Mexican Stuffed Shells

I realized the other day that I am making recipes from the same people over and over again.  While I love the food from those sites and almost everything I have tried has been awesome, it definitely pays to stray from the normal.

I ran across this recipe while I was looking for something new.  I have to admit that the pasta shells with Mexican flavors sounded interesting, but also didn't sound like they would work.  However, since we eat a lot of Mexican flavors, I decided to throw it into the meal plan.

Mexican Stuffed Shells
slightly adapted from The Way to His Heart...
Ingredients
1 lb. ground turkey
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon cilantro
4 oz. reduced fat cream cheese
14-16 jumbo pasta shells
2 cups salsa
1.5 cups taco sauce
2 cup monterey jack cheese
3 green onions

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 350°.
2) In a frying pan cook ground turkey; add taco seasoning and cook until you no longer see any pink sections in the meat. 
3) Add cream cheese, cover and simmer until all the cream cheese is melted. Blend well. Set aside and cool completely. 
4) While ground beef is cooking, cook the pasta shells according to directions; drain. Set shells out individually on cutting board/baking sheet so that they don’t stick together.
5) Pour salsa on bottom of 9×13 baking dish.  Stuff each shell with the meat mixture. Place shells in 9×13 pan open side up. Cover shells with taco sauce. 
6) Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
7) After 30 minutes, add shredded cheese and bake for 10-15 more minutes, with the foil removed. 

Top with any condiments you’d like (green onions, black olives, etc.) Serve with sour cream and/or more salsa.

The result was very good.  The flavors were interesting, but they went together very well. The taco sauce was the main player in the sauce department, and had a lot of flavor.  We used both Taco Bell salsa and Taco Bell Sauce so they complimented each other well.  The inside was creamy and provided a lot of flavor.  I loved the green onions with this dish and went back and added more.  The onion added crunch and an extra pop of flavor in each bite.  This meal was a great addition to our meal plan.

Maple Dijon Salmon

I have started spending a lot of time looking at the Secret Recipe Club swaps and found this recipe listed under the reveals the other day.  My husband and I have a recipe that is pretty similar to this that we absolutely love, but in the interest of trying new things, I put it on our menu.

Maple Dijon Salmon
recipe from Sustainable Cooking for One
Ingredients
2 Salmon Filets
1 tablespoon Spicy brown mustard
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon maple syrup
small clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp dried marjoram

Directions
1)  Preheat oven to 400 F.
2)  Mix the mustards, maple syrup, garlic, and marjoram in small bowl.
3)  Place the salmon skin side down on a shallow pan covered in foil. Coat the top of the salmon in the mustard sauce, and bake for 15 minutes (adjust according to the thickness of your salmon fillets).

This dish was great.  I loved the two different mustard flavors in the sauce.  I don't know what grade of syrup we used, but it gave it just a hint of that maple flavor and the sweetness to cut through the mustard.  Before I sat down to start eating, Jacob declared this dish amazing, and I agree.  It is simple, but packs a lot of flavor.

Monte Cristos

My husband rarely requests meals.  He usually just says, "I'll eat whatever you make," so I was surprised when he asked for Monte Cristos last week.

We got a fryer for our wedding that has been sitting in a box for six months and this recipe finally allowed us to get it out and hook it up.  This meal was a team meal with him running the fryer and me doing all the prep work.  It made for a fun evening in the kitchen.

Monte Cristos
slightly adapted from Food Network
Ingredients
8 slices center cut or smoked turkey bacon
4 large eggs, beaten
Warm 1/4 cup fat free half-and-half
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper
8 thick cut sliced 12 grain bread
1/2 cup spicy brown mustard
1/2 cup whole berry cranberry sauce (optional)
1/2 pound sliced havarti 
1 pound sliced ham
1 pound sliced turkey breast
oil for fryer
toothpicks to hold sandwiches together

Directions
1) Preheat deep fryer.
2) Cook bacon and remove to paper towels to drain, 5 minutes. Drain off fat. .
3) Beat eggs with half-and-half, nutmeg and pepper.
4) Assemble sandwiches with mustard, cheese, bacon, and lunch meats. Insert several toothpicks to hold the sandwich together.
5) Dip sandwich in egg mixture.
6) Place in fryer until sandwiches turn a nice brown color. 
7) Top with cranberry sauce. (optional)

We were a little wary of how these sandwiches would turn out since we had never fried anything before but they turned out great.  I put the cranberry sauce only on one slice to try and see how everything worked together.  I loved the spicy brown mustard with the creamy havarti cheese.  The frying created the great textural element to the dish and just tied everything together.  It was a perfect combination of sweet, creamy, and tart.  I also loved how the cranberry sauce and cheese tasted together.  The contrast between the creamy and the tartness of the cranberries was fantastic. This sandwich seems like it has a lot going on, but it all works well together.

Chicken and White Bean Enchiladas

This recipe has been on my list of things to make for awhile.  I was intrigued by the beans in the enchiladas because besides refried beans, I hadn't thought of beans and enchiladas really going together.

I also had never made enchiladas without canned sauce.  The recipe that I normally use for enchiladas takes awhile to put together, so making sauce from scratch just seems even more time consuming.  I think that I may start to use this sauce on my go-to enchiladas now.  The sauce is easy and tastes lighter and fresher than the canned stuff does.  Definitely worth the few extra minutes.

Chicken and White Bean Enchiladas
slightly adapted from Skinnytaste
Ingredients

Chicken and White Bean Filling 

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 cup minced white onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles

15.5 oz can Navy beans

2 cooked shredded chicken breasts

1/2 can water

1 chicken bullion

1 tsp cumin

1 teas

Green Chile Enchilada Sauce:
1 tsp butter
1/2 cup chopped white onion
2 tbsp flour
1 cup fat free chicken broth
7 oz can chopped green chile
2 jalapeños, chopped
salt
1/2 cup light sour cream 
8 medium low carb tortillas
chopped fresh cilantro and scallions

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 375°.
2) For the Filling: In a medium pan, heat olive oil on low. Add onions, garlic and saute until soft, about 2-3 minutes. Add green chiles, beans, water, bullion, and cumin. Mix well and cover. Simmer on low 15 minutes. Remove cover, add chicken and cook an additional 5 minutes, or until it thickens and liquid boils down. Set aside.
3) Green Chile Enchilada Sauce: In a large nonstick pan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion softens and starts to turn translucent, about 3-4 minutes. Add flour and stir well. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Slowly whisk in the chicken broth. Whisk until the sauce becomes smooth. Cook over medium heat until the sauce boils and thickens, about 4-5 minutes. Add green chiles, jalepeños, and salt to tatse. Cook another minute then remove from the heat. Stir in the sour cream.
4) Assembly: Spread about 1/4 cup of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9x13" baking dish. Fill each tortilla with 1/3 cup of the chicken/white bean filling. Roll the tortillas and place seam side down in the prepared baking dish. Continue filling remainder of the tortillas.
5) Pour the enchilada sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Top with cheese. Cover with aluminum and bake 20-30 minutes, until the enchiladas are hot and the cheese is melted. Remove from oven and top with fresh cilantro or scallions. 

It's a bad picture, but these were fantastic enchiladas.  The beans provide a more substantial filling for these enchiladas.  We usually eat two enchiladas apiece for dinner, and we each only had one of these and were full.  I thought the sauce was great because it didn't drown out the taste of the filling in the enchilada.  These make for a great meal!

Mushroom Garlic Sauce

We recently found Turkey Filet Mignon on our Schwan's catalog and decided that they would be a great addition to our menu when we're stressed for meal ideas or time.

I've been trying to find sauces other than A1 or barbeque sauce to put on top of them.  We usually always have mushrooms in the house, so I thought this could become an easy, go-to sauce in our house.

Mushroom Garlic Sauce
adapted from Easy-Wine
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup dry white wine

Directions
1) Heat olive oil in the pan and add garlic . Sauté until the garlic is lightly browned.
2) Add mushrooms and saute for about five minutes until the mushrooms are cooked through and turn a dark brown.
3) Add wine, and cook about ten minutes, stirring frequently until wine reduces a little bit. 

I thought this sauce is a good start for steaks.  I think that it would be better with some freshly chopped rosemary or another kind of herb.  I loved the mushrooms though.  They were wine soaked and exploded with the liquid when you bit into them.  I think that this is a great sauce for steaks with one or two tweaks.

Butterscotch Pumpkin Cupcakes

It was a Thanksgiving Dessert Recipe Swap in honor of Thanksgiving, and I got Pumpkin Cupcakes from Sarah at A Taste of Homecooking.

I love pumpkin.  Love it.  So I was excited that these came my way.  Lately, I've been obsessed with the pumpkin and butterscotch combination.  I also thought about putting regular chocolate chips in there as well because the pumpkin, buttercotch, and chocolate chips seem to be a match made in heaven, but I thought it might overwhelm the cupcake, so left it with just two out of the three awesome ingredients.

Pumpkin Cupcakes
slightly adapted from A Taste of Homecooking
Ingredients

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon salt

1 can (15 oz.) solid-packed pumpkin (about 1 ¾ cups)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup canola oil

1/2 cup butterscotch chips

4 eggs

Cinnamon for dusting the tops of the cupcakes

Preheat an oven to 350°F. Line muffin tins with decorative cupcake papers.

1) In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Set aside.

2) In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, granulated sugar, brown sugar and oil.

3) Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition.
4) Add the flour mixture in three additions, stirring with a large wooden spoon until just combined. 5) Add the butterscotch chips and stir until the chips are distributed through the batter. 

6) Fill the muffin tins about three-fourths full. Bake until the cupcakes are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.

7)Transfer the tins to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes, then remove the cupcakes from the tins and let cool completely.

Cream Cheese Frosting
slightly adapted from A Taste of Homecooking originally from Sherri
Ingredients
4 oz. unsalted butter, softened
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon vanilla
5 cups confectioner's sugar (I used 4 cups and still had enough frosting, with desired sweetness for all of the cupcakes)

Directions

1) Cream butter and cream cheese until fluffy. Add vanilla and beat. Add sugar one cup at a time and continue to beat an additional 5 minutes.

2) Once cupcakes are frosted, sprinkle with a little bit of cinnamon.                            

By the time these cupcakes came out of the oven, everyone in the house was waiting to snatch one from the cooling rack.  The pumpkin smell was just too great to keep our hands off the cupcakes.  The cinnamon on top of the frosting was amazing and added just a little extra spice punch to the cupcake.  The cupcake had amazing pumpkin flavor and every once in awhile you got a surprise butterscotch chip that was like an extra flavor burst.  They were moist and delicious.  I cannot wait for Thanksgiving dessert time to roll around again.

Warning: These cupcakes were so good that I had to take them up to work in order to keep from devouring them all.  They are great "take to the office" treats.

Corn Casserole

I love recipes where you can just throw all the ingredients together and put them in a pan to bake.  Especially for side dishes because it gives you more attention to focus on other things...like the main dish, or cleaning up. 

I love corn and try to incorporate it into at least one meal a week.  This was a great addition to our side dish arsenal. 

Corn Casserole
from Skinnytaste
Ingredients
8.5 oz corn muffin mix
15.25 oz can sweet yellow corn, drained
14.75 oz can sweet corn cream style
16 oz fat free Greek yogurt
1/4 cup melted light butter 
1/2 cup egg whites
cooking spray

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2) Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Spread mixture into a greased 9 by 13 pan.
3) Cook 55-60 minutes.

This dish was so moist and flavorful.  I took it to a get together and everyone was surprised at how good it was.  I thought it had a great corn flavor that wasn't diluted by any of the other ingredients. Next time, I think I'll half the recipe since it makes an entire 9 by 13 pan, but it was a great side dish for our get together with friends.