Baked Chicken and Spinach Flautas or Taquitos

I'm not quite sure if there is a difference between a flauta and a taquito.  I have a sneaking suspicion that it may have something to do with the tortilla.  Anyone know? 

I suppose it doesn't really matter.  What I made last night was amazing for a few reasons.  1.  It was SO GOOD.  2.  It was baked and not deep fried!  3.  As always it was made completely from scratch and organic!!!  4.  It was relatively healthy!

Flautas are my "go to" dish at Mexican restaurants.  It's my default dish to compare Mexican Restaurants.  Just like "Pad See Ew" is my default dish at Thai Restaurants.  I know, I'm weird.  Whatever.  I never really imagined that I would ever make flautas at home because they're deep fried.  I don't really like doing the deep frying thing at home because I don't have a deep fryer, for some reason I hate filling pots with oil, and I really don't like getting spattered with oil which inevitably happens to me the 1 or 2 times a year I decide to roll up my sleeves and deep fry something (usually lumpia). 



Sorry I didn't get a fantastic plating picture, but trust me.  They were delicious!!!



When I saw this recipe that my friend Erin posted on Pinterest I thought it was too good to be true!  What's more, it looked really simple!  So I tried it out last night.  I thought it might actually have a chance to come out crispy because my homemade tortillas actually use a considerable amount of coconut oil.  By the way, coconut oil makes for fantastic tortillas!!  I've tried making them with butter, but the coconut oil seems to help them hold together better.  I'm not really the lard using type even though I know if you can get your hands on grass fed organic lard it probably won't kill you as quickly as everyone else thinks. :)

Anyways, I think I baked mine for slightly too long as the ends of a few of the flautas got a bit singed.  Just be sure to check yours periodically.  I also didn't flip mine over, because when I did I found that the flipped ones started looking less secure and might have opened up.  They got nice and crispy without flippage anyways.

I didn't really change this recipe, so I don't feel comfortable posting it in it's entirety, but feel free to click over to Healthy Delicious for these amazing Baked Chicken and Spinach Flautas.

What I did differently:
- I used cheddar cheese because I didn't have any Mexican cheese on hand
- I used baby kale because I didn't have baby spinach on hand.
- use my own tortillas (homemade tortilla recipe can be found here) with coconut oil. 
- I didn't simmer the chicken in beer.  I just boiled the chicken and then shredded it.
- I mixed together the cheese, chicken, spinach (kale), and jalapenos after they had all been cooked, for ease of flauta stuffing

Make sure:

- to grease your cookie sheet/sheet pan with some coconut oil before you lay the flautas on there seam side down

- cut your tortillas in half!  I think the fact that there was only 1 layer of tortilla surrounding the filling helped make the crispy tortilla mission successful.

Serve with some fresh guacamole and enjoy!!  Jon poured some store bought tomatillo salsa on his and seemed to like that too. 

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Dear God,

   please help my baby come soon.  If it's your will.  Please.  Thank you!  Amen.

Chili

Tonight's dinner was incredibly easy to fix and can be a great crock pot dinner if you are organized early enough in the day.  Today I was not so organized, so it just simmered on the stove for an hour and a half.

There's not much of a history to this one.  I was just craving chili one day and I'd never made it before so I went hunting for a recipe on allrecipes.com.  The original recipe calls for turkey.  I have used turkey before and it has turned out well, but recently there have been a lot of contaminated ground turkey scares so I haven't bought any ground turkey for a while.  I think it also tastes a bit better with ground beef, so that's what I made tonight.

One of the great things about looking for recipes on recipe websites is that you can look at reviews.  I tweaked the original recipe a lot based on reviews I read from other people who had tried the recipe and I like the upgraded version much better. 

Usually (when I'm organized) I'll make a side of cornbread to go with the chili, but tonight since I was pretty out of it I just threw a bunch of corn into the chili.  I know, definitely not the same, but at least you still get that nice sweetness of the corn in there.  I also tried adding spinach tonight because I'm starting to really like sneaking spinach into things.  It worked well and added another vegetable serving in there!

Here's what I did.

Chili
adapted from Simple Turkey Chili recipe on allrecipes.com

Ingredients
1lb ground beef
1 medium onion diced
3 cloves of garlic minced

1 large carrot diced

2 anaheim chiles diced(I usually use 1 bell pepper, but I had the anaheims in the fridge and didn't want to waste them)
2 cups chicken broth (or beef broth should work well too)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans, rinsed and partially mashed
2 cups chopped spinach
1cup corn (I used frozen)

2 tblsp chili powder

1/2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp ground cumin

salt and pepper to taste

*the original recipe also had 1/2 tsp cayenne which is nice, but I leave it out now so that it's not spicy for the kiddos.  Jon still adds a dash after it's made.  Don't add the cayenne until the last minute if you're making it in a crock pot though!

Method

1.  Brown the ground beef in a large pot.

2.  Add the onion and saute with the beef until the onion is softened.

3.  Add the garlic, carrot and chiles and saute until the chiles start to soften.

4.  Add the spinach, tomatoes, beans, broth, and spices and mix well.  Bring it up to a boil on med-high heat and then lower the temperature and let it simmer for at least 40 minutes covered or more until all the veggies are tender. 

Spinach

Tomatoes and beans

Broth

Spices

5.  Take the lid off and add the frozen corn and simmer it for another 15 minutes to let some liquid evaporate so it's a thicker chili.

This works well in a crock pot too!  Just throw everything in a crock pot after step 3 and let it go all day.

It's very filling and has a lot of protein and fiber.  It's also nice with a bit of shredded cheddar on top.  Mmmm...

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

  please bless and protect all those out celebrating All Hallow's Eve tonight.  Keep them safe and help them remember the incredible Feast of All Saints tomorrow.  Amen.

Spinach Alfredo Pasta with Garlic prawns

Since my parents gave us some prawns to take home last week, I figured I'd make them for our Friday meal.  I am sure there are some great spinach alfredo recipes out there, but I just didn't have the energy or interest to go looking for one tonight when I figured I could wing it. 



I did have more prawns than this, but I was trying to make a fancy looking picture!



This is another one of those really simple meals that someone would probably pay a good $13-15 for at a chain restaurant.  This also probably has 1000 less calories or 1000 less mg of sodium or something crazy like that.  Sometimes Jon finds nutrition facts at the restaurants we go to and I always wonder how the heck they get all that stuff in there.  How on earth can you fit that much fat and sodium into some dishes?  It's crazy. 

I really hate when he finds the nutrition facts.  Hee hee! 

But anyways, tonight I was looking for a way to fit in some spinach and I thought it would work well in a garlic alfredo type sauce and I am pretty sure that seafood and pasta with white sauce have been friends for a long time.  The great thing about spinach is that you can't taste it when it's cooked, so it's like sneaking in veggies (except you can still see them of course).  Oh and I probably would have used linguine or penne, but I only had this vegetable radiatore laying around, so the presentation wasn't as lovely.  But hey, it tasted good, and that's what matters most.  Sorry, no procedure pictures tonight.  I was in a rush and my hands were pretty goey from handling the prawns and trying to de-shell them.  So here's what I did.

Spinach Alfredo Pasta with Garlic Prawns
(I winged it, I'm sure you can find a recipe for it somewhere on the internet)

Ingredients

Sauce
1/2 c half and half
1c milk
1c chopped spinach
1/2c shredded parmigiano reggiano
3-4 cloves of garlic minced
2tbsp butter
3tbsp flour
salt and pepper to taste.

Prawns
1lb Prawns
1tbsp butter
2 cloves of garlic (or 1tsp garlic powder)
salt and pepper to taste


Sauce Method
1.  Saute the garlic and butter on medium-low in a saucepan.  Once the garlic has softened as is fragrant add all the chopped spinach.

2.  Mix together the flour and half and half until there are no more lumps.  It's better to add the liquid into the flour slowly so you can prevent clumping.

3.  When the spinach is wilted and some of the liquid (if any) from the spinach has cooked off add the half and half mixture and the milk.  Increase the temperature to medium.

4.  Continue stirring until it has thickened slightly and then add in the parmigiano reggiano.  Stir until everything is combined and the sauce is thick.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.


Prawn Method
1.  Heat a saute pan to medium heat and add your prawns.

2.  When the prawns are almost completely pink add the butter and garlic and continue sauteeing until the prawns are fully cooked.

3.  Season with salt and pepper.

Serve the prawns with the pasta and sauce. 

See?  Easy right? 

Enjoy!

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Dear God,

   please bless the efforts of 40 days for life and help everyone in this country realize the beauty of the gift of life and the horror of abortion.  Amen.