Making Your Left-Overs Go Further: Chicken Quesadillas

Remember the Crockpot Salsa Chicken we made in May? Well, we made it again recently. I had forgotten exactly how much of this stuff it makes! We had it for dinner 2 nights in a row with a TON still left over! We are getting ready to go on a trip soon, and I hate to let such a good recipe go to waste. So what is a girl to do? Well, enter my amazing fiance, J and his ability to whip up anything at a moment's notice. Little T has become obsessed with all things Mexican food, hence the salsa chicken. So, enter J's quick thinking: salsa chicken quesadillas. It's a super easy, quick meal to make and when there's a starving 4 year old screaming at your feet, it's quite the answer!

Salsa Chicken Quesadillas:

1 bag soft taco shells or tortillas
Butter (I would use a half a stick)
Left over salsa chicken
Mexican Blend Shredded Cheese
Guacamole (my recent obsession is with Yucatan Organic Guacamole - amazing. Got it at Sam's).
Shredded Lettuce, Tomatoes (Optional)

1. On medium heat, start warming a cast-iron skillet.
2. Rub the entire skillet down with butter once warm. J generally just takes the stick and rubs it directly on the pan.
3. Lightly brown the soft taco/tortilla on both sides.
4. Add lots of cheese on one side and let melt (J puts enough on that it squishes out the sides when he folds it together).
5. While the cheese is melting, pop some salsa chicken into the microwave to warm (generally 20-30 seconds, but will depend on amount of chicken you are reheating).
6. Once the cheese has melted, place salsa chicken on one-half of the tortilla. Fold tortilla in half.
7. Brown evenly on both sides so that the tortilla is a golden brown color (ok to have darker brown spots).
8. Open briefly and add lettuce and tomato (optional).
9. Cut into thirds or halves (whatever you desire) and serve with a dollop of guacamole.
10. ENJOY!

A "Pinteresting" Life: Tilapia Fish Tacos

We made a trip to Sam's last weekend to stock up on seafood.  I love seafood.  It's a problem.  Actually, it'd be a problem if I was allergic to seafood - tragic, even! I would probably eat it and just have an epi pen handy (terrible, I know)...We found some amazing-looking tilapia and so I grabbed some (in addition to some gorgeous salmon and darling little shrimp - see?! I do have a problem...I describe seafood as gorgeous and darling...).

Of course, I raided my Pinterest account looking for some new ways to cook up said seafood.  We decided to throw in some tilapia into our weekly meal plan, and incorporate it in a way that Little Man would like, which limits us to: mexican-style food and something with the word "nugget" in it.  Tilapia nuggets didn't sound all that delicious, so I searched for some fish taco recipes.  Boy did I hit the jackpot! I found this recipe on Right @ Home. We tweaked some things a bit, as we knew that certain items/ingredients wouldn't be appreciated by the finer palettes that reside in the house...The tacos are supposed to be served with strawberry-tomato salsa, but to me regular salsa is a perfectly good "taco topping," so why switch it up? Especially with a picky 3 year old on board?

I must admit, I wasn't thrilled about the idea of chowing down on fish tacos tonight.  It just wasn't appealing to my inner diva at the moment. I am most certainly glad that J ignored my childish diva moment and proceeded with the menu as planned.  These were BY FAR some of the best tacos I've ever had, let alone one of the best meals I've had in a while!

Little Man chowing down on taco #2!

We didn't tell Little Man what exactly we were eating at first. He dove right in and promptly chowed down on his first fish taco, then proceeded to ask for a SECOND! When we asked him if he liked the Tilapia (Or the Till-a-peel-a, as he says it), he nodded vigorously! VICTORY! He dipped his second taco into some regular salsa, while J and I enjoyed ours with avocado slices, cole slaw, lime juice, and some cilantro (Yum!).  The recipe was rather simple to make when there's someone to keep the 3 year old from clinging to your leg!

Below is OUR version of the recipe.  For the original version (including the strawberry-tomato salsa recipe) see the link above, included earlier in the blog!

Ingredients:
4 tilapia filets, approximately ¼ pound each
1 teaspoon of your favorite taco seasoning
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
8 6-8-inch flour or corn tortillas, heated according to the package directions
1 avocado, sliced
1 cup shredded lettuce or green cabbage
1 lime, cut into small wedges

Directions:
1. Prepare coleslaw. Set in fridge to chill.
2. Dry the filets with a paper towel.  Sprinkle with taco seasoning and set on a plate.  Heat a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.  Pour in olive oil.  when the oil is hot, gently add the fish to the pan, cooking for approximately 5 minutes and turning once.
3. Remove fish from the pan and break each filet into 2 pieces. Serve in tortilla, topped with coleslaw and avocado slices. Drizzle lime juice and sprinkle cilantro on top!

I hope you and your family enjoy this as much as ours did! This was a great recipe and didn't taste extremely and/or overwhelmingly "fishy." Give it a try, and let me know what you think! 

A "Pinterest"-ing Life: Slow-Cooker Salsa Chicken

We have T, J's son, here with us this weekend.  We have discovered, quite by accident, that T LOVES Mexican food. Particularly, Mexican-style chicken.  I am addicted to Pinterest.  Well, let me correct that.  I WAS addicted to Pinterest until I found a fabulous group of like-minded, fun-loving, hilarious, organized women on Facebook (Hello again, ladies!).  Now, Pinterest has taken a back seat.  MOVING ON...Ahem...

When I discovered this recipe on Pinterest, little did I know what a gem it truly was! The original source was Mostly Homemade Mom, but I was lucky enough to stumble upon it through Pinterest - like most good things I find.  I was trying to build up my recipe stockpile of Crockpot (Slow cooker for those of you that aren't Southern...and we will most certainly forgive you for that! Hehe.) recipes.  When we have T here on the weekends, I try to minimize the time in the kitchen preparing, cooking, stirring, etc..  I pick things (well, try to) that you can just throw together and walk away, increasing the amount of quality time we get with T.  Unfortunately, finding a gluten-free, not-super-fattening crockpot recipe is NEARLY impossible.  Enter Slow Cooker Salsa Chicken.

Please forgive me for my rather un-artistic picture.  By the time I realized
I needed to take a picture, we had all cleaned our plates (except Little T)!

Without further ado, the recipe you've all been waiting for: Crockpot Salsa Chicken!

Ingredients:

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup salsa (I used mild simply because T hates anything super hot. This is where you can have some fun!)

1 can condensed cream of chicken soup (my least favorite thing about this recipe, but hey - at least it's only one can!

1 packet taco seasoning

1/2 cup sour cream

6 tortillas (J & T like the extra fluffy, and I'm all over here like "I'll have a corn one, please.")

Directions:

1. Place the chicken in the bottom of the crock pot (The beauty of this - we dumped in the chicken still completely frozen). 

2. Sprinkle taco seasoning on chicken breasts. 

3. In a separate bowl, combine soup and salsa.  Pour over chicken.  

4. Cook on high for 4 hours.  

5. Shred chicken (I use the 2 fork method) and stir in sour cream. Serve on tortillas.

I asked Little T what he thought of dinner. Here's the response I got:

Coming from the world's pickiest little man, I'll take it!  I love how customizable/modifiable (are those even real words?!) this recipe is! We added some shredded "Mexican Cheese," and beans (The Musical Fruit, anyone?!).  J and I watched this little munchkin shovel away TWO full helpings of chicken! We even watched him "double fist" with the fork and his hand! He couldn't eat it fast enough, which is confirmation for me that this recipe is as good as I thought it was.

Oh - and adult reviews are just as high as T's. J & I loved the recipe, and we especially love how good it tastes with so little effort! J literally spent 15-20 minutes in the kitchen for dinner. In my opinion, the 4 hours the chicken was cooking, without babysitting, and allowing J to play with T was totally worth it!

I hope you and your family enjoy as much as we did! Oh - and it makes a TON!  We all had our fill - J and T BOTH had seconds - and there was still PLENTY left!  We had enough left overs to put some in the fridge and some in the freezer! For when we have one of those nights we don't want to cook - at all!