We have already established that I love food. Now, you can add to it the fact that I also love football. Watching, not playing. Let me be clear. I. Am. Not. Athletic. But, I am a great spectator.
High school football started for us last Friday with my son's high school team winning, my high school team winning, The Tide (hubby's favorite SEC team) winning, The Volunteers (my favorite SEC team) winning, and The UNA Lions (our university where hubby and I met) winning. I just realized I have no idea if hubby's high school team won. Oh my. Onward....
Last night, the NFL season started with America's Team, the Dallas Cowboys defeating the Giants, last year's Superbowl Champions, on their own field. Wow. This is the first time the reigning Champions starting the season off on their home field has lost in the 9 years of this "tradition." That's a free fact, just in case you are into football trivia.
In honor of the Cowboys playing, I decided to make a Tex-Mex style meal. Our menu consisted of a queso dip from my cousin's recipe box, lazy day refried beans, even lazier spanish rice, a Pinterest inspired chicken roll up, and a Pinterest apple pie dessert.
Let me just say, this was one fantastic meal. Thumbs up all around.
The queso dip recipe is my cousin's, so I'm not posting it without permission. But, it was the best queso recipe I've ever had. It will forever be my "go to" recipe.
The Refried Beans. I prefer to make them from dried pintos cooked for hours in the crockpot and then mashed and refried. But, I didn't plan ahead. So, I used canned beans and followed this recipe from Allrecipes.com. Here is the link. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/rush-hour-refried-beans/detail.aspx?event8=1&prop24=SR_Title&e11=refried%20beans&e8=Quick%20Search&event10=1&e7=Home%20Page It's really good. I doubled the recipe. The bacon grease is key to this tasting absolutely fantastic. Oh, and make sure you cook the onion until soft, tender and translucent. Add the garlic just before the onion is done.
The Spanish Rice. It was good, but it made a LOT of rice. We have a ton of it left over. Now I have to figure out a recipe to throw the rice into so I don't have to toss it out. Anyway, it was super easy. It was water, tomato sauce, minute rice, a can of beans and carrots and a packet of seasoning from the grocery store. Boil, stir, sit, fluff. Done. Tasty, but lazy.
The Pinterest Inspired Chicken Roll-ups. Ah.... The hit of the night. Two thumbs up from everyone. This is the recipe that inspired my changes. http://mommyimhungry.blogspot.com/2011/03/chicken-bacon-and-cream-cheese-mini.html It looked delicious, but time intensive with cutting the small circles and frying. Plus, my family isn't a huge cream cheese fan. At first, I considered making the recipe as is, with the exception of filling whole tortillas, rolling them and frying. Then, I read all the comments and was inspired by a comment suggesting baking them to make them lower in fat/calories. Considering my families preferences, I decided to change the cream cheese for shredded cheddar cheese.
So, in the end, I cooked 7 slices of bacon, chopping them when cool. Added it to the chicken left over from Chicken Tacos the night before. Tossed in a handful or two of cheese and mixed. Then, I spread the mixture from the middle to close to the edge on one half the tortilla, rolled it up and put it seam side down on a foil lined jelly roll pan. Repeated until I ran out of chicken. Melted a couple TBSP of butter and brushed across the tortillas to help it brown and crisp up in the oven. Baked at 400 for about 20 minutes.
To serve with it, I made a dipping sauce consisting of sour cream (about 6 oz, it was all I had), a scant 1/4 cup of salsa, most of a 100 calorie pack of Wholly Guacamole, a squeeze of lemon juice and lime juice and a sprinkle of salt. Mixed it up and let it sit in the refrigerator until dinner time so the flavors could blend.
And, to finish off the meal, I made this recipe. http://cornfedmomma.blogspot.com/2011/04/apple-enchiladas.html I made it almost exactly as written. I didn't put the cinnamon over the apple pie filling. Instead, adding it to the sauce mixture. Served with vanilla ice cream. It was divine. Will be making this a lot. In fact, it will be going into my "Favorite Recipes" board on Pinterest so everyone will know it's a GOOD recipe. :)
Here is a picture of it after soaking, but before I baked it. I was so excited, I forgot to take pictures afterwards. Oops.
I should add, I had a lot of calories last night, but planned ahead for them. Using MyFitnessPal, I log every single bite I eat all day to help me stay honest with my calories and food choices. Makes it easier to turn down that candy bar or bag of chips when you know you have to log it and make your fat grams, calories and sugars go thru the roof.... To balance the 600+ calories, I made low calorie, protein rich choices earlier in the day. And, I made sure I walked yesterday morning and this morning again.
Lots of coffee has been consumed today. Community Coffee Hotel Blend, of course. I am beginning to think of it as my "house blend". Everyone should have one, don't you think?
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