley Smoothie in this, and it did nothing to hurt the strawberry flavor- if anything, it just added some extra sweetness.  :) But I'm pretty sure that any green smoothie that's not too crazy will work well.

busy-ness

So, I could go into this long spiel about how my life is crazy-insane, and how this week has been the craziest yet, but I'll spare you the details.  Just know that I'm sorry if this little blog gets neglected, but sometimes I actually have to prioritize... and that means NOT procrasti-blogging.  

BUT, I do have a few moments this evening (Happy April Fool's, by the way!) and thought I'd share one of the low-stress meals I made during this week's madness.  Enjoy!

Cinnamon Chili

Ingredients:

1 lb Ground Meat (I usually use 80-20 or 90-10 ground turkey, but I used ground chicken this time, and liked it better!) 

1-2 cans low sodium red kidney beans (use 2 if you like bean-ey chili, 1 if you like it meaty.)

1 can diced tomatoes, low sodium

1 small can tomato puree, low sodium (can you tell we're on a low-sodium diet at my house?)

1 can chicken broth, low sodium

1/4 c chopped yellow onion

chili powder

garlic powder

red pepper

cinnamon

Directions:

Brown the meat with the onions.  Drain the pan of any excess grease.  Stir in a tablespoon each of garlic and chili powder, and a teaspoon each of cinnamon and red pepper.  Allow to simmer on very low heat while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.  Pour the beans into a colander and rinse. Pour diced tomatoes, chicken broth, and tomato puree into a crockpot and stir until well mixed.  Add beans and meat and stir.  Simmer on low for 3-5 hours, stirring occasionally, and adding spices to taste.  

I personally enjoy eating my chili with sweet cornbread crumbled into it!

Smoothies

I've always loved smoothies.  When I was in middle and high school, whenever my mom and I were out shopping, we'd get smoothies for lunch or dinner instead of eating out.  We usually went to Smoothie King, and I always got the same thing- the "Frozen Goat."  Sounds weird, right?  It's bananas, frozen yogurt, and mocha... and it couldn't be better.  I frequently make a home-made version of it when I happen to have a little coffee left in the pot from the morning's brew.  Today, I did a twist on it, so I'll share that with you, as well as my recent experiment with green smoothies, inspired by one of my favorite foodie blogs.  Hope you enjoy!

Nutty Strawberry Smoothie

Ingredients:

2 large scoops of strawberry frozen yogurt (I used BlueBell's, which is non-fat and has hunks of frozen strawberries in it!)

      -this could be replaced with plain or vanilla yogurt (frozen or non) and frozen strawberries

2 T peanut butter (for the record, I ALWAYS use crunchy. I love the crunch, and it's usually lower in fat than reduced-fat creamy. For smoothies, I just blend a little longer and it smooths out.)

2 T flax seeds

1 c coffee, unsweetened

3-4 ice cubes (can be increased or lessened to preference.)

Directions:

Combine all of the ingredients except ice in the blender, and blend on high until smooth (1-2 minutes).  Add ice cubes and pulse 10-15 times, to make it "icey."

I like to place mine in a plastic container or cup, and stick it in the freezer uncovered for about 5-10 minutes. This chills it more and gives it a nice, thick, icey texture. :) This makes 1 large serving. 

As I was making this, I realized that since it contains grains (flax), protein (peanut butter and yogurt), dairy (yogurt), fruit, and coffee, this is the perfect balanced meal! 

Pear Medley Smoothie

2 small pears

1 c frozen unsweetened applesauce

Large handful of raw spinach leaves

¾ c grape juice from concentrate

3-4 T flax seeds

Directions:

Rinse pears, and cut them into quarters lengthwise.  Core them by cutting off the tough center edge from each quarter.  Cut them into large cubes, and set aside.  Place spinach and grape juice in blender and puree until there are no bits of spinach left.  Add pears and flax seed and puree again for a few minutes.  Finally add applesauce, and several ice cubes, if you like it icey (I do!) and pulse the blender 15 or so times, until the ice and applesauce are crushed.  This recipe makes about two servings.  

Enjoy!  My next post should be coming soon... I have a few projects I'm tweaking before I share them.

Second Promised Recipe...

Ok, so here's the second recipe I made during mid-terms week, but didn't have time to write about then.  I adapted it from a recipe found on Angel Food Ministries Website.  By the way, if anyone is looking for a way to trim their food budget without sacrificing quality or health, I highly recommend Angel Food Ministries.  Angel Food puts together a variety of different food packages and offers them for sale at discounted prices.  You can look at their menu online and order a month in advance.  The food is good, healthy food, even if it's not always what I would think to buy.  However, I like to look at it as a challenge to widen the variety of foods and recipes I can cook!  This was one (VERY successful) attempt to do just that.

"Standing Up" Roast Pork Chops with Veggies (for crockpot)

-Pork Chops in 4 oz. portions (use as many as you like/ will eat, these portions are very flexible.)
-1/2 medium to large yellow onion
-2-3 tbsp butter 
-Salt, Pepper, and your favorite seasonings to taste.   I used Garlic, Seasoning Salt, Cracked Black Pepper, and Montreal Steak Seasoning (Mrs. Dash.)
 -Carrots
-Celery


Healthy Hints:
My mother-in-law makes a mix of half butter, half canola oil, which she refrigerates in a container and uses in place of butter.  It still has the buttery flavor, but the bad fats are cut in half, and it melts and spreads like a dream.  Also, I recently discovered "No-Salt," which is a fairly cost-effective and tasty salt alternative.  


Directions:
Place pork chops in crockpot skinny side up, like a wheel.  To help them stay standing, place small balls of aluminum foil between them, leaving some space to fill in with veggies later. Cut onion into slices like rings, then cut a slit on one side.  Arrange the curly onion pieces over the tops of the pork chops.  Chop carrots and celery into bite-size pieces and drop into empty spaces around pork chops.  Drop dollops of butter over onions, pork chops, and veggies, and sprinkle liberally with salt, pepper, and seasonings.  Cook on Low for 6-8 hours.  I served it with rice and a side salad, which worked great! It does need light, less flavor-intense sides, since the veggies and pork absorb so much of the flavor.  This is a great dish for meat lovers who have trouble with veggies, because they become so soft, and catch a lot of the meat flavor.  


Enjoy! :)

A-Mazing Apple Muffins

So, it's definitely about time I finally delivered on my promised blog :)  This past Monday night, I made apple muffins; it really reminded me of when I used to have "Muffin Mondays" in high school, and make baked goods for the week on Monday morning before school.  Anyways, these muffins were basically a severely doctored version of a mix.  However, I think the same idea would probably work with a good basic muffin recipe.

Apple Muffins

2-3 small apples of choice (I used Pink Lady)
1 packet apple cinnamon oatmeal
1 package apple cinnamon muffin mix (I used "Jiffy")
  - include whatever water, milk, or egg amounts are recommended on the package
1 extra egg
1/4 cup milk


Core and chop the apples into very small pieces, about the size of "Legos," keeping the peels on.  In a large bowl, mix all the rest of the ingredients using a spoon or spatula.  Place in greased muffin tin and cook according to directions on muffin mix package.  However, due to the extra moisture, they may require a few additional minutes.  A toothpick inserted should come out sticky, but without any wet dough on it.  I recommend leaving them out to cool overnight, or for several hours, so that they don't get too moist and sticky in a container.  


These muffins are amazing both warm with butter, and cold with a sack lunch! (If I do say so myself!)

preview...

So, I've cooked two things this week that I can hardly wait to share, but since all my professors have decided to bombard me with tests right before Spring Break, I've forbidden myself to blog about them until my tests are done.  However, I can't resist a little preview... I made some A-mazing Apple Muffins on Monday night, and on Tuesday night I made Pork Chops and Veggies in my crockpot, and it was such a success that my fiance asked me to make more for a "second dinner" later that night, instead of asking for dessert!  Needless to say, I really can't wait to give up writing about educational philosophers for a week, and write about these recipes :)