Easy Chicken Enchilada Burritos

Tonight was another softball practice night and I got off easy with a playdate. I still made a dinner that could have been transported rather easily and takes almost no time to make.

Here's the recipe:

1 C. precooked chicken, chopped (I had 2 chicken thighs and a drumstick leftover that I had grilled a few days ago)
8 oz. enchilada sauce
1 C. shredded cheese (if you don't keep your shredded cheese in the freezer, do so, it will last 6 months frozen and thaws in about 5 minutes)
1/4 C. shredded cheese for topping
4 large flour tortillas
(optional to add to burritos)- 1/2 C. frozen brown rice, 1/2 C. frozen corn, 1/4 C. salsa

Preheat oven to 450. Rub a little olive oil or spray a little Pam to the bottom and sides of a casserole pan, this will prevent the enchiladas from sticking.

Mix the chicken, enchilada sauce and shredded cheese in a bowl. Spoon equal amounts of the mixture into 4 tortillas. Fold over the smaller edges first, then roll the tortilla. It should look like a burrito and be fully closed.

Place the burritos into the casserole pan, sprinkle remaining cheese atop burritos, and bake for 10-15 minutes.

I boiled some corn on the cob while the enchilada burritos cooked. Once the cheese has melted and looks golden brown, they are done. To take these on the road, simply wrap each burrito in aluminum foil and a couple paper napkins and they're good to go.

White wine poached mahi-mahi with mushrooms, fennel and carrots

I bought a beautiful fillet of mahi mahi yesterday and made it for dinner tonight, it was delicious, although the girls were not so sure!

Here's the recipe:

1 tbs. olive oil
1 C. thinly sliced fennel
1/2 C. thinly sliced mushrooms
1 peeled and thinly sliced carrot
1/2 C. white wine
6 oz. mahi mahi
pinch of kosher salt and pepper
juice from 1/2 lemon plus rind

Heat a large nonstick pan with a lid on medium high heat. Add olive oil, fennel, mushrooms and carrots and saute for 1-2 minutes. Add in wine (chicken stock or water work fine also) and filet. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper and the juice from 1/2 a lemon plus the squeezed lemon skin. Cover and cook for 6-7 minutes on medium high heat until fish is white and most of the liquid has disappeared.

If there is still a lot of liquid left in the pan, remove the fish, turn the heat to high and reduce the liquid and vegetables for another minute.

The girls ate a bite of fish, but ended up eating mostly mushrooms, carrots and quinoa. I, however, loved the fish and will keep trying.

Update on the dumplings

I made the dumplings tonight (loosely) based on the recipe I posted the other night.

The dough was exactly the same as the dumplings we had at the restaurant, a little thicker than wonton wrappers and the kids loved them!

A friend of mine stopped by with her kids and told me that Indian bread and samosas are based on the same dough, basically water and flour. We stood together at the island and rolled out little balls of dough and filled them with the delicious filling of ground beef, napa cabbage, mushrooms, green onions and bamboo shoots. I cooked them in a bamboo steamer, but they could just as easily have been dropped into a pot of boiling water.

We are going to have another dumpling evening, but make extras to freeze.

I had lots of extra filling and froze it for future dumpling making. The filling would also be good for pot stickers or egg rolls.

Chinese take out

I could not fit an "at-home" dinner in tonight between softball uniform and gear pickup (separate locations), horseback riding, after-school aerodynamics class, and horseback riding. We went to our favorite local Chinese restaurant. The girls ordered soup and I ordered steamed vegetable dumplings, which (surprise) the kids ate most of.

We agreed that we should make these dumplings at home, here is a recipe similar to the pot stickers we made a while back, however the dumpling skins are homemade.

For the filling:
1/2 lb ground beef
1 C. napa cabbage, minced
3 green onions, minced
7 shitake mushrooms, minced
1/2 cup bamboo shoots, minced
3 cubes frozen ginger
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp corn starch

Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup warm water

Dipping sauce:
1/2 C. soy sauce
1/4 C rice wine vinegar
a few drops of sesame oil
1 cube frozen ginger
1 cube frozen garlic
1/2 C. thinly sliced green onion
1/2 tsp. sugar
chili garlic paste (optional)

Combine all filling ingredients, and cook in a large nonstick pan until beef is cooked through, 7-8 minutes. The dumplings can also be made without beef. Let filling cool before making into dumplings.

For the dough:
Place the flour in the work bowl of a food processor with the dough blade. Run the processor and pour the warm water in until incorporated. Pour the contents into a sturdy bowl or onto a work surface and knead until uniform and smooth. The dough should be firm and silky to the touch and not sticky.[Note: it’s better to have a moist dough and have to incorporate more flour than to have a dry dough and have to add more water).

Cut the dough into strips about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. Shape the strips into rounded long cylinders. On a floured surface, cut the strips into 3/4 inch pieces. Press palm down on each piece to form a flat circle (you can shape the corners in with your fingers). With a rolling pin, roll out a circular wrapper from each flat disc. Take care not to roll out too thin or the dumplings will break during cooking. Leave the centers slightly thicker than the edges. Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper and fold the dough in half, pleating the edges along one side.

To boil: Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add dumplings to pot. Boil the dumplings until they float.

To steam: Place dumplings on a single layer of napa cabbage leaves or on a well-greased surface and steam for about 6 minutes.

Planning to make these tomorrow, if they are good will freeze and fry up as pot stickers for next weeks softball practice dinner.

Dinner for a practice.. a.k.a. - what to make when your kids have sports at 6 p.m.!

I have officially joined the leagues of parents whose children have after school activities at "dinner time". Besides the fact that I don't understand why softball has to be practiced during the time that dinner, homework, baths and books should be occurring, I can't beat 'em, so I'm joining 'em.

I now have to make dinner that can be 1- eaten in the car, 2-eaten at room temperature and/or 3- eaten both before and after softball practices.

Here's tonight's dinner:

Oven roasted potato wedges, chicken drumsticks and steamed broccoli.

Potatoes:
Preheat the oven to 425. Peel 1 or 2 large potatoes. Cut each potato in 1/2 lengthwise then into 6 wedges total. Place wedges on a Silpat lined cooked sheet and drizzle with olive oil, Adobo seasoning salt and garlic salt.

Chicken:
Place 6 chicken drumsticks in a casserole pan and drizzle with olive oil, the juice from 1/2 a lemon, a pinch of Kosher salt and a good sprinkling of Greek Seasoning or dried oregano. Bake in the oven with the potatoes until chicken skin is crisp and golden, about 35 minutes. Chicken can be baked a couple hours ahead and served at room temperature.

When chicken is cooked, wrap each drumstick base with aluminum foil so kids can eat the chicken easily.

To pack potatoes:
Make a cone out of wax or parchment paper, and add a few potato wedges. Kids can easily eat their wedges from the parchment cones.

Steamed broccoli:
Cut 1-2 heads of broccoli and steam in 1 C. of chicken stock for 3-4 minutes or until bright green and still crisp.
To serve: Skewer 3-4 broccoli crowns on bamboo skewers, easy for kids to carry and eat.

If you have any great dinner ideas for your practice nights, I'd love to have them.

Asian roasted eggplant

I took Abby to the market the other day to buy some veggies, we picked up a Japanese eggplant as she had never eaten one before. I cut the eggplant into 2" cubes and put them in a deep dish casserole pan. This wasn't a huge eggplant, about the 3 C. worth of cubed eggplant (uncooked).

Preheat the oven to 425, add 3/4 C. of Soy Vay Teriyaki Sauce to the cubed eggplant and stir to combine. Bake for about 10 minutes or until eggplant begins to turn golden brown at the corners. Stir again and reduce heat to 325. Continue baking for another 8-10 minutes until eggplant is soft.

We ate it with some leftover rice and chicken.

Roasted chicken with olive tomato sauce and mushroom risotto

Today was a beautiful sunny day, and it was a treat to cook dinner with the windows open. I made mushroom herb risotto (Trader Joe's sells a mix) and roasted 3 chicken thighs which I served over an olive tapenade tomato sauce.

Roasted chicken thighs:

Preheat oven t0 450. Add chicken thighs to a glass casserole dish. Drizzle a little olive oil over the thighs, the juice from 1 lemon, a good sprinkle of celery salt and a pinch of black pepper. I also added a tablespoon of sun-dried tomato paste and a tablespoon of olive tapenade. Add these over the chicken and bake for 30 minutes, or until the chicken is crisp and cooked through.

While the chicken baked, I made a simple and delicious sauce that I used as a bed for both the risotto and chicken.

Add 1 C. of tomato sauce to a pan, add 1/4 C. of olive tapenade and cook until tomato sauce thickens up, about 5-6 minutes.

Ladle the sauce onto the plate, then add a chicken thigh and a serving of risotto. We had a simple salad of sliced tomatoes and garbanzo beans with some chopped fresh mint, olive oil and lemon juice. The kids wouldn't touch the salad, but we loved it!

2 Savory Tarts, and how to roast tomatoes.

We had a delicious Easter dinner yesterday, dijon and garlic roasted rack of lamb, maple glazed carrots and parsnips, steamed asparagus with slivers of garlic, and mashed potatoes.

We also had a friend join us who is a vegetarian, so I made her 2 different tarts using 1 package of puff pastry. The first was a tapenade and roasted tomato tart, and the second was a marinated mini mozzarella, basil and fresh tomato tart with oregano.

Both were incredibly easy and absolutely delicious!

Begin with the DuFour Puff Pastry. Defrost in the refrigerator for a couple hours. While the pastry defrosts, thinly slice 3 campari tomatoes and lay them on either an olive oil rubbed cookie sheet, or better use a Silpat sheet. Drizzle the tomatoes with a little olive oil, a pinch of kosher salt, a little Italian seasoning, and a good couple grinds of black pepper. Bake in the oven at 325 for 15-20 minutes, They should be shriveled, but not burnt. You can store these tomatoes in a little olive oil in a jar or tupperware in the fridge for a couple weeks.

Next, marinate the mozzarella. You can also do this 1 day in advance.
1 C. fresh drained mozzarella ( I used the tiny mozzarella balls)
1/4 C. olive oil
3 cubes frozen garlic
pinch of kosher salt
couple grinds of black pepper

Combine all ingredients and let mozzarella marinate for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight.

To make Tapenade Tart:

Preheat oven to 375.

Cut DuFour Puff pastry in half, (half is for this tart, the other half is for the other tart). Place the puff pastry on a silpat lined cookie sheet or a cookie sheet brushed with olive oil. If you can't find puff pastry, you can also bake off a pie crust and make something similar.

Spoon enough pre-purchased olive tapenade to cover the tart, leaving just a little of the edges showing. Lay the roasted tomatoes over the tapenade and sprinkle a small amount of grated Parmesan cheese of the tomatoes.

Bake for 25- 30 minutes or until the tart is golden brown. Remove and cut into slices. Serve while hot.

To make the Mozzarella tart:

I baked both tarts at the same time on different cookie sheets. Lay the other half of the puff pastry on a cookie sheet (same as above) and lay out tiny mozzarella in row, leaving room for a row of sliced tomatoes between each row.

I used a couple of the fresh campari tomatoes,(not roasted) sliced them into thin slices, and squeezed the seeds and juice out with my hands so I just had the "meat" of the tomato. I placed the sliced tomato in between the mozzarella rows and finally added 3-4 chiffonaded basil leaves to the top of the tart. I added a little of the mozzarella marinade and a good shake of dried oregano to the tart before baking it. The tarts both took about 25-30 minutes.

They were both delicious, and make beautiful springtime hors' d'oeuvres or meals with a simple salad.

Quinoa... pronounced Keen-waahhhh

Last week I was at my friends house for lunch and she served us quinoa, and yesterday we were at a friends house and she made the most delicious soup with beans, quinoa, tomatoes and a few other veggies.

I forgot how much I love the texture of quinoa and promptly went to Trader Joe's to buy a box. I remember making it many, many years ago when Graham Kerr was still the Galloping Gourmet. It was early in my adventures in the kitchen and I distinctly remember the quinoa not turning out so great.

This time was different. I boiled 2 cups of water and added in 1 tsp. of "Better than Bouillon" and a dash of olive oil. When the water came to a boil, I added 1 C. of quinoa and let it cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the liquid evaporated, about 12 minutes. It tasted delicious and NOTHING like my first go around so many years back.

We ate it for dinner tonight with some assorted leftovers. I told the girls it was couscous to get them to try it, but later told them it was one of the oldest grains, over 5000 years old, and It is not a true cereal grain; rather, it is the botanical fruit of an herb plant. My pickier eater oddly asked for more and my Hoover wasn't interested...

We will have to add this to our list of "super foods"!

Dinner recap

The last few days have been rather uninteresting dinners. Mostly comprised of the food that I had made earlier in the week. Leftover roasted chicken drumsticks, roasted beets, cooked pork tenderloin. I had also made brown rice and couscous this week, so we've been reheating those as well.

I made hamburgers on the grill on Thursday which neither of the kids wanted, but ate the following day.

I have some cubed steak to make kebabs tonight, as the girls loved making them last time, hopefully the weather will improve. I find the flip-flopping of the weather, sunny, rainy, is confounding for me when I cook. One day I want to grill, the next I feel like making soup. This must be why our meals have been rather schizophrenic this week.