Skinny Chimis

Another great creation from Take Out Tonight! :o) We both liked this recipe, me more so than my husband but I think that with a little extra spice, it would be perfect! Spraying the tortillas with a little Pam made them perfectly crunchy, it was just as if we fried them. Definitely give this one a try if you are looking for a POINT friendly Mexican dish, just add a little more spice to it (chili powder or green chiles). My changes in listed in green.



Skinny Chimis
(source: Take Out Tonight)

1/2 lb lean ground turkey I used 1lb of lean ground beef
2 tbsp diced green chiles I'd add a little more
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp chili powder I would add a little more
8 oz tomato sauce
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/3 cup low fat cheddar cheese I used Mexican blend
1 garlic clove, minced
4 fat free tortillas
Pam

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cook turkey (or hamburger) in skillet that is lightly sprayed with Pam. Add garlic, cumin, chili powder, chiles, tomato sauce and oregano and simmer for about 5 minutes, until the sauce thickens a bit.

On a Pam sprayed cookie sheet, fill each tortilla with a good scoop of goo (I had extra since I used extra meat but try to keep it as even as possible). Roll the tortilla up, pushing in the sides then rolling it. They will be thick and that is ok! Spray the tops of the tortillas so they glisten and bake about 20 minutes or until crisp.

These will be like little saunas inside, very very HOT! They are oh so good though! I served this with fat free refried beans topped with a little cheese. So tastey!

POINTS for Original Recipe with Turkey: 4 POINTS per Chimi
POINTS for My Recipe: 6 POINTS per Chimi

Taco Dip = Lotsa Happy People

My mom used to be the salad department manager at a fancy local restauarnt. It was connected to a Holiday Inn and she would design all salads and dips for the restaurant and hotel catering parties. Once she left the restaurant, she took a lot of what she made at the restaurant with her. Luckily one of these dips is the Taco Dip. I know this is no secret recipe, as I have heard others talk about it before on the WC board. However, only my mom would worry about having the right amount of different colors on the dip! I was told I needed a little red, green, orange and black and in a certain order of course! She cracks me up but she does make a great presentation (so good in fact that she did the food for our wedding). This Taco Dip is a favorite among my ILs. They had never seen or heard of this dip before I arrived at their family Christmas eight long years ago (god, was it really that long ago!). This is requested every year and every year my mom calls to make sure I "have enough color" on my dip.

This year, I made it more WW friendly, which was easy to do with this dip! I used FF sour cream, FF refried beans, FF cheddar cheese and low sodium taco seasoning. I was skeptical at first when my mom let me know what I could substitute (she made the same thing for a dinner party last weekend with these substitutions) but I of course listened to my catering knowledge of a mother and made it using all fat free ingredients. You could of course make it with all regular ingredients, no fat free, as I have in the past.



Taco Dip
(Source: My Mama)

2 cans fat free refried beans (the small cans)
8 oz fat free sour cream
1/2 packet of taco seasoning
fat free cheddar cheese, diced scallions, sliced black olives, seeded/diced tomatoes to garnish with

Spread beans in an 8x8 dish. I always use one of those metal disposable pans so I can just toss it when we go to a party.
Mix the taco seasoning with the sour cream. You may use more or less taco seasoning depending on your tastes. Add a little at a time because it's hard to take out too much seasoning than needing to add more. Trust me, I know this from experience. If your sour cream is bright orange, it has too much taco seasoning in your sour cream and your guests will need some water!! :o) Spread the sour cream over the beans.


Here are the steps my mom stresses for garnishing:
sprinkle cheese over the dip mixture
sprinkle drained black olives next
sprinkle diced tomatoes over next (de seed them so they don't make the dip soggy)
diced scallions last



Of course I won't tell if you go out of order or gasp! add more toppings or decide you don't want to use all of these garnishes. LOL! :o) My mom just really cares abouthow people receive her dishes, and I think that is great! I hope that I make her proud most of the time (please don't tell her I posted pics with paper plates though! LOL!)

I serve this with Tostitos scoops but I also bring celery and carrots too. That keeps points down and gives me my "crunch."

Serving size: a good scoop!
Points Per Serving: 1-2 POINTS per scoop (depending on scoop size of course)

Don't forget to add points for tositos (try baked!)


Oh and while I am thinking about my mom and her food style, here are some pics from our wedding. This is our food table that my mom put together. We loved it! It was perfect.

Here are our salads, watermelon/fruit basket and note the taco dip? :o)

Here is the cheese and meat tray.

Finger Food! Empanadas!!

We have been frequent diners at On The Border because my husband ADORES their empanadas. Well, as I am sure many of you on WW have realized...mexican cuisine is not the healthiest and it can be (not always) difficult to eat on plan there...but boy is it good!

I found this recipe in the December issue of the WW magazine, and altered it to our liking. If you haven't gotten this one yet, you should. It has over 60 (?) recipes for holidays not to mention regular recipes for everyday. These little finger foods were delicious! It was hard to just eat 9 of them (sounds like a lot but not really!), however after I ate my servings I was seriously full. For every three empanadas, it is only 2 points. Not bad huh?!

Yummy Empanadas
(Source: WW magazine December 2007)

30 wonton wrappers
1 egg, beaten
1/2 lb extra lean hamburger
1/8 cup low fat cheddar cheese
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp taco seasoning
1/2 small onion, diced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray cookie sheet with PAM. Brown hamburger and onions, drain. Add tomato paste and taco seasoning; then add cheese. Lay out wontons and fill with about 1 tbsp of filling per wonton. Wet the edges of the wonton with the egg and fold. Repeat! Bake about 8 minutes. (You will want to flip them over 1/2 way through so both sides are crispy. I forgot to do this)

Serving size: 3 empanadas = 2 POINTS

Cleaning Out the Cupboards...Our Favorite Dish

Awhile back we were cleaning out the cupboards to make a meal. We didn't feel like going to the store and we found egg noodles, enchillada sauce, chiles, hamburger, cheese, diced tomatoes, beef broth and mushrooms. We could either make stroganoff OR a kind of mexican-ish dish. Well, my husband isn't a fan of stroganoff so I worked my magic and made what is now one of our favorite dishes. Who woulda thought! Since joining WW, I made this dish just a little more POINT-friendly. It wasn't too bad to begin with actually! It isn't a pretty dish but it sure is good!

Trisha's Taco Casserole
(source: Trisha!)

1 lb lean hamburger
6 oz NO-YOLK egg noodles
1 small can enchillada sauce
4 oz can diced chiles
1 small onion, diced
2 tbsp taco seasoning
2/3 cup reduced fat cheddar cheese
1 can diced tomatoes (I used petite)
1/4 cup crushed tomatoes (I had them left over)
1 oz Doritos (I used regular, but BAKED would be fine too, may even lower point value by 1)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil noodles to al dente. Meanwhile, spray skillet with PAM and add hamburger and diced onion. Drain when browned. Drain noodles, and add them and the chiles to the skillet. Heat through and add enchillada sauce, diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, and 1/2 of the cheese.

Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese. Spray cheese with nonstick spray (just a bit). This helps with the low fat cheese melting (it works I swear!). Bake about 15 minutes, until cheese melts and it's all gooey. If you don't have an oven safe skillet, you can do this on the stove top (covered). Top with crushed Doritos and serve.

1 1/2 cup serving: 7 POINTS

This is a huge dish. I figured it to serve at least 7 people. My husband had two HUGE scoops of casserole, I had a cup and a half and there was still a TON left. Sometimes we have this with a side of FF refried beans but we just had that last night at On the Border.

Enchiladas...No Problemo!

Mexican is difficult when on WW. Yes, there are decent choices to make, but it's never what you want. (ex: chimichanga or 1/2 cheese quesadilla...hmmm) Well, I decided to take a try making enchiladas more WW friendly. I built this recipe on WW's etools (which I highly recommend!). I made 7 tortillas with a bit of chicken left over, but not enough room in my dish for an 8th. This recipe was so tasty! I hardly missed the dousing with cheese that I usually do! Corn tortillas are a little different in texture, but overall tasty as well!

Chicken Enchiladas - Trisha Style!
(Source: Me!)

3/4 lb chicken breast, shredded (I had some frozen strips that I cooked and chopped in my processor)
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 cup enchilada sauce
2 oz. diced chiles
3/4 cup reduced fat Mexican blend cheese
8 corn tortillas (I used 7 but had enough for 8)
nonstick spray


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook chicken with the chili powder and cumin. Shred with a fork. Add 1/4 cup of enchilada sauce, 1/4 cup cheese, and chiles to the chicken, combine. Spray
baking dish with nonstick spray. Fill tortillas with meat mixture and roll, placing tortilla seam side down. I did not measure this but to keep it uniform I used about the same amount in my spoonula for each tortilla.

Drizzle with remaining sauce. We actually did not use the entire 3/4 cup of enchilada sauce. We don't really like our enchiladas real saucy. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Again, we did not use the total remaining cheese, but I figured the above ingredients when building the recipe in my etools.

Cover with foil and bake about 20 minutes. Uncover, and bake another 3-5 minutes to melt the cheese on top a little more. Enjoy!

POINTS: 5

WW: Crockpot Salsa Chicken.... Sans Crockpot!

So I have heard wonderful reviews about the crockpot salsa recipe on the What's Cooking board. Sadly, I do not have a crockpot that loves me. It would rather smell our house with a wonderful aroma but produce charcoal which = not yummy. :( So I stubbled across this recipe while looking for WW friendly meals that had the same basis of the crockpot salsa recipe. I found it and it was so yummy! The chicken was juicy and had tons of flavor. It would be great in tortillas for those extra points, but we just ate it with a side of beans and I was full.


Salsa Chicken
(Source: Recipe Gold Mine )

2 chicken breasts, skinless
1 cup salsa
1/2 cup low fat cheddar cheese
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tbsp cumin
1 green pepper, sliced

Preheat oven to 375. Brown chicken in skillet (no need to cook through). Toss chicken (we had chicken strips left over) with seasonings, then add to casserole or baking dish. Add salsa and green pepper. Bake uncovered for 25-30 minutes. Add cheese and bake for an additional 5 minutes until cheese is melted.

POINTS: 4 per serving (4 servings)

We served this with fat free refried beans (1 POINT).

Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas

Yummy! It's all I can say about this little concoction I made for lunch yesterday! It was easy enough to eat (gotta think of thos wisdom teeth still, ugh) but so tasty! Quesadillas are one of my favorite go-to quick meals that we always seem to have to ingredients for. It was cheesey and delicious! (please excuse the paper plate, I didn't feel like washing another dish!)

Buffalo Chicken Quesadillas

1 chicken breast shreaded or chopped
Frank's Buffalo Wing Sauce (or hot sauce)
1 large tortilla
1 very large handful of cheese (I used Mexican Jack cheese, but any will work)

In a small container, mix the chicken and enough hot sauce to suit your preference. I doused mine because I like it spicy but you could use as much or as little as you want. Preheat skillet or griddle, spray with Pam cooking spray. Spread chicken on half of tortilla, cover with cheese. Fold over and carefully set in skillet. For easy flipping, put spatula under the open side of the tortilla (not folded) and just roll it over in skillet after about 3 minutes or until browned. Allow other side to brown and cheese starts to get gooey. Remove from skillet and cut into 3 triangles (or more if you're sharing!). Serve with sour cream and salsa if desired.

Super Nachos!

Tonight we were supposed to have pancakes. I had been craving them all day! They sounded delicious. Well, I went to go make the pancakes and GASP! no eggs! You can't make pancakes without eggs! Having been out and about all day, I didn't feel like running up to the store. I am so glad what came out of having no eggs. After surveying the very empty cupboards (grocery day is tomorrow), we came up with nachos. They are usually a side dish we have with enchilladas but we hadn't made them yet. To make them more filling for a whole meal, I added some frozen taco meat we had in the freezer and some diced tomatoes.

Trisha's SUPER Nachos!

Ingredients:

Your favorite brand of tortilla chips (We use Tostitos Gold - they are so yummy!)
Mexican blend w/jalepenos shredded cheese
1/2 cup diced tomatoes
taco meat

Directions:

I make my nachos on our pizza pan. A little uncoventional but it works great! I make our nachos into layers. First I spread a layer of chips down on the pan. Spoon taco meat as evenly as possible over the chips. Sprinkle generously with cheese. Gently repeat another layer of chips, meat and cheese. Bake in oven at 350 degrees for about 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is slighty browned. Be careful not to pull them out too soon because you want the bottom layer to be nice and melty. Take out of the oven and top with tomatoes (and any other taco goodies you have on hand).

Easy, Cheesy Burritos

Mexican is my favorite type of cuisine, not so much Peter's. After having his favorite (spaghetti) this weekend, I thought it only fair to have mine! I really wanted enchiladas but burritos were a close second! Plus they are SO easy and affordable to make. I do use a taco seasoning mix because it's easy and I can never get the spices just right when I try to make my own.

Burritos

flour tortillas
can refried beans
1 lb lean hamburger
1 taco seasoning & 3/4 cup water (or what your packet requires)
1/2 cup diced onions
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 tbls olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Heat oil in pan, add diced onions to soften. Had hamburger after a couple of minutes and break up the meat, mixing it in with the onions. Cook hamburger until no longer pink. Drain extra grease from pan. Add taco seasoning and water to meat, mix well. Simmer until water is absorbed. Remove from heat and prepare a burrito filling station with beans, meat, cheese, and tortillas.

Spray cookie sheet with Pam. Using a spatula spread a bit of beans in the middle of the tortilla. Spoon some of the meat mixture in the middle of the tortilla. Sprinkle a handful of cheese in the middle. Take both ends and fold in, then roll the tortilla to shape the burrito. Continue until the desired number of burritos are prepared. Spray the tops with some cooking spray and bake for about 15 minutes, or until the burritos begin to brown. They will be VERY HOT. It takes a good 5-10 minutes for them to cool enough to eat.

We made 5 but had LOTS of everything left over, so you could easily make 8 or so. They are small so plan on eating at least 2, depending on how full you stuff them.