Chipotle Copycat Guacamole

Usually I think I can just throw together some ingredients when it comes to guacamole, and have it turn out well. After a couple of tries with that and the guac just being okay, I decided to look up Chipotle’s delicious guacamole recipe. I found it on PopSugar with a collaboration they did with Chipotle here.Turns out I should have done this long ago. This was the best homemade guacamole I’ve ever made. I couldn’t eat enough of it. Next time you need some guac, try this recipe (and make lots ;) I was a little skeptical of the lemon juice, but trust me it’s delicious. They called for serrano chiles which I didn’t have so I substituted a jalapeno instead.
Ingredients, Chipotle Copycat Guacamole:

• 3 large avocadoes
• 1 tbsp. citrus juice (lemon & lime combined – fresh juice)
• 1 1/2 c. cilantro, chopped fine
• 1/2 red onion, diced very thin
• 1/2 jalapeno, diced small (remove seeds unless you want it really spicy)
• 1/2 tsp salt (add more if needed)

The recipe calls to mash the citrus juice in with this, but I prefer to pour it over the diced onions for about 5 minutes. I really think this helps cut down on the bite of the raw onions in the recipe. After onions have sat in the citrus juice for 5 minutes, roughly mash the avocadoes with a fork (leave some chunks!), then add remaining ingredients, including onions. Serve immediately! Also, I like my avocadoes chilled beforehand so my guac is cold. Is that strange? Also I topped mine with extra cilantro because I love it.
 
 
 
 
 

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Sizzling Chicken Fajitas

One thing I love to order at Mexican restaurants are their sizzling fajitas. I don’t know why having the food made fresh to order just makes it feel healthier. I love that you can assemble them how you’d like too! We make these at home all the time and everyone can make them how they like. Here’s how I make them:
Ingredients:

• 4-5 chicken breasts (thawed if frozen)
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• 1-2 bell peppers, any color, diced in strips
• one onion, diced
• homemade taco seasoning (chili powder, garlic powder, cumin – a little cayenne if you want it really spicy ;)
• diced tomatoes
• salsa
• homemade guacamole (1-2 avocadoes, mashed with chili powder and salt/pepper to taste)
• shredded cheese
• corn or flour tortillas

To get the meat and peppers sizzling at the table, you need to prep the other ingredients first. I like to set the table and then place bowls of finished ingredients on the table as I’m done—grate the cheese, chop tomatoes, pour salsa into a bowl, get out the tortillas, and make the guac. Place it all on the table. Then chop the peppers and onion. Then you’re ready to make the chicken.
When making fajitas I like to use frozen chicken and thaw it for an hour or two before I cook. Then when I slice the chicken, it will be a tiny bit frozen and slices really nicely. You can get great thin strips for the fajitas.
Thaw the chicken, slice it up, throw it in a warmed skilled with the olive oil. Cover and cook, occasionally stirring and rotating the chicken so it cooks on both sides. Once it’s cooked, add the chili powder, garlic powder, and cumin (and cayenne!).Add the diced bell peppers and onions, cooking again until veggies are done.
Bring the sizzling food in a bowl to your table, and be ready to eat your fajitas right away! They are best when the meat and peppers are hot so it slightly melts the cheese.

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Cheesy Shredded Chicken Taquitos with Pineapple Peach Salsa

We love Mexican in our house and probably have it a couple nights a week. We’re always trying to think of new ways to make our Mexican dishes. Yesterday I put some chicken and Mexican seasonings in the crock-pot before we left for church and afterwards decided to make taquitos for dinner rather than our usual shredded Crock Pot chicken tacos. These were easy, fast, and deliciously crispy. Here’s how I made them:
Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. chicken breast meat (fresh or frozen)
• chili powder, garlic salt, cumin to taste (or a can of enchilada sauce)
• water
• corn tortillas
• 1 can refried beans
• 1 1/2 c. grated cheese (I used colby jack but cheddar, jack, jalapeno, or any other cheese will work)
• olive oil (or any kind of oil for frying)
• Pineapple peach salsa (Or mango salsa, or any kind of sweet salsa—I found mine at Walmart and was so surprised to see a cool flavor there I decided to buy it)
• Shredded lettuce

In Crock-Pot combine 3 cups of water, a generous amount of chili powder and garlic salt, and 1 tablespoon of cumin. Stir to incorporate. Place chicken breasts in Crock Pot and cook for 2-3 hours on high or 4-5 hours on low.
Once chicken is cooked, remove breasts into a large bowl and shred with 2 forks. Chicken should fall apart. Once all the chicken is shredded add 1/2 c. of the stock from the Crock Pot into the shredded chicken and mix to keep it from getting dry. 
Add 1/2 can of refried beans to chicken. Then add grated cheese to the top. Microwave for 1-2 minutes to melt cheese and warm the beans. Then stir well to incorporate the beans, chicken, and cheese. This is your taquito filling. Set aside.
Get out 10-12 corn tortialls. Pour 1/2 inch of oil in the bottom of a skillet and heat for 3 minutes. While oil is heating, fill corn tortillas one by one, placing filling on the side of the corn tortilla and rolling it over itself. Corn tortillas break very easily and if you put the filling in the middle they will break when you roll them. Use less filling than you think you need! Taquitos should be thin. 
Place a toothpick in each rolled taquito and stack on a plate. Using tongs, transfer uncooked taquitos one-by-one into the oil. Cook until golden brown on first side and then rotate to cook the next side. Remove from oil once cooked and place on a plate with a paper towel underneath to soak up the oil. Fry up all the taquitos until done.
Serve with the pineapple peach salsa or any other sweet salsa you have and shredded lettuce. The sweet salsa really breaks up the creamy taquito filling! Such an easy but yummy dinner.

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Mexican Cheese Sweet Pork Nachos

Last week after making a huge crock pot of shredded pork, I had a lot left over I wanted to use up. Pork is an interesting meat because it really takes on the flavors added to it and soaks them up. The pork we used for our Shredded Pork Tacos was slightly sweet but more spicy. After a day in the fridge the pork became really sweet. It just soaked up that brown sugar.
My husband loves nachos so I figured sweet pork paired with some creamy Mexican cheese and fresh tomatoes would be a good combo and an EASY dinner. Also we had a bag of “Hint of Lime” Tostitos chips so it was a no brainer. Those chips are too insanely good to describe. Because the meat was already made, all I needed to do was throw the ingredients onto a baking pan and cook for 15 minutes. I made a small side salad to go with it and we had an easy but yummy dinner. 
Ingredients:

• Shredded sweet pork (recipe here)
• Cojita or Mexican farmers queso white cheese (I used the farmers queso—it is so creamy!)
• Tortilla chips, 1 bag (Hint of Lime chips if you have them)
• Shredded cheddar cheese (approx. 2 cups)
• Diced tomatoes (1-2 tomatoes)

Spray baking sheet with cooking spray. Pour chips out and evenly layer on baking sheet. {You can put a layer of cheese in between the chip layers if you’d like, but we like to have some plain chips on the bottom of the nacho stack because the top chips get so loaded.}
Sprinkle a layer of cheese over chips, then pork, then tomatoes, Mexican cheese, and more cheddar on top. Bake at 415 F for 15 minutes.
 
Serve with a side salad and you’ve got a great meal.

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Cilantro Lime Avocado Shredded Pork Tacos

We’ve cooked with sweet shredded pork a lot since moving away from Cafe Rio, our favorite stop for fresh mex with shredded meats. We love making replica pork salads from the restaurant (especially with the huge amount of copy cat recipes we’ve found online), but a lot of times we find the pork is too sweet. Along with rice and beans it can make their dishes very heavy.
We had some friends over for dinner this weekend and one is allergic to poultry so cooking with any turkey or chicken was out. I don’t even cook chicken that much but when I can’t use it I feel nervous to find a meal they’ll like without any poultry or chicken stock. I decided on pork tacos because we love tacos in any variety and I was on a mission to make a spicy shredded pork with only a hint of sweet. The other thing that makes these tacos is the lime juice shredded cabbage. Cabbage is always a little thick for me so I soaked it in lime juice. The lime is the perfect fresh burst of flavor against the thick sweet and spicy pork. And the creamy cilantro lime sauce just brings it all together. I love tacos!!
Shredded Pork

• 3 lb. (any size smaller or larger will work too) pork shoulder roast
• garlic salt
• cumin
• chili powder
• brown sugar
• 1 can red enchilada sauce

Place pork shoulder in crock pot and trim off any excess fat. Pour water over the pork so it rises 2 inches in the bottom of the crock pot. Cover pork in chili powder (just sprinkle a lot in there, can’t have too much because most of it runs down into the water), garlic salt, and cumin. Cook on low for 8 hours (or high for 4-6). Once crock pot is done, pork should fall apart and shred easily.
Once cooked, remove pork from crock pot, dump out water and rinse/clean it out. Place pork back in and shred it up. Add red enchilada sauce and approximately 1 cup of brown sugar. Mix well. Then cover the pork with more chili powder, and a bit of garlic salt to taste. Make it as spicy as you like it. We like it spicy with a kick of sweet in the back!
Once you get it seasoned to your taste, place crock pot on “Warm” or “Low” setting and pork will be ready and warm when you are ready to eat.
Creamy Cilantro Lime Sauce

1 bottle ranch dressing

3 cloves garlic

juice of 1 lime

1/2 – 1 bunch cilantro leaves

Place all ingredients in blender or food processer and blend until creamy. I like to make this the day before and chill it, so it’s one less step that day. Also it tastes great chilled.

Additional Ingredients

• Corn tortillas
• Red cabbage
• Romaine Lettuce
• Farmhouse Crumbled Queso or Cojita cheese
• Limes (5-6)
• Cilantro
• Avocadoes

Next up, take 1/2 head of red cabbage and dice it into thin shreds. Then dice half a head of romaine into thin shreds and mix with cabbage in a large bowl. Then squeeze the juice of 3-4 limes over shredded mixture and mix to coat with lime juice. Set aside.
Then grab your small corn tortillas and some cooking spray and a small skillet. On a medium-high heat, cook up the desired number of tortilllas you’ll need for the meal. They taste so much better when cooked up!
Assemble your tacos with avocados first, then pork, then lime cabbage, then cilantro lime cream sauce, then cheese, and top with cilantro and more lime juice as garnish. These really are such an easy and yummy Sunday dinner because the crock pot does most of the work.   

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Homemade Pico de Gallo

Pico is one of those sides to a meal that is fresh and easy to make, yet I rarely find myself thinking to make it. Pico tastes great with any Mexican dish you make—enchiladas, tacos, chimichangas, taco salad, nachos, etc. I made it last weekend to pair with some enchiladas and I have to say it was a great complement to the creaminess of the enchiladas. Pico just makes anything taste fresh.
Here’s how I made mine: 

- Fresh cherry tomatoes (1-2 handfuls), 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro, one large red tomato from the vine, 1/4 diced onion, garlic salt and black pepper to taste 

Dice all ingredients and combine to taste. Tastes great chilled as well

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Fish Tacos

My husband loves fish tacos and had been asking (for a while) for me to come up with something. I tried to incorporate many things I’ve liked on different fish tacos I’ve had. The result? Flour tortilla, breaded tilapia, homemade green chile baja sauce, corn/tomato relish, smashed black beans with yogurt and Mexican spices. I like recipes I can truly call my own; no cook books or recipes consulted (so maybe there is another one out there like this?). They are yummy. This has become a staple in our home. Recipe below. 

Ingredients:

• White or wheat flour tortillas
• Tilapia (I buy the panko-breaded kind at Costco; if you prefer no breading, go without)
• Black beans, one can
• Fresh corn, one cup
• 1-2 tomatoes, chopped
• Chopped lettuce
• Cilantro
• Chile powder
• Cumin
• Green chile sauce, to taste
• Yogurt (low fat—much better than sour cream), half cup divided
• Mayonnaise, quarter cup
• Taco seasoning
• Sugar

Directions:

1. Pan roast tilapia according to instructions; I roast mine for about 20 minutes at 415 degrees
2. Meanwhile, warm one can of black beans and mash with 1/4 cup of yogurt. Add pinch of sugar and chile powder to taste. Set aside.
3. Gently combine tomatoes and corn with cilantro, salt, chile powder and cumin. Set aside.
4. To make baja sauce, combine remaining yogurt (1/4 cup) with 1/4 cup mayonnaise. Whisk well to remove clumps. Add green chile sauce by small spoonfuls (depending on your taste, add 2-3). Add taco seasoning to taste and whisk. Set aside.
5. When fish is done, assemble tacos. We like to warm our tortillas before assembling.

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Chicken Enchiladas

Much more fresh than the canned soup and sour cream ones!

Inside: Roasted chile chicken, black beans, tomatoes, cilantro, corn, chile seasoned rice, and Mexican seasoning.

Outside: more chicken, green chile sauce (add a little sugar, it will taste much better), and lots of jack cheese.

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