Chicken Veggie Burritos (Healthy Southwestern Egg Rolls)

This recipe originated from Todd Wilbur's version of Chili's Southwestern Egg rolls that he had made over to make them more healthy.  See my Ode to Todd Wilbur for more information about him.  I have adjusted it both so I can make enough to freeze and so that it is easier and has less waste.  (His calls for 2 Tbsp of red pepper, etc...)

Here is my recipe:
3 large chicken breasts (Between 1-2 lbs chicken, you can use more, I just like to save money and minimize meat)
1 large red bell pepper
1 full bunch minced green onion (about 1 cup)
2 cups frozen corn
1 can black beans rinsed and drained
1 (10 oz) package frozen spinach thawed and drained, or 10 oz of frozen spinach (it looks like a LOT, but it cooks down)
3 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp cumin
1tbsp chili powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
3 dashes of cayenne pepper
¾ pound pepper jack


You can cook the chicken any way you like, but it is best grilled.  He advises oiling them, then add salt and pepper and grill.  But I have boiled it, and I've browned it on a frying pan too.
After your chicken is cooked you can put it all together.  First cook your onion and peppers in a little oil in your pot for a few minutes (till soft) Then add everything else but the cheese and cook while mixing it all together.  (I have a pampered chef chopping tool that is PERFECT for this.  I think it's called a "mix and chop" but it has an asterisk shaped bottom, and you can chop your spinach and chicken up while mixing it all together with it.  I LOVE it.  When it is all heated through, and the liquid is gone, you can add your cheese.  Then it is ready to fill the burritos. 
Todd gives a great way to heat the tortillas.  You barely dampen a towel (I like to use a flour sack towel) and lay it on a microwave safe plate.  He advises five at a time, but I put 10.  So you lay your tortillas on the plate and wrap the towel around them and microwave for about a minute till they are soft and pliable.  This keeps them from getting dry and tough.  But warming them prevents them from tearing when you fold them.  I usually use a cookie scoop to portion out my filling.  You don't need very much.  My cookie scoop is one ounce, and when I use a regular taco sized tortilla I use two scoops scraped flat on the side of the bowl.  For larger ones I usually use three.  I scoop it on and then spread it in a long thin line about 2 inches from the edge of the line.  Then I fold down my ends, and roll my tortillas into a long round burrito.  I took some photos of this, but they are on my storage hard drive which is unavailable to me at the moment.  I'll post them when I get it back ;).
There are several options to cook them.  You can deep fry them, or fry them on a pan with oil, or for his low fat version, TW advises covering them with cooking spray and baking them.  I did this at first, but I didn't like putting all those chemicals on our food, so then I would baste them with oil, but I like them just as well without the extra oil so I cook them like frozen burritos, (350 degrees for about 25-30 min)  or even better I use my panini pan (Thanks to my mother in law who bought it for me, I LOVE it). I grill them till they are brown on all sides (be careful to use a low enough heat that they heat in the middle by the time they are brown) I've also used a plug in griddle pan too.  I don't even use oil and they get nice looking grill marks on them.
You can dip in ranch, or make his avocado ranch listed here, or the cilantro ranch I've seen posted online (google it)  I've had it and liked it, but I don't know which one so I don't want to post it.  We just use low fat sour cream most of the time.  (Once I mixed sour cream with a little bbq sauce and I liked that too)

I am really particular about my kitchen gadgets...(yes pampered chef lady I said it again! GADGETS! Boring back story:  I got scolded at a pampered chef party for using that term instead of tools. It was embarrassing, and I was a little irritated that they feel the need to specify that they are tools to somehow give them more legitimacy.  So now it is my personal vendetta to keep using whatever term I want!  Yes, I am vindictive like that!)  But my favorite cookie scoops are the ones with a solid plastic handle and a thumb lever instead of the metal handle that you squeeze together to release your batter.  I like to use cold cookie batter, and I broke two pampered chef ones before I went on a quest to find one like my mom's.  I got mine from a local restaurant supply here in Utah call Orson Gigi.  This is a link for their scoops  Mine is the purple one (#40,.89 oz).  Last time I was there, they were a couple bucks cheaper in store.

In case you wondered what panini pan I have, this is it.  I use it almost every day.  It replaces my regular plug in griddle, because the plates are flat on one side and have the grill lines on the other.

The Best Homemade Chicken Nuggets

America's test Kitchen you've done it again!!!  I have been trying to cut down on our yucky pressed mystery meat consumption, so I was so happy to be watching cooks country when this recipe was being shown.  These are truly the best!  The breading stays on, the coating is crisp and delicious, even after freezing and reheating.  These are AWESOME!  I usually multiply the batch and freeze the extras, both so that I can make good use of my frying oil since I don't save it, and to have more for future meals.  I think it's easier to cook less often in bulk than to have to cook over and over.  But I must say that this one it is a tiring endeavor.  I don't do it that often since it takes hours of work.  But it feels good to feed them something that at least has ingredients I recognize, though I wouldn't claim they are healthy every day fare.  The flavor is worth the extra effort too.

1 1/2 lbs chicken breasts (4 breasts appx)
2 cups water
1 tablespoon salt
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 cup flour
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 teaspoons onion powder
3/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 teaspooon (at least) tony chacherie's...I know, I add it to everything!
3 large egg whites
4 cups peanut or vegetable oil

They said to use crushed panko crumbs.  I thought they were crushed enough, and the crunch it created made me think of mimi's chicken fingers which is always a good thing!  So I just measure them as is...  I bought kikkoman panko bread crumbs from winco, and they were only just over a dollar a box.  I share this because they were considerably more at a couple of other grocery stores.  You might want to have extra breading ingredients, or don't get too carried away breading them.  Usually the recipe amt is enough, but one time, when I made a MONSTER sized batch, I used WAY too much.  I had extra crumbs, so I mixed up extra breading mix, and still ran out.  Some of my nuggets ended up less breaded, but they were still good. 

They have a method for cutting the chicken in uniform sized pieces, look up the recipe for better instructions.  Mine weren't very uniform, but I tried!  You cut the breast into thirds the long way.  Then the thickest top portion of the breast is cut in 1/2 inch slices.  The rest I just tried to cut about that same size...  Maybe someday I'll actually take photos, but I wouldn't count on that in the near future :).  After you cut them, you have to brine them.  Whisk water, 1 tbsp salt, and worcestershire in a bowl large enough to hold your chicken.  Dump in the chicken pieces and put in the fridge for 30 minutes.  They say not to do it any longer than that, but I have left it a little longer while I'm cooking earlier batches.  Next time I'll dump off the brine after the 30 min, so the chicken isn't so hard to pat dry.

Now you are ready to bread them!  Whisk your egg whites till a little foamy in one bowl, just to break them up.  Then mix all of the dry ingredients in a large shallow pan.  I use an 11 by 15 deep baking dish.  Pat your chicken dry with paper towels, dip them in your egg whites and then coat them well with your bread crumbs pressing the crumbs into the nuggets.  They say to press gently, but I actually press hard on the chicken, both to press in the crumbs, and to flatten them a little.  That might be how I used too many crumbs.  Then place them on a plate for ten minutes.  You're not done there!!!  Keep your bread crumbs for a second layer.  Meanwhile, heat your oil to 350.  After ten minutes dip them again, pressing the crumbs gently onto your nuggets again.  And they are ready to fry.  They say to fry 1/2 the batch at a time, for 3 minutes till golden brown, turning half way.  Then place it on a wire cooling rack, placed on a rimmed cookie sheet in a 200 degree oven while you cook the other half of the nuggets.  If you want to freeze them for later.  Wait till they are cool, and place them in a ziplock bag.  They say you can freeze them up to a month.  But ours don't last that long ;).  To reheat, bake at 350 for about 15 minutes till heated through.

So when I make a lot, this is how my assembly line works.  I dip 20 nuggets at a time.  First in the egg wash and then the first bread crumb dip.  Then I set my timer for 10 minutes.  I use two plates, one for the first dip and one for after the second one, so I can easily keep track.  After things get going, it works pretty good, but I am busy the whole time.  While I wait for 10 minutes for one batch, I am frying the one before.  I fry the nuggets 10 at a time for about 4 minutes.  After ten minutes pass, I quickly did the second dip in time to put them in the oil after the batch before was done.  Then in open moments I had to dip the next set of 20 for the first time.  I don't know if this is a good explanation, but once you start doing it, you can kind of see how it works.  I had my whole table set up starting with a spot on the far right with a plate covered in paper towels for the raw chicken.  You can keep your chicken in the fridge and just pull out 20 at a time to place on the paper towels.  Then I threw away the towels and put new ones for each batch.  To the left of that plate was my egg whites and to the left of that was my bread mixture.  I placed the plate for after the first dip above my pan, and the nuggets ready for frying to the left of the pan.  Then next in line was my plug in fry daddy pan and next to that was my cooling rack.  I left them on the cooling rack just long enough to cook the next batch and then moved them into the oven into a big pan I kept in there.  The frying part actually went pretty fast, but I had to MAKE SURE that I had no usual interruptions from my children :).  They were strictly confined to the basement with daddy ;).  A lot of the time is in cutting up the chicken and brining, and then setting it all up.  And then the frying part was very tiring because I was running here and there the whole time multitasking and I had to wash my hands a million times every time I would handle different batches of chicken.  I hope I didn't make it sound so complicated that you won't want to try it.  I promise it is worth it!  And if you don't want the big song and dance, just make a small batch. :)  Or get together with friends so each person can handle one station.  That's what I should have done!  I can't wait till my kids are older hehehehe.  Please feel free to ask questions if some of this doesn't make sense.

Roasted Tomatoes with Garlic

I was just trying to use up some grape tomatoes, and they were AWESOME!!  Next time I will add some mushrooms, red peppers, and/or onions and serve over pasta, maybe with alfredo sauce.

INGREDIENTS
4 cups grape tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
Preheat an oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Place a piece of aluminum foil over a baking sheet.
Place the tomatoes and garlic into a mixing bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, and toss until evenly coated. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then spread evenly onto the prepared baking sheet.
Bake the grape tomatoes in the preheated oven until the skins pop and start to brown, 15 to 20 minutes.

Stuffed Mushrooms

This is my FAVORITE new years eve food.  My family has made them for our New Years' party for as long as I can remember.

1 roll of Jimmy Dean Sausage (I think its a pound?)
1 8 oz pkg of cream cheese or neufchatel cheese
2-3 lbs of mushrooms

Cook sausage.  Meanwhile, wash mushrooms and remove stems.  Lay in a single layer on a cookie sheet.  After sausage is cooked and drained, mix with the cream cheese and fill mushroom caps with mixture.  Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes.  Then, hope you get one, because they will go fast!!

Baked Spinach Dip Loaf

This is SUCH amazing spinach dip!  I included the recipe as written because it seems fun in the bread bowl.  I just heated it in my crock pot when I made it.

2 pkgs (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened
1 cup mayonnaise
1 10 oz pkg frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
1 cup (4 oz) shredded cheddar
1 can (8 oz) water chestnuts, drained and chopped
5 bacon strips cooked and crumbled
1 green onion, chopped
2 tsp dill weed
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp season salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 unsliced round loaf (1 lb) sourdough bread

Beat cream cheese and mayo together.  Stir in the rest of the dip ingredients.  Cut a 1 1/2 inch slice off the top of the bread and set aside.  Carefully hollow out loaf leaving a 1/2 inch shell.  Fill with dip, replace top, wrap in heavy duty foil and place on a cookie sheet.  Bake at 325 for 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 hours, till dip is heated through.  Carefully remove foil and serve with bread cubes (from the center of the loaf) and vegetables.  I served it with pita chips.

Jana's Salsa

2 cans black beans
1 can corn
2 tbsp italian dressing
1/2 bunch cilantro, or to taste
1/2 bunch green onion, or to taste
1 can olives
10 roma or 8 large tomatoes
4 small or 3 med avocados

Chop cilantro, green onion, tomato, and avocado.  Slice olives.  Mix it all together :).  This is a HUGE family favorite.

Steve's Pico de Gallo

8-10 medium sized tomatoes, diced
1 medium onion, diced
About half a bunch of cilantro
1-2 limes
1-2 jalapenos
Salt

Chop everything a small as you can. If you prefer a milder salsa, use only one jalapeno, and clean out the seeds. Using both jalapenos with seeds and pods will make a VERY hot salsa in most cases. Add salt to taste.