Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Almost Famous Crunchwraps

I love fast food and eating out... but sometimes it can be expensive. Sometimes at home I try to come up with my favorite fast food items that I crave. I LOVE Taco Bell and their nacho cheese sauce...and I love the Crunchwraps especially. I decided to try to make my own  and this is what I came up with. Pretty easy once you have all the stuff and the fillings are prepped. YUMMO! We ate ours with carrot, celery and cucumber sticks. Now isn't that better for you than actually eating out with soda and everything???

Almost Famous Crunchwraps

1 to 2 -lbs. lean ground beef
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 to 2 cloves minced garlic (or 1 teaspoon minced garlic that comes in a jar )
1 packet taco seasoning
salt and pepper to taste
1 package large flour tortilla's (the largest you can find)
tostada shells
1-15 oz. can Rico's gourmet nacho sauce (or your favorite nacho cheese sauce, Ricco's just has the taste of Taco Bells)
1 cup sour cream (or more, depending on how much you like on each one and how many you're making!)
2 cups shredded lettuce
2 or 3 roma tomatoes, diced
1 or 2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
Cooking spray

Directions:
In a large skillet brown the ground beef, onion and garlic together over medium/high heat. Drain of the excess fat (if there is any) Add your taco seasoning and water and cook according to the packet directions. Season to taste with Salt and Pepper.
While the hamburger is browning,  warm up your nacho sauce in a small saucepan.....
                                  (here's a pic of the can of Ricco's)
Also place the flour tortilla's on a microwave safe plate, cover with a damp paper towel and heat in the microwave for 30 seconds. You need to be able to fold them without them cracking. Also in case you haven't seen tostada shells before here's a picture of them. There are a lot in a package... I couldn't find a smaller one, but the leftovers are great crunched on top of a salad..... or just for a snack! :)
Preheat another large skillet over medium/high heat.
Now to assemble the crunchwraps:
Place 1 flour tortilla on a cutting board or other flat surface. Spoon browned meat in the center, making a circle about the size of a tostada shell. Then drizzle the nacho sauce over the meat.
Next, place a tostada shell on top of the nacho sauce and spread a little sour cream on the top. Then add shredded cheese, lettuce and tomatoes.
Now fold the the tortilla: start at the bottom and bring the edge up to the center ( or as close to the center as you can. It doesn't matter if there's a little hole in the center) Continue folding this way working around in a clockwise direction.
Spray skillet with cooking spray and carefully place crunchwrap folded side down in the skillet. Cook until it's golden brown on the bottom, about a minute or two, then flip over and cook until that side is golden brown. Continue to cook all your crunch wraps this way.
I served mine with carrot, celery and cucumber sticks. Enjoy!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Mini Key Lime Pie Tarts

I think I have mentioned before how I love anything Key Lime..... I ran across this recipe on Pinterest and had to give them a try. We had a St. Patrick's Day Salad Bar at work, and knowing me, I thought this would be a perfect bite size dessert to take. The original recipe is here but of course I tweaked mine just a bit. I noticed it didn't have any sugar in the crust...what kind of pastry would that be without sugar!!! Thought it must have been left out on accident from the recipe. So I added it to mine and also I didn't have macadamia nuts....but I did have almond flour...so I thought I'd try that. Then for that crunch that would be missing from lack of nuts, I had some toasted coconut crunchy topping that I got from the Prepared Pantry. You know the crunch coconut that is often on top of maple iced donuts! YUMMM so I thought that would be perfect in these. If you don't have them, regular toasted coconut would work just fine. I made the filling as the recipe said, but I added a bit of citric acid to the lime juice...just gives it a bit more tang. LOVED these! I didn't have any left on my tray by the end of the day at work. Enjoy!

Mini Key Lime Pie Tarts
Crust:
1/2 cup butter, softened
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup almond flour
1/4 cup toasted coconut crunch topping (or regular toasted coconut)
Dash of salt

Filling:
2 egg yolks
1/2 (14 oz) can  sweetened condensed milk, (2/3 cup)
1/2 teaspoon lime zest ( basically most of 1 lime zested)
1/4 cup lime juice ( bottled or fresh)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon citric acid, dissolve this in the lime juice before adding to the filling.
2 drops green food coloring.

Whipped cream for garnishing

Directions:
-In a medium bowl, combine butter and cream cheese. Beat with an electric mixer on medium to high speed until combined. Add flour, powdered sugar, almond flour, toasted coconut and dash of salt. Beat on low speed just until combined. Cover and chill for 30 to 60 minutes or until dough is easy to handle.
-Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Shape dough into 24 or more balls. Press each ball evenly into the bottoms and up the sides of 24 ungreased 1-3/4-inch muffin cups. Bake in a preheated oven for 12 to 15  minutes or until edges are just turning golden brown. Cool slightly in pan on a wire rack.
-Meanwhile, for filling, in a medium bowl, beat egg yolks with a whisk. Gradually whisk in sweetened condensed milk. Add lime peel, lime juice with citric acid in it, and, if desired, green food coloring. Stir just until combined (mixture will thicken slightly).
Spoon about 1 tablespoon filling into each pastry cup. Bake about 8 minutes or until filling is set in center. Cool tarts in pan on a wire rack for 5 to 10 minutes. Remove tarts from the muffin cups. Transfer tarts to a wire rack; let cool. Chill for 2 to 3 hours or until completely chilled. Just before serving, top tarts with Whipped Cream and if desired, toasted coconut. Makes 24-30 tarts.

New and Improved Chicken Enchilada Soup

I have a few different Chicken enchilada / chicken tortilla, and different chicken soups on here, but I did a few things different yesterday...