Mexican chicken casserole

I've lost my source for this recipe... can't remember where I found it now.

Mexican Chicken Casserole
- 2-3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 can of black beans
- Salsa
- Cheese
- taco seasoning
- onion (optional)
- garlic (optional)
- pepper (optional)

Cut the chicken breasts into bite size pieces.  brown in a skillet until cooked through.  (Optional step: add some chopped garlic, onion, and/or pepper - like Serrano, jalapeño, etc)  Drain (reserve liquid, just in case) and rinse beans (type of beans is not critical).  Add beans, salsa, and taco seasoning (I used 1 TBSP homemade) and water/liquid (if needed) and simmer for 10 minutes.  Dump in 9x13 pan and bake (350 for 15 minutes maybe?).  Top with shredded cheese and return to oven until melted.  OR top with cheese in skillet and serve!

Can be served with chips, taco shells, or tortillas.

Enchilada Casserole

My version of Enchilada casserole:

-1 lb ground beef, browned
- Salsa
- Shredded Cheese
- 4 corn tortillas (the small size)

After browing the beef, stir in salsa and cheese until it looks good.  Tear 2 tortillas into quarters and lay on the bottom of a 8x8 dish.  Layer in 1/2 of beef mixture.  Tear the remaining 2 tortillas and lay on top of beef.  Add the remainder of the beef.  Top with more cheese.
Bake at 350 for 15-20ish minutes until bubbly and cheese is melted.

I adapted the recipe from Heavenly Homemakers and she says that it would freeze well and recommends thawing and baking as instructed or if frozen, to bake for 1 hour at 250 and then 30 minutes at 350 or until cheese is bubbly.

She suggested using 1 pound of beef for a 9x13 pan, but I think that makes an terribly thin casserole.  So if doing a larger pan, definitely double what I used above.

about 1/4 of the 8x8 pan is 15 carbs.

Another option for this recipe:
prepare beef, salsa and cheese as before, then wrap in flour tortillas to make burritos.

Chicken Pot Pie

This isn't anything amazing, just typing up here what I do for chicken pot pie.

Pie Crust
Based off this recipie.*
2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup cold butter (or I use margarine sometimes if I haven't splurged on butter recently)

Cut together flour, salt, and butter (Bosch with wire whips).
Add in 4 to 5 tablespoons cold water until flour is moistened.  Divide into two balls of dough (for two crusts).  If you're in Colorado, make sure you cover the dough so it doesn't dry out instantly.
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For the filling, I use this recipie as a base.  But here's I typically assemble:
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup butter/margarine

Dry ingredients:

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon celery seed
some (1/2t?) Italian seasoning
some basil


2 cups chicken broth**

2 cups (or however much) chopped cooked chicken***
2 cups frozen veggies****

Cook onion in butter on the stove until onions are translucent.  Mix in dry ingredients. Then stir in broth and bring to boil so it thickens.  Dump in frozen veggies and chopped chicken.  Mix all together.

Assemble it all.  Roll out bottom pie crust for 9" pie pan. (Using an 8" pie pan will result in overflowing filling.)  Dump in filling.  Add top pie crust.  Seal.  Make vents.*****

Bake in 425 degree oven for 30 minutes.

*I use this recipie 'cause I messed up Mother's once.  I should try it again sometime.
**The recipie calls for milk and chicken broth.  I just use broth to keep the dairy amount down.  I make broth regularly by just drowning chicken bones in water and cooking for 12-24 hours on low in the crockpot.  When done, I strain it and freeze it in 2 cup jars or bags.  Voila - MSG free broth for cheap!
***I typically cook extra chicken in the crockpot at times (i.e. make salsa chicken in a Pyrex insert in my 6qt crockpot and toss a couple leg quarters in the crockpot itself).  Then I shred the extra chicken and freeze it in 2 cup bundles.  So I always have cooked chicken on hand to make this recipie with.  The AllRecipies version has instructions to cook your chicken.
****Veggies - I usually use mixed frozen veggies for ease.  You can use whatever you want!  Just make sure they're cooked first.
*****I like making our vent in the shape of a heart.  Should have taken a picture this evening. :)

Layered Taco Casserole

For this recipe, I looked at a bunch of recipes and then made up something on myown.  I think the one I found that is closest to what I made is this.  I was looking for something that wasn't high carb, used primary ingredients I keep on hand, was easy, and would work well for having people over.  Here is what I came up with.

Layered Taco Casserole
- 1 lb. ground beef
- Taco seaonsing (one packet or about 2 TBSP of homemade)
- 1 can refried beans
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 (8 oz.) block of chedder cheese (shredded)
- 1 tomato (chopped)
- chopped lettuce

Brown the ground beef, drain.  Add seasoning and 1/4-1/2 cup water.  Simmer.
Spread beef in the bottom of casserole dish (I used a 7x11 glass casserole dish).  Warm refried beans (to make it easier to spread) and spread over beef.  Layer in 1/2 of cheese, sour cream, tomato, lettuce, and other 1/2 of cheese.  And it's ready to eat!

No baking required!  Obviously this is a very flexible recipe.  You can layer them in whatever order or change the toppings all together.  Sorry, No photo, it's all gone.  :)
Notice that there are not tortillas, taco shells, or tortilla chips mentioned?  I like that.  You can use whatever you like.  I personally like to scoop the casserole up with chips.

Vanilla Wafers

While looking for an alternative to store-bought vanilla wafers, I came across the following recipe at this site.

Vanilla Wafer Recipe

5 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup milk
2 cups unbleached cake flour or all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farhienhiet.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl. Add the egg, vanilla, and milk and mix well. Sift in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir well.

Spoon the dough into a gallon-sized freezer bag. This is a bit easier if the corner of the bag to be filled up is resting inside a large wide-mouthed glass. Cut off the tip of one of the corners and pipe the dough onto ungreased cookie sheets at least one inch apart.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until the bottoms begin to turn golden brown. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Serve or store in an airtight container.

Yield: 4 dozen cookies
Prep-time: 15 minutes
Bake-time: 15 minutes

So you know how it says to used pure vanilla extract?  Yep, that is important.  I only have artificial flavoring, so they turned out more like little sugar cookies.  Still very tasty.  They aren't at all crunchy like store bought ones, but I really like them.

Faux-Graham Crackers

I was looking for a graham cracker recipe that didn't include honey since that isn't something I keep on hand.  I found the following recipe on the Hodgson Mill Website.

H omemade Graham Crackers

4 c HODGSON MILL WHOLE WHEAT GRAHAM FLOUR  

1c butter 

 1 c brown sugar 

 1 tsp baking soda 

1 tsp cream of tartar 

1 egg, slightly beaten 

1/2 c hot water, approximately 

HODGSON MILL UNBLEACHED WHITE FLOUR

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut butter into flour till coarse. Add sugar, soda, cream of tartar, egg and enough hot water to make dough that can be rolled like pastry. Roll 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick on a board sprinkled with a little white flour. Cut into 3 inch squares. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake 15 to 20 minutes. Cool on rack. Brush tops with butter.

I used it as recommended except that I used all-purpose flour (thus the faux-graham cracker).  I cut the squares smaller so they are a better size for toddlers.  Also, I didn't need the full 1/2 cup of water, so add a little at a time.

D's Mexican Pinwheel Variation (for lunches)

I was making pizza dough the other day from my go-to pizza dough recipie (has oregano and basil and such in the dough - yummy!) and dumped ingredients together wrong.  So I switched over to making C's Basic Sweet Bread Dough from Mother's Recipies.  I doubled the Basic Sweet Bread Dough recipie.

After the initial rising, I divided it into thirds

One-third I rolled out on my baking stone, sprinkled with basil and oregano, spread with canned spaghetti sauce, sprinkled with shredded cheese, and topped with pepperoni circles.

For two-thirds, I used the Mexican Pinwheel meat recipie (except used the open spaghetti sauce instead of tomato sauce).

One-third, I cut into rolls and baked in a 9x13 pan as usual.  We've having those for a meal.

The other third, I cut into rolls and baked them in muffin tins -- each roll baking individually in its own little muffin circle.  Those I froze in a gallon freezer bag to pull out for lunches as needed.  I haven't actually tried them yet, so we'll see how they go.

Cheese Crackers

Cheese Crackers

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ground pepper (optional) - I left this out.

4 TBSP cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces  (I used light stick margarine)

8 ounces grated cheddar cheese (I used part sharp cheddar and part mexican blend cheese)

3-4 TBSP water

In a food processor, Pulse the flour, salt and pepper, then add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add grated cheese a little at a time until the mixture again resembles coarse meal.

Pulse in 3 to 4 tablespoons of water, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough forms into a ball. It will probably take a minute or so.

Remove, wrap in plastic, and chill for 20 minutes or up to 24 hours.

Roll the dough out to 1/8th-inch thickness directly onto a baking sheet. You don't want to roll them paper thin, neither do you want to roll them too thick. If they are too thin, they will not puff up as much. If they are too thick, they will not be as crispy.

Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut 1 inch squares.

Bake at 350° F for 15-20 minutes or until crackers are golden brown. Watch them after the 10 minute mark.

I found that I had a small set of animal cookie cutters that work great for this.  I store the crackers in a glass jar.

My original post here. 

Here is a picture of the cutters that I use.  Makes the crackers larger than Goldfish but a good size for little people.