One Pan Chicken Burrito Bowl

This summer has been anything but relaxing.  Starting this spring with Ryan's graduation party, it has been non stop in this house all summer.  Our busy schedule isn't necessarily a bad thing - it's partly due to the fact that we are squeezing in lots of family fun time.  A beach vacation in Florida, college orientation, 2 trips to Virginia Beach, a trip to Ohio - all in less than 6 weeks.

All four of us are working this summer too which means 4 different schedules to keep up with.  As you can imagine, our dinner schedule has been anything but regular this summer.  Easy, one-pan meals are my saving grace this summer because there is just no time for big formal dinners.  I found this recipe on number-2-pencils.com.  It is really tasty, super easy and mega fast!  (The trifecta of a perfect summer meal.)

One Pan Chicken Burrito Bowl

• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced into bite sized pieces
• 3 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1/4 cup of diced yellow onion
• 1 cup of uncooked extra-long grain rice
• 1 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 15oz can of black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder
• 1 teaspoon of cumin
• 2 1/2 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cups of Colby jack, Monterrey jack or cheddar cheese
• kosher salt and pepper
• freshly diced tomatoes
• diced green onions
• avocado

Start by sauteing onions in 2 tablespoon of olive oil until they start to soften.













Season diced chicken with 1 teaspoon of kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper.






Add chicken to pan and cook over medium high heat until chicken has started to brown.

Move chicken to one side of pan, in the other side of the pan add an additional tablespoon of olive oil and sauté uncooked rice for about 2 minutes or just until some grains start to turn golden brown.

 
Stir in black beans, canned tomatoes, chicken broth, garlic powder, chili powder and cumin.
Bring to a simmer, cover and reduce heat to low.

Cook about 20 minutes or until rice is tender.

Season with additional salt and pepper as needed.
Sprinkle with cheese, recover and let set for 2-3 off heat to melt cheese.

Garnish with fresh tomatoes, green onions, olives and avocado.

 If you like, add your chicken burrito to a tortilla. 

 Ciao!

Cabana Grill Tortilla Tacos

Courtney and I were out shopping for her summer reading books last week and we decided to stop and grab some lunch on our way home.  There was a new place called Cabana Grill that I had been wanting to try so I talked her into being co-guinea pigs and trying out the new restaurant.

We both agreed that it was REALLY good.  I would call it semi-fast food.  (Order at the counter and food is brought to your table.)  Everything on the menu sounded really fresh and delicious.  I settled on a chicken fajita bowl.  (A little like a taco salad minus the deep fried tortilla bowl.)  It was super tasty.  I topped my fajita bowl with all kinds of yummy things from the salsa bar too.

Courtney had chicken fajita nachos and they were equally delicious.  I'm not a huge nacho fan but even I couldn't stop munching on her giant plate of nachos.

Before we left, we ordered sopaipillas with honey.  They were just as decadent as we imagined.  We also ordered a dozen tortillas to bring home for dinner.  They arrived at our table all wrapped in foil and PIPING HOT!  I was so excited about the warm handmade tortillas that I scratched my plan for dinner right then and there and started making my grocery store list so that we could have tacos with these yummy little tortillas for dinner. 

Even though we both had chicken for lunch, Courtney chose chicken for the tacos for dinner too.  We gathered up our warm tortillas, stopped at the grocery store for the rest of the ingredients on the way home and then headed home to make our taco dinner.

Directions for my super easy chicken tacos with Cabana Grill tortillas:
Sprinkle 3 chicken breasts with salt, pepper and oregano.










Grill.

Heat tortillas on the grill once the chicken is finished.

Slice chicken.











Serve in Cabana tortillas with salsa, cheese and avocado.

This was a delicious - prepare in 15 minute kind of meal.  Perfect for summer.

Ciao!

Enchilada Soup

The time has come for me to incorporate more vegetables in to my diet. Don't get me wrong, it isn't some sort of weird torture experiment.  I actually really enjoy eating vegetables but I've gotten into a vegetable rut lately.  I pick up my standard veggies at the grocery store each week, bring them home and prepare them exactly the same way. I don't put a lot of thought into our vegetable side dishes so we end up eating the same old, boring vegetable sides that are quick and easy to prepare.

This is where you come in.  I need you to send me your veggie recipes.  I'm sure that there are tons of ways for me to incorporate more vegetables into my diet that I haven't even considered.  Right now, I'm in soup mode so I've been loading up bowls of hot soup with all kinds of veggies lately.  I pretty much like any kind of vegetable in soup - spinach, tomatoes, mushrooms, squash, carrots, peas, corn, celery, kale.  If you've got a great vegetable recipe for me to try - send it to me.  I'd love to see it. 

This recipe for Enchilada Soup came from willcookforsmiles.com.  It is super healthy UNTIL you add the cream at the end.  I left the cream out of my bowl of soup but you can decide for yourself.

Enchilada Soup

Ingredients

1/2 large yellow onion
1 tbs veggie oil
2 chicken breasts
5-6 cups of water
1 whole bay leaf
_____
3 large tomatoes (skin peeled off)
1 tbs vegetable oil
1/2 large yellow onion (from above, in stock)
2 shredded chicken breasts (from above)
2 1/2 cups of stock (from above)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (you can adjust to taste)
1/4 tsp cumin
1 tsp minced fresh cilantro

Instructions

In a large pot, preheat the vegetable oil and add sliced onions. Saute for a couple of minutes, until fragrant. Add water and chicken breasts. Bring to boil and add the bay leaf and salt. Lower the heat to medium-low and cook the stock for about 1 1/2 hours. (White foam-like substance will appear at the top, in the beginning, just take it off with a spoon and discard.)
Take out the chicken breast, shred it using two forks and set aside. Pour the stock into a separate container and set aside for a minute. Discard the bay leaf.




(Couple of easy ways to peel the tomatoes: 1-you can make a criss-cross cut on top of tomatoes and drop them into boiling water for just a couple of minutes and the skin will be easy to peel off. 2 - you can just use a potato peeler of the tomatoes are firm enough.)

Add them to the pot with 1 T. oil. Salt the tomatoes a little, so they give out juice faster. Saute for a couple of minutes.

 
Add the shredded chicken.

Add the 2 1/2 cups of stock and the onions to the pot and stir well.

Add red pepper flakes and cumin. Taste to see if you need to add more salt. Cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes.





Add the heavy cream and freshly minced cilantro. Cook for a couple more minutes and serve.



Top off with fresh cilantro and shredded cheese before serving.

 

The fat from the chicken stock separated from the cream which made kind of a weird ring around the bowl.  

 

 



I'm going to let you in on a little secret --- I usually scoop out my bowl of soup before I add the cream to the pot.  My own very small way of cutting extra calories out of my dinner.

To be perfectly honest, I tasted the soup both ways and I actually preferred the non-cream version.  It was really tasty and didn't need anything to thicken in - in my humble opinion. My suggestion would be to make a batch for yourself but be sure and taste it before the final step of stirring in cream.  You might just agree that it's perfectly fine soup without it.

Ciao!

Mexican Chicken Soup

Anybody remember Tuesday's blog post for Lemon Rosemary Chicken?  Just in case you missed it - I added the link so you can go back and check it out.  It was so flavorful and juicy that I decided to turn the leftovers into a chicken soup.  I very loosely followed a recipe that I found on recipedutchess.blogspot.com.  I made quite a few substitutions to the original recipe but she definitely served as my inspiration for this hearty leftover creation.

Mexican Chicken Soup

3-4 cups shredded cooked chicken
2 cups chopped onions (2 onions)
1 cup chopped celery (2 stalks)
2 cups chopped carrots (4 carrots)
4 large garlic cloves, chopped
2 1/2 quarts chicken stock, preferably homemade
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 poblano pepper, seeded and minced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Toppings
Sliced avocado
Sour cream
Cheddar cheese
Tortilla chips






Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add the onions, celery, and carrots and cook over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, or until the onions starts to brown.

Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.








Add the chicken stock, tomatoes with their puree, jalapenos, cumin, coriander, 1 tablespoon salt (depending on the saltiness of the chicken stock), 1 teaspoon pepper, and the cilantro, if using.

Bring the soup to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes.







Add the shredded chicken and season to taste.

Serve the soup hot topped with sliced avocado, a dollop of sour cream, grated cheddar cheese, and broken tortilla strips.

This is how I "dressed" my bowl of soup...

I think that snowpocolypse is behind us but we can still enjoy a bowl of chicken soup.  I have another container of this soup in my freezer, ready to pull out during our next snow storm - or perhaps just for a chilly day. 

Ciao!