Tortilla Chicken Bake

TORTILLA CHICKEN BAKE

This is a low calorie, low fat, low carb recipe.  Feel free to change it up and make it more fattening with cheese and sour cream.  I have lost 25 lbs recently, so I'm being careful not to add weight back on, so I can keep my new wardrobe.

  This recipe started by, me looking in the freezer and pantry and seeing what I had on hand.  I had half a package or frozen corn tortillas and a couple of zip bags of frozen rotissere chicken  I had previously deboned and stored the chicken in individual servings, from a chicken I'd bought at Costco.  Love those  roasted chickens.... and always find uses for them.

I wasn't sure how great it would turn out, but started snapping pictures anyway.  It was a really yummy success, so its 'blog worthy'........here's what you'll need.

6 Corn Tortillas

8 oz jar of Pace Picante Sauce (or 4 oz),of any salsa

1 can tomato soup

2 cups of cooked chicken

2 Tbsp oil

1 onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper (yellow or green are fine), chopped.

1 can of black beans, drained and rinced

salt and pepper

1/2 cup or more of grated cheese

Greek yogurt 0% or sour cream

cilantro and green onions for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 oF.

Start by putting the onions and peppers in a frying pan with the oil and cook until tender, about 5 mins, stirring occasionally.

        Once the onions and peppers are tender, add the picante sauce or salsa and stir until bubbly
                                                            add some salt and pepper

            (Wow, that's a weird picture of my hand.........you can see the age spots so clearly!!!!)

                                                        Now add the black beans and stir

   
                                                       Then add the tomato soup

                                                        Heat until just bubbling

                Spray a casserole dish with spray oil and layer half the mixture on the bottom.

                Place three of the corn tortillas on the top of the sauce.  I tore one in half to fit the dish.
 You could use white four tortillas, or whole wheat tortillas.  The corn tortillas are lower in calaries     and give more flavor to the dish, in my opinion.

                                              

                                          Next lay all of the chicken on top of the tortillas.

                                            Top the chicken with another layer of tortillas, then
                                  Top with the rest of the sauce and sprinkle with the cheese.

                    Bake for 30 mins. at 350 oF or until cheese melts and  casserole bubbles at the edges.

                We got 6 servings from this, but you may serve 4. depending on the portions.

          Serve with sour cream or as I did, with 0% Greek Yogurt, cilantro and green onions.

California is known for its Mexican food.  You won't find this recipe in any Mexican cookbook, but its got the flavors that we love so much in Mexican food.

My secret ingredient in Mexican dishes, to make it creamy, is the tomato soup.

So chalk that one up for an experiment gone right.  Hope you like it too!

French Onion Soup

Fond memories of my first date with my husband John of 36 years,( so that would be 38 years ago) was him taking me to A&W Root Beer for a bacon/cheese burger, onion rings and of course a frosty mug of their root beer.   The second date was on my 19th birthday........to the big city of St. Louis.....we had Chinese food........I think.  But, the best date was when we went for lunch (also in St. Louis, Missouri) to a big department store called Famous and Barr, for French Onion Soup and Chicken Salad Sandwiches. We went back there many times in the first few years of our relationship.

 Here's my attempt and recreating that soup..........John thought it was pretty spectacular, and I would have to agree.

FRENCH ONION SOUP

Thinly slice 7 medium onions into half moons.

 Saute the onions in 4 Tbsp. of butter for about 20 mins or more, until caramelized.

 Don't hurry this step, its crucial that the onions turn a deep, rich brown color on a medium to low heat.

 Add 5-6 cups of beef broth, 1/4tsp dried thyme, dash of balsamic vinegar, dash of Worcestershire sauce, and 2 tsp of brown sugar....simmer for another 30 mins until thickened.

Keep the pot uncovered, while the soup is reducing and simmering.  Meanwhile get some hearty thick bread and cut it to fit oven proof soup bowls and grate or slice Gruyere or Swiss cheese.

The soup  should be thick.

Heat oven to 450 oF.

 On a foil covered baking dish place oven proof soup bowls.

 Spoon onion soup into bowls,

Top with crusty bread and Gruyere cheese and bake for 12 - 15 mins.

The soup and cheese will ooze over the edges. Heat until bubbly.

We couldn't even finish ours.  We only served two, but its way plenty for four people. Just serve into four bowls instead.

Here's what we looked like at our wedding. I was only 20 years old. Such a baby.

This is us now.  Not bad for a couple of old farts.

Butternut Curry Coconut milk soup

Growing up in New Zealand in the 1950's and 1960's the only ethnic food you could "take out" was Chinese or Indian Food.  So curry was something I was very accustomed to.  Living in Thailand in the 1980's gave me the extra joy of using coconut milk with curry.  Pumpkin was something I had grown up with, as a vegetable used for roasting with Roast Lamb. I first was introduced to butternut squash in the USA......but now I see it all over the world.  Its sold in huge abundance very cheaply in South Africa, for example.  Now you don't even have to peel and cut it up yourself if you don't want to.  You can buy it already prepped in a bag in the supermarket.  How easy is that?
 This is a soup I've been making for years, and have several versions of it offered below.

BUTTERNUT CURRY COCONUT MILK SOUP
 Saute one chopped onion, in a little olive oil in a large pot until tender, about 5 mins,
 add 1 tsp curry powder and stir for 30 secs.
Add two bags of cut up butternut squash, and stir,
add 1 can of reduced fat coconut milk
 and 4 cups of chicken broth.
  First bring to boil, then reduce heat to low and cook for 30 mins.

 Another idea is to use pumpkin.  You can roast it ahead of time which deepens the flavor.  Or you can just boil it the same way you would the butternut squash.  Even canned pumpkin works well.

Use a potato masher or submersible blender to mash everything until smooth.  Serves 4

To change the flavor completely, omit the coconut milk and curry powder and add a mixture of herbs.  I like sage, thyme and rosemary.    This version is a lot lower in calories and very delicious.

My daughter Jenny, likes to make this with a bit of nutmeg and some orange peel left in while the squash or pumpkin is cooking and then removed at the end.  She uses about a cup of cream to finish it off.

Cole Slaw with apple, mint and parsely

Grace Manins my maternal grandmother.  She was always taking care of the poor and needy.  I have memories of her giving a bath to a very old lady ( a Miss Brown) when I was super young.  Still remember the impression all those wrinkles had on me.  Yikes!  She took meals to old or ill people, who were shut in, and helped, those in need.

Grandma had a herb garden just outside her kitchen door and found ways to include them in about every dish she made.  One of her trademarks was her salads.  Here’s an adaptation of her Cole Slaw, with a few of my additions.

GRANDMA'S COLE SLAW

Cole Slaw

Ingredients:

1/3 of a cabbage, sliced very thinly

1 grated carrot

2 celery stalks, sliced and diced

1 green onion chopped

1 apple, grated

Fresh parsley and mint, chopped

Dressing:

2 Tbsp oil

2 Tbsp vinegar

1 Tbsp sugar

Method:

Mix all together.

(The actual dressing my Grandma used was made from 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, the juice of one lemon, 1/2 teaspoon of dry mustard and thinned with some milk.)

Cheese Scones

 So its only appropriate that the first recipe I post here is that original recipe for cheese scones.  In New Zealand its pronounced ‘scons’ like they say it in Scotland.  I think the British called them’ scones’ and that was more upper class.

The secret to great scones is: not handling them much ...and baking them in a very hot oven. Serve immediately. These don’t store well unless you freeze them.. Discard them if they are more than an hour or two old. I’ve never understood why in North America we eat cold hard dry scones.  They are meant to be served hot with crisp outsides and warm soft insides.   

CHEESE SCONES

2 c flour

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp butter or more

1 c grated cheddar cheese (sharp makes it better)

3/4 c milk

Heat oven to 475

cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it is integrated. Should be course in texture. Add the grated cheese and then the milk. Toss lightly until just moistened. Fold onto floured surface and just pat until about 1 inch thick. Cut into squares or triangles. Place on a baking sheet. Bake for 10 mins. Will he hard on the outside and golden brown. Very soft and tender on the inside. Serve with butter.

Variations of this basic recipe are:

*Gruyere cheese and one green onion chopped.

 For all the following omit the cheese and add :

*1 Tbsp maple syrup, and ½ cup chopped pecans

* ½ cup of chopped dates and ½ cup chopped walnuts

 *½ cup raisins, 1 Tbsp brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon

* ½ cup cranberries, 1 tsp orange zest

*May use one cup of whole wheat flour, and one cup of white flour instead

This is a photo of my family.....I think I was about 6 years old in this picture.

I have a "cheeky" grin.  That's a New Zealand expression, used to describe a mischievous type of attitude. I've never found another word to replace it in the North American vocabulary.

Adventures in Food 1st eddition

I'm starting a blog........how crazy is that?  I'd love to just share my everyday adventures in food.  I travel the world extensively and get to try all kinds of different types of food.  I grew up in New Zealand....picture above is of my home town of Auckland.......note the sheep.  I lived just over on the hill to the right in a place called Hillsborough.  Yes, those are sheep in a public park.  I know that's random.........but really pretty typical for New Zealand.  I grew up eating lamb like we eat chicken or beef today.  Lamb, in those days,  was the cheapest thing.  We ate chicken for Christmas dinner only! Doesn't that sound like a freaky switch around?  I was born in the 1950's.  With no TV.  It didn't come to my house hold until about 1967 and it was black and white...and only one channel to watch between 5:00 pm and 9:00pm.  One of my first shows I watched regularly was "The Galloping Gourmet" starring Graham Kerr.  He was from England, but spent a few years in New Zealand too, so he was a huge influence on me and taught me heaps about food.  My grandmother was a wonderful creative cook, my mother a wonderful cook too, so I guess my love for  cooking came to me naturally.  I can remember hanging out in the kitchens of every summer camp I went to, and always wanting to learn and put into practice what I was seeing.  My fist ever recipe I ever made all by myself was cheese scones at about age 8.  I think it was my Grandmother who let me do that one, while she coached me from close by.  I just remember how fun it was to rub the butter between my fingers and blend it into the flour.  ........to be continued.