Chicken Tamale Casserole

In keeping with my cooking light theme this week, I made another recipe I found on cookinglight.com. (Never mind that I made chocolate cookies just for me tonight, and am eating them as I type this!) The site had a whole section on easy recipes using chicken breasts. I had to stop printing recipes after a while, there were so many I wanted to cook. This recipe caught my eye because of the corn muffin crust. It had green chilies and cream corn mixed in. I absolutely love those little corn cakes that you get at Mexican restaurants.

I decided to cut the recipe in half since it was just me and Brian eating it, but we definitely would have enjoyed the full pan for leftovers. The recipe cut in half nicely and fit into a 9x9 pan. I followed the recipe pretty closely except when it came to the chicken and the sauce. The recipe doesn't specify how to cook your chicken, so I roasted boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the oven. I seasoned them with cayenne pepper, garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper. They turned out so moist! For a short cut you could always use a precooked rotisserie chicken. (The Costco ones are such a deal!) Also, the recipe calls for two cups of shredded chicken for the full recipe, and I probably used that much in my half a recipe. I roasted three chicken breasts. For the sauce, I covered the corn muffin crust, as directed, but added more after I placed the chicken on top. To me, it seemed like it would be a little dry, so I poured additional sauce over the chicken until the sauce sat on top of the crust. It was just the right amount of sauce! I just used canned Old El Paso enchilada sauce. I think green sauce would be great variation too.

I will definitely be making this again. I still have the other half of my ingredients, so I'll be making it again soon. It is delicious topped with sour cream! Click the link for the entire recipe and nutritional information.

Chicken Tamale Casserole Recipe

Stacked Enchiladas

This recipe comes from my Grandma Stiles, introduced to us by my aunt Sue. It wasn't that many years ago when Sue made these for us at my parents house. All of us kids asked my mom why she didn't have this recipe and why she never made it before. Since then we have added this to our rotated recipes. This is one of Brian's favorite recipes. Although he likes it with flour tortillas instead of corn, but I tell him it's not a flour tortilla recipe. Aunt Sue would not approve, she didn't even like us changing the recipe to include putting sour cream on top. While I don't endorse the flour tortillas (they are good, but just too much for this recipe) the sour cream is a must!

The sauce is easy to make, and will be very watery, it's a thin sauce. That is a good thing because the sauce runs all over your plate, so good. I usually double the recipe if I'm making it for five or more people. You don't want to run out of sauce.

For sauce, in pot:
Saute 1 yellow onion
Add:
2- 8 oz cans tomato sauce
2 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs chili powder
3 Cups water

Fry up 1 lb. of hamburger with onion flakes
Warm up corn tortillas-put a tiny bit of oil on each one place in plastic bag warm in microwave

To assemble:
Put a little sauce on plate
Put down one corn tortilla, top with hamburger, lettuce, cheese, and sauce.
Place another tortillas on top and repeat as many times as you can handle. Usually a three stacker is good. You can top with sour cream, or add it in the layers. These are really filling once they are all stacked up, so be prepared!

Meals on Wheels: Kogi Truck

Last week was my last full week of freedom before I had to return to the classroom to prepare for my new wave of students. I was trying to fill up everyday with something fun and exciting to do, and I wanted to fit in a few things that are a little harder to do when you work Monday through Friday 8-5. Ok, I only work until 3, but still. Gourmet food trucks seem to be all the rage right now in LA and Orange County, so we've been making a list and last week checked off a few. It's a really fun eating experience, and a cheaper way to try out new gourmet food.

The first truck we hit up was the Kogi Truck. Brittany and Garrett put this one on the list. We found it in a business park on a Saturday afternoon. There was a warehouse sale going on and there were people everywhere. Kogi's tag line is, "Korean BBQ-To-Go," and that might have been the first time I ever had Korean food, BBQ or otherwise. Spicy Pork Tacos, Kimchi Quesadillas and Short Rib Sliders are just a few of the menu items you can get for a very moderate price, ranging from $2-$7.

I tried a short rib taco, a chicken taco, and the short rib sliders. (The portions are smaller, so you can try a lot!) The tacos were a delicious gourmet Korean twist on a traditional Mexican staple. The barbecued meat was amazing,and topped with slaw and veggies that I'm still dreaming about. And nice and sauce and juices were dripping down my hand as I ate. I loved it! You know how I hate dry food! The sliders were equally delicious, but I think I prefer the texture of the corn tortillas over the soft bun. The chicken tacos were my absolute favorite, if I had to pick. But I love, love, love this truck!




You wouldn't have to ask me twice to visit the Kogi truck again. In fact we almost went yesterday. Kogi has four trucks, three in LA areas and on in Orange County. They are in different locations every day for lunch and late night dinners. Check out their website here, or follow them on Twitter for location updates. (I don't do twitter, so you're on your own to find them there.)

Note: Sorry for the blurry pictures, the iPhone was all I had with me. You can check out additional pictures on their website.

It's easy burrito night!

I've always loved a good burrito, it's what I look at first on the menu of a Mexican restaurant. My mom use to make us a basic bean and cheese burrito growing up, before our tastes grew up! But even through college and living on my own I always found that I had the ingredients to throw something together. My only complaint was that most of the flavor came from whatever salsa I choose to put on them. That has all changed! This summer, when I was watching Food Network all day, all the time, I caught an episode of Cooking For Real with Sunny Anderson. I'd never seen her show before and had no idea what kind of food she cooked. So I watched the episode and she made these easy, but delicious looking quesadillas with this new jazzed up sour cream. I had pretty much everything needed to make them, so I tried them out that night, and have keep trying out variations at least every other week.

I'm actually not the hugest quesadilla fan because of all the cheese, always conscious of the waist line. So the first time I actually made just the mix and put in a tortilla, and it is relatively low fat. Each time I make the mix I tend to throw in whatever I have in the fridge. Had some left over rice from the night before, so that was new this time. Sunny didn't use chicken, but I think it's a wonderful addition. I've used grilled chicken, or when I'm lazy I'll throw in canned chicken and it is still good. When I don't have red pepper I'll use green, and I've used all kinds of beans. I prefer whole black beans. But yesterday I accidentally opened a can of pinto beans with peppers (I think I also bought that on accident) so I used those just tonight! They were actually a nice little addition.

What I love most about Sunny's recipe is the Cilantro Lime Sour Cream. It is amazing. Again, it's very simple, but just something I never did to my sour cream before. But I am hooked. I like it with a lot of lime juice.

We have been loving those fresh tortillas that you cook yourself. Well, I guess if we keep them frozen they're not really fresh. But we get them at Costco, not the most authentic, but they keep forever. And when we cook them up they taste so fresh. (And for dessert we cooked up a few more and spread some homemade honey butter on them. Delish! Thanks Walburger's!)

Now I know this isn't a super fancy, or even hard recipe. And perhaps most of you have already whipped something like this up. But it's what I was cooking this week. And since I've been hit with round two of a cold, I was lucky to make this!

Southwest Quesadilla Recipe